New rules

6 knows that the calendar says that it is  spring, meaning the flowers should be in full bloom, the trees  creating tons of pollen, and the weeds in our yard making a green carpet for all of us to enjoy. Well we are not quit there this year, as 6 looks at the weather forecast, it is calling for snow! That means that global warming is in full swing! This year among other things 6 did not color Easter eggs, what a disappointment to wake up Easter morning, after a late night of Rex, and not be faced with 3 or 4 containers of colored eggs that need to be hidden all thorough out the house. 6 bets that this was the first time in 60 years that the window seals were not adorned with brightly colored eggs for the wondering eyes of young egg hunters. At breakfast that morning, 6 was expressing his disappointment and one of the young egg hunters came up with a brilliant idea! Let’s do an Easter egg hunt on the beach! To that end when 6 unveils his mandatory vacation fun agenda, it will include a new event, an Easter egg coloring event! Here is a snap shot of the event. This will have to be a two day event. Tuesday the egg coloring crew will meet at the condo to color the eggs, (Not 6’s condo) the eggs will be raw in other words not hard boiled. Day 2, On Wednesday night (currently whiskey drinking night on the beach) we are all going to gather the colored RAW eggs at the condo, along with glasses, ice, bottle of whiskey,  beach chairs, bug spray, stogies, the “Pill” so we can listen to music, and head to the beach. We will leave at 9:00 pm promptly. Once the bottle of whiskey has been consumed, we will start the egg toss of the raw eggs.  6 looked it up, and the moon will be 64%, so that should add to the fun!

Assignments: L (In other words what in the heck you have to bring)

1)      Easter egg color kit….. 71 (better get it soon)

2)      Wireless speaker …. 62

3)      Eggs…..61

4)      ICE….63

5)      Chairs….32

6)      Bug spray…21A

7)      Whiskey….8

8)      Stooooogies…7

9)      Glasses…. 4

10)   Buffalo Chicken dip…21

11)   Fritos…6A

12)   Over all good looks and charming personality …..6

Words of wisdom: To find joy, look around to what nature has provided us.

Spring

6 knows that all of you will think that he is cheap, but what the heck is going on with the prices down there on the island? It seems as if every year they increase by 20% and as 8 likes to point out the number of people increase by that same amount. Is it any better today than it was 20 years ago when 4 / 4A and 8 would make the annual trip? There a two ways that we can really reduce the price of rent on the island first: we should elect Bernie Sanders the president of Kiawah Island and he can tax all of the rich people and give discounted rent to all of the people who come to visit. We all could go there for free! 6 read an article about his policies that is very fitting for the island. A person was going out to play golf, he went into the pro shop to purchase a ball marker, the pro told him that it was going to be $1.00, so the golfer gave him the dollar, and the pro handed him a dime. The second way is for 7, to stop talking about his house over there on Eugenia drive and break open that wallet of his brush off the cobwebs and buy it!  

Has anyone ever noticed how much we take things for granted until it is not there? For example what is the first thing you do every day when you awaken (assuming that it is still dark out) you turn on the light, next you turn on the water, what happens if you don’t have power or water… you are in for a long day. This has caused 6 to think about how over time, he has taken for granted so many things. Be it physical, emotional, relationships, spiritual, or environmental, they are tied together. The next time we all head out on vacation stop and think about how all this is integrated. Let’s start with a typical day on Kiawah. On about 5:30 AM 6 steps out of bed turns on the bedroom light looks out the window and can’t help but wonder why there are no other lights on in the other villa’s then makes his way to the Ferguson, turning on several lights along the way, flushes several times, then goes back to the bedroom and unplug all of his electric devices: phone, IPod, IPod touch, watch, beach camera, and portable speaker. Then takes the bathing suit, shorts and sin blocking long sleeve beach shirt he wore the day before and fires up the washing machine throws them in so he will be prepared for another day at the beach. He then goes down stairs to make himself a cup of joe, but noticed that it was a little warm in the condo, so cranks up the A/C after all the current temp of 65 is a little warm, he proceeds to turn it down to 60. He then turns on the TV to catch a little bit of the news and comes to find out that he was feeling a little cool sitting on the Barco lounger. What to do, Oh that is easy, open the patio door and let in some heat! By this point the joe is done so he grabs himself a nice cup and heads out to the deck to see if the world has awaken yet. As you might expect all that is around at 5:45 AM are a few gators, and the deer feeding on the berries around the pond. The problem with the deer is as soon as the hear the door slide open they pause there morning snack take one look at me and they are gone like the wind. The gator on the other hand opens one of his eyes as he waits for me to fall from the deck and have a quick meal, but to his dismay 6 sees the sun start to peer on the horizon, and make a decision that it is time to dump his coffee out, landing on the gator, cause him to lumber back in the pond to await 6 to making a serious mistake. It is now time to head to the beach and watch the sun raise over the ocean, only one problem with that in Kiawah it don’t raise over the ocean it comes up over the Sanctuary! As one approaches the beach the first you feel the warm ocean breeze with the welcoming sent of salt in the air, at about the time you hit the sand the sound of the waves and the smell of the ocean air is replaced by the sound of diesel engines and the smell of fresh diesel smoke from Forest Gump’s fleet of shrimp boats. As one starts walking up the beach into the sun, the shadows of the remnants of the crowds of people on the beach begin to appear, as beach chairs, balls, bottles, glasses that the wonderful considerate people left on the beach from the prior nights activities. As one approaches the almighty sanctuary, the chair guys have their 4 wheelers out pulling loads of beach chairs, tables and umbrellas for the select class that will spend the day lounging in the lap of luxury. While you weave your way thru that mess so that one can get the free cup of coffee that will act as the jumpstart of his day, you can feel the immense power of that building, the pool is over flowing, each window of the building is covered with fog because of the temp difference between the outside and the comfort that the sanctuary people live, empty water bottles, have drank martini glass line the walk way to paradise. As one walks from the lobby to the front entrance you notice the fleet of limo’s parked there with their engines running waiting for their passengers to arrive and take them to the day’s activities. By now you are all wondering why 6 is rambling so much, well it is for two reasons, first we really are not grateful for the wonders which have been bestowed on us (physical, emotional, relationships, spiritual, or environmental) and second 6 was not there but can only imagine what it was like on that island prior to the sanctuary and all of those house over there on Eugenia drive.

Words of wisdom: Never call anyone a fool, for we are the fools in their eyes.

News from down south!

6 knows that you all are on the edge of your seats waiting to see what new things are going to await you this year when we hit the beach. Just like death and taxes, we can add the annual price increases to that list, but with the price increases the association is spending that extra money to make our experience even better, after all we are going to a world class resort! The first thing that you will notice are two new buildings in Freshfields village. (Just what we need) there will be locations for new retail space, no plan as to who is going to rent the new spaces, other than a new restaurant. Hey girls, a new place to go for girl’s night out! 6 is going to send a letter to the board of directors because he has a few ideas for filling the newly created vacant retail space: Big Lot’s, Ollie’s, Drive thru beer distributor, Aldi’s, Wal-Mart, Catherine’s, WAWA, McDonalds, Berger King, Waffle House, Country Kitchen, anyone else have any suggestions?  There is also a brand new wine bar in Fresfields, a place called FORTYEIGHT, all you have to do is slide your FORTYEIGHT credit card in the machine and out comes one of the 48 varieties of wine they have for tasting. Something tells me that they don’t got any of that there Rex in that bygod machine. Once you leave the Village, you will notice the 3 year project that the association has been working to replace all of the signage on the island. The good news is the three years study has been completed and they have started to change the signs, the bad news is that it is going to take the next 5 years to complete the project. The reason that they felt the need to change all the signs is they are outdated and they felt that they were too confusing for the visitors to the island. Give me a break: IF you done graduated the 6^th grade the current signs would not be confusing! 6 speculates that next year we will see those fancy LED signs with pictures of Night Herron Park and a flashing arrow, instead of the unobtrusive wood sign that has the words Night Herron Park on it, after all that is confusing! If anyone has the inclination to bring their boat down this year, there is some good news on that front, the Kiawah launch pass was $300 dollars a year and now it is only $100 that is a savings of $200 dollars per year! Just think you have a $300 to $400 hundred thousand dollar boat, that burns 10 gallons of gas an hour, and they reduce the price of the launch pass! Tell me the board are all not boat owners, this kind of reminds me of the judge in catty shack! When 6 grows up his dream is to be on the board of directors, then 6 could make a difference and straighten out those fools. My first act would be to clear that couple of acres land between where we stay and the Sanctuary and put in some ocean front RV parking!  Think about it… the site would be a nonstop party, the beach would be full of interesting people, of all types, the Bundy’s, the turtle killers, the drone flyers, the couples who fight, the kid who pees in the ocean, the cigar smoking beer drinking seagull feeding tattoo wearing boom box tooting land grabbing people who make life fun! Second 6 would turn sandcastle into an Irish pub open to all. .50 cent drafts, dollar whiskey and lots of finger food. Next 6 would take that fleet of band new fleet Mercedes that are paid off as of 2015 and turn them into busses for the people to travel around the island.  Think about it, 25 cent for a trip from the park to Freshfields, 50 cent to BI-LO… do we really want all of those RV driving around? Next Grills, Fire pits and vending machines on the beach. I would make the new wine bar FORTYEIGHT place on of those fancy wine machines at every boardwalk, then have grills and once an hour starting at noon have a truck full of meat, dive up and down the beach so if you want to take a break and grab something to eat, you could buy a steak throw it on the grill gab a glass of wine and you would be set! That is what 6 would do the first year on the board. They are always looking for ideas to keep Kiawah a world class resort all they need is 6.

Words of Wisdom: Never worry about things you have no control over, for if you do, it will effect what you do have control over.

2016 is here!

Well it is that time of the year, when we have to take down all of the decorations, and place them carefully in a box and put them away for the year. As 6 sits here and ponders all of the events of the past couple weeks, he cannot help but to pull out one of his favorite sayings: ‘Don’t cry because it is over, smile because it happened”. Memories were made: Family dinner at 3’s house over there on Melody Lane with all the other rich people, Christmas Eve Mass featuring 7 and the Wall Flowers, Christmas morning in the house where it all started, the Gen X’rs on the back porch sitting crossed legged around the holiday fruit punch bowl, sit-down Christmas dinner for 25, gift exchange featuring images from the past, final toast for the day, followed by sugar plumbs dancing in my brain. Don’t let those memories of family fad away. We have now officially transitioned from the holidays to that long span of drudgery between charismas and summer vacation. As I think of things to come, I imagine most of you are hearing every time you turn on the radio “Here we go, here we go… Pittsburgh is going to the supper bowl” 6 did not like that song the first time he heard it, he can only imagine the pain you all are going thru. Cold snowy mornings, sitting in traffic wondering if you could walk to your destination faster. Going to work in the dark, coming from work in the dark. Thin coating of white crap all over everything, and 6 doesn’t mean snow.  Cold, wet dark glooooom. Brushing the snow from your feet every time you get in the car or go into your house. Coats gloves hats scarfs boots and still that cold moist air penetrates your shin. Well I guess it doesn’t have to be that way! Just think before we know it we will be in paradise!

The Steelers season will be in the history books, and the talk will be about the Pirates. We can trade our boots, in for thongs oh sorry flip flops. (6 guesses you can ware those year round) Sitting in traffic on our way to the Waffle House wondering if 7 will ever de-fog the windows.  Getting a free manicure & pedicure as you brush the sand from your feet.  Awaking to the sunrise going to bed at sun set (kind of like a rooster). Hot sweaty and bright. Bathing suits wife beaters flip flops ball caps and still sweating you butt off. Hota and Kathy Lee instead of Marty Griffin, tattooed bodies instead of parka’s, ice de-calf coffee, instead of hot de-calf WAWA coffee, having to pay for your coffee instead of free coffee, Bike riding instead of sled riding, going in the Ferguson instead of the ocean, 5 o’clock everyday instead of Friday,  

You all better be ready, we are into a new year, and 2016, will be better than 2015!