Look at the world thru the eyes of a child

As it has been stated many times before 6 is the all-knowing and most knowable person in the world. Along with that awesome gift comes great responsibility.

Most mornings 6 walks on the beach drinking. Let me clarify, a nice cup of coffee with a plastic one use disposable lid, anticipating the brilliance of old man suns early morning arrival.  Old man sun rarely disappoints for just about every day his colors are just incredible! There are times when one gets a special treat, as old man sun rises, he has yet to burn off the lower level fog from the previous night this just intensifies the sense of wonderment. This last for about 15 minutes, at which time, old man sun wakes up, bearing his full brilliance on 6’s old bald head. 6’s eyes leave the sky and focus on nature, people and wondering how some many people can afford those shacks along the beach.  This year on Pre-vacation Vacation (PVV) just like in years past there is an elderly couple that 6 would see most every morning. For a number of years 6 would see them walking each morning, then they moved to riding bikes, and now the elderly man just sits on the bench at the bottom of the sanctuary boardwalk. The first day I was wondering where his wife was, but on my way to get my coffee, 6 found his answer. His elderly wife now has to go and get him his coffee, kind of tough seeing this couple age over the past 10 years. 6 does have to give them credit for they keep on trying! Hey did anyone notice how PC 6 has become in his blog? For if this were 10 years ago, that last sentence would have gone something like this.. This year on Pre-vacation Vacation (PVV) just like in years past there is a couple of old fXXXX  that  6 would see hobbling leisurely down the beach, blocking 6 view of the sun rise,   each and every DXXX morning! As the years passed, the strolling became too much. In an effort to keep 6 from enjoying his beach time with not another living soul on the beach, the old SXXXX went out and purchased two custom made beach cruisers. The old geezer could not keep the DXX thing out of the water. This would cause his old lady to yell at the top of her lungs for him to stay the HXXX out of the water, did he listen…He just told her to well you know what 6 means. This past year on PVV 6 would see the old FXXXX propped on the bench at the bottom of the sanctuary boardwalk, wondering why it is taking the old lady so long to get him his morning cup of Joe! 6 wonders if what is keeping them going the fact that they are trespassing on my beach time! Is that more like it!

I don’t want any comments, for when some young person.. 61, 62, 62A, 63, 21, 21A or 71 takes over the uncle gator adventures blog, 6 and 6A will be the elderly couple walking down the beach! So save any comments until then! What does all of this have to do with anything, as you all know 6 will tell you, and here it is! One should look at the world thru the eyes of a child! 6 knows you all think that he has gone off of his rocker, slipped a cog, or whatever, after all that statement is nothing but hog wash! After using his superior knowledge and wisdom, then pondering those thoughts, 6 now understands. 

As some of you know very well even the drive from the airport to Kiawah with 6 , can be rather challenging for the uninitiated, or even 6’s morning coffee on the beach. Let’s skip his superior driving pralleis, and focus on the morning walk and cup of Joe. Many many years ago 6 would take his morning walk, with two objectives in mind, see the sun raise, and most important get myself a cup of coffee. Schedule was most important, for 6 allowed himself 1 hour for the morning walk. 6 then would head up the beach seeing nothing but a couple people the old couple and young parent (not parents) with small children. On days that the tide was in, within a few hundred yards 6 blood pressure would be boiling because all these people did was just stand in my way…Gotta make schedule..  6’s arrival at the Sanctuary had to be as close to 6:00 AM as possible for that is when the coffee came, and that would give me about 10-15 minutes to get back to the beach to see the sun raise. 6 would walk until the coffee was gone, then turn around and get another, then head back to the Villa. Now’s the important part, 6 would walk, drink his coffee, and think about work, or bills or something stupid like that and complain about the hot sun, or the wind or even the lack of wind, for if there is no wind that just means tons of bugs! I could just do the same thing at home, what was the point of going to the beach, 6 would not even notice a turtle laying its eggs 10 feet away from him. Remember the parent and the child? Well they are very important to all of this gibberish. They would actually be in the same place that I passed them on my way to get coffee as there were when I came back, they probably did not move 20 yards. While 6 has been conditioned over the years to look at the bad in everything, a young child looks at the good in everything. To 6 a sea shell is to be avoided, because it will do nothing but cause pain when you step on it, to the child they are just fascinated by it. They will pick it up look at it ask their parent a ton of questions and see nothing but beauty. Take lake Bundy, to 6 that is just one more thing that he has to go around, another obstacle in getting his coffee, to a child it is a whole eco-system that they can explore. 

We may have seen that place or even situation 1000 times before, or just can’t be bothered, a child’s world if full of amazing things, An adults world is full of complex issues, that are no different than what a child see every day, we just don’t take the time to stop and look at the world around us, and separate all that is good. What a gift they have, and how adults just squander that gift. 6 is going to bet that the elderly couple figured that out years ago, and walk the beach every day to appreciate the gift they have and not to irritate 6.

Words of wisdom: We only remain an innocent child, until we realize that the world is all about me.

At what point does one say “I give up”

As we all know Pre-Vacation Vacation, was a great time had by all. 6 can only speak for himself, but it was very restful, relaxing and full of fun events that will generate many topics for the blog!

6 was nosing around, out there on the inter web, looking to see what is new on the island for this year. There are a couple of interesting changes that are going to happen. The most important change that  KICA  passed was a law that forbids single use plastic. Yes that means no straws for beer drinking, and most of all 4 can no longer bring any food to the beach!! That is a very noble position, and 6 supports it 100%.The history of the island and how they deal with the environment, is a little bit lacking. For example, even in southern Maryland we have to recycle, trash in one can, recyclables in another! Think about the effort 6 has every stinking day to properly discharge our waste. Every day 6 has to take the trash out to the can, as well as taking the recyclable junk to another can. That is two trips to the can every day and that is a regular habit!! (Talk about waste) Then once a week 6 has to take both of those heavy trash cans out to the street for the pick-up, do you think that they would make it easy and have pick up on the same day…. No it is two different days, I think that they should make it one day use the same truck since both trucks dump their loads in the same place.. Just think about that , 6 makes 14 trips to the can every week and two trips to the street!! On Kiawah they have two dumpsters that are tucked on a dead end road behind the firehouse, and believe it or not there was some 40 something in his two seat BMW dropping a lone plastic grocery bag full of bottles into the dumpster!  That was a first sighting for me!! I think that is almost as rare as seeing one of those elusive highians. First of all everyone knows that you never put a plastic grocery bag into the recycling, because it jams up the sorter, or as 6 says  that is if they even make the attempt to sort the recyclables. For as much as he put in the recycle bin, he made more carbon emission from his car than if he would have just set fire to the bag and watched it burn. Another example is the raise in the ocean, Kiawah Island is actually growing, NOAA is predicting a 1 foot raise in the ocean levels in the next 50 years. Not a huge effect the island so there is no a great concern, but the real issue is how the marsh land is actually reducing, guess what the cause of that is??? Gators taking over the island? ...... Building mega mansions??? You are correct all the building on the marshes, not being able to drain correctly thus salt water from the ocean fills the void . Great planning from KICA, passing out building permits like candy! Now there is on adverse effect of the new plastic ban… you can no longer bring single use bags and cups to the beach! Think about that for a second, this year at wine time, each of us get our own bottle, for the bottle may be against the law, but the plastic cup, is even worse!! There is one good thing in the law, when 6 goes and gets his morning coffee, they will allow single use plastic cup lids!!! Now 6 loves that execption to the law, but just think about how stupid that is, 6 never remembers a plastic sandwich bag laying around, but you see those Kiawah cups everywhere, it makes you wonder who is making those laws, does one think that Kiawah may have a little influence on the KICA board? “I give up”.

On a lighter note, one afternoon 6,7 and 8 had the pleasure of watching a nice family go out and spend great sums of money on a new paddle board. The went all out, for each of them had life jackets, nothing like safety first! For about the first hour or so one of them, 6 will guess that he was about 13/14 years old learned rather quickly and before you know it was having a blast paddle boarding in the ocean. He soon missed his phone and video games then it was his sisters turn. She  did the same thing, and before you know it, Rex Time fell upon the beach! So most of the beach emptied out expect for the Rex drinkers. The next day the same family came back, the teenage boy and girl just went out like seasoned pros and rode the paddle board. It was about this time where the fun begins… Not to be out done by his kids their old man, decided that it was his turn to ride the paddle board. He was a young man probably in his late 30’s or early 40’s, 6 feet tall 240 pounds, and no 6 will say the last time he was involved in any physical activity other than his domestic chores, was playing high school football for Polk high. He spent the next several hours doing his best to get on top of the paddle board, and no 6 did not say standing on it, he could not even lay on it!! He would jump on the board and fall off the other side, then he would try from the back of the board and it would just flip over. Seriously this went on for at least 2 to 3 hours! Finally after 1001 attempts, his wife and kids had enough of the beach for the day and they all went home… Paddle board never seen again for the rest of the week. This man never gave up, yes it was very entertaining to watch but come the end of the day this man demonstrated a lesson to his family and all those wonderful spectators on the beach. 6 remembers a saying from Winston Churchill (6 did have to look up the exact words) “Never, ever ever ever ever give up.” “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” no truer words were ever spoken, when one watched the man trying to ride a paddle board!  Yes no smart comments 6 knows that Churchill said that about the Big one, but it still applies to everyday life.

Words of wisdom: One may never be the best at something, nor one should never give up, one should accept their limitations, and Never, ever, ever, ever give up on the things that you love. For if you do, you will Never Ever,Ever fell joy!