Fishing for the past.

Not really sure where this one is coming from, for it has nothing to do with vacation, but asking a simple question. The question is simple, why would a group of people who grew up going on fishing trips, never go fishing?

 

Since it is Friday, let’s roll back time to the 1960’s when life was simple, where Peace, love and the occasional demonstrations where taking place. It is kind of interesting how things really never change, other than the methods. It Friday afternoon and 0 just came home from work, one could feel the excitement in the air, just waiting for a new adventure! 0A would be packing the food, 0 would be getting the sleeping bags, tent, camping stove, lanterns, fishing tackle, and the old outboard engine that 1 purchased from Mr. Fodie. Thinking back 6 is really not sure how 0 packed all of that gear in the car, but magic does happen. Before one realized it was time to pack ourselves in the car and head to someplace to camp and fish! 6 is going to use some logic at this time. Let’s figure we left the old homestead at 6:00, and every time we went on a fishing trip, we arrived after dark, that means that is a solid 3 hours of driving, where did we go? In any case, we finally got to our spot, unpacked the car, in the dark, put up the tent, searched the woods for fire wood, started a fire, and low and behold we had the first sighting of a wild turkey! As the wild turkey made it’s impacts, the conversations just became more and more interesting, but soon just like clock works the rains came, the water infiltrated everything in the camp site, and it was now time to call it a night. Not really sure how much sleep 6 actually got, between the roots, in his back and the water from the rain dripping in his face, but before you knew it, one could smell the coffee, and the bacon, meaning it was time to get up, eat some bacon and eggs, and have some of those powdered sugar donuts! What a way to start the day! It was about this time when 0 and either 1 or 2 would get in the car, and go someplace to find a nice boat so we could head out on the river or lake and do some serious fishing! Soon enough we could see them either rowing down the river, or cursing along in that mighty outboard engine! We would all pile into the boat or boats and head out for the big catch! Since we only had one motor and most of the time two row boats, one of the boats would be towed by the other making the journey to the perfect fishing spot even longer. Soon enough it was time to drop the old coffee can filled with concrete in to the river so that we would not let the current drag us away from the perfect spot. The real question was how in the world did 0 know where the perfect spot was? As 6 remembers that was the talk over the camp fire the night before. Very soon the boat was full of fish, the sun was roasting us, and we were ready to call it a day of fishing. Boats taken back to the place where 0 got them, the old cast iron, placed on the Colman gas stove, fish cleaned, and being fried in the bacon grease for the morning breakfast! What a sight! You all probably wonder why fish in not 6’s favorite food! After lunch, time to clean the utensils in the river, pack them up in the car, and head back home. The funny thing was on the trip up to camp, the talking never stopped, but the trip home, not a word was spoken, for everyone was sound asleep, before we left the camp site. Great memories!

6 often wonders what ever happened to all of that camping grear, for example that out board motor, it was 20 years old in the 60’s, 6 bets if 8 could find that he would be sitting on a gold mine!

 

Words of Wisdom: Remember the past, for it is why you are what you are today. Learn from mistakes, turn that into growth, and wisdom.

 

Common Sense

What an appropriate time hear 6’s intellectual views on common sense! 

6 thinks that we can all agree on the definition of vacation.” An extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling” in other words, leave the trappings of your life for a period of time, to enter into leisure. Or “cutting the cord” leaving the routines of day to day and trading them for peace, quiet, relaxation and time to re-charge your batteries.  Really what does that mean, common sense would infer that one would stop on the day to day activities that tie all of us to email, social media, and all other items other that the important activities, giving full attention to the people you are with. For an example, just think of cousin Eddie, 6 bets that he did not have a bag phone, nor would he know how to use it, for if he did, he would have not just showed up at Clarks home, he would have called first!

As all of 6’s dedicated readers, have noticed on of 6’s top ten “beefs” about vacation, is people on the beach with cell phones! So many references over the years, ranging from someone posting a video of themselves skate boarding down the main road, to a real-estate agent closing a deal while their 4-year-old son, gets lost on the beach. Believe it or not PVV demonstrated that the cell phone “beef” is only getting worse!  From several couples walking on the beach holding hands with each of them having their cell phones in the other hand! Or people riding their bikes on a very crowed beach, holing their cell phones making movies to post on their social media site! And what is up with selfies? Is that all people do anymore? Can anyone answer this question, why would anyone take so many pictures of themselves? Have we become a society of narcissists?  What is the big attraction of having your picture taken while you are jumping? 6 bets not one afternoon, no less than 10 people were doing that! 6 missed this one, but 4-7 and 8 told me about the cell phone photo session that a guy who look to me as a ringer for Napoleon Dynamite, had! This was really a good one but if you would like to know more about it better ask 7 or 8.

  There is only one conclusion that 6 can determine given all of this imperial data. Common sense, left us the day that the smartphone was invented. Currently we establish our identity   by the smartphone, that is housed either, in one’s hand or between a person’s bathing suits and their butts, the third place is in their back pocket once again on their butts: the smartphone!  The person who years ago coined the phrase “They pulled that one out of their butt”, did not realize how profound they actually were.  As 6 applies the superior intelligence, common sense is derived by finding others with the same opinions you have, being reinforced by a device one carries on their butt! 

Since this is Independence Day, BTW it really should be July 2^nd not July 4^th, could one imagine how different our country would be if Thomas Paine had one of those smartphones, between his drawers and his butt? In reality he witnessed it all, not reading people’s opinions on a tweet based on a picture or short movie of an event. He based his book Common Sense on one basic ideal. “The Almighty hath implanted in us these unestinguishable feelings for good and wise purpose, they are the guardians of his image in our hearts.” Today our ‘Common Sense, is literally pulled out of our butts, have we gone to the point where what the Almighty has implanted, comes from the almighty internet, and not the basic beliefs that we have been endowed by our creator life liberty and the purist of happiness. Since our values over the many years have gone from one nation to a self-serving nation (what’s in it for me), we all need to stop selfies, and opinions from our butts, and hold others hands empty of cell phones.

The only reason that anyone would need a phone on the beach is to figure out the time of day, after all when 4:00 comes, the most important thing starts to get underway, and for those who don’t know, that is the time it is to go back to the villa to get the Rex, cheese, crackers and anything else we can attract the ocean pigeons! 6 will not allow the phone to tell the time, 6 will bring the beach watch, it might be off by an hour or so, but we are all intelligent people and we can do some simple math to get the exact time. If all else fails we can pull the 8 trick, find the north, draw a circle in the sand, put a stick in the center of the sand, and determine the time, like they have been doing for thousands of years!

 

Words of Wisdom: Knowledge is critical, but knowledge without wisdom, leaves you with nothing but a smartphone.

 

Generations of Beach Lovers!

As my readers might already realize 6 has some strange fascination, with older people on the beach. PVV did not disappoint! 6 can honestly say that age is relative, as one gets older the definition of “Geezers” changes with each passing day. Here I am going to step back to reality and assume that actually 6 fits in that category now. You might ask why, and the reality of age hit 6 like a ton of bricks one day as 4,6,7 and 8, were having a deep conversation on the beach. As a side note 1 you might like this part because it has to do with the history of the 0 family.

 

The conversation started, when the four of us were observing the behavior of the thousands of mature adults, isn’t that is a PC (Politically Correct) way refer to geezers, such a hard word. What we noticed is that they were rude, pushy, arrogant, in other words they walked around like they owned the place, actually they probably do.  As a strange twist of fate, we started to ask questions about 0 mother, father and sister. Every year the three of them would make their annual trip the Atlantic city. This lead 6 to ask the logical question: Why would such old people every year pack for a month, information from 4, ride on a greyhound bus (0 and 6 used to drop them off) for at least 15 hour bus ride, all to go to the beach? Think about that, that is 5 generations of the 0 family, well the 5^th generation we will have to wait and see. 6 wonders if the beach is engrained in our family DNA!  6 will never forget the first trip to the beach. Instead of going on a Greyhound 6 boarded first class and airplane and headed for BWI! The next day 1 and family, got into the VW microbus and were headed for the beach! 6 will never forget his first view of the beach, what a great memory! 6 doesn’t remember exactly what age he was but a very good estimate he was 10 years old. Imagine today sending your 10-year-old on an airplane, times have changed! Back to the 0-family vacation. All of this talk about age, the next issue was to determine how old that they actually were when they were going on these beach vacations. 6 can remember going to Greyhound station in downtown with 0 and dropping them off to catch their luxury ride to the beach. Let’s see, 6 had to be younger than 16, or 6 would have no needed 0 to drive. BTW, why would 5,4,3,2 or1 not have taken them to the Greyhound station? 6 is sure at least one of them would have had a driver’s license, are all you all feeling guilty now! Just think 0 had to work all day, then take time to go pick them up, drop them off and make it back home, one other thing 6 does remember is that they got on the bus, when it was dark outside, since it was summer, that had to be after 9:00 at night! 6 bets that 0 had a difficult day the next day, due to lake of sleep, if before you did not feel guilty you better now! Let’s see using superior intelligence, that means when our grandparents where spending our inheritance at the beach, they were at least my current age, and 0’s sister, actually had to be younger than 8, if that is possible!   Fast forward 20 years from now, when one of the 5^th generation takes over authoring the blog, what they will be saying about the third generation going to the beach each year! 6 can see it now! “How embarrassing, 621 had to walk 6 back from the beach this evening, after 6 drank a glass of Rex on the beach, and forgot where the heck he was! That part is understandable, because 6 is actually older that Methuselah, the part that pushed me over the edge, was why 6 insists to wear that ‘hammer” shirt (whatever that is) that he purchased from some place call Belk at the turn of the century! Actually 621 had some good luck on her side, since it was around dinner time, all the people that 621,622 and 611 where hanging around with all day on the beach, were back in their houses, and did not associate that embarrassing old “Geezer” with us, after all we had to spend the whole day staying as far away from him as possible! This is going to be a long week!” Age really is relative! Guess what “Speedo man” was spotted several times on PVV this year… Now that guy really loves the beach! 

 

Words of Wisdom: Never forget, if nothing else, it will hold families together, and provide entertainment for generations to come.

 

Can a Principle ever retire?

We are now one week further from PVV and one week closer to FVV, just as with each individual’s perspective, there good and bad in everything. The bad thing is PVV is over and now in the history books, but the good thing is we are rapidly approaching, writing a new chapter in the annuals of the 0-family vacation! 

History is really a funny thing, on one hand it is documented thru the lens of the person writing the words. BTW 7 had a real disaster on the PVV, as we all know, 7 has a very difficult time with sun glasses. Falls into a pit in the ocean, loses them, crosses Lake Bundy sea gull pecks 7 on the back of his head finds a new pair. Who know!  This year 7 went up for his afternoon lunch with his sun glasses, took them off, et (ate) some lunch, found sun glasses broken on the table? Who knows? The next morning 4 found a new pair?  7 still had to go without because 6 stole them! You snooze you looooose! On the other hand, (back to history), it is interpreted thru the lens of the person reading that history. What a dilemma! Lens of the writer, lens of the reader, we should have 7 write and ready history, for he can’t keep a lens for more than a day! That is where the other principal comes in… it is the responsibility for the principal to ensure that what is being taught has no bias, and dedicated just to the facts.  Then again who knows because that really depends on the principal’s principles. 

Speaking of principal’s principles, on PVV we saw that action in spades! Picture this, well actually don’t, 6 doesn’t want to get in trouble for his description of a person. Therefore, in your mind’s eye think about a retired person who spend 350 years as principal of an elementary school! 4 is that an acceptable description, after all it was you who deduced the prior occupation of this person. This person (Now referred to as the Eagle eye) came down to the beach everyday about 3:00 (one sure give away about her profession), gave an eagle eye view of the beach (one more clue), opened the chair sat down, changed her hat and glasses, pulled a book out of the book bag oops beach bag, (two more clues) pretended  to read the book, but was always keeping a close watch for beach rule breakers! When all of a sudden, the eagle left its perch, and pounced on a group of teenagers who were attempting to take their bikes up the boardwalk that was located right behind us. That is a No No the poor kids with their heads down walked their bikes to the next boardwalk where bikes are “allowed”. The next day, some poor person was attempting to open the chair that they had dragged down to the beach, and once again the eagle left the perch and pounced on this poor unassuming person because they were not doing it correctly. Before the eagle could get back to her perch, there was another victim of beach rule breaking this went one every afternoon. The best part is 8 was busted for trying to do the bike thing, the only difference was 8 just kept on going! This makes 6 wonder if that is how 8 handled inputs from his past principals? BTW has for those that were not on PVV but will come to 0-FV, KICA posted new signage on the board walks going down to the beach. They are much the same, with the exception of “No Drones”. This new signage has caused 6 with his superior intelligence to do some thinking. If the first rule is No Bikes, and the eagle eye is correctly reading the sign, then that means no bikes on the beach, we all know that is not true! So, if one is to use the principals, principle’s logic, then once can have glass, or drones or bikes on the beach, only problem is then how to get them to the beach when you can’t have them on the boardwalk, 6 forgot No Walking on the dunes is still in effect. The answer is simple, launch your drone from the parking lot, attach a bottle of Rex and a few Rex glasses fly the drone over the boardwalk and dunes, land it on the beach and you are now legal, and the eagle eye nor the beach patrol can say a word! The moral, is very simple… Ones morals influence their principles, one’s principles are reinforced by one’s principals, one’s principals will never give up their perch!

 

Words of wisdom: Respect your principal’s principles, but do not let the principal’s principles blindly effect your morals.                      

 

We are Back!!!!

Sure, kind of feels as if the COVID crisis, has past and we are returning to normal. Not the new normal, that too has past just like 6 predicted. 6 still have not figured out what that New Normal was supposed to be, nor honestly does 6 care. Just pray that soon this will all be behind us and COVID will just be a memory. 

Guess what…. We actually had the pre-vacation vacation (PVV) this year!!!!

I normally start at the beginning, but this time I am going to start at the end. A brief story about Friday! 

6 knows 6 said Friday, but actually the Friday story starts on Thursday. Only people with superior inelegance (SI), and we all know who has that, so no need for 6 to explain that point any further. Well it seems that every Thursday morning, the grounds keepers fire up the lawn mowers, leaf blowers, hedge clippers and announce the end of the week. After all the grounds are an absolute mess, from the group of renters that destroy the ambiance of paradise, over the past 6 days! 6 calls those noises caused by all the power equipment the beginning of the end of PVV and even our big family vacation (BFV). As a side note, if KICA is so concerned about climate change why do they allow two stroke power equipment on the island? They cause significant noise and air pollution, I bet all of the power equipment is causing the water levels to increase at least 1 inch a year!   Before one realizes it, the landscapers are completed with their tasks, they have packed all of the equipment, and are in waiting mode for next Thursday and another inch rise in sea level. By now 6 is on his way to the sanctuary for his free cup of coffee and the Friday morning sun rise. It is actually kind of depressing, because the beach is empty, (6 actually enjoys that part) and in the sanctuary one can see all of the people who are staying there dragging their suitcases thru the front door, heading for the homestead. 6 never realized that the elite that stay there could have long faces, but there is a real sense of sadness in that place. 6 has not figured out if that is the shock of the invoice they just paid, or the fact that it is Friday.  Fast forward to 3:00 on the beach, this is when the fund starts! 

The first thing that one notices is there are now a few different people sitting around you in the chair that people have rented for the week. To our left was a rather large group of people who deiced to leave the beach a little earlier, and left their 10 chairs and 5 umbrellas baking in the afternoon sun. The chair was not even cold yet when a man and woman decided to take up residence on the empty chairs. 4 was the first to notice this act of blazon disregard for beach decorum. She said look at those two, the man I am guess was about 80 years old, was dressed as if he was just getting back from a run on the beach. He had some old dirty New Balance “geezer” shoes and an old beat up tee shirt that looked like he found in the dumpster on his way down to the beach! Now his wife was completely different, she appeared like one of the housewives of OC. Need I say more! They sat there for about ½ hours before the chair guy approached them and nicely told them to take their “geezer keister’s” and either pay up or move on, old people can be so rude! They finally relented and hand in hand walked further down the beach, and disappeared into the sunset. Personally 6 thinks the old guy, had to spend every sent of his hard-earned dollars keeping the old lady in fancy shoes! ( no comments) Not 10 minutes later a young couple did the exact same thing, but they took a different approach. They left and went the other direction on the beach, walked up the chairs that the chair guy had just put away and took two of the chairs and sat their “young keister’s” down out of the view of the chair guy! People!!

The second thing one notices on Friday afternoon is people walking on the beach. Some people are walking very slowly, with their heads down as if they are counting every step, they are savoring every minute they have left. These people have been thru a week of fighting the sun on the beach, and are all sun/wind burned and acting as if they have lost their best friend. While the new group of people all have their drinks (actual wine glasses) breaking the first rule of the beach.  If one gets past all the rules being broken (Blog for next week) they have some “gidddddy-up” in their step, big smiles on their faces and best of all have not had to deal with the sun/wind all week!   

 

 

Words of wisdom: Value every minute, be it the end of your adventure or the beginning. One can never get them back!

Welcome to 2021

It sure seems like forever since we have been able to gather as a family at the beach. So many things have changed in all of our lives over the past year, but as 6 always says, hold your faith stay on the path, and your reward is endless. 

As 6 sits here for the second Saturday in a row, doing nothing but hoping that the ice on the trees doesn’t’ ravage 6’s house. I guess it all depends on how one views ones situation:  Yes, the ice is weighing on each branch causing them to reach their breaking point, but at the same time it is beautiful seeing the sun since thru the ice making the landscape appear like the crystal wonderland.

 

So much to do, and so little time. Try to find airline reservations, find the drawer that 6 keeps all of his Kiawah garb, find someone who has the new tent that 6 wants to purchase. BTW on that tent, every other person on the beach last year seemed to have one, but 6 has no idea where the bought them! I suppose 6 could say Hey Google or Hey Alexa find me a tent for the beach, but all that would solve would be for 6 to spend hours deleting all the emails and adds that result, from such an inquiry! 6 would rather fry on the beach!  We still have a few months, all will be fine! 

            A few years ago, 6 posted a blog about a couple who spent all of their time on the beach with their little peepers focused on their phones, simultaneously their kids ransacked the beach as if the world was their personal domain. It was at that point where 6 decided that the first thing he was going to do when he retired was to take his smart phone and make deposit it into the Chesapeake Bay. Upon further reflection, 6 wants to amend that idea. Would anyone be offended if 6 went this route? When that fateful day arrives, 6 will break-into his 401K and make a major purchase, will it be a new car, to help him navigate his mid-life crisis, or a house on Eugenia Dr. (6 doesn’t think 7 will ever keep his promise), or the Rex winery, that would probably be a good investment, … did you guess???? Well it is none of those wonderful purchases, it is something much more important….It’s a drone. At this time, you are all probably thinking 6 has lost a few points on his superior intelligence over the COVID respite, what a puzzling purchase! No… my mind is still superior, as you all know, 6’s has some opinions with regards to curious activities observed on the beach. Rounding out the top 5 are people flying drones! Did one ever hear the old statement “Killing two birds with one stone” well here is the perfect definition of its meaning. It is very simple: 6 takes the drone down to the beach, attaches his cell phone to the drone, along with a big bag of popcorn, borrows someone’s cell phone to use as the controller, programs the drone not to come back to the controller, the hits lift off. Get it yet????? Well if not….. On a sunny Friday afternoon in paradise, 6 will drink a nice big shot of Rex while making a toast to a renewed life, fires up the drone, and watches it fly  out to sea, dropping the popcorn, for our friends the seagulls, to have a feast, this will also enable us to see the drone’s further by following the birds (6 thinks of everything), the battery will die on the drone, causing the smart phone to fall endlessly in the abbess of the Atlantic ocean.  BINGO. All is solved! Two of my 5 top beach issues gone in one action! 

 

Fast forward a few years the year is 2084… 621/622 and 611 children are swimming in lake Bundy one of them reaches into the sand at the bottom of Lake Bundy and pulls up a drone, with a smartphone attached to the drone! The phone is still saying Hey Alexa where can 6 find a beach tent! One more side note, I wonder if when 621/622/611 are middle aged, will they be wondering what 1/4/6/6A/7/8, did at the beach every year? Just as to this day, 6 wonders what Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Rose did at the beach each year….

 

Words of wisdom: Truth is found in simplicity.