Uncle Gator's Kiawah Adventures

Well don’t know if you all noticed, but……. Kiawah island has dropped one spot on the 2019 Island beach destinations!!! I wonder why, as you all know 6 just has to give the explanation from the expert that he is. Here are the top 10 reasons. 1)     Tents on the beach!  2)     Fewer celebrity sightings. Where’s Reese, or Paula.. the last person (other than me) that has been sighted on the island and arguably the most important was the Bundy’s and that was a couple years ago. 3)     Kathy Lee’s retirement, how are people supposed to drink Rex at 9:00 AM without Hodda and Kathy Lee? 4)     Total Wine of Charleston only having limited quantities of REX! 5)     The “lines” are no longer perfect since the master’s ball and chain has forced him to get a real job. 6)     Beach walker has sold out to the MAN! 7)     Strawberry Fields being replaced with private domai...

In the past 6 has talked about this in his blogs, so don’t think he has run out of ideas, just that this one drives him nuts! A few days ago, our version of Josh, was forecasting a snow storm for the weekend. When that happens panic begins to take hold and rationale goes out the window. The masses all need to hit the stores to stock up on bread, milk, toilet paper, snow shovels, and finally salt. People often talk about those type of purchases prior to a snow storm, as if it were urban legend, the sad thing is that it is true! Let’s take a deeper look at each one of those items…. Bread walk down the bread isle on any normal day, and what you will see are hundreds of loafs stacked neatly on their shelves. White bread, wheat bread, rye bread, pumpernickel bread, flat bread, round bread, English muffins,  hot dog buns, hamburger buns, sub buns…… Sam I am…. Then go to the same store the same day that Josh forecasts a snow storm, and what do you find……the shelves are empty! What...

Christmas is over, the tree is down, the boxes jammed in spaces that 6 will never be able to find next year, leaving nothing but an empty feeling that one more year has slipped away. You have to admit, that is a very depressing way to look at Christmas, for if that were truly the way one feels then Christmas should be treated on the same level as the other “stupid” holidays we celebrate every year. For example Labor Day, how many Americans under the age of 60, even know why we celebrate Labor Day. Oh Oh 6 knows, it is day off that 6 is entitled to since he works! In other words another bottle of Rex! Well back in the 1800’s when America was in the throes of the industrial revolution, it was nothing for the average worker to work 12 hours a day to eke out a meager living. Imagine the working conditions today, going to a factory or farm and working 7 days a week for 12 hours a day! Age did not matter one could be working alongside an old (seasoned) mill hunk, when they were 5 years ...

It’s getting to be that time of year again! Happy Hanukkah, Have a blessed Advent, Merry Christmas and Happy new year! That should cover it! The other night I was reading some articles on AI, it was very interesting. There were a bunch of techies from major research organization from around the English speaking world talking about the future of AI. One of the biggest issues they were dealing with was bias. In other words how do the write the algorithms, so that are not biased?  There conclusions were very interesting. I will not get into that because 6 will defiantly show his bias. Because we all know the old saying bad data in equals bad data out (6 cleaned the real statement up, so people of all ages can ready this blog). What all this has to do with Christmas, well 6 will explain. 6 knows that he is old and there is probably no one who reads this story will have any idea about what 6 is talking about. One cold and snow Saturday morning, the week before Christmas, 6 had...

Last evening 6A and 6 ventured out of the house, to leave the comfort of our humble abode and face the harsh realities of the mean cruel world. Only we noticed that old man sun was beginning his nightly slumber a few hours earlier than he did when we saw him on the beach. This could mean only one of two things: first he is getting old and can’t keep the late hours any longer, or second fall is approaching. 6 be thinking that is a little of both, 6 just like old man sun  is getting older and will take any extra minute of slumber, and fall starts on Saturday! Yes that means vacation is done, lawn mower race results are in the books, no more pizza night in short pants, drinking hot Rex. Now school has started, football is all we talk about (hey you Pitt fans, how about that Pitt Penn state game), the county fair, wine fest, cooler nights, rain every weekend, leaves to pick up, shorter days and finally shopping for thanksgiving dinner!  6 realizes that none of you have...

It sure looks like Kiawah may miss the wrath of Florence that is ok, for the last couple have done nothing but raised the price of our rentals.  As we all know, when 6 goes to the beach 6 really likes his personal space, 6 wonders is that is kind of like our family and hugging? . If 6 wanted to have people to the right side and the left side in front and behind him 6 would just go to Ocean City! There is a tremendous amount of preparation involved in minimizing the impact that “squatters” inflict on our good old family vacation. If you all don’t know here is the yearly process that 6 employees to protect your vacation. In early July, he pulls the tidal data from NOAA, and charts the effects that the tides will have on each day of our vacation. Once that is completed, early in August,   6 will then start watching channel 2 news, confirming 6’s analysis with the premier meteorologist Josh Mauthers. Once the trend is verified 6 will then start collecting actual t...

Funny thing happened to me this week, I came home from work and the house was freezing! It is only the middle of October, 6 still has not unpacked his suit case from vacation, what the heck. On went the heater and out the window some more of the inheritance for the girls! Did you know that there is only 9 weeks left until Christmas that means there is only 5 weeks left before we can watch Christmas vacation and eat the fattened hog (turkey). Last weekend when I was at Giant doing my weekly pilgrimage to hunt for food for the week, 6 got in a conversation about turkey’s with the checkout clerk and some random couple who was in front of me in line. It seems that neither one of them purchase their turkeys from Giant, they get them from the Amish people up there on freedom school road! So of course 6 had to ask them a million questions, the first and only important one was can you taste the difference between a fresh (never frozen) turkey and the one you get from the Amish? And all thre...