A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That in Day by Day

It’s quiet, for a Monday. The mail carrier never came today, so that reduces the workload, too. Not to mention that it’s always quiet toward the end of the month.

We have a non-profit meeting later this week, but I’ve assigned others to create the Senior outreach program, so nothing to do there, and submitted the grant I’ve been working on for the budget course we teach, so that leaves me with some free time, as well. I’m thinking over a possible approach to affordable housing, but not ready to do anything just yet.

Thinking I had an hour to spare, I called up Aunt Pat, who is the champ of long calls. She beat her own record today: 2 HOURS and 5 minutes! I think my ear fell off my head. I couldn’t cut her short. My uncle’s death has turned her world upside down.

Anyway, I’m glad for a stress-free day. I go to the doctor for another blood pressure review tomorrow. I don’t think it’s come down and I’m thinking about dumping the water pills. It hasn’t helped and it dries my mouth out at night.

Some of you may have heard about the red tide that has plagued the gulfcoast of Florida. This naturally occurring organism is usually broken up by tropical storms and hurricanes, but this is an unusually quiet year for hurricanes.

Red tide causes irritated throats, coughing, and runny eyes but it is not toxic to humans. Fish are another story. So far, our county has cleaned up over 200 TONS of dead fish off public beaches. Fishermen are volunteering to clear canals clogged with dead sea life. The dead zone extends 12 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico and has turned our blue-green waters brown. The brown water has stained our pristine white beaches brown.

This is the worst outbreak ever. Red Tide usually comes and goes, but this one isn’t leaving. Even worse, it is a particularly strong outbreak, killing not only small fish, but also taking sea turtles (including endangered), manatees, dolphins, and even a whale shark. Now sea birds, who have been feasting on the dead fish, are dying.

So what causes red tide? No one is certain but use of pesticides have always been a suspect. I recall reading a National Geographic article on Red Tide in the 70s and it suggested to most likely culprit was toxins washing down the Mississippi River into the delta and then on to the Gulf itself.

My son has a very plausible theory tying this outbreak to the massive sinkhole that opened under what was a phosphoric acid lake, used for the wastewater from the phosphate mining that drained 215 million gallons of phosphoric acid water into the limestone aquifer systems. The phosphate company, Mosaic, denies any damage at all was done.

We’ve no idea how long this outbreak will last. The beaches are deserted and tourism has take a hard hit. Now there are reports that there is a BROWN tide (no idea what it is and not sure I want to) concern that if the two tides collide, the die-off will be even greater. Please send prayers, good vibes, or happy thoughts. I accept it all! And seriously, we need it.

About the mess in Washington. I think it’s become obvious to even the most stubborn Trump supporter that this administration is corrupt. Even though I disagreed with much of John McCain’s platform, I respected the man and Trump’s disrespect only further proves that diehard Trump supporters are backing a man with the emotional IQ of a ten year old.

I get it. Nixon had his die hard supporters and Trump has his. You never hear anything out of those Nixon worshippers anymore. They don’t want to embarrass themselves. Trump supporters will follow suit.

I AM enjoying the tweet storm that erupted over MAGA. My personal favorite? “Mueller Ain’t Going Away”. :)

So that’s about it. Life is quiet, as it usually is at the end of summer. Retirement comes at the end of the year. Can’t wait.