Bye, Fernandina

A beautiful sunrise this morning, with a bit of a nip in the air, as we finish packing and get ready to hit the road toward Asheville. It has been a pleasant month, full of sunshine and good food, lots of walks on the beach and in the Egan's Creek Greenway. The condo was well-placed and very comfortable--after Grandma fixed the mattress--so that we are considering a return next year.
Snow? What snow?

Jax

We finally went to downtown Jacksonville today, on the hottest day of our month. Our goal was the Cummer Museum, which has a nice though unexceptional art collection and lovely formal gardens that stretch down to the St. John River. For February there were many blooms and some ancient sculptuary (do you miss W and Sarah P?).
Then we drove through fairly empty Saturday streets to The Landing, which is the lively commercial part of J'ville's Riverwalk. We saw lots of Utes sporting J'ville orange and pale blue and a DJ was playing tunes; but, magically, all this disappeared as we came through. We chose to have lunch at a Mexican place along the river, and it was a bad choice. Ema could have told us that. Great to get home to the beach and 84 degrees.

Birds

Egans Creek Greenway runs for several miles down Amelia Island, and is our favorite non-beach walking area. Turtles sun themselves, one day we saw a tourist alligator, and wading birds abound. Along with the many herons and egrets that fish in the creek, we saw a strange and elegant bird that we finally identified as a Wood Stork. Although the waters are way down from months of drought, apparently there is still enough stuff in the water to feed the birds. Of course, the "real" birders work very hard at their hobby, but we enjoy strolling along and catching the avians doing their thing. There are wonderful sea birds here, too, but as I do not believe this blog has a birder audience, I shall omit discussion of same.

She did it!

One thousand pieces have now been carefully put into their places. Grandma is a bit stiff from working on the floor, but modestly triumphant.
With the completion of the puzzle, boredom set in. The puzzler dragged me off to J'ville to the huge Budweiser plant, where the Clydesdale horses were making an appearance. Lots of others had the same idea. It was a delightful spectacle, as you may observe by clicking this link.

Valentine's Pfui

Mah heart is broke.It is raining today, for the first time since we have been down here (OK, OK, they needed it). But the saddest thing is that my formerly trusty Acer tablet is busted. It wouldn't boot this morning, and no amount of ministration would avail. The web tells me this is a failing of this model. Sounds like that 1994 Evinrude 175. Well, I'll see what Acer has to say about this.
Grandma is spending much of this day splayed out on the floor, working on a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces. Holy mackerel. More details will be forthcoming, perhaps.

Climate change

Apparently, winter storm Nemo - wait, wasn't that a fish that got flushed down the loo? - was so powerful because changes in our climate, propelled perhaps by the bool cheet from the Washington neocons, have exacerbated many of our weather events. Indeed, things have gotten pretty hairy on the climatological front - that's why we sold our sailboat last summer.As the picture on the left (credit: J. Persen) indicates, the snow fallen on the Crotch is as high as we have ever [not] seen it. Scary.

However, as there is more than one way to skin a cat (the coiner of that adage being a man or woman after my heart), so there are several ways to change the climate. One of the simplest is to go south in the winter. Take that, Jim Cantore.

Thirty-five years - can it be?

It is reasonably warm in the morning here in Fernandina Beach, and I have started jogging on the beach just before sunrise. It is beautiful then, when even most of the birds are asleep, and the sky is pink, then orange before the big eye peeks out. With time, perhaps my girth will lessen, as it did when last I undertook this regimen: 1978 at Rio Del Mar in Aptos, CA. No matter what, it is a great joy to be close to the beach while dodging the Maine winter. I love it.

Toward more colorful speech

Let's hear it for Joe Flacco, a Jersey boy after my heart. No " I'm going to Disneyland " or " all praise to my savior" for him. My new hero... and a free agent.
Postgame comment nails the emotion!

Touching glory

When I was a freshman at Moorestown High School, I played center on the freshman basketball team. Several times the varsity coach, Pete Monska, brought me up to practice to lean on the varsity center, who was about my height. His name was Dave "Lefty" Robinson, and he was the best rebounder I ever saw. That Moorestown team won a couple of state titles -- it was very exciting. Being brushed aside by Dave Robinson was as close as I came to basketball prowess. Oh, wait, I once went to stand by Wilt Chamberlain in the Philadelphia airport. Wilt was almost a foot taller than Lefty, but not his equal in ferocity. Today,  Dave Robinson was elected to the pro football Hall of Fame. A thrill.