From Paradise to Hell

By now I'm sure most of you have seen and heard about the holocaust of fires in California.  My cousin Carrie and her family lived in Paradise, the town of 25,000 that burned to the ground.  

They escaped with their lives (and nothing else) by driving miles through a tunnel of fire and abandoned cars, an inferno of heat and flames, with explosions of tires from the hot pavement and trees falling in their path.   

Carrie and her sister and I and my sister grew up together.  Our families were extra close because we are double cousins -- her dad and my mom are first cousins, my dad and her mom are first cousins.  

Today they were allowed in to Paradise see where their home stood.  You can still see the smoke in the air, a week later.  

They had minutes to get out of the house and lost everything but the clothes on their backs and their two cats. Their most urgent need is for a home in the area so they can get back to their jobs and schools.  As you can imagine, it's very tough to find any kind of affordable place to rent in this situation.  

As you count your blessings this Thanksgiving, if you would care to help, Carrie's grade school friends have set up a GoFundMe page for the family here:

Paradise Fire Carrie

How Are You Today?

The winter beach

Midterm elections.  The day after the day after.  First off let me say, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican.  I have voted in every single Presidential election since I was 21 and I voted my conscience.  In recent months, we (the Writer and I) signed petitions, wrote letters, made phone calls, put out signs, talked to neighbors, read, and listened to as many Americans as we could.  We voted.  We nervously watched the results.  

I want to have hope for this country.  I want to understand women willing to vote for men who disparage women, men who have insulted and assaulted them, their daughters, mothers, friends.  I want to understand those who feel it is moral and right to lie when it suits their cause.  I want to understand those who believe the right to own murder weapons is more important than the rights of children to be safe in school, worshippers in churches, shoppers in malls.  I want to understand why some feel so threatened by brown people, families seeking asylum, transgender men/women.  I have been trying, I really have.  

The hope I have today isn't huge but it's a little more than I had a couple days ago.  I am relieved that my health insurance is probably safe for another two years with the new majority in the House, and maybe my Social Security, too.  It's good that with the new majority in the House, some balance of power will be restored.  I'm glad to know two Somali Muslim women -- one from Minnesota where I volunteered in this immigrant population -- are among the new representatives elected.  I am pleased that first Native American woman was also elected to the House (I just learned there were two!).  Isn't it about time?  

How are you feeling after the midterm elections?  

Boyd's Mill, South Carolina

In the early 1800s settlers dammed the Reedy River in Laurens County, SC to build a grain mill for families settling nearby.  With impending Hurricane Florence dulling the skies we set out, hoping to find some remains of Boyd's Mill.  We could soon hear rushing water and, after a short hike down a steep, washed-out road, we rounded a bend to meet up with a horrible stench (we never found the source) and this surprise: 

a 1907 hydroelectric dam, replacing the grist mill and itself looking abandoned years ago. The remains of an old road bridge stand in the foreground.

It's a very long dam, extending farther than I could see playing hopscotch on the rocks, out beyond the trees at the right. 

We didn't hang around long.  We enjoyed the sound of the water but not the smell or the mosquitoes.  We returned to the car and, continuing up the road, came to a modern sign, another view of the dam, and another surprise. 

This rickety-looking dam and power plant still has functioning turbines producing electricity for Laurens County!  

In the fall of 2015 in torrential rains fourteen dams in the Columbia, South Carolina area failed.  Twelve lives and a tremendous amount of property were lost.  Maybe it's just me, but I'd be a little nervous if I lived downstream from this one!  

All Hallows' E'en

'Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties 

and Things That Go Bump in the Night' ...

We're ready.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

This 'n That

Bob is a Border Collie, a breed known for their, um, quirks.   She is paranoid about water and over the years has come to associate certain types of structures with water -- whether there is water involved or not.  She is suspicious of anything made of boards and refuses to walk on them. You know, because there might be water.  

After the wooden boat show we walked out to Morgan Point on Winyah Bay.  Like most hikes where we live, it involves crossing a (waterless) boardwalk. 

This is how Bob hikes.

Back on terra firma and all is well in Bob-World. This is a peaceful,secluded little sandy beach and so tempting.  You can't swim here though.  Alligators get first dibs.  

My daughter sent these photos this past weekend.  Mason, a boy with three basketball- playing big brothers, is playing in the YMCA youth program for the first time this year.  Here he is explaining to his dog Annabelle why she can't come along like she did to soccer.  

Looks like he's going to do well -- if the eagle mascot doesn't eat him!  

The Writer has been busy, too -- getting the seeds out of the pumpkin for his favorite snack.  This guy had some giant seeds, too.  And they were delicious roasted.  

We're calling her Wanda.  

Wooden Boat Show

The 29th annual Georgetown Wooden Boat Show is one of my favorite events of the year.

Since I didn't see you there, I'll show you some of the highlights.  

Boats begin to come in about the middle of the week.  By the weekend the marinas and the hotels are overflowing with boats and those who love boats, especially boats with a history.

This boy had one job to do -- watch the boat.  He would not leave his post for a rub or even look at me, no matter what I did or said!  

"Vroom Vroom" is a one- to two-seater (depending on the passenger's physique) with a jet ski engine and "jetsquirt  power" -- propelled by water.  It's pretty, it goes real fast, and The Writer informs me you can buy a jet engine on Amazon, in case you're interested in making one. I'll be watching from shore -- with my ear plugs in!  

Children's regatta in the harbor, Goat Island behind.

Up on the street, Front Street, the Coast Guard and Coastie the robot welcome folks. We have our own Coast Guard station here in Georgetown. They have docks and a building now, but back in the 80‘s they worked from an anchored floating barge.  

There are always lots of paintings, jewelry, and fancy handmade oyster knives for sale at the Boat Show, but this display caught my eye.  All the pieces are made from driftwood with parts of it polished and parts left natural.  Some were quite beautiful and would, ahem!, look very nice in our sunroom.  

I saved my favorite boat this year for last, this sweet little Moth Boat.  I can just imagine it with its sail full of wind, the wind blowing my hair back, the salty spray in my face, gulls wheeling gracefully against the bluest sky   ...     oh, yes, where was I?

Here, you can read the description for yourself.  

Cruisin' - Laurens, SC

Laurens, SC - 1930s filling station, brought back to life in 2002 by a guy, Richard Kuhnel, who wanted a place to honor his cruisin' days of the ’50s and '60s. Come back on the first Friday night of any month to see vintage cars -- and vintage people -- hanging out once again at the old filling station.  

Come inside, put a nickel in the slot of the red and white cooler, and slide out a green frosty bottle of Coke.  While you sit on your front fender and talk cars, remember the guy who came out (or ambled over from the bench) when your car drove over the bell that summed him.  Remember sitting in your car, elbow out the window, saying, "Fill 'er up!"  "Check the oil, ma'am?" he'd ask while scrubbing every last bug off your windshield.

 Imagine, all that for 25 cents a gallon, maybe $4 for a fill-up.

Oh, be still my heart!  Look what's parked next to the station.  A vintage Shasta trailer, a "canned ham" with wings intact, in my favorite Shasta color, "aqua" blue.  

So me, don't you think?