What Next?

this great blue heron was
not happy and squawked 

This great blue heron found our beach a bit crowded and thought our swimming pool a better bet; however, he was very incensed when chased out and spent the next half hour making a fuss, preening, and displaying at our handy man, not to mention the squawking racket!

It's the rainy season, which also means it is hurricane season (as if mother nature pays attention to these matters).  We live in a  a humid subtropical climate with two basic seasons:

playing on the offshore sandbar

• a hot and wet season from May through October (high temperatures average about 90s °F (around 32 °C) and lows in the mid-70s °F (around 24 °C), accompanied by high humidity and an almost daily chance of thundershowers, especially in the afternoon which delivers 2/3 of the years average rainfall or about 28 inches, and 

• a mild and dry season from November through April.(highs during the coolest part of the winter average around 70 °F / 21 °C), usually with sunny skies.

A time to reflect:  Sonya Renee Taylor, poet and activist, recently gave a commencement address and posted on Instagram - here's an excerpt:

I feel like the bearer of news that sounds awful but actually is not. We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. we should not long to return my friends. we are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature. 

Maybe the Dutch Donut model is a place to start?

enhances sunsets & dusts cars in red coating

Back to the weather:  Godzilla Cloud - aka The Saharan Air Layer, also known as Saharan Dust, is made of sand, dirt, and other dust that is lifted into the atmosphere - at about 5-15,000 feet, from the large North African desert. This dust is carried in the African Waves which push westward into the Atlantic Ocean and over to the Caribbean & Gulf of Mexico. Since one of the key ingredients for tropical cyclone development is a deep feed of moisture, Saharan Dust often acts to inhibit tropical storm development, typical in the month of June; this year the layer is "abnormally large" - largest in 50 years.

24 June - Heat Advisory (feels like >100 F/>38 C) In Effect For Tampa Bay Counties: hot weather causes extra stress on the body by elevating core body temperature, especially during exercise. Heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and exercise associated collapse are all outcomes that may occur due to overheating. It 'felt like' 115 F/ 46 C on Saturday the 27th.

This means it is warm water season - no I am not referring to the pool or sea (now 91 F/ 33C), but to the tap water in the house - it comes out warm, not cool/cold during the summer months.

I guess heat doesn't kill the coronavirus as our daily headlines continue to read Florida Sees Staggering [Record] One-Day Spike In Coronavirus Cases

day after day! With this record we finally have a local [indoor] mandatory face mask ordinance from 5 pm on Wednesday June 24.

June 26 - Florida experienced its largest one-day coronavirus spike Friday with 8,942 new cases, as state officials suspended on-premises alcohol sales at bars (this should be interesting and I wonder if it will be enforced?).  The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut imposed a two-week self-quarantine that took effect Thursday ((25th) on travelers from Florida and other states experiencing a surge.

seriously??? Wear a mask!!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "Really nothing has changed in the past week other than we had a big test dump," said at a press conference in Lee County. "Probably the most significant change we've seen is a radical change in the median age of people ... to the early 30s from the 60s." DeSantis repeated his statement that he has no plans to require Floridians to wear face coverings in public even as cities like Miami now require it.



Not sure about the handwritten commentary, but the typed reply to the graphic makes an interesting point. May we live in interesting times - what doesn't kill us makes us stronger???? Paraphrase of Job 23:10.

hazy dull day due to Godzilla 

By the way, here no special effects or beautiful sunsets due to the dust layer, just a dull haziness that blots out the sun a bit.  Apparently, the dust brings iron that falls into the Gulf and fertilizes the algae that bring red tide - oh joy!

For some deluded reason, I thought I could make a face mask with eye shield (do you like the model from my childhood??) and quilt a queen-sized article!

On a positive note, a graduate's family created a celebration on our beach and groups up and down the beach 'whooped' to cheer the grad on!  Very nice indeed.

Giggles ... & Consequences

Macaw on the beach
never know what you will see next!
it may have escaped later in the day

Giggle: OK, I know what they mean, but really doctors advertising  "face-face televisits" - something of an oxymoron. Well lots of oxymorons around these days!

hinged mask for eating

Florida is opening up fast - Friday 5th June saw bars (50% capacity), movie theaters, and tattoo shops amongst others open along with increased  100% capacity at gyms and the opening of some theme parks, like Universal Orlando. So if you are out and about and really desperate to eat whilst wearing a mask - try this!

Wear a mask, I wear a mask to protect you. Please wear a mask to protect me. You may not know you are asymptomatic and very contagious!  In doubt check this out. Need to make a mask - here's the current 'best fit' mask.

Just remember consequences: your risky [non mask wearing] behaviour, forces me to be more cautious and isolated. A U of Hong Kong study suggests face masks can reduce COVID-19 transmission by up to 75% and that those who still become infected had less virus than those without face masks. WHO meta-study shows masks drop wearers risk of infection between 50-80 percent.

More Consequences:
Want to support change around societal privilege and disadvantage?  Read this.

Starting as Tropical Storm Amanda which developed in the Pacific south of Mexico on 31st May, this storm then dissipated over land (still heavy flooding) and then reformed as 

swimming in storm (!?!) on offshore sandbank

Tropical Storm Cristobal on June 2. She again dissipated, then reformed re-emerging in the Gulf of Mexico landing in Louisiana Sunday night 7 June.  By Tuesday the 9th the retirements of Cristobal were threatening to unite with a significant storm moving east from the Rockies bringing more bad weather to the upper Midwest.  Wow!

Weather reporters say Cristobal is the "earliest 3rd tropical storm on record in the Atlantic basin"-- get your head around that. Water temperature is a key determinant and our waters are warmer than average.

Giggle: door decoration for neighbour

Water temperature also triggers marine turtle nest laying. The second turtle nest mini me can see from the window was laid overnight on 4/5 June.  Both nests were 'washed over' by the outer bands of Cristobal on Sunday the 7 June so only time will tell if these nests are still viable. N13 is between the people in the photo below; the 2nd nest is off to the left  near the dune. A third nest in mini me's line of sight was laid overnight the 8/9 June up high in the dunes! Yipee!!

Permit holder nest checking (in rain gear)

Consequence: On our beach:  Found by the local sheriff on patrol at 5:45 a.m., this large female loggerhead turtle had its head trapped underneath a beach cabana chair whilst laying her eggs.  Fortunately she was discovered, freed and all seems well. This is why the beach needs to be left clear of human introduced stuff!

The kids (of all ages!) really enjoyed Cristobal's wave action - just beware of the rip current.

Random Fun Facts and Implications of a COVID-19 Mask Wearing World:

• Receive any mail order catalogues recently? Notice they had been getting thinner, but now seem to be bulking up.

newspapers.com
Covina Argus – Covina, California 08.25.1950

• Do you think ... lipstick sales will decline with the public wearing of masks everywhere? Well maybe not, if we all put in the clear window to help out the hard of hearing who lipread.

• Drive-in Movies first opened on June 6, 1933, in Camden, NJ transforming automobiles into “private theatre boxes” allowing guests to “smoke, chat, or even partake of refreshments.” But drive-ins were on the decline by the 1970s and done in by VHS tapes in the 1980s.  Read more about it here. There are about 300 drive-ins left in the USA: will they make a comeback (if the land/ space can be found for them)? Imagine they were touting a benefit of 'no need to dress up' - but who dresses up to go out to a movie  these days?
• Hand washing and face masks - less flu this season?  After all effective hygiene doesn't discriminate between respiratory infectious diseases! No special covid hand-rub.
• BUT ... dramatic? increase in use of plastic - including grocery store plastic bags, take-aways etc.

Giggle: Just rolling down the beach - a lost inner tube and a lost? bride

Skimmer feeding