A Naked Hermit Crab

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything here. I've sat down several times with plans to post something but it seems that I've been getting sidetracked and then end up not writing anything.

The Island King has been really busy lately and while the kids and I are enjoying our summer we haven't really done anything that interesting. Movie watching, game playing and sleeping late pretty much describes our days - and we're loving it.

But I did find something interesting at the beach.

Ever wonder what a naked hermit crab looks like?




I was wandering along the beach near the Coast Guard Station and up in the high tide line I found this little guy.

He seems very well preserved so he must have been there for some time, just waiting for me to find him.

Hermit crabs change shells as they grow. Once they start to outgrow the shell they're in, they start looking for a bigger shell. If they find an empty one they will grab the new shell with their pinchers and then do an interesting little flip flop maneuver out of the old shell and into the new one.

Or, if there are no empty bigger shells, they will find a shell they want and then fight with the shell's owner, trying to get the owner out so they can slip in.

Shell-jacking, I guess you'd call it. I've seen it happen and it's not pretty.

I don't know if this crab lost his shell trying to flip into an empty one or if he was rudely pulled from his home by some bigger, badder, crab.

Either way, it didn't work out too well for the little guy.

Now, I'm off to the docks to pick up some shrimp for our weekly Thursday night fireworks dinner.

Boiled shrimp, warm water and beautiful fireworks - I may not be blogging much but I am enjoying every moment of living in paradise.

What Custer Was Thinking

A woman decided to have a mural painted on the wall of her dining room.

She called a local artist and when he arrived she showed him the wall and told him she wanted him to paint a mural of Custer's Last Stand.

The artist shook his head and told her that he was a surrealist and that he painted more about ideas and philosophies.

The woman looked inspired and said "That's perfect! Paint what you think Custer was thinking at his last stand."

The woman left on a 2 week vacation and when she returned home the painter proudly led her to the dining room, where she saw a mural showing cows with halos, standing on cliffs, overlooking a valley filled with Indians having sex.

The shocked woman gasped and demanded an explanation.

"Well," says the painter, "I thought about Custer's Last Stand and I figure he was thinking
"Holy cow, Look at all of those F***ing Indians!"

____________________________________________________________________________________

That cracks me up every time I hear it LOL

Thursday Night Fireworks

Every Thursday night the developer of the Emerald Grande condominium puts on a fireworks display.

The show is designed to attract tourists and locals down to Harborwalk Village, which is a harbor front shopping, dining development along the harbor.

We've watched the fireworks from there a few times but then we found a much better place to go to see the show.

The beach on the other side of the Pass.

The fireworks barge is anchored just inside the Pass so we walk out towards the jetties and then hang out on the beach right in front of the barge.

Which means the fireworks are directly overhead.

We go out early Thursday evening before dark and then spend some time swimming and hanging out on the beach.

It's a great spot to watch the boats coming in and out of the harbor



We like to walk along the jetties looking for shells, watching the birds

And enjoying the view


Once the sun sets and it starts getting dark you can hear the crowd over at Harborwalk.


It's nice over there but I have to say that sitting on the beach, just me and my family is much more enjoyable.

And then the show starts. It's about 5 minutes long and it's always a good one.



Watching the fireworks has become our Thursday night thing to do and we love it.

Wordless Wednesday

The Last of The Bricks Saga

I know you must be tired of hearing about the Bad Ju-Ju Bricks but I have to share one last thing and then I promise I'll let it go.

Putting the bricks back where we found them seems to have removed the bad Ju-Ju and things are looking up.

The Island King fixed his computer for quite a bit less than we expected and we've gotten calls from 2 new clients. We returned the bricks Sunday evening and by Monday afternoon the computer was running and we've got some much needed business.

I think putting them back where we found them did the trick.

This morning I was reading the paper and almost fell out of my chair when I read an article about this same piece of property.

I posted before that the owner of the property donated it to the local college to be used as a place to teach and encourage the arts.

And that a few years later the college president decided to sell the property and use the money to put in a new parking lot at the college. Because the parking lot was adjacent to the arts building he claimed that by selling the property he was expanding the arts program at the main campus.

The family fought the sale and the whole thing went to court. A prominent judge ruled that the wording in the will wasn't specific enough and allowed the sale to proceed.

Well the article I read today says that "History hasn't been kind to the players in the Mattie Kelly estate saga."

The college president has been fired from the college and is facing criminal felony charges for his part in the Ray Sansom/Destin Airport debacle.

The judge who ruled in favor of selling the property was found dead, right before Christmas, from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

The attorney who represented the family during the court proceedings drowned, along with his father, in a boating accident.

And then the paper says "And the Kelly family has continued to battle their own demons."

I don't know what that means but it doesn't sound good for them.

The article states that the paper tried to interview the developer but that he refused to comment. I can't imagine that in this economy things are looking rosy for him.

So the big players in the whole thing are either dead, facing prison time or battling demons.

I knew their was some bad Ju-Ju going on.

If I hadn't already returned those bricks you can bet your last dollar that I'd be taking them back today LOL

The Yard Sale Shocker

For the past several months I've been cleaning out closets, drawers and cabinets trying to get rid of some of the clutter. As I've pulled things out I've piled them in the Florida room.

My MIL started cleaning out stuff at her house and brought by several loads of stuff as well so this past weekend we had a big yard sale.



We had a nice steady crowd and the kids enjoyed sitting outside watching and visiting with everyone as they came by.

And then it happened.

A car pulled up and a woman got out. A woman wearing a little tiny little bathing suit top and an even smaller pair of bikini bottoms.

Did I mention that this woman had to weigh at least 350 pounds? And that's a conservative guess.

I've got no problem with chunky girls - I'm one myself - but to see a woman that big in a bikini was quite shocking, especially at a yard sale.

I looked over at both my boys and started saying silent prayers that neither would blurt out something like "Mom! Do you see that?!"

I watched both boys take in the sight and thankfully realized they weren't going to say something embarrassing.

The woman browsed for a minute and then turned around - and we can now see that the little bikini bottoms are actually a thong.

As she turned her back towards us she bent over and when she did I thought the boy's eyes were going to pop out of their heads. Absolutely nothing was left to the imagination.

And that was NOT a pretty sight.

Both of their mouth's fell open and I could see that the Youngest was gearing up to say something. Which probably wasn't something I wanted the woman in the thong to hear.

Lucky for me there was an older man standing there with us, watching the whole thing and I think he realized the Youngest was about to say something so he said "Boys can you come over here and show me these fishing lures?"

Thank God! The man looked at me and winked and I knew he was Heaven sent.

I can't imagine what the Youngest was going to say but I'm positive that all of his manners were going out the window and in true kid form something brutally honest was about to come out of his mouth.

The woman looked around for a few minutes and then got in her car and left.

Talk about a close call! The last thing I would want is for my children to say something rude or hurtful to someone - but you can only ask so much from a kid.

As she drove off, the Island Girl looked at me and said "There just needs to be some kind of line that people don't cross."

While I commend that woman for being comfortable with her body, I have to agree with the Island Girl - Some lines just shouldn't be crossed.

The Bricks Have Been Put Away

Sunday afternoon the Island King and I went back to move the bricks.

They were still sitting on the mausoleum step, which was a relief because on the drive over I wondered what I'd do if they were gone.


Sitting next to them was an azalea flower.


After ruling out the possibility that the flower didn't just pop off the bush and fly over to the step, we determined that someone must have left it there for Ms Mattie.

Which made me ask if perhaps we should pick a flower and leave it. The Island King looked at me like I was crazy and said "No! We aren't picking any flowers or touching anything here" LOL

He then ranted for a while saying that he couldn't even believe he was out here doing this - and for a second time no less.

The first brick had to be returned to a spot down by the water.

He might have been ranting a minute ago but notice that he's carrying the brick? Yep.


This is where the patio and brick BBQ grill used to be.

We put the brick right back in the pile where we found it.


The other two bricks came from where the home stood.

Which is pretty much where the first house is now being built.

When we got these bricks back in the fall this part of the property hadn't been cleared and the ground cover is thick now but we know this is the area they came from.

We found two piles of matching bricks so we added our bricks to the piles.



I'm not sure if these two bricks are in the exact spots we found them but they're with others of their kind and in the same general area so I think we're good.

At least I hope so because at this point there's nothing more I can do.
I've apologized, and not only returned, but put away the bricks.

My mother was able to appease Pela so hopefully this will make Ms Mattie happy LOL

Bad Ju-Ju Update

It's been over 24 hours since we returned the bricks and things are getting worse.

The first sign was that my van wouldn't crank when we got home that afternoon.

Next was the fact that we had a giant yard sale and didn't make as much money as we'd hoped or get rid of as much stuff as we wanted on Saturday so we had to extend the sale and do it again on Sunday.

The kicker was when the Island King turned on his computer and found that his mother board has gone bad. Mine died last week and since his is the same kind and was bought at the same time I guess they have a built in life expectancy. Great.

Then I read the comments from my wise friends and I realized that I made the wrong choice. I left the bricks at the mausoleum when I should have put them back where I found them.

As Sayre said "now they need to be put them away."

So I'm going over there to put them away today.

Cross your fingers for me!

Oh, I got an email from my Mom this morning telling me that she did not take those rocks from a grave, she took them from a volcano and that made the Goddess Pela mad.

I didn't think the grave thing sounded right. It was the Volcano Goddess she made mad LOL

These Bricks Have Bad Ju-Ju

I've always had a thing for old bricks and rocks from interesting places.

I have several bricks from the first lighthouse built on Cape San Blas. The lighthouse was built in 1849 but then destroyed by a storm in 1851. Brick chunks are uncovered often along the shore where the old lighthouse stood and over the years I've collected a bunch of those chunks.

I have a brick from the Flora-Bama Lounge. I grew up out on Perdido Key and the Flora-Bama was a favorite haunt. It was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan, and after the dust settled, the owners had a huge party on the beach and everyone watched as what was left standing was bulldozed to make way for the new building.

I was there and of course I got a brick.

I have a stone from the seawall at our favorite spot on the Choctawhatchee River.

I have a chunk of stone that my MIL brought me from the Fort San Felipe del Morro in Puerto Rico.

And on and on and on. I have a lot. I'm not a vandal, out prying bricks off historical sites but if there is a brick laying around or even to be bought I have to have it.

So when the Island King was shooting the Mattie Kelly property I found a couple of old bricks in the woods on the property.

And I took them. As a remembrance of the property the way it was before it was developed and because I have a lot of respect for the things Mattie Kelly did for Destin.

I put them next to the driftwood on my front porch.

Very bad idea.

We've had nothing but bad luck since the day I brought those 3 bricks home.

Business is beyond slow. The van has a mysterious ailment that only shows up when no one but me is around. My computer died. The lawn mower died. The list goes on for miles.

And it dawned on me the other day as I walked by the bricks that taking those bricks has brought some seriously bad Ju-Ju to our door and that we needed to return them - ASAP.

You can laugh if you want but I know my mother isn't laughing. She took some rocks from a grave in Hawaii and from then forward she was a walking disaster. She was standing in a parking lot when a coconut fell on her head, she tripped over something and twisted her ankle really bad, and couldn't have had more accidents if she tried.

She found out that taking rocks from graves is taboo so she made my dad take her back to the grave so she could return the rocks.

She didn't have another incident for the rest of the trip.

Bad Ju-Ju is a real thing and I'd brought some to my home.

So I told the Island King that the bricks had to be returned to the Kelly property and that we needed to apologize for taking them.

I don't think he actually believes in "bad Ju-Ju" but he humors me and agreed to return the bricks with me.

The mausoleum is in a quiet corner of the property

and as we stood there looking at it we wondered what to do with the bricks. Should we return them to the exact spots we found them?

We thought about it for a few minutes and then decided that we should leave them at the mausoleum so Ms. Mattie would be sure to note that we'd returned them.


And then because it's such a beautiful place we took one last walk around the property. They've started building a house on one of the lots and I'm sure it won't be long before the gates at the entrance are locked. The Island King has finished the photography on the property so we really don't have a reason to be here anymore.

The view from here is beautiful.


The oak trees here are spectacular. The moss is so thick in some places that you would literally need a machete to get through it.


This is the house that's being built. This man bought 2 lots together so even though the house will be large, he's preserved a lot of the natural trees and fauna on the road side.

The water side takes up pretty much both lots.

Once the bricks were safely returned

we went home.

And when I got in my van to go to the store, it wouldn't crank.

"When is the bad Ju-Ju supposed to start wearing off?" the Island King asked.

Soon.

I hope LOL

Time To Wash The Cat

Lately we've been having a serious problem with fleas. No matter how often we wash the dogs or put flea powder on the cat they're still scratching away.

It didn't take long to narrow the problem down to the cat, Sora, who has been renamed The Fleabag.

He's got long, thick fur and no matter what we do he seems to be the prime flea host around here.

We considered our options and were left with only one choice.

The cat had to have a bath.

And if you're going to wash a cat you need to bring in the big guns.

Dawn dishwashing liquid.

I've read many times that Dawn will work much better than any flea shampoo so we decided to give it a try.

The cat could sense that something was going on but he had no idea what was really about to happen.


We've had many cats over the years but we've never bathed one before and we weren't sure how the cat was going to react.

We hooked the hose up to the water supply for the washing machine so we would have nice warm water and then the Island King held him by the scruff of the neck and started getting him wet.


The cat held real still and let them get him wet and then start to soap him up.



Not long into the lathering Sora started looking a little ticked off.


By the time they were hosing him off to finish, Sora was really mad.



Once he was clean I wrapped him in a warm towel and he sank down in my lap with a sigh of relief.

I was afraid he'd be mad at us but he seemed a little freaked out and all he wanted to do was snuggle.

Poor Sora. He didn't like his bath at all but we were shocked at the dozens of dead fleas that fell off that cat.

See the black dots on the towel? That's only a small portion of what came off of him.


After washing the cat we had to wash the dogs too.

Buddy the Beagle likes his bath


The minute he realizes he's getting a bath he stands up on his back legs


He stays that way through his whole bath



Jake the Fiest doesn't really like to be bathed but he stands real still, hoping it will be over quick.



At the end of it all I was amazed at the dead fleas that fell off the animals.
We've tried many different kinds of flea shampoo but I've never seen so many dead on the spot fleas as I saw after we used the Dawn.

And not one of the animals is scratching tonight.

I think this Dawn thing worked and even though the cat wasn't real happy about his bath I know he feels better now.

4th of July

We spent the 4th in the water and on the beach. There are definite advantages to living in paradise.

The kids and I spent the majority of our time in the water.


My MIL enjoyed her spot in the shade.






The guys who own the vintage planes came out and put on a show for everyone.





We ate BBQ chicken wrapped in tortillas, potato salad, strawberries and watermelon for dinner. I wish I'd taken a picture of the chicken - it was the best I've ever made.


And we sat in the water, eating watermelon while we watched the fireworks.






After the fireworks we swam, ate some more and sat on the beach enjoying the moonlight before finally packing it up and hiking back to the truck.

There's just nothing like spending the 4th of July on the beach.