During a return walk today (!) to the west island beneath the bridge over the Indian River lagoon here in Martin County, FL, unusual small holes were observed in the asphalt of the traffic lanes that hold traffic flowing through Sewall's Point past the (ahem) Harbor Bay Plaza. Although they are the approximate size of reflectors affixed-then-dislodged in the roadway (with tar) to more clearly separate the traffic lanes, they also resemble to a remarkable degree the pits/slumps caused when frightened frogs/toads adhere to the asphalt to hold their positions -- a sight also seen within Kingswood condo complex. The small holes are not showstoppers but are reason to wonder while traversing SE Ocean/Route A1A, which passes the plaza and other businesses including a Keller law firm.
I decided to pick up more trash along the north-side shoreline again ("one less, one less" annual coastal cleanup assignment), and that trash included a number of infant/baby disposable diapers/training pants lying almost beneath the span itself. Today I also made photos, and the array was almost exactly the same as yesterday -- dried-up ray-on-a-rock, crab carapaces, orange child's t-shirt, various darkly-dyed jersey-knit rags. After putting the trash into a picnic-area trash can, I tossed out old chocolate-covered malt balls from my backpack to about a half-dozen crows; later, an apple core went into the water to bob along in the wave action. Some doves flew by. and a pelican closely reconnoitered the floating apple core.
And yes! the spider hopped out again to directly view my exit, as if I may be 'Miss Muffet' in my own mind, but not 'Miss Moffet'.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
o/ o/ it's that time of the year o/ o/'
This week's http://www.topix.net/ website gives us the Tallahasse, FL, article titled, 'Florida Fish and Wildlife needs your Help with Horseshoe Crabs', "...this is the peak period when horseshoe crabs come ashore to mate...statewide survey...at this time of the year, crabs invade certain beaches...". The creatures have an dark brown armorlike shell and a tail that resembles a pointed stick which they drag along on shoreline sand. The legs to a remarkable extent resemble the pincer-type legs of crustaceans, yet they are not categorized as such.
As a young girl, I did observe horseshoe crabs only a short distance away in the Jensen Beach, FL, area where the family had rented a vacation-house at the edge of the Indian River lagoon. The horseshoe crabs came out onto the sand when I was alone at the little house, together with other true crabs that have burrows in the sand and hermit crabs which use seashells as protection and mineral source. There was a sort of parade of horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs, with the burrowing crabs on shore and the blue crabs in the water as the audience/spectators.
Therefore, I walked over the Evans Cray, Sr. bridge that spans the St. Lucie River and sat myself down on the west island beneath the second, longer bridge, on the grass at the edge of a slight incline and sandy beach very close to the water and some living plus future-driftwood slender tree-trunks at growing at the tiny-wave waterline. The Jensen Beach Causeway could be seen due north. At my back were anglers and windsurfers along the south side of the very small island. I tossed a shed honeybee carapace into the view, that I had found on the bridge walkway.
Two excursion boats made their way northward through the lagoon.
The breeze and the sun made it a fine outlook position over the next hour, although an angler positioned himself very close by and I couldn't be sure whether he was looking to hook live fish or what. The beach was a combination of rubble and seashells, along with rocks, that covered a significant percentage of the sand. Actually, any horseshoe crab action was more likely to occur along the westside lagoon shoreline close to the mainland, which is where I had seen the creatures as a vacationer. Pelicans, a heron and some crows diligently sought sustenance.
However, as I picked up clear and brown glass beer-bottles/pieces and other food-service debris along the island beach, I along with all others present acknowledged what appeared to be two horseshoe crab shells with their characteristic peaks but with a variegated color that apparently resulted after much time lying in the sun (plants?). No live horseshoe crabs were directly observable among the skeletal remains of fish and a dried-out small ray perched on one rock. Live small fish swam and jumped in the water, while an occasional small red ant sunk mandibles into my flesh to stabilize itself.
Among the styrofoam, plastic-wrap and cellophane wrappers discarded, a child's small orange-colored cotton jersey-shirt was easily seen lying in and under the white sand. A length of nylon rope and a short bungee cord were also placed in one of the park's picnic area trash cans -- three bags of debris altogether.
While returning to Kingswood condo complex via Sewall's Point, a small variegated-colored spider hopped out onto the concrete sea-wall that separated the beach from the walkway, near a faded Pepsi can folded and wedged between two flanges of a metal column among many others that held up the wall's topside metal-railing. The Pepsi can was/is an unavoidable sight as drivers motor over the longer bridge, and must be seen at a variety of angles during the two-bridge drive onto the mainland, predictably slowing traffic near Benihana restaurant and the Harbor Point plaza. The roadside wall is stressed anyway near Benihana, with cracks running through the concrete beside the walkway and drainage grates. The previously mentioned mysterious array of bolts in the wall apparently are positioned to hold various new metal traffic-signs.
And, while leaving the bridge walkway at St. Lucie Boulevard, a dark brown cigar lay beside the roadway wall.
As a young girl, I did observe horseshoe crabs only a short distance away in the Jensen Beach, FL, area where the family had rented a vacation-house at the edge of the Indian River lagoon. The horseshoe crabs came out onto the sand when I was alone at the little house, together with other true crabs that have burrows in the sand and hermit crabs which use seashells as protection and mineral source. There was a sort of parade of horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs, with the burrowing crabs on shore and the blue crabs in the water as the audience/spectators.
Therefore, I walked over the Evans Cray, Sr. bridge that spans the St. Lucie River and sat myself down on the west island beneath the second, longer bridge, on the grass at the edge of a slight incline and sandy beach very close to the water and some living plus future-driftwood slender tree-trunks at growing at the tiny-wave waterline. The Jensen Beach Causeway could be seen due north. At my back were anglers and windsurfers along the south side of the very small island. I tossed a shed honeybee carapace into the view, that I had found on the bridge walkway.
Two excursion boats made their way northward through the lagoon.
The breeze and the sun made it a fine outlook position over the next hour, although an angler positioned himself very close by and I couldn't be sure whether he was looking to hook live fish or what. The beach was a combination of rubble and seashells, along with rocks, that covered a significant percentage of the sand. Actually, any horseshoe crab action was more likely to occur along the westside lagoon shoreline close to the mainland, which is where I had seen the creatures as a vacationer. Pelicans, a heron and some crows diligently sought sustenance.
However, as I picked up clear and brown glass beer-bottles/pieces and other food-service debris along the island beach, I along with all others present acknowledged what appeared to be two horseshoe crab shells with their characteristic peaks but with a variegated color that apparently resulted after much time lying in the sun (plants?). No live horseshoe crabs were directly observable among the skeletal remains of fish and a dried-out small ray perched on one rock. Live small fish swam and jumped in the water, while an occasional small red ant sunk mandibles into my flesh to stabilize itself.
Among the styrofoam, plastic-wrap and cellophane wrappers discarded, a child's small orange-colored cotton jersey-shirt was easily seen lying in and under the white sand. A length of nylon rope and a short bungee cord were also placed in one of the park's picnic area trash cans -- three bags of debris altogether.
While returning to Kingswood condo complex via Sewall's Point, a small variegated-colored spider hopped out onto the concrete sea-wall that separated the beach from the walkway, near a faded Pepsi can folded and wedged between two flanges of a metal column among many others that held up the wall's topside metal-railing. The Pepsi can was/is an unavoidable sight as drivers motor over the longer bridge, and must be seen at a variety of angles during the two-bridge drive onto the mainland, predictably slowing traffic near Benihana restaurant and the Harbor Point plaza. The roadside wall is stressed anyway near Benihana, with cracks running through the concrete beside the walkway and drainage grates. The previously mentioned mysterious array of bolts in the wall apparently are positioned to hold various new metal traffic-signs.
And, while leaving the bridge walkway at St. Lucie Boulevard, a dark brown cigar lay beside the roadway wall.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
North of SE Ocean
Yesterday's walk began at the intersection of St. Lucie Boulevard with SE Ocean Boulevard, where St. Lucie extends northward as a loop that moves traffic behind and around Cedar Pointe condo complex, Cedar Pointe Plaza, St. Lucie Apartments, the St. Lucie Club and various small residential communities before ending westward at SE Ocean again near the Sunoco station.
The area is mapped as 'Snug Harbor', possibly due to lack of winning opposition argument. A pile of plant debris was piled in the roadway itself a short distance from SE Ocean at the bridge over the St. Lucie River, large branches and cut trunks on the asphalt as if the roadway itself is private property. Workers at a nearby residential property had their materials-compounds buckets set in plain view of passers-by the driveway entrance.
The walk around the riverfront loop is quiet and serene, with large and beautiful homes mingled with concrete-block longhouse structures -- the river flows close by but is not directly observable from the roadway.
The area is mapped as 'Snug Harbor', possibly due to lack of winning opposition argument. A pile of plant debris was piled in the roadway itself a short distance from SE Ocean at the bridge over the St. Lucie River, large branches and cut trunks on the asphalt as if the roadway itself is private property. Workers at a nearby residential property had their materials-compounds buckets set in plain view of passers-by the driveway entrance.
The walk around the riverfront loop is quiet and serene, with large and beautiful homes mingled with concrete-block longhouse structures -- the river flows close by but is not directly observable from the roadway.
Monday, April 27, 2009
straw on a hot twin bed
o This past Sunday's Walgreen's newsprint supplement features an oversized coupon that states "On June 1 Passport Laws are Changing U. S. citizens will need a passport to travel anywhere outside the U. S. by land, sea or air". The coupon offers a "FREE Passport Travel Kit with purchase of Passport Photos. Includes two travel-sized cosmetic bottles, toothbrush case and passport holder all in a handy travel bag."
Aside from the fact that such a change should apply only to travel-industry common-carrier activities, not stipulated in the coupon offer, the false 'need' to buy and have special items in order to travel is quite hilarious and has the potential for yet more definite conflict. That certain populations residing in the United States wish to track the movements of all U. S. citizens as they visit relatives in other American regions is a transparent bid continued to make use of everything we do and say with "civil defense" claims lacking the serendipity that makes creative and imaginative experiences for fellow human beings.
In the late 1970s in San Francisco, CA, I wanted to inquire about passport requirements from that city's passport office -- questions only, some years after some unnamed population began advertising Brazil in South America as THE place to send Portuguese immigrants. I stopped in at a place nearby that advertised 'passport photos' with intent to either use or to send them to family as evidence of my appearance within peninsula environs. My queries were answered, with advisement that passports were required only if traveling outside the continental (equatorial?) Americas, and the photos were sent to my mother showing the flattened visage of a definite neophyte traveller.
o SE Ocean Boulevard, post-hurricanes, has a 'Florida Blood Center' addressed near the St. Lucie River where unwilling red-blooded Americans can be lured, intimidated and wrestled into premises circulatory-system tap-actions. A Starbucks franchise location installed beside it has already folded, and a 'For Sale' sign advertises the failure of the fast-food venture.
The operation appears to follow the example of San Francisco, CA, where a large 'blood center' was installed on Masonic Avenue after the earthquake of 1989, showing a large red drop painted on the outside of the building at the entrance. Telephone calls not affiliated with the operation lured or intimidated, asking "Will you go to give blood?", with angry people (high blood pressure) specifically targeted.
The north Stuart Blood Center is located within the medical-mall zone that lacks sidewalk entryway into mall shops, businesses and markets -- pedestrians must share asphalt roadway entrances with motorists.
o A Sheriff's Office was spotted on SE Monterey Road in a plaza-type setting across from the thrift shops, used car lots, and other small businesses addressed between U. S. 1 and Willoughby Boulevard.
o Oh yeah, the steak knife previously described was not a pointed or sharp example of the culinary tool -- it was simply serrated at its tip and had a plastic handle -- and I felt followed into/awaited by the Salvation Army as if I had neglected to bring it to them and had erred (a "faux pas") because dropping it into a 10th Street trash can instead. After all, Stuart (FL) is advertised as a sort of expanded fishing village that has not lost its small-town charm.
o Also, the latest walk southward from Johnson Street to regain Monterey Road showed a key-lock flattened and lying in the bicycle lane in two pieces -- the stem and the lock mechanism proper. Flashback to San Francisco, CA, where my daughter 'lost' two locks -- one combination and one key-type -- in Roosevelt Middle School where students had to negotiate use of assigned lockers half the size of regular school lockers, stacked two each along the hallways. A student either had a bottom locker or had the stacked top locker assigned. She probaby knows where the two locks are, but I don't know (and ain't that a clever tactic).
Aside from the fact that such a change should apply only to travel-industry common-carrier activities, not stipulated in the coupon offer, the false 'need' to buy and have special items in order to travel is quite hilarious and has the potential for yet more definite conflict. That certain populations residing in the United States wish to track the movements of all U. S. citizens as they visit relatives in other American regions is a transparent bid continued to make use of everything we do and say with "civil defense" claims lacking the serendipity that makes creative and imaginative experiences for fellow human beings.
In the late 1970s in San Francisco, CA, I wanted to inquire about passport requirements from that city's passport office -- questions only, some years after some unnamed population began advertising Brazil in South America as THE place to send Portuguese immigrants. I stopped in at a place nearby that advertised 'passport photos' with intent to either use or to send them to family as evidence of my appearance within peninsula environs. My queries were answered, with advisement that passports were required only if traveling outside the continental (equatorial?) Americas, and the photos were sent to my mother showing the flattened visage of a definite neophyte traveller.
o SE Ocean Boulevard, post-hurricanes, has a 'Florida Blood Center' addressed near the St. Lucie River where unwilling red-blooded Americans can be lured, intimidated and wrestled into premises circulatory-system tap-actions. A Starbucks franchise location installed beside it has already folded, and a 'For Sale' sign advertises the failure of the fast-food venture.
The operation appears to follow the example of San Francisco, CA, where a large 'blood center' was installed on Masonic Avenue after the earthquake of 1989, showing a large red drop painted on the outside of the building at the entrance. Telephone calls not affiliated with the operation lured or intimidated, asking "Will you go to give blood?", with angry people (high blood pressure) specifically targeted.
The north Stuart Blood Center is located within the medical-mall zone that lacks sidewalk entryway into mall shops, businesses and markets -- pedestrians must share asphalt roadway entrances with motorists.
o A Sheriff's Office was spotted on SE Monterey Road in a plaza-type setting across from the thrift shops, used car lots, and other small businesses addressed between U. S. 1 and Willoughby Boulevard.
o Oh yeah, the steak knife previously described was not a pointed or sharp example of the culinary tool -- it was simply serrated at its tip and had a plastic handle -- and I felt followed into/awaited by the Salvation Army as if I had neglected to bring it to them and had erred (a "faux pas") because dropping it into a 10th Street trash can instead. After all, Stuart (FL) is advertised as a sort of expanded fishing village that has not lost its small-town charm.
o Also, the latest walk southward from Johnson Street to regain Monterey Road showed a key-lock flattened and lying in the bicycle lane in two pieces -- the stem and the lock mechanism proper. Flashback to San Francisco, CA, where my daughter 'lost' two locks -- one combination and one key-type -- in Roosevelt Middle School where students had to negotiate use of assigned lockers half the size of regular school lockers, stacked two each along the hallways. A student either had a bottom locker or had the stacked top locker assigned. She probaby knows where the two locks are, but I don't know (and ain't that a clever tactic).
Friday, April 24, 2009
the merry life
Today's walk to the USPO was another scorcher, sunny and hot (my skin color matches my red dress). A black water beetle lay in the middle of the sidewalk beside Monterey Road near the 10th Street footbridge; and a black turtle the size of a dinner plate came walking out of the bank of that underbridge slough. I tossed the beetle into the wet grass of the slough.
A pile of small mangoes lay on the berm outside a family property beside 10th Street, and a youth came walking out onto the sidewalk with a black spaniel/lab mixed-breed hunting dog.
A short distance further along that street, a rusting 'Do not park on berm' sign lay in the grass parallel to the curb, not far from the Council for the Aging complex.
The steak knife yet lay embedded in sand/soil at the corner of Palm Beach Road and 10th Street, so I picked it up with a discarded napkin and dropped into one of the trash containers within close proximity to the 10th Street Recreation Center -- truly, all eyes in the area were directed my way.
The Post Office was not crowded, and I was able to use the automated postage-label machine with no problems, then commenced another southward walk alongside U. S. 1 begun at the intersection with Johnson Avenue. Trailers parked within the Holiday trailer park appear to have been recently painted, as do other businesses along the east side of the roadway, the smell of fresh paint lingering in the air. Two thrift shops addressed in the telephone directory were found along SE Monterey Road after making a right-hand turn from U. S. 1 -- the Salvation Army thrift shop and a Treasure Box thrift store that had the air of a boutique, both near the intersection with Willoughby Boulevard -- but neither had any books pertinent to my literature search efforts.
I crossed the street at Willoughby to buy bananas at a produce store, then had to walk all the way to U. S. 1 along a Monterey Road paved Extension because there is no crosswalk to return to the east side of the road without returning to Willoughby first. There is one Extension merge-point where a crosswalk should be helpful if painted in so as to regain the east side of the street and retrace footsteps along a shorter route to Monterey Road moving northward.
Long John Silver restaurant on U. S. 1 issues receipts that name its co-franchise (KFC) only as the business premises -- they are also offering a contest (customers must compete a survey). My debit card use did overdraw my Wells Fargo checking account, which was resolved with a quick- fix Direct Deposit Advance.
There is reason to worry that populations who monitor my bank-account electronic activity in the region do foul up other business activities. Also, I have recently deduced that the weight of a number of health bars in an outside backpack pocket causes concern that I might be carrying a gun -- but I never have carried a firearm.
It is also the time of the year when many families leave Florida to return to northern homes, thus freeing-up wildlife until school ends in June, such as the black turtle which might normally be green. A Palm Beach TV station this evening broadcast a webcam video of a long-haired, healthy man being shot by a police officer alongside a roadway; the man had left his car in the median grass and moved away from it carrying a large knife as the patrol car approached his own. Because it is that time of the year when wintering families do leave the state and free up wildlife, it is not so unusual for some people to carry such knives or other weapons.
A pile of small mangoes lay on the berm outside a family property beside 10th Street, and a youth came walking out onto the sidewalk with a black spaniel/lab mixed-breed hunting dog.
A short distance further along that street, a rusting 'Do not park on berm' sign lay in the grass parallel to the curb, not far from the Council for the Aging complex.
The steak knife yet lay embedded in sand/soil at the corner of Palm Beach Road and 10th Street, so I picked it up with a discarded napkin and dropped into one of the trash containers within close proximity to the 10th Street Recreation Center -- truly, all eyes in the area were directed my way.
The Post Office was not crowded, and I was able to use the automated postage-label machine with no problems, then commenced another southward walk alongside U. S. 1 begun at the intersection with Johnson Avenue. Trailers parked within the Holiday trailer park appear to have been recently painted, as do other businesses along the east side of the roadway, the smell of fresh paint lingering in the air. Two thrift shops addressed in the telephone directory were found along SE Monterey Road after making a right-hand turn from U. S. 1 -- the Salvation Army thrift shop and a Treasure Box thrift store that had the air of a boutique, both near the intersection with Willoughby Boulevard -- but neither had any books pertinent to my literature search efforts.
I crossed the street at Willoughby to buy bananas at a produce store, then had to walk all the way to U. S. 1 along a Monterey Road paved Extension because there is no crosswalk to return to the east side of the road without returning to Willoughby first. There is one Extension merge-point where a crosswalk should be helpful if painted in so as to regain the east side of the street and retrace footsteps along a shorter route to Monterey Road moving northward.
Long John Silver restaurant on U. S. 1 issues receipts that name its co-franchise (KFC) only as the business premises -- they are also offering a contest (customers must compete a survey). My debit card use did overdraw my Wells Fargo checking account, which was resolved with a quick- fix Direct Deposit Advance.
There is reason to worry that populations who monitor my bank-account electronic activity in the region do foul up other business activities. Also, I have recently deduced that the weight of a number of health bars in an outside backpack pocket causes concern that I might be carrying a gun -- but I never have carried a firearm.
It is also the time of the year when many families leave Florida to return to northern homes, thus freeing-up wildlife until school ends in June, such as the black turtle which might normally be green. A Palm Beach TV station this evening broadcast a webcam video of a long-haired, healthy man being shot by a police officer alongside a roadway; the man had left his car in the median grass and moved away from it carrying a large knife as the patrol car approached his own. Because it is that time of the year when wintering families do leave the state and free up wildlife, it is not so unusual for some people to carry such knives or other weapons.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
it's whaaa...?
o Today I consulted http://www.bayoubountystore.com/ to find gift ideas of the Louisiana seafood variety and was somewhat glad that the website was enabled to turn off my interest after a slew of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico regions. The website offers reasonably-priced stock such as crawfish and shrimp, but tempers the enthusiasm of potential customers with hefty shipping and handling fees. Thus, an ideal $19.99 gift idea totals over $80.00 to ship it so that health departments can't complain about deterioration during transport, while a $34.00 special offer costs well over $100.00 total.
And that's not all -- a potential customer must enter a 'ship to' address before any totals are presented in the screen, which means that 'someone' remains in the company's database whether the customer changes his/her mind or not about the purchase.
o Consulting menu/ads in the local Yellow Pages directory brought up the listing of the new Club 131 restaurant advertised as a "food lounge" (no doubt "tongue in cheek"). The place now occupies the premises formerly known as 'Arthur's Dockside' near both Stuart (FL) City Hall and the Stuart Heritage Museum, as well as near the Riverwalk docks and a park. The menu lists 'Live Maine Lobster Bisque' in both the 'Appetizers' and 'Soups' sections.
And that's not all -- a potential customer must enter a 'ship to' address before any totals are presented in the screen, which means that 'someone' remains in the company's database whether the customer changes his/her mind or not about the purchase.
o Consulting menu/ads in the local Yellow Pages directory brought up the listing of the new Club 131 restaurant advertised as a "food lounge" (no doubt "tongue in cheek"). The place now occupies the premises formerly known as 'Arthur's Dockside' near both Stuart (FL) City Hall and the Stuart Heritage Museum, as well as near the Riverwalk docks and a park. The menu lists 'Live Maine Lobster Bisque' in both the 'Appetizers' and 'Soups' sections.
sunny but breezy
Yesterday, a brief hike to Sewall's Point was nothing out of the ordinary for the region, across the bridge over the St. Lucie River.
Some kind of animal feces was observed on the walkway, south side. Browsing through shops in the plaza revealed the same clothing stock made available as seen during the previous shopping expedition. The return walk on the north side of the bridge showed a sailboat moving southward and a motorboat 'waterboarding' in the river waters. The bridge roadway wall has separated near its exit/entry at St. Lucie Boulevard, with metal rods exposed within concrete, and champagne-colored glass lay scattered on the sidewalk nearby.
Earlier in the day, a walk to the corner of Monterey Road and SE Ocean Boulevard was made to take photos of a uniquely-designed building signposted posted 'For Sale' that formerly housed a Keller and associates business -- a white man on a big bicycle almost hit me on the sidewalk as I walked past Martin Memorial medical mall.
The shelves of Dollar General store included many plastic jars of chunky peanut butter facing one aisle. The receipt has an entry code to win a trip to the Indy 500 in May, because one purchase was a Frito-Lay product (yep, another contest).
Some kind of animal feces was observed on the walkway, south side. Browsing through shops in the plaza revealed the same clothing stock made available as seen during the previous shopping expedition. The return walk on the north side of the bridge showed a sailboat moving southward and a motorboat 'waterboarding' in the river waters. The bridge roadway wall has separated near its exit/entry at St. Lucie Boulevard, with metal rods exposed within concrete, and champagne-colored glass lay scattered on the sidewalk nearby.
Earlier in the day, a walk to the corner of Monterey Road and SE Ocean Boulevard was made to take photos of a uniquely-designed building signposted posted 'For Sale' that formerly housed a Keller and associates business -- a white man on a big bicycle almost hit me on the sidewalk as I walked past Martin Memorial medical mall.
The shelves of Dollar General store included many plastic jars of chunky peanut butter facing one aisle. The receipt has an entry code to win a trip to the Indy 500 in May, because one purchase was a Frito-Lay product (yep, another contest).
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