Dauphin Island: Birder’s and Vacation Paradise
You’ll see them leaning into the gale, wind whipping their hair, their rubberized hoodie, the reporters on CNN and The Weather Channel who make waiting for a hurricane seem like exciting stuff.
“Here it comes!” they will shout, as a super tall surge-enlarged wave crashes over the highway, and they can barely keep on their feet.
They always seem to be on Dauphin Island.
Dauphin Island seems to have a bull’s eye on it. It is the target of many of the hurricanes that roar into the Gulf of Mexico, and it took a beating in the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill, effects of which are still resonating throughout the Gulf. (of Mexico)
The weather is cooling. It doesn’t seem like much, temperatures in the high 80’s or even hitting 90°F, but low humidity and lower night temperatures make it seem bearable, even delightful. Friday night, AdventureMan suggested we take a short road trip, get up early and get to Dauphin Island while we could still get the morning light.
We actually didn’t hit the road until 0800, but hey, it’s Saturday. Traffic on I-10 is light, and we breeze through Mobile and exit to the Dauphin Island parkway.
Once you get on the parkway, it is a beautiful drive. I could hear the beat and echos of the True Blood theme song, you pass lowlands, and wrecked houses, almost every car on the road is a pick-up truck and you feel like you have drifted a hundred years or so into the past. You take several bridges, one over the Fowl River, before you get to the big huge long bridge that connects the mainland with Dauphin Island.
(Foul River from Wikipedia:
Fowl River is a 14.4-mile-long (23.2 km)[1] brackish river in Mobile County, Alabama. It originates near the Mobile suburb of Theodore and then splits into the East Fowl River and the West Fowl River. The East Fowl River discharges into Mobile Bay south of Belle Fontaine.[2] The West Fowl River discharges into the Mississippi Sound east of Coden.[3] It was named by the original French colonists as the Riviere aux Poules, which can be translated into English as Fowl River.[4])
(I just had to put that in because I needed to know where the name Fowl River came from, as opposed to say Foul River. I always thought Poules were female chickens, but Chicken River doesn’t sound very fearsome, and after all, a chicken is a fowl.)
When we got to the big long bridge going from mainland Alabama to Dauphin Island, AdventureMan said “Now there is a bridge your Mother would love.” He is right. My Mom loved the bridges in Pensacola, and she would really love this bridge:
As you get close to Dauphin Island, there is a beautiful estuary area, with wading birds of all kinds, herons half-hidden by tall grasses; it is a lush paradise.
We zipped out to the vacation rental areas to see . . . well, you know, what we could see. I hate to think of myself as a Lookie Lou, but I wanted to see what the island looked like. It looks a lot like Santa Rosa Island, where Pensacola Beach is, except less developed, and cozier. Almost every house on the west end of the island is on stilts, so the water surges can just wash right under them and cause less damage. Some of these houses are family houses. We saw a lot of houses on Dauphin Island where it looks like people live year round, and many more where it looks like the whole family comes out for weekends.
I saw one house I loved, a huge house, actually maybe two or three houses, with a huge screened in sleeping porch in the center. I could imagine all the families gathering and all the cousins getting to sleep on bunks on the sleeping porch, telling each other ghost stories and then hearing sounds as their excitement kept them from going to sleep. Finally, lulled by the sounds of their parents conversations and laughter, they drift off . . . .
The roads were barely cleared, tons and tons of sand heaped along the sides where it has been scraped to make the roads minimally passable. It’s only been a couple weeks. Other than the heaped sand, we didn’t see any major damage from Isaac.
The only downside . . . and it is a major downside in my mind . . . is the constant blot on the horizon of the offshore drilling rigs.
Let’s see, you have this beautiful paradise-like island, full of bird life and wild life and undersea life, and you line the shallow nearby waters with drilling rigs? Rigs for which the safety standards are not enforced? Dauphin Island was hit hard by the BP Oil Spill, and stands frail and vulnerable against repeated attacks by nature and by man-made catastrophes.
I always check out those who comment on my blog, to make sure they aren’t someone posing as a commenter, but really selling something. When I visited this visitor, I found posts about Americans and visiting America that cracked me up. Here is one on American greetings 🙂
Clouds for Daggero (and my other Hot Friends in Kuwait)
Can you imagine a daytime temperature of 120°F? Can you imagine fasting, not eating – or drinking – in that kind of heat?
Daggero asked for clouds. It’s the least I could do. We may have a big cloudburst coming tonight, but I chased it today and it only sprinkled:
Clouds didn’t stop the fun at Palafox Pier
A few large tantalizing drips of rain, and then nothing . . .
Sisters Working Together
We have a mission, and that I why I am in Seattle. My sisters and I have to clean out my Mother’s condo, now that she has moved to a very elegant new living situation, with a lot of people her own age to play with. Mom has talked about this for years, but always with concern that when it came to dividing things up among the sisters there may be some greed, or that we might come to blows over the division of the possessions she is not taking with her. She came up with a system, whereas we put everything out and then take turns choosing.
The truth was a little more chaotic – but a lot more fun. Most of the time, we wanted different things. Even when two people wanted the same thing, they found cordial ways to negotiate a solution. It was a day of hard work (more similar days to come . . . ) but a very good day for the three sisters. We found some ‘missing’ items, tucked away in obscure places, some treasures. It was a good day.
I’ve always known what I wanted – it is a piece of my Alaskan heritage:
As long as I can remember, this Eskimo mask has hung in our house. Now that it will hang in my house, I need to learn more about it. It has a spear, and fish, and feathers, and some things I don’t recognize. I’ll need to do some research.
Le Carre’ and Mission Song
I really liked Mission Song; I liked it so much that I kept reading it even when I needed to be doing other things. Vintage LeCarre’ was all grim and grey, large bureaucracies countering the evil Russian Empire. One of his points was that if we aren’t careful what tactics and strategies we use, we become the very evil we are fighting.
More recent LeCarre’ – The Mission Song, The Constant Gardener, The Tailor of Panama . . . continues to follow the bureaucracy of spying, and the machinations of world power. Who will control the resources? Who can we put in power? He has captured that it is no longer only national powers, but also international corporations which may be the players in the international game of thrones.
The Mission Song has a lovable main character, son of a priest to the Congo and an African woman, raised in the mission, speaking many languages and dialects, picked up as a child in contact with shifting groups and nationalities. When we meet him, he is married – badly – to a rich and powerful English woman, and working as a translator. Suddenly, his life takes a big turn, he is whisked off on a week-end mission, and life never returns to ‘normal’ again.
“Sitting is the new Smoking”
“Sitting is the new smoking, you know?” said my good friend. No. No, I didn’t know, but it sort of doesn’t come to a surprise. What comes as a surprise learning the specific – that every hour watching TV shortens your life by 22 minutes. Whoa!
This is from the Bottom Line Daily Health News:
Shocking Stats on How TV Shortens Your Life
You know that vegging out in front of the boob tube isn’t good for you. But have you heard about a disturbing new study from Australia suggesting that TV’s negative effects on life span are even worse than you probably imagined?
For the study, researchers analyzed data from an observational survey of more than 11,000 people ages 25 and older that began in 1999, cross-referencing against mortality figures for 2008.Findings: People who spent a lifetime average of six hours per day watching television died 4.8 years sooner, on average, than people who watched no TV. Also, every single hour of TV viewed after age 25 reduced the average viewer’s life expectancy by 22 minutes!
Explanation: It is an indirect link, according to study leader J. Lennert Veerman, MD, PhD, MPH, of the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland in Australia. The more time a person spends watching television, the less time she (or he) has for healthy behaviors proven to promote longevity, such as exercising and socializing. Also, Dr. Veerman noted, while researchers in this study adjusted for the effects of diet quality and waist circumference, other studies show that TV viewing typically is associated with a worse diet.
Bottom line: TV’s harmful effects on longevity may be comparable to the effects of major chronic disease risk factors such as obesity and physical inactivity—a fact worth remembering next time you are tempted to turn on the tube.
Source: J. Lennert Veerman, MD, PhD, MPH, is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Burden of Disease and Cost-Effectiveness in the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland in Australia, and leader of a study published in British Journal of Sports Medicine.
10 Years Later, 9/11
I have a photo I love, my favorite nephew posing in his thobe and kefiya and egal, all of it just a little off, a little not-right, if you are really Arab and know how they are worn, but I love the quirkiness of it. I took that photo on September 10th, ten years ago today. He and his parents had just returned from a fabulous trip – meeting up with AdventureMan and me in Paris, coming to our house in Germany, traveling on to Greece and then to Egypt. While they were traveling, I returned to the US for a wedding, and met up with them once again at their house.
The next morning, my nephew stuck his head in my bedroom and said “Aunt Intlxpatr, there’s something you need to see.” The first plane had just struck the World Trade Center Buildings.
“That’s not good. You can’t hit a building by accident; you really have to aim to hit a building.” I was still fuzzy headed, but the adrenalin was pumping and he and I remained riveted to CNN. It wasn’t long before the second plane hit, and all the world changed. Sometimes it seems to me like the fact that the Pentagon was also hit gets lost these days.
I had tickets back to Germany but wasn’t sure if my plane would even fly. It was a scary time, a lot of dire speculation and not a lot of facts to back it up. As it turned out, my flight was one of the first international flights out, and it was packed with all the people who had been stuck in Seattle for a week trying to get back.
For about a year, I was obsessed with reading everything I could about 9/11, and then I just hit overload, and went the other way. It’s like I felt I would explode from all the contradictory information, all the scare tactics, all the misinformation and conspiracy theories floating around, so for most of the time, I just shut it out.
I keep the photo of my nephew where I can see it often, and think about a time when we lived in a brighter world.
Great Customer Service at Budget Car Rentals
So here is the back story. I rent with Budget because they have an agreement with USAA so I don’t have to buy any additional insurance and because I can pick up my rental right in the Seattle airport. This time, I had a great car, looked good, had good pick up, good steering, and was comfortable and got great mileage.
But when I turned it in, I noticed they had charged me for a fueling charge, and I had returned the car FULL.
Then they sent me a survey, which didn’t have any blank spaces for extra comments, so I filled it out, and then I wrote a note to customer service telling them how angry I was to find that fueling charge. It wasn’t a huge amount, but I had gone to a lot of trouble to return the car FULL. All I asked was that they refund the amount they shouldn’t have charged me, but I wasn’t sure anything would come of it.
Wooo HOOOO on Budget. Now I am happy to rent with them again. It makes all the difference, being treated like a reasonable – and valued – customer.
8/9/11
Budget Case XXXXXXX
Dear Ms. Intlxpatr:
Thank you very much for letting Budget know about your disappointing
experience. On behalf of our entire Budget team, I apologize for the
issue you had with a refueling service charge.
What you experienced is unusual, and I am so sorry that we didn?t
measure up to your expectations.
After carefully reviewing our records, we have found that you are right.
Based on the information you provided, it is clear that your fuel charge
was inaccurately calculated. By copy of this letter, we are advising
appropriate members of management of this situation to prevent it from
happening again.
To settle this matter quickly, we have adjusted the refueling charge for
your rental, and credited the amount of $13.57 to your Visa credit card.
This adjustment will appear on your statement within 30 to 60 days,
depending on your billing cycle.
Ms. Intlxpatr, Budget takes great pride in providing dependable cars and
attentive service at a great price, with no surprises. Your feedback is
extremely important because it helps us maintain our high service
levels. We appreciate your business and hope you will give us another
opportunity to meet your rental needs in the near future.
If I can be of service again, please call Budget Customer Service at
1-866-729-0770, or email us at budgetcsesc@budgetgroup.com. Your
comments and suggestions are always valued and appreciated by Budget.
Sincerely yours,
Melissa Lofton
Customer Service Representative
Budget Car Rental
Apalachicola Oysters
“Where are the oysters from?” AdventureMan always asks. He eats oysters raw, and the oysters from Apalachicola are really, really good.
He is eating Apalachicola oysters every chance he gets, to make up for not getting fresh oysters last year. It was almost a year ago when the oil spill seriously impacted on Gulf Seafood. They say it’s OK now, but no one is really sure what the long term implications and impact may be.
For now, he is really enjoying these oysters:
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