The island is packed with sunburnt tourists and vacationers. I've come to grips with the fact that this place gets trashed, abused, and thoroughly used for about 10 weeks out of the year. I don't know what it will be like to walk out to the beach again this fall and not see anything but pelicans and seagulls. The weekly vacation cycle is entertaining though. Every Sunday a new batch of pasty white families excitedly unpack minivans and head down to the beach for that first dip into the ocean and the following Saturday morning they tearfully take one last trip down to the seashore as a sunburnt dad repacks the van.
I can't complain about tourists though. They allow me to have a pretty sweet side job. A couple days a week I cruise the beach in a little John Deer Gator and pick up beach rental chairs and umbrellas. The best part of the job is taking people out jet skiing and on kayak tours through the local estuaries. There are days where I'll do a early morning kayak tour, then a surf lesson, and then spend the rest of the day out on the inter-coastal waterway taking tourists on high speed jet ski trips.
My full time job for FlyAway Farm and Kennels is going well. I've worked on some great dogs who are now chasing birds at Air Force bases up and down the East coast. I get to travel all around our area to high end golf courses to run the dogs on Canadian geese. For the past month I've had to take a ferry each morning to one of the courses. It's awesome that my morning commute involves a 35 minute boat ride across the Cape Fear River.
Charging around a golf course with a couple of wound up dogs in a Gator is a great way to spend a day. All of those guys in their little golf shirts and fancy pants look at me kind of weird. There are so many rules and etiquette on the course. I just have to chuckle at all of those guys chasing the little ball around while I get to charge around the course chasing birds and other random creatures.
The surf has been minimal for the past couple of weeks. We've had some fun days of surf around here, but nothing to get the blood pumping too much. I'm holding out for some good surf this fall and winter. The water temp is still around 80, which is just about perfect.
On the literary and political front of life, I just finished reading through 'The Monkey Wrench Gang" by Ed Abbey. The book is about four eco-minded individuals who are tired of watching their beloved desert be torn apart by corporations. They turn to sabotage in defense of their Southwest country and destroy all manner of things mechanized. It's a great book and brings up some very strong points. The phrase "Resist much. Obey Little" is a central theme of the book. The book is a loose retelling of Abbey's days defending the desert wilderness he loved. The only resource we can't get more of is wilderness. After driving around and across the country for a couple of months this winter I can't believe how much rampant development there is. Here at the beach there are huge condos going up in every vacant lot, condos that will only be used 10 weeks per year. I'm not calling for an all out war on development, but Ed Abbey makes some strong points in favor of pulling out survey stakes and monkey wrenching large corporate development.
Anyway, thanks for reading and keep on keeping on. I'm gonna get back into this blog thing, so stay tuned for more postings.
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