Dodging tornadoes

We have been quite fortunate. While tornadoes and high winds have buffeted the Gulf Coast, they have luckily concentrated their ire North, East and West of us. Last week 33 people died not too far North of us when tornadoes hit South central Mississippi. Tornadoes have also hit hard East of us in Mobile, as well as West of us in Texas and Oklahoma. Not only have dozens of homes and businesses been destroyed, this yacht, obviously cut loose by the storms, lies right off our normal daily walk along Biloxi beach.

There seems to be at least one positive impact from this disruption in the Gulf. We have been watching the bird populations along the coast the last 2 months, and while we have our favorites, the cast of characters has remained largely the same. However, the day the yacht showed up on the beach, we spotted a large flock of Black Skimmers, one of our favorite water birds, with their sharp black and white lines, as well its bright orange beak. They breed all along the Gulf Coast, and are one of our most favorite. While we hadn’t seen them until now, I don’t know for sure, but chock it up to the winds.

Talk to you soon.

Mind-numbing routine

We have gotten into a mind-numbing routine to pass the time while sheltering at home. We rise, take the pooch out on the beach walk (just the walk, the beach is closed), have some breakfast, do some more beach walking, then have some lunch and watch an episode of Breaking Bad. For my birthday, Nick gave me the complete Breaking Bad DVD set, and it is the only thing keeping us near sane. More walks in the afternoon, then crack out the wine and the games – some Yahtzee, Qwirkle and Scrabble. Then a campfire, watch Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News, Wheel of Fortune, then more Breaking Bad. Every day, same routine.

Most everyone here has a story. The family in the site across from us is from Southern California. They had set out for a planned 4-month vacation to see the Eastern US. When s__t  hit the fan, they decided they didn’t feel safe any longer staying in hotels, even to make their way back home. So, since they had a big truck, they just bought a travel trailer, and got a recommendation of a nearby place to stay, which was here. They are just deciding when they will pull the plug and make their way back to California.

Talk to you soon.

Open up that economy!

Tate Reeves, the Governor of Mississippi, was one of the last to issue shelter in place orders, and to close the Gulf Coast beaches. Luckily, he closed them for the traditional weekend where college hoards, like they did in Florida, flock to the beaches and crowd massive numbers of people into very tight spaces. We were pleased that folk actually followed the guidance. However, this weekend, Governor Reeves relaxed the orders and allowed the beaches to reopen. Sights we hadn't seen in 3 weeks were common.

Our first clue that this had happened was on our normal morning beach path walk. We saw they day they had removed all the pink trash cans from the beach, and slapped the bright red “Beach Closed” stickers on much of the signage along the beach. On our walk we saw that the pink trash cans were back, the bright red stickers were gone, and the police tape has been removed from the public restroom facilities perched periodically along the beach.

Thankfully, Governor Reeves did not issue orders to return to business as usual. While he opened the beaches, he left the shelter in place order in place, and did not open up restaurant dining rooms as we had expected. He did, however, allow businesses that rely on the beach tourism to reopen. Not our favorite decision, but at least he didn’t just completely reopen the economy.

Talk to you soon.

Shelter in place bullets dodged

Out walking the beach walkway, I got to see the Deep South though of the day. “Media / Govt spreading panic / fear – In law it’s terrorism”. I can’t wait to see what’s next! Although I don’t have to wait too long. Each day we walk along the beach there is a new thought of the day. Thank goodness the supply chains serving liquor stores seems to be working, so we can properly medicate ourselves with wine to prepare for the next daily message.

With all the troublesome issues with the shelter in place orders due to Covid 19, there are more challenges to get routine things done. Our AC in the Equinox crapped out on a particularly hot day, but we managed to find a Pep Boys that just opened last week (good timing!) with mechanic bays and a mechanic on hand. Luckily, the next day (and every day since) it was working fine, so we just cancelled the appointment.

Before the shelter in place orders on my last visit inside a Walmart I bought a sound bar to help us listen when we play DVDs. Even with the volume turned up full on the TV, we often couldn’t hear what the characters are saying. It worked great! That is until the Woman opened the TV cabinet and damaged the cable. I couldn’t stand the idea of going back inside a Walmart – thankfully given a week or so, Amazon can still deliver some product, like audio cables. Problem fixed!

We had consciously decided not to do takeout food – no need to take any chances – but finally the stir-crazy set in hard. I ordered 10 wings each of Salt and Vinegar, Lemon Pepper, Chipotle and Buffalo. They said they would deliver on their website, but I couldn’t get it to work. So, I just ordered for pickup, assuming they would bring my food out to my car. When I got there, there was no signage indicating how to get your food brought to the car. So, with no other choice, I went inside. It was pretty crowded and hard to keep an appropriate space. I hid in the corner, and luckily it wasn’t long before my takeout order was ready. The only thing positive thing about this experiment was that they had a standing BOGO deal running – wished I had known that when I ordered – would have ordered half what I did!

Fortunately, alongside the last thought of the day was something far more upbeat. Out in the middle of the hot, dry and arid sand of the vast beach was one little flower who decided to make a different kind of statement – strength and survival. Seems a bit more upbeat, even if I do say so myself.

Talk to you soon.

My grampa returns!

Either some rocket scientist was upset about Spring Break Weekend being cancelled, or my grampa is back. He went to his grave believing we never landed on the Moon. He believed the scenes of the astronauts bouncing on the lunar surface were filmed on a sound stage near Roswell New Mexico. I have no doubt he would likely have also insisted the scenes of the field hospitals in New York were staged, and would discount the over 14,000 American deaths that have been reported so far.

Apparently, he would not be alone. The mindset in the deep south escapes me a bit, but seems to be supplanted in the days of slavery – the tribute to Jefferson Davis and his presidential library would seem to support that. Well, the thought of the day came the day after in the sands of Biloxi beach. The mood of the deep South seems to be unsettled.

Talk to you soon.

Trip to the barber - Corona style

I am not a big fan of mirrors, unless there is something on my face that I think I need to take a look at. So, pretty much since this Coronavirus may lay began, I haven’t really looked in the mirror at all. So, you can imagine my shame as I caught a glimpse of me in the mirror behind the dinette booth. It was clear to me that a trip to the barber was in order. You decide if you agree after seeing “Before”.

So keeping with the shelter in place and social distancing orders – in other words, there isn’t a barber shop in the entire US that is even open now – I made a grooming appointment at the local folding lawn chair salon. Sitting on my lawn chair with a small waste basket between my knees, I said a nice “Howdy” to my barber – Wahl. I bought a Wahl professional hair trimmer when we hit the road, thinking I wouldn’t want to just show up at a barber shop in random cities. I think it does the job OK – you decide if you agree after seeing “After”.

Robin, Glenn and Kona hope you had something nice happen on Easter.

Talk to you soon.

Over!

It must be over – at least in Georgia. Their distinguished governor has reopened the beaches! In the meantime, the Woman won’t let me even go to the grocery store anymore – our first Instacart home delivery comes on Friday. We will see how it works, and will report appropriately. Wimbledon, running in July, has been cancelled. But apparently Reba McEntire is still planning to perform at the Coliseum on July 11. I am guessing maybe not.

Talk to you soon.

It finally happened

We had noticed new signage that went up yesterday that made us wonder if maybe they weren’t going to close the beaches after all. Since there hasn’t been that much time since things started shutting down, producing these new Harrison County ordinance signs had to be quite an endeavor. So, it seems like you wouldn’t go the effort and expense unless you were planning to try to regulate behavior on open beaches.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. Apparently, you would go to all the effort and expense to manufacture and then mount these signs, and then two days after mounting them, officially close the beaches where you just installed them. And even though the City of Biloxi has been advertising Spring Break Weekend for the last year, it is now officially cancelled.

We were thinking that we were seeing an awful lot of Confederate flags in Mississippi, far more than we had seen elsewhere in the southern states. But it turns out what we thought were Confederate flags were actually just the state flag of Mississippi. Now I have a better understanding of why we are parked essentially nest door to the personal residence of President Jefferson Davis.

Talk to you soon.

Spring Break

We learned that Spring Break on the Mississippi Gulf Coast occurs much later than it does in Florida. Apparently, Spring Break here occurs the first week of April, whereas in Florida, the scenes of young adults all over the beaches occurred in mid-March. As I strolled along the beach this morning, I saw two conflicting scenes. First, the city was out with massive equipment grooming the beach, as if getting ready for the weekend. We also saw city workers removing all trash cans from the beach and grouping them up on the sidewalk, ready to be collected.

We don’t know for sure, but we think that the city of Biloxi might try to actually close the beaches this weekend. As we passed the various stacks of trash cans awaiting pickup, we also spotted the bundles of barriers that we are sure are going to be put out this weekend to prevent parking in the normal beach parking areas all along the Gulf. We expect to see the barriers deployed soon.

Our RV Park has told us that they expect that the beach will be closed. They also believe that since the beach parking appears it will be barriered, that the Biloxi police department will also close all the roads off of Beach Boulevard to keep anyone from parking in the neighborhoods and just walking to the beach. So, it is likely our only access to get to Colectiva II should we need to go out will be closed and monitored by police. Hopefully our pass will allow us to get to our coach and pooch!

Despite all the doom and gloom, the birds along the Gulf Coast don’t seem to have any idea that us humans feel under siege. Every morning we wake up to the otherwise soothing sounds of chirping birds of many breeds. While looking at all the likely dismal preparation for the weekend, this Tern didn’t seem to have any interest at all.

Talk to you soon.

Ignoring the Apocalypse

I have had enough dwelling on Coronavirus. To stay just a little bit sane, we keep up our walking routine, mostly on the beach. It has turned very warm and humid, so the beach path ends up being our best chance to feel comfortable – the winds there are refreshing. Today we spotted an Osprey who had caught a fish – we spotted him when he landed on a street lamp pole for a brief rest, before he took off again with his prize. Spectacular!

We have been seeing Cardinals almost daily. While they are not new to us, and are birds we can see in the Midwest where we grew up, they have a very unique chirp which really brightens our day. While we haven't seen Cardinals each and every day, we see them most days. And, often they make themselves very easy to see.

Talk to you soon.