Not Far

About five miles south of where I live there is a tent camping park which is filled this time of year with small recreational vehicles, and a tent or two which the lovers of the outdoors enjoy. Pat and I stopped so I could take a picture, or two, for my blog. The pathway leading to the ocean looked inviting until I saw something move in the shadows and envisioned a bear or a lion guarding the pathway. It looked pretty big in my imagination but it turned out to be a very large yellow cat with pretty eyes and lots of leaves and tiny tree limbs in its hair. When I called "kitty, kitty", it didn't hesitate to run to me, a poor little creature waiting to be petted. I took its picture and that is all the petting it got as it looked to me like it got a lot of food and petting from the campers about. When I got to the 'point' there were a group of men standing around looking out to the ocean where there were at least seven small boats circling around. I don't know if they were fishing boats or not. They seem to be doing a lot of skimming the waves so it may have been some folks racing and just having fun, . . . not that fishing isn't fun! One of the young men decided to jump the little fence and not go around to the pathway entrance and skidded down the side of the hill. He almost made it but tumbled as he got towards the bottom and rolled the rest of the way down. He laid there for a bit and I waited to see if he was hurt. There were several people who had just gone down the path and were close by to help if he needed it. I'd be no good with my hobbling and my cane, the most I could do would be hold his hand until help arrived . . . but . . . . he was young and jumped up without a scratch although he was rubbing his behind as he hobbled along. As you can see this path leads to the ocean and there are tents on the beach. What fun. It must be wonderful to lay there listening to the ocean waves breaking on the shore as they lull you to sleep in the blackness of the night.

When I finished taking my pictures I found Pat talking to her brother on the telephone as she wished him a happy birthday. She can hardly wait until next year when he turns the big 50 and she can welcome him into the sibling middle age club.

We rode further down the highway to the Lucky Seven Casino where they are adding a hotel onto the already finished dining room. I was amazed to stand and watch the workers move completed sides to the building. It doesn't take long to put up a building in the fast paced world of today. They will have it finished in no time, then I'll have to go back and take a picture of the finished hotel. We had our juicy hamburger and found that it has been priced ninety cents higher so that means the end of eating out as it is getting much too costly. Whatever happened to the days when the casinos offered free food to get you to come and gamble. Now they tighten the machines, raise the prices on their food and expect you to come and feed the machines . . . they have taken all the fun out of gaming. So Freddy win again, we will buy our good Angus beef and get a whole pound for several hamburgers, then cook up our own and play scrabble.

So today, realize how fortunate you are and dig into your pockets a donate a few dollars to those who are having a hard time of it. Right now we are hearing about seven families who were burned out, nothing at all left as the fire, started by a sick homeless man, flared out of control and jumped across the highway to a small group of homes that were closely built and the fire spread so fast the firemen were escorting people out of their homes as the flames came in their back doors. How devastating to lose everything, but as one of the women said, "It is only things." . . . and she is right. She has her life and she can rebuild with help from generous folks who will band together and fill the accounts at the bank. I think I'll add my candle money. Make today a memory day. Hugs to all.