Issue 13
Dear Friends and Family,
August 16th was B-day: back-to-school day and thus deliverance from the throngs of family vacationers. The tourists dispersed as quickly as they arrived, leaving in their wake the blissful calm we came to love about the island. Once again, we can venture to town, the ferry or the beach with a laid-back island attitude. The month is winding down. And it looks like I’m going to survive August. Thank you Lord!
Earlier in August we took a mini-vacation to Philadelphia. It was necessary to get me someplace cool as the dog days of summer, with their heat and humidity, were making me suicidal. The weather in Philly was perfect. We stayed at the Latham Hotel in the center of town and walked to everything. We visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. We had dim sum in China Town. We strolled the oldest residential street in America and took a bus tour of Valley Forge. I felt 12 years old again.
Then God was good to us once more. When we arrived home the jet stream dropped a once-every-25-years “cold wave” down into Texas and gave us beautiful 70 degree weather and low humidity for almost a week; just enough to remind us why we moved here. The Corpus weather folks say that the first cold wave usually comes in the middle of September, steering away many tropical storms. At this moment we have no hurricanes heading for us and I hope we can say that again in September.
We did watch carefully hurricane Charlie’s path, and on Wednesday called my sister in Fort Myers to advise her to fill up her bathtub with water and turn up the fridge, but they have lived in Florida long enough to become complacent. On Friday, the eye of the storm missed them by 150 miles, still giving them a good dose of the hurricane’s fury. The path of devastation left behind seems staggering, but thankfully Rosemary and Bob rode it through unscathed. Now she agrees that hurricanes are nothing to be complacent about. We plan to put up our storm shutters and leave for San Antonio if anything bigger than a Category I comes this way.
I’ve included some typical tourist pictures of Philly and some bird pictures. Yup, bird pictures. Well, when they land right on your deck you must take a picture, right? Hope you like them. God bless, and live each day to the fullest.
Love,
Janis