Friday, May 18, 2007

Days of the Week

The pictures below aptly capture the different days of the week, and the impact the wind direction can have on the weather and how we spend our day.
Tuesday Morning - Laid out most of the day
Tuesday Evening - Sat in the hot tub
Wednesday Morning - Laid out on the beach
Thursday Morning - Went shopping and saw a movie with MIOL
Friday Morning - Slept in, sipped on coffee, and worked on puzzle with MIOL

Monday, May 14, 2007

Beach Week

Day one is finally here. We arrived yesterday afternoon to 20mph sustained winds and chillier than expected temperatures. We also arrived to see that Tropical Storm Andrea had her way with the dunes down here last week. I took a picture of our dune deck below that used to actually be ON a dune. As you can see from the picture, there is not much left protecting this house from the next major storm. It also looks like they had to lower the deck by about 4 feet (there are four new stairs), and add a new stairway (so that you don't just walk down into the ocean).

MIOL's mom and I had an interesting conversation over the weekend about the whole battle between the man and nature. Why do we insist on commercializing and exploiting nature, bending it to fit our needs, when in the end, nature will win? Granted, my family is down here, paying for this house... a house that should more than likely NOT be here... one that will probably NOT be here in 20 years... And I find that I am not too sure where I stand on this. I truly enjoy coming down to the Outer Banks. I enjoy sitting here, sipping my coffee and staring at the ocean... and a wi-fi connection, power, and the comfort I am feeling at the moment, would not be possible without the commercialization.


A few years ago, when Isabel tore through the Outer Banks and sent the road that connects Hatteras to the rest of the Outer Banks into the ocean, my family drove down here to check out the damage that November (2 months later). We drove all the way down to the point where the road was closed and ran into a park ranger that was stationed there to make sure that people didn't attempt to do something stupid. We asked him what it looked like, and what they were going to do given that Hatteras is a popular vacation destination and they would need to figure out some way to get the tourists there in time for the upcoming season in May. His response was, "oh, we're going to fix the island." Fix the island. I love it. And this is supposed to be someone who manages our natural resources. I'm not sure if that is the official position of the National Park Service, his personal opinion, or what, but there is something about that mentality, one that is more than likely shared by many of us out there, that we can fix and control anything we want to.

Unfortunately, my time will have come and gone in this world before I see the impact of this control, but my grandkids, or their grandkids will look back at these times and more than likely laugh at our attempt to control something as powerful as nature. These Outer Banks may be a part of the mainland by then, who knows.

Until then, I'll sit here happily drinking my coffee and enjoying the surf, happy to be on vacation.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Beach Week Almost Here...

So, as many of you who know me well, you also know that this is about the time of year that my family takes its first trip down to the Outer Banks for a week. A week long vacation could not come at a better time as I am ready for the peace and quiet and ready to relax. I know MIOL is also looking forward to being able to close her eyes and sleep on the beach.

I'm going to give the no work email for the entire week a try again this trip and see what awaits me upon my return, but I do know that when I did that last fall, it made a huge difference in my ability to fully enjoy the time off. But as most of you know, the amount of email you have after being gone for a week is beyond ridiculous.

Which makes you wonder why we opt to communicate so much over email. It's one thing if you use it as a form of communicating with friends overseas or friends that are hard to get a hold of on the phone. But work? It seems that more and more people are becoming either passive aggressive or non-confrontational, and would rather send a flaming email or send a series of email questions, rather than get up and walk 20 feet to talk to the person. This has got to be one of my greatest pet peeves as I am very much a "walk and talk" kind of person. I enjoy getting up from my desk and walking around, talking to the people I need to talk to get the job done.

As BlackBerrys become more and more prevalent over the next few years, will we become an email society?

What matters is that I will not be participating in that society next week.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Cinco de Mayo Celebration

It's official!!! MIOL and I are engaged!!!

17 months in the making, I have met my match and the person I am looking forward to spending the rest of my life with.

I promise you that the story leading up to the proposal is well worth a phone call to me if you want to hear it. The intricate details and subtleties are too much to go into on here and will take too long to describe.

In any case, I look forward to blogging about the progress and planning as we set a date and move forward towards the most exciting day of our lives.

Stay tuned...