On This Last Monday of the Month...

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

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Memorial Day 2010 is here, and it's that time again. The time to remember all of those that gave their lives to defend our freedoms. Heroes all. The Civil War, the World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf War...and now Iraq. I'm sure that there will be those individuals, as there always are, who decide to protest on this day. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this is a day for the brave souls who stepped forward for us and gave their lives. This day belongs to them, and their brave deeds. It's a day for us to say 'thank you' to them, in whatever way we choose. Whether we observe the National Moment of Remembrance at 3:00PM, fly the flag at half-staff, or place a flag on their graves. The majority are nameless and faceless to most of us, but whatever you do May 31, 2010, just give them mad props. To say they're deserving would be an understatement.




For everybody gearing up for their barbecues, have a great time. Glenn and I will be hanging at the condo. Don't know what will be on the menu, but since we don't have a grill (the condo management is really strict about people having grills on their porches...any open flame has to be 'x' number of feet from any and all structures...kind of sucks), it'll be something other than charred cow or pig. I plan to hit the grocery store as early as possible tomorrow in case the stores will be closing early. I'm still adjusting to the hours of the south. In Los Angeles they never roll up the sidewalks. Everything is pretty much open 24/7. Here stores are either closed or close early for national holidays. Not sure what the deal will be tomorrow. I'm hoping that Publix is open for at least half a day. I prefer going there than the local Kroger. I would really like to get some sort of seafood to fix for dinner tomorrow night. Fish of some sort. The seafood counter at Publix is so much better. More locally caught fishies, etc. Kroger ships stuff in from as far away as Thailand and China where it's raised in farms. I will pick up shrimp to boil every once in awhile when it's on sale, but the shrimp at Kroger's 'fresh' counter is always still frozen and...well, to put it bluntly, it looks like crap. A bit suspect. I haven't had food poisoning much during my lifetime, but shellfish poisoning is a 'sick' I don't want to experience. Yick! Oh well, something will be served. I'll just figure it out when I go to the store.

Hope everyone has a lovely memorial Day, and happy barbecuing!

Sweatin' To The Oldies...

If you're a contemporary of mine, or were just old enough to know who Jane Fonda is, you'll most likely remember when she started her fitness boom in the 80's. She put out a number of exercise videos in the 80's, up through the mid-90's. From working out on a mat (which is predominantly what her first tape entailed), to low impact aerobics, to working with weights, she touched on a number of fitness programs.

A number of years ago...ten or fifteen...I used a few of her workout tapes to get in pretty decent shape. Lately I'd been kind of jonesing to get back into some semblance of physical health. It's been about seven months since I kicked the nicotine habit, and during these smoke free months I've put on a few pounds. Yeah, it's pretty normal for people who quit smoking to gain some weight, but I was down to a weight I hadn't been at in some time and I intended to go the other way. Down. True, my previous rapidly plunging weight loss was mostly due to a Graves thyroid that thrust me into a thyroid storm that put me in the hospital and almost killed me, but...I lost a lot of weight DAMMIT!!! So moving to Savannah, not doing as much walking as I did in L.A. (I was walking at least 3 miles a day there.), having some pretty severe problems with my RA, and quitting the cigarettes...well, all of these things took their toll. I've been thinking I'd eventually get a Wii when I have the cash, so I could start doing some of their Wii-Fit programs. Then I remembered Jane and the workouts she guided me through many years ago. I know some people think yeah-yeah-yeah, Jane Fonda...she's the Shirley MacLaine of physical fitness (before I move on from that comment, I'd just like to say that I love Shirley...have a lot of respect for her...moving right along). If you've seen any footage from one of Jane's workouts you'll know...that chick was in fantastic shape. She had ME in fantastic shape. It's remembering that that brought me around to wanting to find those old workouts I used to do. I still have videos of them, but after all these years the quality ain't so good anymore. Went to my go to site for DVD's, Amazon.com, and it had a bunch of her workouts. They're all on DVD now, with several on each disc. Glenn bought me a couple I picked out (thank you, Glenn), and today marked day two of my new workout routine. One of the workout videos I did in the past is on one of the DVD's, so that has been a big help. It's called 'Jane Fonda's Complete Workout'. It's in three parts: the first section is working with handheld weights, the second section is aerobics, and the third section is lower body. One day you do the weights and aerobics, and the next you do the aerobics and lower body. The really great part is that the aerobics kind of came back to me the first time I did them because I used to do that workout a lot. I'm using this familiar regimen to get my sea-legs, then I'll start adding the workouts I haven't done. There is a low impact aerobic workout on one disc that I was hoping was a 45 minute deal I used to do, but it's not the same one. I put that on and was completely lost. Couldn't keep up. I know it takes time to get those things down, but...as I said, getting my sea-legs with what's familiar. In the past I've always been one to push myself, but I'm forcing myself to workout every other day this first week or so instead of every day. My RA is a factor I have to keep in the forefront. Today was day two, and it felt great. On to day three!

Oh, one more thing...there's one thing I've learned about myself during these first couple of workouts...I'M FRICKIN' OLD!!!!!

Moon Over The Marsh...

Tonight was the appearance of the Full Flower Moon of May 27, 2010. It was highly anticipated by me. I've always loved seeing the full moon in the sky. There is an energy I feel that is like nothing else. The above picture is the best of the ones I took. The digital camera I've been taking my photos with these many months is Glenn's, and although it takes great pictures it's not the best at capturing things after darkness falls. (Although, now that I'm looking at it here, it's not that bad a picture.) It might be capable of taking decent night time photos, but I have no idea of how to investigate that. No manual. When I have funds to spend on a new camera that is suited for night photography, I'll snap one up. I'd love to be able to capture what I see in the dark world of the night. Bwahahahaha...

It wasn't long after 7:00PM that the tide in the river/creek (no idea what to call it, really) was noticeably high. Glenn informed me that it wouldn't reach it's full height until around 8:45PM or so. I looked it up on line, and according to the info I got the tide was supposed to rise up to about 8.1 feet. There are some groupings of reeds out in the bed of the flow that I use to gauge how high the tide is, and last I was able to see (the tide came in to it's full height after dark) the reeds were mostly engulfed by the water. Past high tides have covered the road from where we are out to Tybee Island before, which of course sucks for anyone who lives on Tybee and needs to get home from work. I would guess that's the case this time. I'm sure it only lasts a few hours though. Tides do have a tendency to go out...



I started going out in front of the building when it started to enter dusk. Wanted to get a jump on an appearance by the moon, and wanted to try and get a picture of it while there was some semblance of light left in the sky (well, enough that would allow me to get a clear picture). I did this every few minutes, hoping to see the shining orb hanging up there. The second time out I paused for a moment and looked around me. I felt myself being transported to when I was young. There was a vibe in the air that felt like October. The condo buildings, the crispness that was starting to enter the air, the lowering light level that started to cast shadow and made the silhouette of the trees take on a dark blue-black color...I looked across the open grassy area across from our building and the sound of kids calling out to one another echoed back to me. Hearing their voices in that setting took me back to bike riding with my friends in the dimness of the evening, to walking trails in the woods around the apartments I lived in after dusk, to snatching fireflies from the air and putting them in jars. It also transported me to getting together with my friends on Halloween. (Of course we all made our own costumes then. In retrospect, there were years I phoned it in on the costume angle...for times when I had last minute costume needs a hobo came in handy once, but my go to costume was a gypsy.) I could almost see a group of us going to one of the buildings in a colorful herd. Our various candy bags clutched in our hands, some of us rooting around in our bags through those hideous Taffy's wrapped in black and orange wax paper or those horrible circus peanuts, looking for a coveted item. Those were the days of homemade goodies. When someone could hand out candy apples or popcorn balls and not be accused of poisoning children. Living out in L.A. made me feel sad for kids today in terms of Halloween. I always thought how sad it was that they would never experience Halloween the way I did. But now that I've moved back to Georgia, well...my opinion has changed. Here, back on Planet Earth, if it's possible anywhere it's possible here.

One of my trips out to check for the moon, I decided to for-go the flip flops and venture out barefoot. Used to go barefoot everywhere when I was a kid. Especially during the summer. I walked down the front walk to the asphalt and...ooch, eech, ouch...my feet aren't conditioned for the outside. The stones in the asphalt were jabbing in my feet making me skip gingerly cross the drive to the concrete edge on the other side. In my youth when I spent most of my time outside of school traipsing around with my friends, or hanging out at the pool, I could walk casually across scalding hot asphalt in 90-something degree weather and not feel a thing. The bottoms of my feet were like leather. Now...not so much. Just another transporting observation of the evening.

I get so turned around where we are in terms of which way is which, so before I headed out the last time I asked Glenn if he knew where the moon was supposed to rise. He grabbed the paper and it said South-East, so he pointed me in the right direction and I headed out. I was keeping in the same general area, but still wasn't seeing anything 'moon-like'. Was nearing the point of giving up when I noticed a glow behind some thick trees by one of the buildings I pass on my walks to the pond. It was definitely not a building light or street light, so I investigated further and there it was. The big, bright, beautiful moon. Snapped a few pictures, but it wasn't photographing as big as I would like. Decided to head down pond way to see if I could get some better shots of it. The walk itself was so nice, so peaceful. I haven't enjoyed being outside after nightfall so much in years. I found another picture op so snapped a few more. By this time I was about halfway to the pond. What is that? There was this strange droning sound. It wasn't the compressor for an air conditioner, it wasn't...well, I didn't know WHAT the hell it was. As I approached the pond it got louder and it dawned on me. Several weeks ago I had snapped some photos at the pond of tadpoles...it was the cacophonous chirping of frogs and/or toads. Sounded like hundreds of them. The pond is circled by condos, so my first thought was 'how do these people sleep during this?' The sound of hundreds of amphibian creatures chirping all at once isn't like the sound of crickets. Crickets can be soothing, this...wasn't. So I snapped a few more pictures of the moon, and headed back home. I took my time though. As I mentioned, I was enjoying strolling around out there.



Oh...one thing I didn't mention was that I ran into my old pal, Crusty. Those of you who read my blog will remember him from an earlier installment. I was taking a walk when we had our first meeting. That's him (the orange one), and a friend of his. I don't know who his friend was, we weren't introduced. He did seem a bit shy. (Maybe he was a robot? Look at his eyes!)

So I came back home, grabbed myself a cold beverage, and settled down here in front of the computer to make an entry in my blog. No hustle or bustle here, but there never is. That's fine with me.

Morning Mist...

Last night brought rain that was accompanied by intense rumblings of thunder. Some of the booming claps sounded like cannons, and were punctuated by brilliant flashes of blue-white light through the trees. (We experienced one crack of thunder which obviously involved some pretty mean lightning...the area went into blackout for several seconds. Thankfully the electricity came back on.) It was wonderful. Some rain and more subtle thunder carried through the night. I've been up again, so I've noticed the trailing rumble of thunder rolling by all night.

It's almost 7:00am now. Usually by this time, it's much brighter outside. This morning when I look out the big window in the kitchen I don't see the brightening sky. I see a much darker, mist shrouded opening to the day. It's very green here, but at this particular moment out there in the muted light the greens are deep and beautiful. It almost looks like a retouched photograph. Like it can't possibly be real. Since moving here, I've become a bit of a shutterbug. Look for any opportunity to snap a photo. This morning was no exception. Had to try and take something that would capture the moodiness out there.

I've got some sweats and a t-shirt on, so I slipped into my flip-flops and headed out the front. (Not before putting on a pot of java though...I've got my priorities.) It being rather early, there weren't really any sounds of neighbors moving about. Perfect. As I scoped around for the perfect shot, the plaintive call of a fog horn floated through the fog. I stopped for a moment and listened. It was kind of moving in that setting. Very melancholy. Like something of mysterious origin searching through the thick moist shroud hanging over the marshes. Wonder if it knows what it searches for? Since I'm a bit disheveled, I really didn't expect to venture too far away from the condo. Acceptable photos weren't really presenting themselves out in front of the building, so I was drawn down to the edge of the marshes. They edge the cul de sac just a hop and a skip from my front door, so I let myself be drawn. That's where I snapped the above pic. It's really beautiful down there. If I knew a spell to keep this weather at a 24/7 constant, I'd be casting it right now. I find it so inspiring. So comforting. I think some writing is in order today.

Now for a hot cup of joe...

Yep...

Everyday I get little reminders that I'm definitely back in the South. Then there are days when the reminders smack me in the face. Was heading over to Walmart when I spotted this little bit of local enterprise. (lol) Was parked out front of the local miniature golf course. Think the last truck was selling bird houses.

Early in the A.M...

Been up all night. Seems to happen more frequently these days. Something I've learned is that I do enjoy seeing the gradual progression of light being reintroduced to the outside world. It's been kind of hazy here and there this morning, with the promise of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon time. (Looking forward to that...but then I always do.) It was 6:30...ish...and I was looking out the kitchen window watching a cute little squirrel that was sitting back on its haunches munching on a nut of some sort. There was a second squirrel hunting around the bank for nuts, too. Think they might have been 'an item'. Anyhoo, I decided that I needed to snap a photo of the critters. Grabbed the camera (Oooooo, just heard some thunder~woo hoo!) and tried to go out on the screened porch as quietly as possible. Was able to get by the screen where I had a clear view of him, and he had remained in position the whole time. I was obviously going to have to snap the pic through the screen. I've taken some good pictures through the screen before. They come out really well as long as the flash is off. Guess I don't need to explain what happened next, huh? Yep...the flash went off, spooked the squirrel, and the picture didn't turn out. At all. Don't know where the second one went, but my intended photo target skittered up to the base of a big pine tree growing by the river bank. Determined to get some kind of picture of him, I put on my flip flops and went outside the porch. He ran up the tree and did a bunch of death defying branch jumps, but every picture I snapped just showed pine tree branches and pine needles. Damn... As I headed back to the porch I got a pleasant surprise.

Our hydrangea bushes have blooms. I'm quite surprised. If you had seen them a few months ago, you would have seen what appeared to be dead bushes. They were covered in dead leaves and the limbs (?) were brown and brittle. Glenn and I thought they were history. Then one morning we noticed that the grounds crew that comes through every Wednesday had pruned them down. Way down. Think the 'limbs' were about six inches long if that. A little bit after that, we were surprised to see some green appearing. Then a little after that, new shoots started coming up. Now the bushes are very leafy and green, and today I noticed that they are actually flowering. I figured that we wouldn't see any flowers until next season, but there they are. Not long after I arrived in Savannah, I googled hydrangeas to see what their care entailed. I did learn that they do well with pruning, but I had no idea they did this well. Didn't remember them getting that brown and dead looking last year. Huh...oh well...

So...I was able to photograph something after all. :)

Some Rain...Some Pain...

We had a bit of damp and lovely precipitation today. The sun did peek through a bit around noon, but for the most part the day has been pleasantly muggy. Early this afternoon, some thunderstorms did grace me with their presence. Condo shaking rumblings preceded the rain. The picture would definitely illustrate things well if it were possible to include sound. Bummer.

It has become clear that the pressure generated by inclement weather messes with my arthritis. Last bit of rain we had in the last few weeks had me racked with excruciating pain and hardly able to move without intense agony. My pain pills did eventually help, but they do take time (and they never fully alleviate things...just make them bearable). Suppose it's better to have to wait a little bit for relief, than to just suffer...which is what I did (and still do) most of the time. Had been keeping an eye on the forecasts lately. When I saw that we were going to get hit with more rain, I decided to try taking a pain pill before the extreme pain and stiffness set in. So far my experiment seems to be a success.


Something I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before is the bubble on my elbow (yeah, that's it in the picture above). Don't know if the picture really gives a clear idea of what it's like. It's a big swollen bubble of fluid over the bony point of my elbow. Feels really creepy if you press on it. Like it's filled with silicone gel or something. Well, it could be a little mushier than that. It just feels like my bone has liquefied or something. Oh! My bones are fine. lol They're in there where they're supposed to be. It's been that way for a few months. Probably longer. No idea how long it was like that before I noticed it. I just happened to touch my elbow one day, and it freaked me out quite a bit that I couldn't feel my bone. The oddest aspect of it is that it doesn't hurt. No pain at all. I hurt everywhere else, but my weird spongy elbow is a-OK. Go figure. I plan to show it to the doctor I see at the clinic here the next time I go in for something. Hate going there, but I'm old. Got conditions that require medication...not taking the meds is not an option for me. Call me crazy, but I prefer not to be dead. (Geez, it feels like half of my blog is me droning on and on about my health...moving right along...)

As of a couple of months ago, the Hollywood Video store we rented movies from went out of business. What would've been our fall back rental store also went out of business. Not really wanting to have to make a pilgrimage to rent a DVD, we decided NetFlix was our best option. We wouldn't have to go anywhere, and can hop on the Internet to reserve movies. Well, add them to our 'queue'. I think I'll miss not being able to get more than one title at a time like we did when we visited the rental store, but so far it seems to be a hassle free process. We got our second film in the mail today. "The Fourth Kind", with Milla Jovovovo...vovo..vovich. I'm sure I'll be disappointed (as I am with most films dealing with alien abduction), but the trailers looked pretty good. Yes...I will give a full report after I see it.

Now, if you will excuse me...I need to go shake my arms over my head because my hands have gone numb again. Woo hoo...

For no particular reason...

I'm just feeling the need to post something...... Insomnia is paying me an unwelcome visit tonight. Correction. This Morning. I'm stressed and I'm not stressed at the same time. Stress pops up and serenity boots it away. Could be worse I suppose. I could be a walking aneuryism. That's a place I make a point to stay clear of. It's tough at times. I've got all of these aches and pains that often keep me from being able to do anything. It changes from day to day in terms of severity, but so it is with RA. Muscles seize up on a pretty regular basis, but I'm able to get stuff done intermittently. When my hands are in cooperation mode, I think I could be in the running for the world record of 'speed chores'. I never finish off everything I want/need to do, but some is better than none. So the RA garbage coupled with current stress sources...it could drive me batty. But I'm not letting it. Giving that stuff power isn't worth it. Some positive changes are coming my way any day now, so that's what I focus on. No turkeys getting me down. Stress just ain't healthy. It's all good.

Hmmmmm...okay what to prattle on about now? How about TV? Wednesday night was ep 3 of 'Happy Town'. Really digging it. It fulfills certain preferred criteria for me (the oddity and mystery factors), and it has me guessing. Makes me want to tune in next week. Nice to have a show do that. Sam Neill is doing a bang-up job as the most mysterious character. But then he's always good. Never seen him put up a bad performance.

Last night was the season finale of 'Supernatural'. Great stuff. Like the dark aspect of the show, and the humor. Good casting, too. We knew Sam was going to say 'yes' to ol' Lucifer. Well, I did anyway...was obvious. (Sam Winchester was Lucifer's 'vessel'...Dean Winchester was supposed to be Michael's, but he wasn't about to say yes...only way the vessels could be taken...had to be willingly.) Knew the Four Horsemen's rings were going to be used to open 'the box' (i.e. hell) so they could toss Lucifer back in and stop the Apocalypse. When I say toss I mean once Sam was inhabited by Lucifer, he'd open hell, and jump in. Didn't go exactly as planned, but they got Lucifer down the hole. What I didn't see coming was Michael going into the hole with him. Dun-dun-dun. The episode ended with Dean turning away from being a hunter and starting a family. Dean's sitting at the table with his gal and their kid...camera pulls back to show a lamp post. Guess who? Sam is standing there. Not supposed to be possible, but then it would really suck if they killed him off. He's a main character for Pete's sake! Looking forward to next season.

Tonight's a new 'Ghost Whisperer'. From the previews, it looks like Melinda and the hubster are having marital difficulties. That would really suck since he went to all that trouble to jump in another guys body for her. The previews mislead viewers anyway. Editing. Then after GW, a new 'Stargate Universe'. An evening of new TV...woo hoo...

Next week is the final episode of 'Lost'. Will be interested to see how they tie everything up. They've got a lot to tie.

Too cute...

For some reason this makes me chuckle...

What I'm Watching...Currently...

There isn't a laundry list that I'm watching regularly at the moment. Some are among my 'usuals', but I do have a new addition to my viewing list.

'Happy Town' is two episodes in and has me hooked. It has a nice blend of mystery, offbeat characters, and the qwirky and supernatural. My kind of fare. It features an ensemble cast with several people I've seen over the years here and there, and some immediately recognizable folks - Sam Neill (mysterious, somewhat eccentric, swave and de-boner older english gentlemen who owns a movie memoribilia shop in town (called "The House of Ushers"...cough, cough) and has the old ladies at the local boarding house swooning over him), Steven Weber (son in the wealthy Haplin family whom the town is named after; they run the main business in town that creates the cheif source of jobs and revenue...the bakery); Abraham Benrubi (owns the local cafe, and...screech!...that was me putting on the brakes). Sam Neill you'll remember from any number of things...he's been around for a bit. Steven Weber you'll probably remember best as one of the Hackett brothers on the sitcom 'Wings' (which I will reluctantly admit I enjoyed upon occassion). Benrubi you might remember from two shows I watched regularly...he manned the front desk on 'ER' for most of the run, and he owned the bar on 'Men in Trees' (still bummed that got cancelled...I really dug it). This show fills my main criteria when selecting something to tune into every week. I'm entertained by it. Anybody who's watching 'Lost' might want to jump onboard since that is about to end. It's not really like 'Lost', but it does fill my 'weird/odd' quota for the week. 'Happy Twon' has tremendous potential and, as I said before, so far it has me hooked. If you want to give it a go I suggest starting with next week's episode. Things have happened and will be quicker for me to recap...each episode heaps more on. Since I just mentioned me 'recapping', I'll be happy to do so if you start watching. Now, since I mentioned 'Lost'...

I've still been toughing out these final few eps of it. Figured they were going to have to start killing off the candidates soon, and so they did. The ones that got the boot weren't surprising. Throughout the seasons...well, they were featured quite a bit, but you could tell they weren't the 'main' members of the ensemble. It appears to be somewhat obvious as the last few eps have aired who the last few standing will be. Really don't want to go into my theories about the outcome because it'd take awhile. I will say this...I think the final four will be Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hugo. It's been obvious that there is a 'good vs. evil' deal going on. There is some speculation as to whether or not Jacob is evil, which is pretty funny since that same actor is playing Lucifer on another favorite show of mine, which is...

'Supernatural' is pure entertainment. Looking forward to tonight's episode. Hmmm...will Bobby sell his soul? I'll find out soon enough.

'The Ghost Whisperer' is still up there. New episode tomorrow night. Looking forward to that.

'Stargate Universe' is still in my rotation.

Still watch 'The Big Bang Theory'. It's just a real hoot!

There is more I'll be watching in the near future, but I won't put in the typing time until it's on. Me finguhs is kinda numb...

Quiet morning...

"Fog and smog should not be confused and are easily separated by color."

~ Chuck Jones
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If I had to pick a type of weather to run 1st runner up to rain? Would definitely be the type depicted above.

Luckily, no half rotting, half skeletal, pissed off pirates were spotted shambling out of it.

Mellow Mental Musing.

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


"And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow."
~ G.K. Chesterton


"Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."
~ John Updike

________________________________________________________

As promised by the weather reports, today has been filled with rain. At the moment it's coming down pretty steadily...heavy, but not too heavy. Of course when it comes to me and rain it can never be 'too heavy'. It can pound the earth as hard as it likes. Well...as long as nothing catastrophic happens (i.e. flooding the condo).

Rainy weather has always elicited a Zen-like state in me. It's as if it creates an alternate reality where the creative sectors of my brain are spurred to life, and a sense of calm descends. It is my ultimate stress reliever. I know the rest of the stress inducing world is out there, but...at the moment I'm rubber and it's glue...if you catch my drift.

Now, about that moss...

Anyone who comes to Savannah is going to notice the long, curly moss hanging from just about every tree. There is so much of it here in the south that it has kind of become synonymous with the southern gothic theme. It's one of the things I love about the area here. Definitely creates a 'mood'.

I've had several people ask me why there is so much Spanish Moss on the trees here. "Was it brought over to the US from elsewhere at some point, and if so who brought it and when?" "Why do I only see it here?" I, of course, had no clue. Decided to look it up and post what I find here. What I found is rather interesting, and I hope it answers some questions for the interested parties.

'Spanish Moss' is neither a moss or a lichen. It is actually an 'epiphytic' plant, which means it grows on the surface of other plants. An angiosperm that is part of the bromeliad family. It is referred to as an 'air plant' as it gets its nutrients from the air and rain. It flourishes in the south because of the humidity, and can be found in Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, eastern North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, and Alabama.

It was not brought here, and is indigenous to the South. According to the info I found, here is how it got its' name:

When the French first arrived in Louisiana, they asked the Indians about the strange hair-like plant. The Indians said that it was 'Tree hair'. The French said that it reminded them of the long black beards of the Spanish explorers who came before them, and that a better name was 'Spanish beard'. It didn't take long for this name to be seen as ridiculous, so it was changed to 'Spanish moss'.

So there is my 'Reader's Digest' version of the information I found online about 'Spanish moss'. There is actually more info. It's pretty interesting if you dig that sort of thing. I do. If you'd like to read all of it with your own little peepers, here are the two primary links I perused:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_moss
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Spanish_moss/spanmoss.htm

Drats...

Well, it was the last listed sighting op of the International Space Station for 2010 in Savannah...and I didn't see squat! (Razza-frazza...) Nothing to see, nothing to photograph. Glenn suspected that our sight-line would be behind a bunch of trees lining the marshland, but by the time we rushed over there it was beyond 8:30 and the time had passed.

Decided to post the lovely photo I was able to snap on Thursday night (April 29th). Such clarity...such detail...and if you squint really hard and put your head in just the right position you can see it. It's there...in the yellow circle indicated by the red arrow. Yes, it's faint, but it's the space station DAMMIT!

Happy...

...Beltane, May Day, Festival of Flora, Walpurgis Night, Roodmas, Labour Day, Þrimilci-mōnaþ, 'Obby 'Oss, and all other traditions of the day. :)