Huguenot Memorial Park

 

What a great day we had. We rode up to Jacksonville today taking Highway A1A through Ponte Vedra. I can not believe how much has changed in the past 30 years. I remember the stretch between St Augustine and Jax Beach spotted with stilt houses built up on the dune line and then miles and miles of sea oats and palm scrub. There is now a short stretch of pristine beaches between very expensive and very modern multistory homes ranging upwards into the million dollar range I’m sure. Ponte Vedra a once small town just south of Jacksonville Beach has grown into a thriving community with a very high tax base. PSL has nothing on this small town. We stopped at a convenience store that carried a several different flavors of coffee blends, a nice wine collection and a fresh flower cooler.

“Stepford wives” was one quips we heard from the back seat.

As we drove through Jacksonville Beach I was a little upset to find that I recognized very little so many things have changed. There is no more boardwalk. We rode out towards Mayport, I thought it would be nice to take the ferry over to St Georges. Funny thing is that as we were crossing there was a news crew there. Apparently the mayor of Jacksonville is debating closing down the ferry because of high diesel prices and the news crew was there filming. Our Yukon can be seen in several pictures. Okay the bumper front and then back was seen in several frames. Too bad they did not talk to us. What a great story. I took that ferry several times as a child and almost 30 years later here I am taking my children across on the ferry. Now there’s a news story.

We visited the Huguenot Memorial Beach and let both the girls try out their driving skills. They were happy. We sat on the south side of the inlet few a little while letting Fred take pictures of jetty and he took some shots of the ships docked at NAS Mayport. They seem to be under pretty high security a helicopter flew over us on a regular basis. Fred just knew we were going to get stopped and checked. He was using his long range lens on his camera and I have always thought he was very suspicious looking.

We then drove over to the Kingsley Plantation and walked around until we could not stand the cold anymore. We took the ferry back across and then had a very large lunch at Sticky Fingers. We love their ribs. I guess we should be thankful there is not one closer to home. We called it a day and headed back towards St Augustine. Fred took over 200 pictures today. I took a few but it was so cold out; the wind made it worse. My legs still hurt from the lighthouse. I don’t think they will ever be the same. We head back towards home tomorrow. It will be great to sleep in my own bed but there is such a long list of things I have to do I almost regret going home.

St Augustine City Gates

 

Can you see the orbs.......I'm thinking dust.

The Lighthouse and the Ghost Walk

 

St Augustine has a very rich history including ghosts. We wanted to take the midnight tour Friday night but it was too cold. So we hoped to try again last night. Rains threaten our tour this time so we planned to take the 8:30 pm trip. Another cold front was threatening to blow through again. We’d spent an excellent day exploring the lighthouse, the beaches and old Fort Matanzas. I almost did not think I was going anywhere after 219 steps up and 219 steps back down the lighthouse stair but some how I managed. I hurt all over this morning.

8:30 pm finally arrived and we met the old Sheriff Guy White. He is definitely a character and a most excellent tour guide. He was funny and picked on my daughters the entire trip. It was fairly uneventful tour until we arrived at the Tolomato cemetery. The night before as we were searching for a parking space Elizabeth swore she saw someone walking around in the cemetery, we all saw what we thought was a guy in a white t-shirt walking from his vehicle to a house. I still think that is what I saw but Beth insists she saw someone moving around the grave stones. The cemetery is pretty busy. There are tours all over. We walk to a fairly secluded spot on the north side of the cemetery. I lean up against the old concrete wall. It comes up almost to my waist and I find a spot that is relatively clear of all debris. As I lean there something pokes me gently in the side twice. I turn to look and there is nothing there. A small vine is hanging down but I quickly eliminate it. It is too light to have caused the sensation I felt. There is nothing there.

I am amazed that I did not freak out or even say anything. In fact I am still trying to think of a more plausible explanation. I do believe in spirits or ghost if you will. When I was a teenager we lived with one in our house on English St in North Charleston. The cold spots the noises in the attic were not always explained away. We were lucky our spirit was nice and I believe this one was also just being a prankster.

Erin also had a little fun. Apparently she was touched by Sally the ghost and named the prettiest girl on the tour.

St Augustine

 

There is nothing like a little time off from work and life as we know it. Fred took off Tuesday to visit his grandparents in Tuscaloosa while I stayed home and with girls so they would not miss a week of school. Friday being a half day we ditched and met Fred in St Augustine for an extra long weekend, we plan on returning sometime Tuesday.

We spent most of the afternoon downtown in the historic district near the main gates. We had dinner at a place called O.C. White’s recommended by a vendor. I was not impressed. Fred and Elizabeth seemed happy with their meals. They had seafood. Erin and I had steak and it was a little bland. I hate to say this but beef without kosher salt is dull. Erin and I both liberally covered our meat in table salt and it was better but still not what I wanted. Bread was served barely room temperature. Baked Potato over cooked and the vegetables were bland. Even the peppercorn sauce that my food was smothered in was a bit plain. The pepper corns were the only thing I tasted most of the time and I lick pepper but damn.

We returned to the motel and relaxed in front of the T.V. until about midnight. We planned on taking the midnight ghost tour but it was so cold we surrendered and went to Denny’s for a mid night snack, back to the room and to sleep. Another brain storm was to get up earlier about: 5:30 am and take sunrise pictures of the Castillo de San Marcos, awesome. It’s past 8:30 and my husband and children are still snuggled up in bed. I turned on the T.V. to get the weather report. It is 37 degrees outside. We all rolled over and went back to sleep for some reason we are really adverse to cold weather. It is suppose to rain tonight. Yeah……..

An Experiment in Honesty........

I read in this in Readers Digest about an experiment of sorts and I want totry it out on my friends and co-workers. I thought it would be interesting and maybe a little dangerous to find out what kind of person I have become. The article suggested to find 5 people you trust that will be honest enough to tell you exactly what they think of you good and bad. These people dont have to be your best friends or the people closest to you. Anyone who has had contact with you enough to have made an impression of what they like or dislike about you. I propose to ask myspace friends and family to do something similar. Please list 3 things you like or admire about me and then 3 things you can’t stand or irritate you about me. Send the post back to me so that maybe I can see what kind of person I have become and how I can become a better person, friend and loved one. Please be honest........


List 3 good things you like about me:


List 3 bad things you don’t like about me:


The end of the experiment explains how a person can compare all the answers and see how many are the same or similar. It's these traits in your personality that you either need to expand upon or change. I will post back with the results once the test is done. Wish me luck and Thank you!!!

Love You All ……Kathy

Back on Day Shift

2nd morning back on days so far so good. Yesterday was a little rough. Both the girls made it to and from school with only a small hitch on Elizabeth's side and Fred is trying to turn my hair totally gray or give me a heart attack or both.

Beth called me at about 2:09 pm wanting to know where her Dad was. He was late. I pulled up his screen and it indicated he was on a traffic accident. Poor Beth she was like "well how am I suppose to get home?". I told her she could walk home but she did not find this humourous. Now as I am having this mundane conversation with my daughter my supervisor has been called up from to the Fort Pierce Dispatcher. I can see something is up but I am busy taking care of teen drama.

"How long is Daddy going to be?"

"I dont know let me look."

As I pull up the comments I read that this is an officer involved accident. My husband being the officer involved. I dont recall what I said exactly to my daughter but she wants to know if her Daddy is okay. I look up and my supervisor is headed my way.

"I know is he okay?"

They still dont know yet but he is on the radio and he is talking not yelling. That is always a good sign. They call out rescue to check on everyone. Long/short story he is fine. No trip to the E.R. but his car is out of commission. He was sore last night but it did not interfer with our WOW time. Burning Crusade was released Tuesday night and we have played hard since then but that is another story.

Beth was able to catch a ride home with a friend and life is more or less back to normal but toay is another day.

Sick and Tired

I think I am finally tired of being sick. The gunk in my chest is still there in the mornings and my sinus are still running and I still get tired very easily. I know I am getting older because I am beginning to like my late morning naps. I do feel better I just can't shake the weakness.

I was bad and took two days off from work. I think the stress in fact I know the stress from there just makes it worse not to mention the building itself. It may not be a sick building but it is damn near close. We spread germs around that building like a bag of chips. My new best friend is ‘Mucinex’. I would have been absolutely miserable without it. It took care of most of the snot that comes with a cold. Coughing was to a minimum but I still had to rely on peppermint to sooth my throat. I put those left over candy canes to good use.

Erin has been feeling a little off the last couple of days but she managed to stay in school all day yesterday. She had a slight fever and an ear ache. She is better now I think.

I have not felt like doing too much of anything except sleep, watch TV or play WOW.
I think this is the first real thing I have written in days. Comments at TCPalm don’t count. I am trying to get back to my happy place. Home is much better but I still have a much to consider as to what I need to do at work to be happy again.

Fred says I am unhappy because I can not control what happens at work. The nature of my job also has much to do with how I am feeling. I try very hard to let go but it seems the harder I try the more stressed I become. I try to be a leader and an a role model because I do have control over who I am and how I behave but I think maybe that has even become too much. Fred asked me if there was anyone at work that I trusted and I could only think of two people. I guess that is good better than no one but still I don’t feel comfortable enough to talk to them about how I feel.

I have pondered over resigning as an assistant because I don’t feel like I am accomplishing anything any more. I like training because I do feel like I am doing something constructive but then I feel burnt out. I have 14 years of this job and I still like it most days, love no, but I do enjoy what I do. I want nothing more than to make it better for everyone but it seems like the harder I try the less I accomplish and the angrier I become. I am at a loss I don’t know what to do or how to fix it.

All I know is that I am tired of feeling angry, tired of feeling unappreciated, tired of feeling betrayed. I am tired of feeling sick and tired.

Gonna be a bear.

In this life I am a woman. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a bear.
When you’re a bear you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I can do that.

Before you hibernate you’re supposed to eat yourself stupid. I can do that.

When you’re a girl bear you birth your children (who are the size of a walnut) while you’re sleeping and wake up to partially grown cute cuddly cubs. I can definitely do that.

If you’re a momma bear everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I can do that.

If you’re a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yep, gonna be a bear!

Original Author Unknown and I did twaek it just a little. Enjoy!!!!

2007

It is hard to believe that it is 2007. I probably say this every year but I can’t believe I have made it this long. The world was supposed to implode; we would be invaded by aliens, the second coming of Christ, or when Florida and California both sunk back into the ocean. I have a few more but at 42 I don’t think I want to tempt fate too much.

I celebrated New Years by sleeping all day. I never left the house and vegetated. Fred and I had a nice long conversation and I think we will be able to finally get through this little hic cup we’ve been having. My life is not perfect by any means and I hesitated to write anything at all about my marriage but then again most people have no problems bragging about how good one’s life is so why can’t we talk about what is not right. Fred and I usually get along well enough we have much in common but we are also very hard headed. Sometimes that gets in the way but I am hoping we are beyond that now at least on this current incident. There will always be new things in our future that we will disagree upon.

I was up early this morning and went straight to Home Depot. I love Hope Depot. The girls and I wandered through the garden area searching for plants for the back yard. We found nothing. It is still too early. I want 2 Don Juan rose bushes to plant in the back yard and it is time to pull up the pineapples. Only one plant actually produced fruit but we have a sneaky suspicion Cujo tried to play with it because we found it knocked over last week. Cujo likes his toys and I can believe he thought the pineapple was there as his personal chew toy. You’d be amazed at what that dog will chew on.

Anyway I bought 2 bags of top soil and 6 more bags of mulch. I am trying to repair and fill in the trenches that my dogs seem to enjoy digging. To look at some of the holes you would think they were trying to dig to China. I think it was 2 weeks ago I used the mulch technique. It has not completely stopped the digging but it has slowed them down. I fill the hole with mulch and they are less likely to dig in that spot again. Today I made and new flower bed and mulched around the back door. The dogs are dragging in so much dirt it is unbelievable. I may have to mulch the entire back yard………….maybe not but it was a thought.

Shopping later on this afternoon and some minor cleaning will finish out my day. The kids go back to school tomorrow so I will have the house to myself again. This also means no sleep for me for the next two weeks. I go back to day shift on the 17th month; I am looking forward to getting back to a regular schedule. It will be nice to be able to sleep all night. It’s the work that will suck. I get to go back to the rat race of day time life the only thing good about day shift is it goes by pretty quick.