Life begins again

Boy, it is REALLY easy to tell when school starts when you live in a tourist mecca. I could have lunch at Whataburger today. During tourist season, no way can I get through the door, much less find a parking place. There usually aren't many people out on the beach at 8 a.m., but today--I saw even fewer--though the beach still was groomed. (They take a big bulldozer out with a rake and rake up the sand every morning.)

The seagulls have all lost their pretty black heads. And there are brown gulls amongst them. I saw a brown seagull the other day and was very confused. Laughing gulls are not brown. They are shiny white and gray and have black heads--or dirty-looking white ones. (They never do loose all their black feathers.) And then I remembered that the babies are brown. They are the same color as the beach sand. I didn't see one of them sitting in the groomed sand, until I looked really close.

I saw crab tracks this morning. I couldn't figure out what they were at first. They look sort of like a 4-inch wide net was pressed into the sand, a delicate-looking pattern. Then I saw the hole in the sand at the center of all the tracks. I suppose I could take my camera next time and hope I see the tracks again. They were really cool looking. I'm pretty sure it was blue crab, or something besides hermit crab (though they are local too), because there was no tracks of a shell dragging behind the skittery leg tracks.

Also saw a couple of seagulls carrying shrimp around. I decided they must have stolen them from the fishermen out on the jetties, because shrimp are bottom feeders, and seagulls don't dive. It was pretty funny looking though--white shrimp dangling from the gull beaks.

Spent much of the weekend shopping. Didn't intend to go out and shop, except for books. (The boy wanted the last Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth book. I haven't read any but the first one, and don't intend to, but he's been caught up in the series. I bought 4 paperbacks.) But they were having a big sale at Dillards. HUGE sale. The fella and the boy bought suits and shoes and sport coats. I bought pants. That are Long Enough!! (This is an issue for me, especially since most of the pants I already owned are too short, and the mirror in the bathroom at the newspaper tells me every time I go in there.) I had to hunt amongst the britches on sale for the ones that did not say "Short"--but I found them. (I'm really only average...) And I bought tops and shirts. I wasn't sure about one pair of pants and one top, and wanted the guys to come upstairs and give their opinion--and while I was waiting for them to finish buying sport coats (they'd already bought suits), and show up, I found two more tops to buy. So it was their fault I bought more. But I look fabulous. (My pants are long enough now. ;) )

I am reading lots. Need to be writing lots--but I did finally get all that I had written typed in. Tomorrow, it's time to start with new stuff. And I have 240 pages typed. I don't think I've reached midpoint in the story. Maybe the 1/3 point. (sigh) Which means there will be large amounts of whacking and thinning and trimming going on later. (sigh again) However, I'd rather whack than add, so...