Category: Beach

Some of these beach haiku were written by random trips to beach.

Most of these are part of a series based on afternoons spent at the beach on Hilton Head Island with my pad out ( a real paper note pad), hoping for words with my iPhone camera handy to add illustration to my thoughts.
I wanted to see if I would be ‘inspired’ by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.

Some turned out okay.

Some were too forced.

Some were just bad.

Some did involve some or all of those feelings.

As far as it goes, I guess I was inspired by by what I saw, by what I heard, by what I smelled, by what I tasted, what I felt emotionally and what I felt tactilely.

Please aware that most of these haiku were NOT WRITTEN on the date in the title – for an explanation of this please see The Series link in the navigation table.

12.13.2020 – heavy leaden skies

heavy leaden skies
dutch mist that gets in your bones
might find challenging

I was reading the online newspaper column “Lets Move To . . .”

It is a regular feature in my favorite online newspaper, The Guardian.

I mention the Guardian a lot in these essays.

I like it because it is from Manchester.

My family, the one non-dutch branch in my tree anyway, came from Manchester.

All the rest of my family tree is firmly planted in the Netherlands.

For 50 years Alistair Cooke, another person who seems to turn up often in these essays, write a weekly column, Letter from America, for the Guardian.

And the Guardian went into business in 1836 and it 1936 its ownership went into a public trust to “secure the financial and editorial independence of The Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of The Guardian free from commercial or political interference.”

So there you are.

In a recent Lets Move To … column, they went to and recommended the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

They listed good points and bad points or the case for and the case against moving to Rotterdam.

The fact that the Netherlands public schools follow tweetalig onderwijs or Bij tweetalig onderwijs (tto) volgen leerlingen een deel van het voortgezet onderwijs in een andere taal. Meestal is dit Engels which means bilingual public education so that most folks speak english.

Then the article touched on the weather.

The weather was listed under THE CASE AGAINST.

“Heavy leaden skies, and Dutch mist (drizzle) that gets into your bones. Those who like beauty of a more conventional ilk might find it challenging.”

Boy HOWDY!

No wonder my ancestors moved to West Michigan.

They could write back home and say, “You would love the weather. It’s just like home.”

Heavy leaden skies.

Dutch mist?

I got to send that one off to my buddy George Lessens the weather tsar of West Michigan.

Dutch mist that gets into your bones.

Those who like beauty of a more conventional ilk might find it challenging.

NO KIDDING.

12 years ago we moved to the the south.

Just recently I relocated to the Low Country of South Carolina and the Atlantic Coast.

It is December here as well.

We spent the afternoon at the beach on Hilton Head Island.

For those who like beauty of a more conventional ilk there is nothing challenging about living here.

I lived in the West Michigan for 50 years.

I lived in the Dutch Mist for 50 years.

I lived under the heavy leaden skies.

Yes, yes, yes, there were beautiful days and beautiful vistas and if you went to the beach in July all you had to do was dig a shallow hole in the sand to the ice to keep your drinks cold.

All benefits.

But mostly exceptions, not the daily rule.

Leaden skies and dutch mist.

Distant memory.

Kind of a bad dream.

I would write more but we are just off to the beach.

12.9.2020 – man versus nature

man versus nature
acqua alta, time and tide
nature wins again

Gene Hackman in the role of Lex Luther in the movie Superman II, walks through the destruction of the offices of the Daily Planet caused by General Zod and crew when they burst through the walls and windows and he says to himself, “Even with all this accumulated knowledge, when will these dummies learn to use a DOOR KNOB?”

I read today about the city of Venice and its century old battle with the ocean tides.

Much like I am learning about now, if you build near an ocean it is a good idea to keep the ocean in mind.

Or as JRR Tolkien wrote in the Hobbit, “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

Venice was built on worthless swampy tidal land with, so I was told, the idea that those hordes of Mongols or Visigoths or Viking or who ever else might be coming down the river would have little interest in sacking the place.

The problem with worthless swampy land is that it is worthless swampy land.

And being on the ocean, the water will come up and down twice a day.

In Venice it is called the acqua alta or high water.

Time and tide waits for no one or “And te tide and te time þat tu iboren were, schal beon iblescet.” as it is first found in recorded history back in 1225.

But that did not stop the Venetians.

The latest effort to stop the tide is a project named MOSE or MOdulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico .

According to Wikipedia MOSE is part of the measures to improve the shallow lagoon environment are aimed at slowing degradation of the morphological structures caused by subsidence, eustatism, and erosion due to waves and wash.

Gosh.

I said the latest though it was designed back in 1984.

Venice is in Italy and Italy being Italy, things take a little bit longer.

Again according to Wikipedia, the project suffered from multiple delays, cost overruns, and scandals.

As they say, when in Rome.

MOSE is also a take of on the Italian for Moses and alludes to Moses and the Red Sea.

Again Wikipedia says, “Moses or “Mosè” in Italian, who is remembered for parting the Red Sea.”

And I always thought it was God who did the work but that is another story.

Back in 1984 the MOSE project was designed to close of the lagoons of Venice from the ocean and protect the city from high tide.

And as they say, so lucky for us that the Venetians invented blinds or it would have been curtains for all us.

The project got started.

Everyone got their share.

Everyone got their cut.

Everyone got to get their beaks wet a little.

And after 36 years MOSE was finished and ready to go.

Last week there was the first high tide of the season.

Downtown Venice was a lake.

Okay so it is usually a lake but this was a deeper lake and the kind of lake the MOSE was supposed to stop.

Four feet of water in St. Mark’s Church.

And I did say IN THE CHURCH.

It was deeper outside in St. Mark’s Square.

Seems that, yes, MOSE was ready.

But you see.

No one turned it on.

In the long struggle of mankind versus nature the score remains, Mankind ZERO, NATURE 1,325,211.

11.4.2020 – can I not get up?

can I not get up?
stay here under the covers
wake when it’s over

All I really wanted was decision.

Left or right,

Wrong or right.

I just wanted this long national nightmare to be over.

I often think that all things considered the Titanic’s collision with the ice berg was a feat of navigation.

What were the odds of a ship leaving England and traveling west at various speeds and courses could some how have hit, DEAD CENTER, a drifting iceberg in the middle of an ocean.

No one would have taken the bet.

Had the plan been for the Titanic to hit the iceberg, I am certain they would have missed.

Here is the point.

Hundreds of millions of voters.

Countless variables and datasets on how, where, when and why people will vote.

And this country comes down to a statistical tie?

A plus – minus within the range of a RANDOM result?

Boggles the mind.

Or does it?

John Adams of Founding Fathers fame once commented on how Americans felt about the French Revolution.

Mr. Adams famously said something along the lines of, “1/3 of Americans were pro French, 1/3 were pro revolution and 1/3 , well, they didn’t give a damn.”

Still it all seems to be coming down to Michigan.

Back in 1918 one of the big concerns was would the United States join the League of Nations.

It was THE GOAL of the Woodrow Wilson 2nd term.

The treaty had been signed but needed to be approved by the Republican Senate that was international intervention.

Prior to the election the Democrats held control 53 to 43 as there were just 96 Senators back then.

The Republicans made a big push to win the mid year elections.

The had to have a majority of 1 as a tie would let Vice President Thomas R. Marshall break the tie in favor of President Wilson.

In Michigan, Henry Ford ran as Candidate for Senate.

Mr. Ford won the Democratic primary.

Mr. Ford also entered the Republican primary which was allowed back then.

Had he won both primaries, he would be declared the winner.

Mr. Ford lost the primary to Truman Newberry, 212,000 to 220,000 votes.

Mr. Ford then lost the general election to Mr. Newberry.

Counting Mr. Newberry, the Republican’s took control of the Senate by one seat, 49 to 47.

Remember a tie was a loss.

As Wikipedia says, “The change in control meant that the Republicans could deny entry of the United States into the League of Nations. American participation in this new international institution was the centerpiece of Wilson’s post-war foreign policy.”

8,000 Michigan voters.

All I wanted was a clear winner.

All I wanted was no more haggling.

All I wanted was some relief from all this.

All I want now is to stay in bed.

To stay in bed, under the covers.

It is warm there.

It seems to be safe there.

They say no one is an island but right now I am out on an Island.

Under the covers would be just one step further in the right direction today.

10.29.2020 – looking forward back

looking forward back
are there any new ideas
old ideas re-thought

Came across the name Vannevar Bush in my reading the other night.

His entry in Wikipedia states, “an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime military R&D was carried out, including important developments in radar and the initiation and early administration of the Manhattan Project. He emphasized the importance of scientific research to national security and economic well-being, and was chiefly responsible for the movement that led to the creation of the National Science Foundation.“

In other words, he was the civil administrator of the operation that delivered the atomic bomb.

But he was an idea guy.

As the entry stated, Mr. Bush saw “the importance of scientific research to national security and economic well-being.“

He also envisioned a research tool tor a “device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.”

Mr. Bush advanced this concept in the early 1930’s.

With the tools available at the time, Mr. Bush wondered if somehow microfilm readers could some ‘link’ text to other sources.

When computers were first introduced there were often connected in a network or ‘internet’ that allowed information to be stored and shared.

In 1990’s, the world wide web was launched and that information became open to everyone.

Mr. Bush also predicted a time when “there is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers.“

The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers!

I am staggered by the amount of information now online.

I am glad its there though.

Lucky for me the world needs people to help find the way through this mountain of information.

I am here to help folks find their way to Hilton Head Island.

10.27.2020 – picture the graces

picture the graces
winning ways, and rare promise
not the faults and flaws

I love the book Tom Sawyer/

There are passages as full of what makes writing writing that had I written, I could die a happy man/

White washing the fence.

The unearned prize Bible.

Lost in the cave.

Right there with is the scene when Tom, Huckleberry Finn and Joe Harper march down the aisle at their own funeral.

Recent events have allowed me to reveal a great piece of personal news.

The comments, congratulations and well wishes of so many friends and family and folks whose comments and friendship I value a lot have reminded me of this scene.

Had I known I would heard such wonderful things I would have arranged to die a long time ago.

Thank you all.

As Mr. Twain put it, “Tom got more cuffs and kisses that day — according to Aunt Polly’s varying moods — than he had earned before in a year; and he hardly knew which expressed the most gratefulness to God and affection for himself.”

I am grateful to God for his affection.

I am grateful to God for your affection.

From The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

As the service proceeded, the clergyman drew such pictures of the graces, the winning ways, and the rare promise of the lost lads that every soul there, thinking he recognized these pictures, felt a pang in remembering that he had persistently blinded himself to them always before, and had as persistently seen only faults and flaws in the poor boys. The minister related many a touching incident in the lives of the departed, too, which illustrated their sweet, generous natures, and the people could easily see, now, how noble and beautiful those episodes were, and remembered with grief that at the time they occurred they had seemed rank rascalities, well deserving of the cowhide. The congregation became more and more moved, as the pathetic tale went on, till at last the whole company broke down and joined the weeping mourners in a chorus of anguished sobs, the preacher himself giving way to his feelings, and crying in the pulpit.

There was a rustle in the gallery, which nobody noticed; a moment later the church door creaked; the minister raised his streaming eyes above his handkerchief, and stood transfixed! First one and then another pair of eyes followed the minister’s, and then almost with one impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!