walking along when out of orange colored sky flash, bam, you came by
I was walking along Mindin’ my business When out of the orange colored sky Flash, Bam, Alakazam Wonderful you came by
I was hummin’ a tune Drinkin’ in sunshine When out of that orange colored view Wham, Bam, Alakazam I got a look at you
One look and I yelled “timber” Watch out for flying glass
‘Cause the ceiling fell in And the bottom fell out I went in to a spin And i started to shout “I’ve been hit, this is it, this is it”
I was walking along Mindin’ my business When love came and hit me in the eye Flash, Bam, Alakazam Out of the orange colored sky
According to Wikipedia, “Orange Colored Sky” is a popular song written by Milton Delugg and Willie Stein and published in 1950. The first known recording was on July 11, 1950, on KING records catalog number 15061, with Janet Brace singing and Milton Delugg conducting the orchestra.
The best-known version of the song was recorded by Nat King Cole (with Stan Kenton’s orchestra) on August 16, 1950, and released by Capitol Records as catalog number 1184. It first reached the Billboard Best Seller chart on September 22, 1950, and lasted 13 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 11.[3] (Some sites list a 1945 date for this recording, but this is apparently in error.) A number of other singers have recorded it, including Cole’s daughter, Natalie.
Some where there is an interview with Natalie Cole about how as a kid, she loved this song.
Not for the way her Dad sang but for all the wonderful nonsense words.
Who wouldn’t love hearing their Dad sing out Flash, Bam, Alakazam.
It was wonderful enough for us kids to hear our Dad sit at the piano and sing Lulu’s Back in Town.
It was a wonderful life.
A little odd, maybe a lot of odd, but wonderful any way.
The picture is of the night sky over Bluffton, SC and seen while out on a walk with my wife.
no phone no wifi a day in the wilderness back to caveman days
I was working happily at home when around 11 a.m. my wifi went out.
As we get internet service and TV from the same place, I checked the TV and it was out.
No worries, I had a fall back plan when working from home.
The T Mobile unlimited data hotspot.
But my phone showed no bars and displayed the dread SOS that only 911 calls might work.
I checked with our apartment complex office as our service was paid for through our rent but they were out.
I drove to the local library and their service was out but someone with a different phone service was reporting a major outage for the county.
For the first time I knew for sure it was just local.
From the news:
The city of Beaufort said at 11:15 a.m. that its facilities were all without internet services.
Downdetector.com showed outages across South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.
Teachers also reported the internet being down in Beaufort County public schools.
By 12:45 p.m., Sparklight reported that “a portion of Hargray customers are experiencing slow internet or internet outages due to fiber damage caused by a third-party.”
At 4:13 PM EDT, the IT department where I work said that local provider, Hargray, had suffered 4 near simultaneous cuts in their main fiber ring in the Savannah/Pooler areas. A fiber ring can remain operational with 1 cut, but 4 at nearly the same time is catastrophic. The cuts were made by 4 different companies, in 4 different locations, also one I have never seen or heard of before. This Fiber ring supports all Hargray customers phone and internet services, hence the extensive service area affected, (Fl, GA, SC, NC, AL). Hargray has located 3 of the 4 cuts. Crews are onsite and hope to have the 3 cuts repaired in 3-5 hours. They believe this will restore the ring.
By that time I had got in the car and drove until I found cell service which was about 20 miles away.
I was stunned that we could lose both WiFi and Cell service on a perfectly sunny clear day.
beneath my palm-trees .. sat a weeping – no one to ask me why I wept …
Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side, I sat a weeping: in the whole world wide There was no one to ask me why I wept, And so I kept Brimming the water-lily cups with tears Cold as my fears.
Beneath my palm-trees, by the river side, I sat a weeping: what enamoured bride, Cheated by shadowy wooer from the clouds, But hides and shrouds Beneath dark palm-trees by a river side?
Song of the Indian Maid by John Keats as published in The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900 (Oxford, 1919).
On Labor Day, my wife and I walked through the Widgeon Point Preserve on Lemon Island in Port Royal Sound in the heart of the South Carolina Low Country.
As it says on the park website, A hiking loop travels the perimeter of the adjacent hummock island. The loop is a wide, flat nature trail that travels through pines, palms, and oak trees. Views of the river can be seen from several different vantage points. The various coastal habitats of Widgeon Point Preserve support a rich diversity of wildlife and plants. Visitors have extraordinary opportunities to observe the natural beauty of the Lowcountry.
It had just rained and the muddy path was filled with little mud marsh crabs that gave you the feeling that the path itself was alive.
It was a extraordinary opportunity to observe.
And also an opportunity to learn.
We knew we lived in the low country of South Carolina.
We knew we lived in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
But we didn’t know that Beaufort County is SO LOW that during high tide, up to 50% of Beaufort County is under water.
sailors expression about weather: the weather is a great bluffer
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society—things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time, waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
Letter to Mr. Nadeau, March 30, 1973. Letters of E. B. White, Revised Edition. Ed. Martha White. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
For the first time this hurricane season, folks in the low country are been alerted to the possibility of water … lots of it.
We are are just miles from the Atlantic Ocean which is a lot of water to begin with.
We have roads that with signs that say, “Road Ends in Water.”
I puzzled over these signs for a bit, wondering why they didn’t say, “ROAD ENDS – 500 FT” until I figured it out that in an area with an 8 foot vertical tide, just WHERE the road ends is a matter of time and tide, but for sure, the road ends at the water.
Then a storm, though whether or not its a hurricane or a tropical storm, the weather people or the storm itself hasn’t made up its mind, is coming.
Storms bring storm surges or push more of the Atlantic Ocean up into the low country which is low as the name implies.
I do not worry a lot about storm surge, as I live in Bluffton, which as the name implies, is up on a bluff over the Maye River, it would take a storm surge of some 25 feet or more to get to me.
A storm surge of 10 feet on top of a high tide, would surely strand me here on the bluff as most of the local roads would be covered.
Then there is the coming rain.
Lots of it.
Then there is the malicious nature of this coming storm.
Though the folks who know don’t know what kind of storm it will when the storm is coming they do agree on two things.
One is that it is FULL of rain from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The other thing is that the storm will get here to the coast between Savannah and Charleston and … stop.
Not that the raining will stop but the storm will stop and for anywhere between the next 10 to 48 hours, rain of Old Testament Bible stories will fall on us from the heavens.
When you drive through the streets of old Charleston, intersections have depth gauges to show how deep the water can get.
Charleston is about 2 feet about sea level.
During high tide, you can hear water roaring through the storm drains just inches below the road beds.
Drop 6 inches of rain at high tide on Charleston and you can figure out why those depth gauges on intersections have a four foot scale.
On its website, the city of Savannah has posted a city map that show which intersections will be flooded.
Savannah is also on a bluff above the Savannah River but it also has a storm water sewage system that is about 100 years old.
Some schools are already closing for the day, Wednesday.
And all of this is speculation.
I have worked with enough weather people to know that nobody knows nothing when it comes to forecasting.
As Mr. White writes, the weather is a great bluffer.
But we all take warning.
And as Mr. White writes, I guess the same is true of our human society—things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet.
I take heart both for the storm and the mess of life that the human race has made on this planet when I consider:
But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time, waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
lights on the water shrimp boats tied up to the dock shrimp, shrimpers on break
Night time at the shrimp docks.
We went hoping to see the northern lights but the lights we saw were on the boats at the Hudson’s Restaurant on the shrimp dock.
The shrimp boat were tied and the shrimpers were inside at the bar.
What do the shrimp do when not being caught?
Do they know they shrimpers are taking a break.
Do they sigh in relief that they made it through another day?
Do they look at each other and say, ‘What a day!’ or ‘That was a close one!’
Do they gather at a bar an exchange stories of close calls with all those things that want to eat them?
Do they live in ignorance that their world is filled with all those things that want to eat them?
Or do they live with the goal that they might someday be a part of some magical dish of shrimp served in a waterside restaurant where they are the end of someone else’s day.
Maybe next time I order a shrimp boil, I will think of this.
No Haiku For You 