This morning I spotted this freighter coming in while I was out on the dune-top deck, silhouetted by a hesitant sunrise peeking through the clouds. It had probably sailed right past the sunken wreckage of Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge. Sometimes we can see the lights of these merchant ships out on the horizon where they anchor at night.
Beaufort and Morehead City are both popular with fishermen, too; deep sea fishing charters are lined up along the waterfront in both cities. So we see a lot of fishing boats, sometimes tall charter boats and sometimes commercial shrimpers dragging their trawl nets behind them. These folks had an early start this morning; I was out on the deck a little after 7:30 a.m. and they were already working the waters in front of the condo.
It has turned warmer again, up in the sixties although still a little breezy, so those fisherman would have been enjoying themselves more today than earlier in the week, when we saw some folks out fighting the choppy waters.
The Senate Impeachment Trial has been continuing all week, and we have felt compelled to watch much of it, although I have not stayed up until 2:00 a.m. as some of our Senators and attorneys and news teams have been required to do. I had enough late-night Board meetings during my career with the Town of Highlands, although even they usually adjourned long before midnight. I can't help but think that they don't want us to stay up and watch it. We turn on the TV and watch for awhile, hearing the same arguments on both sides, and while it is often repetitive and even dull from time to time, we feel that it is our civic duty to watch as much as we can. I am old enough to remember Watergate and had the same feeling then, that grave history is being made and that the nation's very survival as a Republic may be at stake.
After lunch, we decided to walk down to the Oceana Pier and back, about a mile and a half or so, to escape the hearing. I told Martha I wanted to hear "oral arguments" from the ocean for awhile. It was an unimpeachably beautiful day! There were a few others out walking, bundled up against the breeze despite the mild temperatures. It was low tide and Martha found some good shells, although all the sand dollars were broken. Perhaps we can eventually find all the pieces of one, assemble them, and bond them together with some Gorilla Glue.
We also found this, which at first looked like a bubble out in the surf, about three or four inches across, floating in on the waves. I thought it might be a sea urchin, a living sand dollar, but it seemed too transparent for that - some kind of jellyfish, was Martha's guess, and she proved correct. When we returned we looked in our Living Beaches book that we bought at Fort Macon last year and discovered it was a moon jellyfish.
Down at the pier, a man and a woman were trying to take a selfie with their cell phone, a popular place for pictures. I offered to take their picture, and then they took ours. We discovered that we were both from the mountains; they were from Harrisonburg, VA, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway, and they were planning to buy a house here.
Now we have returned to the condo, the sun is shining brighter than it has all day, and Martha is reading yet another book in a chair on the deck. I am tempted to join her. But my civic duty calls me to at least check in briefly to the Senate Chamber and watch history unfold before our eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment