Groundhog Day

There was bad news this morning for those who believe that a small rodent in Pennsylvania has the ability to predict the severity of the rest of the winter.  Yes, the state’s most famous resident, Punxsutawney Phil, reportedly emerged from his burrow  this snowy Tuesday morning and saw his shadow, which for some reason frightened him back into his burrow, resulting in six more weeks of winter.  

 “Of course there will be six more weeks of winter!” I told myself when I heard this news.  “Especially in Highlands!  It’s only February 2!”  I well remember that our worse blizzard, “The Storm of the Century,” arrived on March 13, 1993.

It was cloudy here this morning, so local Atlantic Beach groundhogs (if any) may have been able to emerge from their burrows and poked their noses unafraid into the stiff north wind, which in turn may have sent them back again, as it did me after my very expeditious walk out onto the dune-top deck for my morning Tai Chi.  From that perch, I could see the lights of three bulldozers working out on the beach as part of the dredging and beach nourishment project that I have written about.  They were very close, and although that north wind carried the sound out to sea this morning, we have been hearing the loud beeping as they back, and push, and back again the dark dredged sand coming out of the end of that long pipeline.  They are already working at 7:00 a.m., and in the evenings we can hear them well after dark, the area where they are working lit by bright lights.  It made me wonder if they work through the night.  Once it starts flowing through the pipeline, can they simply turn it off, like a faucet, and expect it not to come to a halt under the ocean into a stubborn immovable ball of dense silt?

I checked the informative website and found no answer to this question, but I did find that the bulldozers are continuing to make “Nice Progress:”

Weeks Marine and their pipeline dredge, the J. S. Chatry, has made some nice progress the past several days as they continue to address shoaling in Range A of the Harbor during this period of calm seas (despite being accompanied by a near constant mist or rain).  In terms of the concurrent beach nourishment activity, the discharge is located near the Southwinds/A Place at the Beach condominiums area.  Roughly 3,386 linear feet completed; 10,475 linear feet remaining.

I am surprised this $18 million project is still underway in the face of the nation’s grave economic crisis.  It can only be continuing because it was approved long before the Covid-19 pandemic and contracts already awarded.  But the reality is that we will no longer be able to run on the beach at low tide, or walk on the beach as Martha did on Saturday when she collected this bountiful plateful of shells.

But the beach is a living thing, and time and tide will spread out new sand, and wash in new shells, long after we are gone.