Water on the beach

Even though the Blue Mountain Beach water is beautiful, the sand bright white, the sky summer blue, with the oil spill comes great anxiety. You can't help but examine the water for tar balls. You watch the small creatures like the sand fleas and the coquina for any stress. You watch the birds carefully, studying them for unusual behavior. We have not seen any tar balls yet on our beach but we expect them. We hope and pray it won't be too bad, we look forward to when the well is capped, the gulf skimmed, the animals saved. You tuck away your anger and frustration; you live with your sadness.

A bright spot is our visitors who continue to come despite all the news. One woman told me cheerfully that "there were so many things to do here she had no intention to cancel no matter what." We so appreciate that. Thank you for being here.

Bruce and/or I will continue to go to the beach every day. We will join our neighbors for hands across the sand on Saturday, the one way I know to speak out against drilling anywhere near our beach. As an unabashed proponent of developing alternative energy sources and living simply, I'm tired of our dependency on oil. The cost is too high no matter how you look at it. We are better than this.