Vacation Adventures

Tar balls: lumps of oil, weathered to a roughly spherical shape, varying in size from pinhead to up to 30cm. They are sticky and irritating, but not a serious hazard. When you come into contact with them, you must wash with a good oil removing dishwashing liquid, and rinse with an isopropyl alcohol and water mix.

Because of the frantic searches for glasses and cell phone, which included calling numerous stores where we had been all through the day and turning the whole condo upside down, I did not get down to the shore that evening.

The next morning, when I had done with my workout and chores, I went down to walk the shore at sunrise. At the high tide line, where there is usually a line of shells and seaweed, it was a line of tar balls. It was gut wrenching to think of the wildlife refuges that surround the area getting ruined with all of that.

The state of Florida was certainly doing everything in their power to make sure that did not happen. By the next morning, the line of tar balls was gone, and people were swimming again. We just made sure everyone washed well on coming out of the water.

Every night, we could count 20-30 ships out on the water, crews working frantically to keep the oil away as much as possible. They are valiantly doing everything they can, and will keep it up as long as they need to.


Today is

Baltic Freedom Day

Family History Day

Feast Day of Elisha the Prophet

Flag Day, United States

Freedom Day, Malawi

Liberation Day, Falkland Islands

National Strawberry Shortcake Day

Nursing Assistants Day - First day of National Nursing Assistants Week

Pause for the Pledge Day

Pop Goes the Weasel Day

Rice Planting Festival, Osaka, Japan

St. Dogmael's Day

World Blood Donor Day


Birthdays Today:

Daryl Sabara, 1992
Lucy Hale, 1989
Steffi Graf, 1969
Yasmine Bleeth, 1968
Boy George, 1961
Donald Trump, 1946
John F. MacArthur, 1939
Jerzy Kosinski, 1933
Joe Arpaio, 1932
Marla Gibbs, 1931
Che Guevara, 1928
Pierre Salinger, 1925
Gene Barry, 1919
Burl Ives, 1909
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811


Today in History:

Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria, 1287
Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath and the Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance, 1381
Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, 1648
The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States, 1777
Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat, 1789
Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig, who named it Bourbon because he lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1789
Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom, 1821
The village of Henley, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first Royal Regatta, 1839
Trade unions are legalised in Canada, 1872
Norway adopts female suffrage, 1907
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic flight, 1919
Action Comics issue one is released, introducing Superman, 1938
The Canadian Library Association is established, 1946
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency, 1962
The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1966