My Favorite Way to Relax (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     www.wordlesswednesday.blogspot.com

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week, the words are

lustrum (a period of five years)

purification

provide

lullaby

manorhouse

salvage

and/or

draconian

boreal

eggs

rubbed

pans

smoothed

We've been coming to this place for vacation each year for more than a LUSTRUM, even more than a score.  In fact, our first time was when Bigger Girl was four months old, and she's now 28.

It's a condo at the beach, not a MANORHOUSE, so it is limited in size.  That's why i used to say it was a "family should be close but not this close" vacation.

On occasion, feelings have been hurt but nothing we couldn't SALVAGE, each time everything was SMOOTHED over.

Grandpa and Grandma PROVIDE the ways and means so we can come, and we are so grateful.

My favorite way to spend a few hours is under the waterfall at the pool.  The roar of the water is like a LULLABY, and i quite often end up inspecting the insides of my eyelids for cracks.  Being there is like a PURIFICATION ritual for me as i feel the stress of everyday life just melt away.

The first few years, we came in August.  This is no BOREAL climate, so by August the heat can be brutal and that's when all the seaweed moves in.  After those first few years, i asked if there was any reason we couldn't come in June instead.  There wasn't, and since we are not DRACONIAN about keeping ritual just for the sake of ritual, it's been June ever since.

It's a little bit of paradise here.  Sea turtles come and lay EGGS on the beaches.  The state park reserves are keeping much of the area pristine.

It has become more crowded here, though.  When we first started coming, there were a few beach homes, this resort and one other, and two small gas stations/quick market stores, one at each end of the island.  Of course, there was the Flora-Bama Bar, but back then it was a barely more than a tent on the beach.

Now there's crowds and traffic and a swinging night life (for some, i won't PAN it because i've not tried it, and i have no intention of doing so).

Some who live here full time have even RUBBED elbows with a few celebrities who have come here to get away from it all.

It's not as far away from it all as it used to be.

This might be the end of an era.  Grandpa and Grandma, and the other couple who own this unit, have decided to sell it.

What will happen next year has not been decided.  Other units here are for rent, and we might just rent one.  (This one is rented when none of the owners or family members are staying in it.)  Grandpa has friends who own beach houses, they are always offering to lend his family a place to stay for a week, so we might be taking someone up on the offer next year.

We still want to come, as much as it has changed it's still a lovely area, but things will be different now.

Different can be good, and even better.  Right now, though, today, i am here, and i am blessed.

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Today is:

Bloomsday -- commemoration of James Joyce and his novel, Ulysses

Day of Third-Hand Reports and Shaky Evidence -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Ludi Piscatari -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival for fishermen; some sites say it was on the 17th)

Fresh Veggies Day -- before you have that fudge later

International Day of the African Child -- Organisation of African Unity

Ladies' Day (Baseball) -- anniversary of the first ever Ladies' Day baseball game, hosted by the New York Giants in 1883

Martyrdom Day of Guru Arjan Dev -- Sikh

National Fudge Day

National Morticians Day -- honoring the last people to ever let you down

National Vinegar Day

St. Benno's Day (Patron of anglers, fishermen, weavers; Dresden-Meissen, Germany; Munich, Germany)

St. John-Francis Regis' Day (Patron of embroiderers, lace makers, social workers; Sisters of Saint Francis Regis; against plague)

Sussex Day -- West Sussex, England (on St. Richard's Day as celebrated in this area [current feast day is April 3 elsewhere]; he was Bishop of Chichester from 1245 to 1253, and his shrine was an important pilgrimage site)

Youth Day -- South Africa

Birthdays Today:

Abby Elliott, 1987

Diana DeGarmo, 1987

Phil Mickelson, 1970

Laurie Metcalf, 1955

Sonia Braga, 1950

Joan Van Ark, 1943

Joyce Carol Oates, 1938

Erich Segal, 1937

John Howard Griffin, 1920

Stan Laurel, 1890

Geronimo, 1829

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Ghostbusters II(Film), 1989

The Blues Brothers(Film), 1980

Psycho(Film), 1960

Today in History:

The Zoroastrian Religious Calendar begins with the ascension of Yasdegerd III of Persia, the start of the Persian Era, 632

Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses, 1487

British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada, 1745

The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians, 1755

Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois, 1858

The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England kills 183 children, 1883

John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister, 1891

The Ford Motor Company is incorporated, 1903

The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane, 1948

Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris, 1961

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, 1963

The largest single-site hydro-electric power project in Canada starts at Churchill Falls, Labrador, 1972

Soweto uprising: a non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd and kill 566 children, 1976

Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years of its issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon, 2000

The 9/11 Commission, contradicting White House claims, determines Saddam Hussein had no strong ties to al-Qaeda, 2004

British Petroleum agrees to finanace a $20 billion fund to compensate those whose livelihood was damaged by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, 2010

Prince Harry of Wales is cleared to return to active duty in the Afghan War, 2011

Egypt's voters go to the polls for a second round of voting in their first presidential election, 2012

Amazon announces it is buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, 2017