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Fridays are for "Fun" ...Mooooooooo/Ouch

It's Friday once again and time for another bit of "Friday Fun Pontification" from old LCJoe.

And this Friday's "fun" comes compliments of today's Island Packet front page article "Heading to the Beach"......The copy is bottom left with a relatively small headline, but when one continues on at page 4A the copy is HUGE AND OMINOUS.....NUMBER OF STINGRAY STINGS UP SLIGHTLY ON ISLAND....and in smaller body copy...."24 stings this week".

Now one might wonder how you could have "fun" being stung/pierced by a relative of the creature that killed the "crocodile hunter"........  But the whole "fun"  part is/is if you want your whole weekend on HHI to be "fun" ya might want to consider "watchin out" for Cownose stingrays lurking in the water right off the beach. Now these cownose stingrays don't go Moo like cows from Ohio but they do "sting". Well actually "sting" is not the proper word considering the fact that these particular stingrays with a cow name have big old sharp barbs on their behinds not tails that are continually in motion swatting flies.  And just when you are having "fun" romping in the waves you step on this little fellow and he/she says mooooo, I guess,  and then as a passing gesture sticks his/her sharp serrated barb deep into your foot. Now comes the good part as noted by some retired Marine scientist....."the spear like tip of the barb punctures the victim, then the serrations cut the flesh in the opposite direction when removed". Yowzahhhhhh and Ouchhhhheroooniiii.

But thanks to the Packet we do have a medical remedy for this "piercing pickle" you have found yourself in. The pain will be intense so a hot water compress should be applied ASAP. Considering that fact that you probably don't have  a "hot water compress" handy in your beach bag find the closest "hard bodied" lifeguard and he/she can fix you up with high teck self activated heat pack.  Apply it to the affected area and make a bee line to the Tiki hut and "down" two double vodka tonics. I understand that is the ultimate remedy for jellyfish stings so it should help in this case as well and if nothing else, it will make you feel like you are having fun.

So have a "Fun Friday" watching out for those "moo creatures" and a "fun time" on some of the finest beaches on the East Coast....

See ya on the high tide....

LowCountry Joe

Drunk Woodpeckers

My favorite blogger, Teresa Boardman, way up there in St. Paul Minnesota has a favorite saying on each of her Friday blogs...."Fridays are for fun"....So if I may steal her thunder for a day, lets get away from the doldrums of high gas prices, the whining of the negative Liberal press and "who shot who" today......and lets have some fun and talk  about  the antics of "drunk woodpeckers".

That's right, the crazy antiques of  drunk woodpeckers better know in this particular scenario as "Dryocopus Pileatus" better know as the "Pileated Woodpecker". Now one must understand that Woody Woodpecker...the "all time" King/Queen of woodpeckers was "dreamed up" by some dude out there in bird land and was inspired to create Woody in particular. Now I have watched a lot of Woody Woodpecker cartoons in my life but I never did see one "tipsy". So what a "delight" I had this Friday morning when four (4)...yes I said four (4) of the third largest woodpeckers know to exist descended on my humongous Palmetto tree right next to Daufuskie Island's Historic  Silver Dew Winery and devour every Palmetto berry in sight. Now this might come as a surprise to my Northern friends, but Palmetto trees do sprout berries....big old dark ones that are obviously a "rare treat" for my red pecker headed friends. And these berries obviously ferment just like the wine Papy Burn made in the Winery. And just like folks that drank Papy's wine they got a little goofy.

Now we all know how a "mortal being" acts when they drink a little to much wine. That's why the cops have this sobriety test and have you try and walk a straight line while looking straight ahead. Its impossible!!! But then consider the fact that these birds ain't walkin'.....they are flyin'....and they are flying between trees,  big trees, old Carolina Lob-lolly pines and live oaks with their big old limbs spreading everywhere just waitin' to "catch a beak".

And beaks they did catch. Screachin' and chattering' feathers were flyin' as Woody's cousins had the time of their life. Like jets in an air show their daredevil antics found them goin' straight up.....sideways and in some cases straight down. The show went on for about an hour and had me in tears. They were simply having fun on Friday knowing the local Daufuskie Sheriff couldn't have caught them if he wanted to.

And soon they were gone, as fast as they arrived, into the hinterlands to find, I would expect a big old hole in a tree and nurse what would surely be a hurtin' red crested head. I was sad to see them go, because they brought intense humor to my life. Its been a while since I laughed that hard and made me realize why its so important to realize that  "Fridays Are For Fun".

See ya on the high tide....

LowCountry Joe

www.WeBeBloggin.com

LowCountry Joe has lost his marbles....

Well.....it's been a long time since I lost all my marbles. But when I did loose them  it seemed like I always lost them to this neighborhood bully named Jimmmy. Now I was a fairly good marble shooter but Jimmy was the best. He would clean me and my friends out on any given Saturday morning just down the road next to French Creek.

Now one must understand....this may not seem like any big deal today, but back in those days when you saved up to go to the Five and Dime to buy their best "shooters" in was a monumental event. It was even more monumental when you lost them "playing for keeps" to a guy that would walk away laughing as his pants pockets bulged with my favorite aggies.

I never forgot those memorable days and as years "passed"  I would go to antique shows and look for marbles. Never did play with them any more, mind you, but I bought them just so that I could have them and with Jimmy long gone know he couldn't get them. Plus that, I started to truly appreciate marbles, especially their amazing colors and designs. Inexpensive cats eyes were prevalent as well as marbles called toothpaste, streaks of white red and blue, and believe it or not marbles called Viagra, blue with strains of liquid. But what really got my attention when I once ran into a marble I had never before seen. It was called an Oxblood and the price tag on this CIRCA 1880-1910 beauty was eighteen hundred (1800) dollars.

Now this gets me to the point where I lost my marbles. For some unknown reason I got this strange feeling I wanted to play marbles. The sandy soil on Daufuskie Island, Hilton Head and the LowCountry is a great place to make a circle, throw a bunch of marbles in the center, and with knuckles bent and aimed try to hit them out. We used to call it ringer. Sounds like a lot of fun. So, I did what most husbands would do when they are looking for something and can't find it, I asked my Wife...."Honey have you seen my marbles"? Geeze Louise...is the only acceptable description of what came next...but it had something to do with how the dickens would she know where my marbles are but they probably are stuck away someone where in an attic box next to the brass candlesticks my Aunt Nellie bought us for our wedding thirty six (36) years ago last month..........

That being said I was bound and determined to play marbles. E-Bay came to rescue and like magic I once again I felt like a child at play. Now I haven't found anyone to play with yet but I'm looking for a game. And if you are as good as Jimmy was, thats OK, because as evidenced by the included pic on my blog, I personally have wire wrapped one as part of my Low Country Joe Jewelry Collection, and it hangs around my neck, so you can never have them all. So bring your bag of aggies on, lets find a sandy place under a big old Live Oak Tree and play marbles like a child "once more".

See Ya on the High Tide

LowCountry Joe