July goes, August comes, THEN SEPTEMBER

Friday, July 31

July went out with a boom-boom as the shuttle landed at the Cape in sunny, still weather, and all was well. The re-entry was perfect for the late morning landing signaled by the breaking of the sound barrier heard all over the coastline. Astronaut Wakata returned to Earth with the underwear he used during his 4 -1/2 months space station stay. He kept them on for a month at a stretch. They're experimental high-tech undies, designed in Japan (where else) to be odor free. Will these droopy drawers end up in the Smithsonian?

August will bring us another month of hot steamy days and much rain in the forecast. Then comes beautiful September when the beach is abandoned by the summer crush of inland sunbathers and left for the residents, the turtles, the birds and us. September is the best beach month of the year for residents - nights are cooler, the beach is bare of people and returns to nature. Yesterday a supermarket bag boy of probably 60 years reminisced about his three generation of family born and raised in New Smyrna Beach. As a boy, he and his family put up large tents on the beach, camped out overnight, built bonfires, cooked and fished, and New Smyrna was just a smidgeon of a city.

The good news this year is that El Nino is active in the Pacific, which lowers the potential for Atlantic hurricanes so let September hasten and winter set in. If you look closely at the photo above, you will see a boy sitting on his Dad, buried in the sand.