Growing Bolder Community

It was a sunny, windy, cold (cool by northern stands) day for walking the beach today. The wind was out of the north at 15 to 20 mph; the 4 or 5 clusters of sea gulls had their beaks into the wind (who wants their tail feathers ruffled?). It was low tide which is the perfect time for walking since there is a wide expanse of sand, hard packed and fairly level. Being winter here in Florida, there...

(Readers' Note: This was written in the fall.) The stifling weather of Florida's summer has broken. The weather has become cool by our standards and the humidity has dropped off. Consequently, it was time again to resume my walks on the beach - and so I did today. I guess I need to explain what I mean when I say the beach, our beach. The beach actually spans to two cities - Ormond...

Several lifetimes ago when I was still a manager in the work place, I often started a meeting with a few words of caution. It conveyed one thought I wanted all the participants to keep in mind. It was what I called the "playing in the waves” phenomena. I'm sure you can recall spending some time at the beach, playing in the waves. You'd wade in, swim some, float some, maybe body surf some or...

While walking the beach this afternoon, I passed several small children, probably between ages 2 to 5, playing in the shallow water while their mothers watched on. There was no doubt in my mind that those children were very much aware of and attached to their mothers. Then it struck me - kids and dogs (canines if you prefer) are so much alike. Fortunately, I am writing this far away from any...

I finally got out for another walk on the beach today – it’s been much too long since my last walk there.. The best time to walk is at low tide, and so I did. With the tide out, there is about thirty yards of firm, nearly flat sandy beach on which to walk. When the tide is in, that part of the beach disappears under the waves and you are eft with loose sand making it as difficult...

The other day was another day to walk the beach. Fall is trying to move summer out of the way but not with much success. After a few days of cool weather, or at least cool for us, summer has made it clear it has no intentions of being pushed off the stage quite yet. But be that as it may, it was a pleasant day to walk the beach. (Readers' note: Subsequent to writing this, winter moved in;...

The beach was empty, streams of sand drifted away before my feet. The sea was angry and noisy, not the best day for a walk near the tide line perhaps, as it started to rain as well. I hesitated to go on, then I saw him, out of nowhere there he went, a tall skinny man with a bar over his shoulder. He approached me and I recognized him by his seamans hat. His name was Jan W., a notorios beach...