The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

-- KJV

(Praise be to God, creator of all beauty, come down to us on Christmas. Taken Christmas 2008, Kill Devil Hills, NC.)

The Westminster Choir and Me

I was driving home from OBX Sunday. The road was clear, no traffic jams, the weather was gorgeous. So why was I so down?

Sadness engulfed me. Insecurity plagued me. Money gone. Weekend gone. Puppy dog gone. Older people in my life suddenly worried about their incomes...money frozen in supposedly safe accounts. Stolen, by liars and thieves .

It was hard to put aside the worries and enjoy the carefree casualness of the beach. A crystilline blue artificial world...no, the real world? Which is it? Nature is as real as it gets...but reality requires us to oil the wheels of commerce to maintain our natural state. A conundrum it is.
So I hit scan on the radio and listened to 5-second snatches of false reality. 5 seconds of angst from the 20 somethings, who have been raised with the best of everything...all they can eat, preventitive medical care, the ability to have a perfect smile. Hmmm...ironic that those perfect smiles seem so unhappy. Then there were the talking heads, spinning lines like spider webs to snare you in sticky insecurity. The "oldies" were represented...young men and women on the verge of world war singing doo wop. The numbers ran up and up the dial. Is this what God hears?

Down in the low digits, I hit Christian Radio. Not just the monotonous droning of "You are so great Almighty Dude," but the WESTMINSTER CHOIR singing "How Firm a Foundation." Just thinking about it gives me chills. I know that song, so I sang along with the Westminster Choir, somewhere in North Carolina in a sandy Mazada Tribute. Not a soul heard me, but I joined my voice to theirs and together we created a mighty wind...inspiration if you will.

God is in His universe. I gave thanks for the crystal blue sky, for radio waves, for somebody who looked to past and found faith for the future.

I wonder if I can download it to my iPod.

--A

I got my hot dog. No thanks to Dairy Queen.

Dairy Queen let me down.

Our last night at the beach, and it’s finally a warm balmy evening. I’ve been waiting to stroll up to Dairy Queen, order up a hotdog and sit at a concrete table and eat. I’ve never been within walking distance of Dairy Queen, so this will be a treat (no pun intended, but if you catch it anyway, you get bonus points).

First, though, we walked out to the beach and found ourselves a couple of mileposts from our cottage. Fearing dark, we trudge up the nearest beach access and walk back by beach road. The walk home was not as much fun as the stroll down, let me tell you. By the time we reached our cottage, we were glad to hop in the Tribute and drive the 2 blocks to DQ. The fantasy got a little fuzzy around the edges, but I was still up for the 2 hotdogs for $2.49 special.

Strolling up to the window, I placed my order. The girl gestured helplessly, shrugs, and babbles something in a high-pitched Asian accent.

“No hot dogs left?” I attempt to translate.

“No flude. No flude after flive.” Again, “no flude.”

NO FOOD? How can you walk up to Dairy Queen and be told no food? Why are they open?

“Onlee ice cleam.”

There are two older people sitting in a black car in the parking area. “Hey,” the guy says, furtively “You like prime rib?”

First, why are they sitting there not eating or ordering? Second, is the prime rib stolen? I expect him to open his trunk and pull out a hunk of beef.

“Jolly Rogers three miles up the road has all the prime rib you can eat on Friday night. We just came from there.” Only $10. I can’t have a hot dog, I guess I’ll just settle for prime rib. This frankly is not the way I had it planned. (Sorry about the 2nd pun).

We passed on the prime rib and went in search of a good ol' coney. Captain Franks...! Closed. I was about to settle for a gas station dog when we saw Spanky's. Hot Dogs! Open!

Yes! I got my hot dog, at Spanky’s (note: eat at Spanky’s if you can. They’re a young couple trying to make a go of fast food.) We got some conversation and a strange guitar serenade on top of it. There were stuffed monkeys atop all the light fixtures.

Dairy Queen let me down. I guess there’s a first time for everything. I probably can’t get a banana split for breakfast either. Maybe there’s no such thing as paradise afterall.

Peas Really Grow on Pea Island

On the advice of a local with a heavy aussie accent (he moved here 4 years ago) we set out for the Oregon Inlet area to search for beach glass on Tuesday.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore is unsettling to me. It's wild, windblown and extremely narrow--you can see both the Atlantic on one side and the Pamlico Sound on the other. There's no shoulder, in some places water stands across the road (where did THAT come from?)and in other places, the sand must be bulldozed back to allow cars through. It's just that I'm not used to being on such a sliver of shifting, seemingly sinking sand, high dunes on one side, flat marsh on the other. Alone, I might add. I couldn't decide if I hoped I was alone out there or not. It's beautiful and desolate.

It was a relief when we pulled into a local dive in Mirlo Beach called "Hot Tuna", advertising "pub and grub" and ordered up the combo basket: fried flounder, fried shrimp, fried scallops, french fries, cole slaw and hush puppies (Red Lobster does not offer hush puppies anymore. I hate that place now.) It arrived so hot it burned my tongue. Which is the way seafood should arrive at your table. We sat and ate with the local fisherman, marooned at the bar because it was too windy and fuel too expensive to fish.

After stuffing ourselves we turned back homeward and stopped at the Pea Island Visitor's Center. Don't drive by this place. Stop and hike the 1/2 mile Charles Kuralt nature trail.

See live snapping turtles! The snapping turtle's head is as big as the Bear's fist.

The beach is across the road.

Clouds of blue mosquitos find you despite the stiff, cold wind. And a type of pea grows there. It's on a vine and it looks like your garden peas. They feed the snow birds that winter on the island.

No sea glass today. But isn't it good to know the snow birds are eating peas in North Carolina?

Gourmet Day

Yesterday we ate lunch at 3 pm at Coastal Provisions Market. I knew I was a goner when I walked into that place. They had one C'lina BBQ (beef) left.

Jim, pointedly: "I thought you swore to never eat anything but my barbeque."
Me: "Ummmm...but this is beef. Yours is pork."
Jim: Stares pointedly at me.
Me: "Besides, I've got to keep sampling the competition in order to eliminate them."

I waltz over to the gourmet cheeses. OMG...They have a huge chunk of Midnight Moon.

Run away! Run away!

Jim decides on grilled salmon with ginger, mac n cheese and grilled vegetables. I get my BBQ wrapped in butcher paper. As we're checking out, we simultaneously point to an evil looking pastry mocking us on a glass cake plate.

"What's that?"

"Creme Brulee croissant". Oh my. Imagine a cinnamon roll type croissant with at big glob of creme brulee sitting smack dab in the middle. We split it.

Today's fare was a giant spinach feta croissant (I'll eat anything on a croissant) with a slice of 7 layer carrot cake at Beach Bread and ginger peach hot tea.

Then a trip to Good Life Gourmet turned up Charles Chips potato chips, Dirty Cracked pepper and sea salt chips and a crackers for the already purchased Wensleydale with cranberries.

This is a far cry from our youthful trips to Navarre Beach, Florida where we ate fried croaker with tartar sauce in a shack by the gulf, wearing cut off jeans and tee shirts. Dinner out for two broke kids. Lunch was a hot dog.

"There's your hot dog place" says Jim every few blocks.

Some things never change.

Killin' time in Kill Devil Hills

Vroooommmm. Vrooooomm. Vroooooooooooooooom.

It's Biker Week in Kill Devil Hills. By the time they left around noon today -- when it suddenly became very still and quiet -- Jim could tell by the sound what kind of bike it was. "That's the old style Harley" he'd say or "Here comes a chopper." We sat on the deck of our beach cottage, with a birdseye view of the intersection watching them zoom back and forth. They all look like WWII soldiers to me, with their shorties. On the next block was a small city of tents selling Kevlar bullet proof jackets.

????

Whatever.

So, awoke this morning to the sound of birds instead of the roaring of Harleys. Got out on the beach (see handy uploaded photo of me having fun) and started looking for beach glass. Found some good specimans, and a local who was out walking her beautiful dog, contributed a big piece of amber. Her name is Rena and she works at the Elizabethian Gardens as a groundskeeper. She offered to get us in free, but we want to support the local economy so will probably not take her up on it. Forgot the dog's name, but he sat really pretty and offered a paw.

It was overcast, but warm enough to be out on the beach without a sweatshirt, and the water did not sting too badly when it washed over me...as I was sitting in a pile of shells sifting through for glass. "Look out!" Jim roared and then commented that I could still move my ass.

Now a cold front has moved in with a slow drizzle (poor bikers), but we've laid in supplies from Food Lion for tomorrow in case we stay in all day. Have some movies to watch and some books to read and some wine to drink. The pool is warm and the hot tub is fired up so no worries about tomorrow.

A perfect day for many reasons.

Note to self: Do not go to Harris Teeter next time and spend all the food budget on nothing to eat. At least not in the first 15 minutes after arrival. Also, go back and buy the coaster that said "I'm still hot. It just comes in flashes."

; )