Do you hear the crickets?

I have been here three days now, and this morning was the first that I noticed the crickets. Perhaps it is because the ocean is calmer and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach are much quieter.

More likely? It is because I am calmer and after three mornings of spectacular sunrises and I was finally in a ace to notice the crickets.

There is so much that I tune out to keep control of what I can process. Sitting outside enjoying the ocean and the dawn allows me to get in touch with those things. It is similar to the springtime when I first hear the peepers. I enjoy heir song, but soon it blends into the background noise.

This is a defense mechanism. I live near Interstate 95 and I tune out the noise from the traffic except during the middle of the night when there are no other sounds.

I guess it means than I am in a good place within myself because I can hear the crickets and they are melodious.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Ocean City, MD

Ocean Sunrise

Up before dawn to watch the colors of the new day as it arrives. This is something I love to do, watching the dawn drive out the darkness.

It is good to get away for a bit and have a few quiet moments before the day begins to appreciate the colors and the spectacle that is before me.

A single seagull flies across the sky, lending movement to the otherwise still scene.

Another day is at hand.

Dawn seems to be coming faster now. Just like life, it seems to pick up speed.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Ocean City, MD

Morning in Ocean City

Waking up with the sound of the surf crashing onto the beach is an awesome way to start the day.

The morning is warmer than was originally anticipated and the sun is slowly climbing into the sky.

There are even some Palm trees next door to make me believe that I am farther south than I truly am.

Maryland is a nice place to live in that I can be at work in the morning and on the beach by evening.

Happy Labor Day to you wherever you are.

-- Bob Doan, writing from Ocean City, MD

Construction and More Construction

Potholes in the Driveway

The sewer line repair continue, well actually the environmental clean-up continues in the woods behind the house.

On tap yesterday was major repairs for the three families us who share the driveway. 24 years of hard use had taken its toll and it was time for some repairs before sealing the drive in advance of the winter season.

Men at Work Removing the Old Asphalt

There were big trucks and stone, and rollers, and hot asphalt.  The old parts of the drive were removed and new supporting gravel was emplaced and packed down. It was a process.

It was fun to watch, although it would have been more exciting if the repairs were not being paid for out of my piggy bank.

New Gravel for Stabilization Arrives

It was a well orchestrated plan that successfully saw the completion  in near record time. In a move that almost never happens, the crews arrived almost an hour earlier than they indicated they would. Perhaps it was to beat the heat of the day. 

Spreading the Asphalt

They worked along in three separate areas of the driveway. Fully synchronized. Not working fast, but working steady.

Progress was seen with every passing minute. 

At the end of the process, the rough areas of the driveway were fully restored. In a couple of weeks, the entire driveway, including the new areas will be sealed for added protection!

At the End--It looks Great!

What a day. And all I had to do was watch.

Oh yea, and pay!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

One in a Row

I stayed up past my bedtime last night watching the Orioles play frustrating and futile baseball.

I stayed until the game ended in the 11th inning.

Why? Because I am a baseball fan and I and also an Orioles fan.

I stayed because the team used some heroics to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th inning.

I was rewarded for my efforts with a game winning walk-off homer  by Chris Davis in the bottom of the 11th inning for the orioles 2nd win in their past 13 games.

The season that began so many months ago is winding down. And I remember the promise that this season began with at Spring Training in Sarasota during February and March. 

There are 28 games remaining on the Orioles schedule and the probability of making the post season this year is almost zero. But they are my team, win or lose.

And that greatest saying in baseball is filled with hope and promise. "We'll get them next year."

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Update: Sewer Line Break

Looking Out my Driveway at the Trucks working the
Sewer Line Break

I was gratified to see the response from Howard County to the sewer line break. They worked to repair and stabilize the line for almost 30 hours--straight. At one point last evening there were ten trucks and assorted pieces of heavy equipment  in the neighborhood.

My neighbors who live right next to the break were not too amused at the sound of heavy machinery during the night, but it was a serious bio hazard. the work is going on right outside their fenced yard. Theirs is the house in the picture below.

Looking Down the Street at the Howard County Response

I am told that the EPA will be out to inspect the work. 

Last evening, the odor in the air was the worst it has been. I guess they were digging up the muck. I would not have wanted to be the workers. We provided them with a couple 12-packs of soda last evening to help mitigate the hot and humid conditions. I'm glad the sewer line is repaired. 

Work Just Beyond my Neighbor's Fence

Today, hopefully, will be devoted to clean up. I have not observed any clean-up of the stream. I worry about the impact on the wild life and the potential for disease. I guess I will have to look into that in the coming days. The workers did say that they would be putting lime into the water as a mitigation strategy. 

I was also told that the worst is yet to come. Apparently, the county will be letting a contract to relocate the sewer line, as I reported yesterday. That will likely cause the loss of many of the trees that I enjoy that border our property and shield us from the warehouses and light industry on Troy Hill.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Bio Hazard Discovered and Reported

A foul odor has been wafting across the yard around my house for the past few days. I had thought it might be decaying plant matter from the recent rains because I could not determine an exact location. The odor seemed to move around from place to place. As I tried to locate it, it would disappear.

Sewage Making the Creek White

Last evening, the persistent stench smelled like raw sewage and I took the situation more seriously. I suspected that the light industry up the hill behind my house may have been illegally dumping down the hill causing the odor, and so I went to find the source.

It, sadly, did not take long to discover the true problem and I could not imagine the severity of the situation. As soon as I reached the normally pristine creek behind the house from which the frogs which love to swim in my pool probably come, it was immediately evident that there was a major raw sewage leak. 

Sewage in the creek

The stream was white with the raw sewage and the smell was strong, but not overpowering. I went back to the house, although I did not yet know the source of the sewage in the stream. I called the emergency number for Howard County utilities. I alerted my neighbors to the situation and searched for the source of the contamination.

Broken Sewage Pipe

The cause, it turned out, was a  broken pipe in the stream spewing sewage unabated. The pipe had probable broken during the last storms as the ground under it appeared washed away. I called the county and updated them with the location of the sewage and waited for their imminent arrival.

Why a sewer line was run through the middle of a creek, I will never understand, it just seems like bad planning. The county took immediate action to abate the discharge and I expect that over the next few days that they will be making more permanent repairs. Interestingly, I was told that the sewage line that broke was scheduled to be moved from the creek. 

I guess they didn't get to it soon enough.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - August 31, 2015

1. It is the last day of August! Wow. The year and the summer is flying by.

2. Sometimes what we think is fact is in reality interpretation based upon biases.

Denali

3. Mount McKinley is going to be restored as Denali.

4. Oil is headed below $40 per barrel. Rejoice for $2.00/gallon gas!

5. The Orioles have apparently packed in the season by losing 6 of 7 games on their most recent road trip, and 10 of their last 11 games. To say their performance is disappointing is an understatement.

6. NFL preseason football is an inferior product. The league needs to do something.

7. The tragic death of a fan at an Atlanta baseball game is a sobering reminder of the dangers associated with stadiums. Prayers for his family.

8. Interested in some of the history of birthright citizenship? Read about Wong Kim Ark, a cook during the late 1800's.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Don't Look into the Mirror

Mirror, mirror on the wall--

I had a a sobering experience the other day as I happened to look into the mirror. 

What made this day different from others was that I had my glasses on and the mirror wasn't fogged over from a recently completed shower. It was afternoon and i had not shaved because I was working around the house doing projects.

When I looked into the mirror, everything was clear--clearer than it had been in many years. I could see details on my face that I had not noticed in a very long while.

I am not going to go into the long details of what I found on my face as I viewed it with increased clarity, but it was such a shocking experience that I have vowed to never again look at my self in a mirror while wearing my glasses.

Growing older is not something I think about on routinely and it is really difficult when I am confronted with the evidence that, despite my best efforts, it is happening. When I was younger, I wanted to appear and act older, that lasted until I passed the age that I always wanted to be. Now I want to be younger again. 

But, I still want to retain all of the my experiences!

Isn't that the way of life? I seem to have a  hard time being happy right where I am.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Snorkeling in the Caribbean

I never published the two other snorkeling videos that I made from our vacation this summer. 

One was of our first adventure on Grand Turk and the other was off a beach in Aruba.

Of the three snorkeling adventures we did this summer, I would say that the Aruba snorkeling off the beach was the best. It was also the least expensive since we just took a taxi to the beach, rather than participating in an organized tour.

I'm still playing with the color balance on my GoPro, but it seems to be getting better. There were huge differences in filming tactics between the Grand Turk and Aruba. For Grand Turk I had the GoPro on a head strap the entire time and it was mostly on. I couldn't aim it well and I got a lot of useless video.

For Aruba, I carried the GoPro on a strap and only filmed cool and interesting stuff. I made editing the collected images much easier. It took hours to reduce the Grand Turk adventure down to three minutes, and I'm sure it could be further slimmed. Editing Aruba was much faster, as was Curacao which I published earlier.

Starfish in Aruba

I like a few scenes in the Grand Turk video because the GoPro catches the the water entries off the boat and we did see a shark. The problem with the shark is that since the camera was on my head, I didn't capture the perfect images of it, at least in my mind. Additionally, every time I use my handheld camera, it shows up in the video, which is a bit annoying.

The Aruba video has a really neat scene of an eel trying to get at something in a hole at the bottom of the bay in which we were snorkeling.

And so, as summer comes to an end, I present the answer to every kid's first day of school question: What did you do this summer?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD