and particularly a beach at the southern end of Elbow Cay, called Tahiti Beach:
Elbow Cay is a paradise that sits on the Atlantic side of Abaco in the Bahamas. I have had the privilege to spend a number of vacations there back in the day, and one particular one stands out, as we have subsequently renamed the villa we rented alternately “Rat Villa”, or, sardonically, as “Steps to the Beach”. Luckily one could rent golf carts, the main mode of transport on the island, so we could navigate our way to the top of the steps to the beach in about ten minutes, pedal to the metal, granny holding on for dear life.
[a map is called for, ed.]
I think a map might be in order:
Elbow Cay
To get the bad news out of the way first, we discovered a frog in the cistern towards the end of our two week stay. This only came back as a more important memory when we were finally able to locate a rare, or rare in being symptomatic, amoeba called Dientamoeba fragilis
[Dientamoeba fragilis belongs to the trichomonad group of protozoan parasites and it has been implicated as a cause of gastrointestinal disease with world-wide prevalences ranging from 0.5% to 16%. The majority of patients with dientamoebiasis present with gastrointestinal complaints. Chronic symptoms are common with up to a third of patients exhibiting persistent diarrhoea….
International Journal for Parasitology: Drugs and Drug Resistance
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211320712000255 added by ed., ed.]
in our eldest child a few years later. It wasn’t the frog’s fault or even the rat’s probably. But it might have been picked up while traveling, so I’m blaming the rat because he came with attitude and had motive and opportunity, if not means.
The rat we didn’t believe in to begin with.
But when we caught it in a snap trap that I had promised the kids would do him [or her, to be fair, ed.] in humanely and quickly, after it landed in a case of empties in the middle of the night having run over all six kids and the kitchen counter to get there, making a heroic leap from the garbage can, and then refused to die like a bad guy in a creepy movie, re-emerging dragging the trap from under the villa, until I actually managed to whack the trap open so it could slink off and get eaten by another rat in the bushes, then I was a believer. And the next rat, well, I carried it out, along with the entire night-table into whose drawer it had been lured as it terrorized my mother, without a single doubt as to its existence.
I don’t seem to have taken a picture of the villa that doesn’t prominently feature family members, so this will have to do:
It was our home away from home, a vacation home from a vacation home.
I switched from we to I, as my mother and I and my three kids got to stay on for an extra week, one of the advantages of homeschooling them when they are little [and pliable, ed.], after the rest of the clan went home. Peace also descended at that point, once the rat was vanquished, and we settled in to a lovely routine. The beach that was a short drive and then a steep set of, irony indeed, steps to the beach, was a nice morning beach:
for the foolhardy
and the adorably cute
But towards the end of the day, [all day, be honest, ed.] I much prefer a calmer place and pace and a longer short drive away there was a paradise, well-named: Tahiti Beach. If you were lucky when you were there the rays would come in close to feed
and you might even see an eagle ray’s fins out in the distance. And if you were unlucky that would remind you of a person to whom you are related by marriage who thought they were sharks, [perhaps trained pairs? sarcastic ed.] and refused to swim in the ocean at all. But my brave kids and their slightly inebriated mum and granny had no such fears, based on excellent statistics, i.e. no one ever eaten, even a bit, and recklessly enjoyed ourselves.
One exciting evening, the children were happily playing in the sand, off camera, while under close adult supervision:
when they encountered, about 8 inches deep in the sand near the water’s edge, a group of these:
who do this when provoked:
allowing me to make a once-in-a-life-time bad pun, saying they had found a penile colony.
I also met a woman on that beach who had turned sailor with her husband late in life, and as they began to get ready to go back to their sail boat she said she had to go, as “the tide was very punctual.”
And so I shall shut up, and leave you with a starfish leaving a feetprint, and the sun to set, punctually, from Tahiti Beach:
I quit using stops a long time ago, because I suspected something wasn’t quite right. This article pretty much confirms.
3 WAYS THE EXCHANGES SCREW WITH YOUR STOP ORDERS.
Stops absolutely helped me lose money – one of the things that got me so unhappy with institutional trading, so we started losing money all by ourselves. I knew they had access somehow – through timing of orders or something. Now I will go an read your dang article and feel at least confirmed in my scepticism.
It’s like trying to play poker, except all your cards are face up.
Never thought I’d see this:
religion – i am an impartial observer. my point of posting the Pope interview was simply to show a profound change in direction – or at least that claim. i hope we are adults here and can talk about anything without the defensive walls going up. we are at one of those points in history where a lot changes in a little time. i am paying attention, that is all.
stock market – i quit trading in March 2012. about that time i got to try out level II trading software for free. one fine morning i sat and watched as my offer sat between the bid and ask for 7 minutes while like ten million 100 share trades rolled by. (i was buying an even lot of several thousand shares) the stock was LLEN, which then and now is actively traded. that was my final wake up moment.
from about 1998 to 2008, ten years, i turned about $20,000 into $160,000 in a trading account. i traded mostly based on value, and waiting to be right. my average hold probably approached a year. i am back to my original 20,000, not even adjusted for inflation, five years after peak. not a damn thing i used to do works anymore, and like i have said, i was a fundamental based value investor. fundamentals no longer prevail in the long run, no way. and even if you can win in this market, you aren’t beating the banks – you are taking some other sucker’s retirement. i am done with it.
poetry – i am no word smith. words are clunky for me. i am misunderstood all the time on these blogs because of it. i do appreciate poetry and look forward to reading the other fine contributors here. i will try to get my points across one way or another.
i do seem to get lucky with the internet art at times, so i will continue to post those, but you will have to wait for when the inspiration hits. also my new phone has unbelievable camera options. i am going to continue learning that. for now, i will continue to showcase my “rubble” collection.
if you look closely at the table top in the above photos you will see the holes from the push pins. the table was my wife’s grandfather’s drafting table.
i was going to attempt a still life photograph, but my cats had their own agenda. 🙂
OK. this is a better photo. the persistent cat is named “Pita”.
Nice table, and nice eyes!
Btw, I wrote a new, crappy post about my doctor’s appt. Exciting!
oops – we crossed in the mail. i think i can fix the eyes, but i like it this way too.
or maybe i should change the color to red! tomorrow is Halloween you know.
thanks EO..have i already played this? let me know…one and washes the other. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5CW16Z9yD4
i missed an”h” up there somewhere, h key is not functioning well. old frank, for old EO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCW9Hey6IVY
was going to ask if you want input and ideas.? for topics. anyhoo..more Joni. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQSlH-LLTQ