2013: Book of Poo

We awoke Monday morning to a chirping fire alarm. The problem is the ceilings of the house are vaulted twenty feet at the peak, and the chirping fire alarm was easily 15 feet above the floor. I checked and there was no ladder in the house. I had to make that chirping noise stop before it drove us all insane! It was driving me nuts! Not to mention, I hadn't had any coffee and I was being a little vindictive about the chirping waking everyone.

I dragged over the glass dinning room table and stood on it, being careful to stand only on the table's support beams. But I still should not reach it!

Against Linda's protest, I next set the living room coffee table atop the glass table. If this didn't work, my plan was to place a dinning room chair on top the coffee table. But that wasn't necessary. I carefully climbed the mound of furniture, balanced myself on the rickety contraption, I reach and stretched as far as I could and then opened the fire alarm's battery door thus ending the relentless chirping. Best of all? I did not die in the attempt!

The plan for Monday was to visit Clearwater Beach on the Gulf Coast. Clearwater was an amazing two hour trip from the house. Unlike New York highways, I4 is in incredibly good condition. The highway passed through expanses of country and farm land providing a view of Florida we had never seen before. As we approached Tampa, there was massive construction to expand the road. They don't expand roads in New York, the road crews occupy their time filling potholes with road kill.

The highway snaked past the Tampa skyline with vibrant thriving businesses supporting the economy (unlike the contracting upstate New York economy). We were soon on a highway with large views of seawater on both sides of the road. Clearwater is an island just off the coast accessed by a long road and bridge, the entire area of which is lined with beautiful condos, villas, time shares, and hotels.

After a light lunch of pizza at an Italian restaurant, we went onto the white sandy beaches at Clearwater. Clearwater is incredible but has just two problems: parking and birds. It was difficult finding a place to park the van. And the beach is covered with birds who attack for food, swoop down in large flocks, and squawk endlessly.
The official report? No tarballs. Several years ago there had been an oil spill in the gulf and no one wanted to visit these shores for the fear that oil, in the form of tarballs, would wash up on shore. There were no tarballs. Only a packed beach, white sand, and blue water.

First order of business at the beach? Suntan lotion to ward off the hot sun. We use SPF 400 (you apply it with a putty knife). The boys were completely covered in lotion except someone (ok, it was me) forgot to do their chests and the boys came home a little pinker than when we arrived.

I was spreading the lotion on myself when I noticed a large white splotch of lotion had dripped onto the back of my leg. I took it, rubbed it on my legs, chest, and was rubbing it into my shoulder when I noticed the lotion had a different consistency than I was used to. It was thicker, sticky, and had a bad odor. "Oh My God", I said when I realized what happened. "I just rubbed bird poop all over me." The thought of this plus the smell was making that pizza lunch back up and I felt I might barf right there on the crowded beach. I needed to get into the Gulf of Mexico and wash it off!

I stepped into the surf. The temperature was like warm bath water. When I was ankle deep, I notice a school of very small fish (each the size of my pinky) swimming around my feet. I have a friend who lives in Boca Raton and I was reminded what he told me. He fishes on the Atlantic side and knows what fish live along the shore because he has hooked and pulled them out. As a result, he won't go in the water deeper than ankle deep. In correlation, the life guard tower was flying a yellow "Aquatic life" warning flag. But , Ankle deep wouldn't wash off the bird poop. Besides, everyone else was in deeper. I decided to risk having some alien creature nibble off my toes. I went deeper so I could get the poop washed off.

After playing on the beach for four hours, I started getting a migraine. I sometimes get migraines if in bright sun and dehydration. It starts as lightning bolts in my eyes and if I don't get aspirin right away? It progresses to a full headache. The lightning bolts had grown until I was half blinded and I knew I needed to get medicine from the van right away. I asked Linda, "Where can I find the aspirin in the van?" She explained "Look under the jackets in the back seat. You’ll find a blue beach bag. Inside the beach bag is my purse. Open the purse and find my hip pocket. Inside the hip pocket is a bag…" and I thought – you lost me at the blue beach bag! I’m going to need a diagram for all of this bag within a bag nested doll activity! By the time I finally comprehended all the layers I needed to dig through, I thought about asking where she put the water bottles, but decided I would be better off swallowing the aspirin dry.

The walk to the van was difficult because I was partially blinded by the lightning bolts. I found it easier to walk with my eyes closed and hope I didn’t run into anyone or anything. I just used the force and the direction of the wind to guide me to the van. That, and hitting the lock button on the key made the van beep. I found the van. It was covered in bird poop. Clearwater has a very serious bird problem!

After getting medicated, I thought it wise to use the restroom. Clearwater has public toilets, or, restrooms of last resort as I call them. These are disgusting and have a long line waiting to use them. The toilets are over flowing and you have to stand in poo water on the floor while you use it. Honestly, you are better off just going out in the ocean. Whether it is number one or two, just go out deep and go because I have watched enough Finding Nemo to know these toilets empty into the ocean anyways. Nevertheless, I stood in poo water and used the public toilet.

I returned to the beach partially blind and attempted to find my family. The beach was very crowded, and where I thought we left the beach blanket wasn't there. I walked up and down the beach searching. In one spot, some damn kids (probably my own) had dug a one foot deep hole that I stepped in. I expected solid ground under my foot. Instead I had nothing and I dropped and fell to my knees. If I wasn't blind, I would have looked around to see if anyone had witnessed my humiliation. Instead, I stood, brushed myself off, assessed the pain in my ankle was minor, and continued on.

Eventually I did find my family. Linda had become concerned when I didn't return right away, so, she went looking for me. She passed by while I was in the restroom of last resort. With my family found, I was able to lay down on the beach and rest while the lightning bolts went away and I was able to see once again.

We left the beautiful Clearwater beach, boarded into the van, and started the two hour drive home. We drove along the coast and through the country side, trying to take it all in. We came up behind a large tour bus on the highway. As we did, water started spraying from under the bus. Brown water. I had heard busses sometimes dropped their toilets onto the road, but I didn’t think that was legal. Legal or not? Or van was sprayed with poo water.

We arrived home in the evening. All poo aside? We had a great trip to Clearwater Beach.