At midnight last night I was on the beach to see another shuttle launch into the heavens. A shuttle launch never fails to gather a crowd, even after all this time. At midnight, though, we were a small group at the 20th Street Beach Access, and it was a mild, quiet, mostly clear middle-of-the-night.

Living so close to the beach I was able to scamper over just a few minutes before lift-off. Within seconds of the 11:59pm blast it lit the black sky with a bright orange glow and I could see the rocket and its fiery tail arching over the horizon.

My pictures were terrible. I should have practiced for these night shots but I didn’t so the results were disappointing. They did not reflect the awesome shuttle hurtling toward space that the twelve of us gaped at for a few minutes, until it was gone from sight. I applauded and one person joined me. It felt like the right thing to do.

Then we all went home.

It was a perfect beach afternoon. The rip currents / run outs warnings always set me on edge and while I’d known that the ocean was going to be prone to run outs today, I’d never seen these signs out before. I’m not a surfer, so I don’t feel the rhythm of the moving ocean water in the same way they do. I love swimming but run outs / rip currents scare me. Before letting my kids charge into the ocean they and any friends who happen to be with us must suffer my “rip current overview lecture”, which is basically this:

And if the kids have their boogie boards as they often do I just say, “If you find yourself getting sucked away from the shore, just hang onto your board and enjoy the ride. I will get help.” Because eventually the current eases its grip and the swimmer can then swim parallel to shore and back in. But people often panic when they feel the current taking them, and panic + confusion = fear and fighting it, and that’s when disaster occurs. So some of the best advice I’ve heard is to remind people/kids to just hang onto the boogie board or surf board and “enjoy the ride”. I figure that if an agitated person can remember that, it might quell the panic and help them to remember what to do. Having never been caught in a rip current, I can only imagine how someone might feel as they find themselves getting further and further from shore. You’ve got to resist the urge to simply swim toward the beach; rather, swim parallel to the shore until you feel the current dissipate, and then you can swim to shore. But unless one is accustomed to the tempo of the constantly moving ocean water, it can be a terrifying experience, I think.

I guess I don’t need to tell you that my kid did not go into the water on this gorgeous afternoon.

I know the surfers have great anticipation for Bill’s waves, and experienced ones know how to use the rip current to their advantage. But I just stood on the beach and soaked up the sun. The sunshine shimmered with salt air. Tide was low and the beach was wide. The last of the kids who’re still off school in Atlantic Beach around here made the most of this final day of summer vacation before the weekend, which brings Monday’s return to school life.

A third named storm, Claudette, is making rain and weather up in the panhandle so…no worries for me.

I’ll be watching the tropics for these names that hopefully we won’t see:

Recently I wrote a post critical of certain birthday party choices that different parents make for their children. Having celebrated the birthday of my own child yesterday, I’ve got birthdays on the brain, and who among us doesn’t want to delight our child on this most special of days? Yet sometimes I feel that the way we celebrate our kids’ birthdays pales in comparison to the extravaganzas the kids attend in honor of their friends. With three children, I’ve seen a lot of different birthday parties.

Several people commented on my post, and gave their points of view, which I appreciated.

But later I worried that some parents might have read that post, which would almost certainly read judgemental despite my protestation to the contrary. I clearly am opinionated – who am I kidding? But do I want to hurt people’s feelings? No. I’m a sensitive soul myself, easily wounded by strong opinions of others at times.

So I pulled that post; hit delete. I haven’t changed my mind about certain things being given to kids as being overindulgent but I think I’d simply reached my own personal tipping point when I sat down and dashed off the original post. As the parent of two middle schoolers I’m now in a different realm where materialism is becoming more important to kids, and here is where I’ll stay for a good many years, I suspect. Their friends will have many things that my children won’t, and it might not simply be a matter of can we afford it? Just because a friend has this, that or the other, doesn’t mean that my kids will. And my kids will have things, or be allowed to do things that another set of children won’t. In finding my blogging “voice” I don’t want it to become critical of others and their choices that are not that important in the general scheme of things. I regret the post because it was rather obvious and if the subjects did happen to read it, I’d honestly feel badly about that. While it’s true that I don’t agree with some styles of birthday parties that parents throw for their kids, is it necessary to vent my feelings about materialism in a public place where someone might (think they) recognize their own selves? Now I believe it’s the kind of thing to be discussed in private, with my own family, if I feel a need to vent or pontificate about the choices that other people make.

So, it’s gone. And with it, a blogging lesson learned.

So tomorrow, let’s go back to the beach, shall we?