Oil Spill Update

Captain John and I would like to take a
brief moment to

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Note: All the pictures in this post are of our beach, we live in Ocean Springs, MS.

I took a break from it for a few days, it got a little overwhelming for me. For those of you who don't know, the swing is in the yard of the same house, less than 1000 yards from The Gulf of Mexico, that I have lived in since I was a year old. I am a little spoiled in the fact that the beach is really not a big thing to me, in a sense It's an everyday occurrence in one way or another of my life. Don't get me wrong, we fight, for our animals and oceans like no others, but still when something is a way of life, it looses it's glimmer.

Oh say about 30 years ago or so, we were skimmers, long before the word was ever created. We called it water scooting. Four of five of us would run down the hill to the beach, with anything that would work to skim across the shallow waters. Trash can lids, frisbees, Mamma's big Tupperware lids, Daddy's stadium seat cushion, any form of a flotation device was fair game. As a teenager, we went to Ship Island nearly every weekend to develop the tans of yesteryear, the wrinkles of today. My first kiss was on that beach, bonfires to celebrate the milestones of our lives, peace when my foolish young heart was broken. My tanned sweaty friends and I could fix any problem, sitting on that seawall, with the saltwater winds blowing in our face. It was our Match.com, new boyfriends galore, half dressed and tan, just pick which one you liked. Daddy threatened to take the keys away, for all the trips up and down our beach, and using so much gas to cover 3 miles. If we sat still, we might miss something, besides cruising was cool, and we thought we were too!

My first date with The Captain at 31 that ended with a really long walk in the edges of the water of The Gulf of Mexico, our footprints left in the sand for miles, paw prints too, even way back then. Nowadays, I live to be The Gilligan on our many rides upon the waters. Our finances tied up in The Catch of The Day, or who's hiring out there in those waters. The oil is nearly here, could it really be that all this is gone? Really? Some miracle was going to happen to make this go away. Really? The shock has set in for two true lovers of the sand and water we call home. I want you all to understand how this feels for us, the lump in our throats, the slight hint of a tear in our eyes, when we see the dead turtles on the shoreline. The pain in our hearts for everything we know and love. The disappointment in the boys, because they don't get to go to the beach again today.

Yesterday, we closed it out, for almost an entire day, save a few cellphone calls The Captain had to take, but only while traveling. Instead with spent the day on the streets of New Orleans, with a Pink and Preppy Lilly Lover. Great food, great friends, lots of laughs, a few cocktails, and a long, long, hug at the end of the day. In case those of you, who know her here in this world are wondering, she's even more beautiful in person. We were so excited to see that Lilly dress sashaying down the Riverwalk toward us. A little bitty thing, so full of life, and charm. What a blessing her spirit was for us during this time. Everything a Southern Belle should be. It makes me want to meet so many more of you.

This morning, it's back on it. Captain John has spent the rest of the week, out there in the boat, we have known that the oil was on the shore side of the barrier islands since Sunday. We called BP, they said no we are mistaken. We asked them if they would like to see the white towel (my freaking white Egyptian Cotton Towel) he dipped in the water just 8 miles south. We called the newspapers, thank you for the information, will make a note was the reply. Called the TV stations. No reply. The local authorities, a nod of the head, with no reply. Still they continued to report it as being 30-35 miles south, safe from our shores.

Captain John says there are hundreds of dolphins between the shore and the oil, are they staying away, or getting trapped? Can't determine that yet, but none to our knowledge have washed ashore. There were hundreds of dead fish on our beach on Wednesday, and the sea turtles that have washed up are somewhere around 40 the last we checked. Continue the good hopes and prayers, you know the one, it's become or motto of sort:

Swim, Swim, Swim, Fly, Fly, Fly

This is turning out to be long post so rather than posting articles are links, I'm just gonna give you some of the most attention grabbing headlines I am seeing.

The Sun Herald received a report from Ocean Springs attorney Scott Taylor that what appeared to be tar balls were washing ashore in great numbers at Sand Island, one of the smallest of the state’s barrier islands, near the eastern end of the chain between Horn and Petit Bois islands. Ummmm wonder where he heard this from?

From The Sun Herald this morning:

As the first confirmed reports of oil washing ashore on barrier islands were
coming in Thursday, Obama cabinet members tried to reinforce the message
Mississippi leaders continue to give: No need to panic, yet. It might go away.

They even put in a plug for Gulf seafood, promising it’s still safe to
eat because they’ve shut down fishing in contaminated areas.

“As Gov.
(Haley) Barbour says, we don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish, but we don’t want to
predict Armageddon,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, joined
by Barbour and Commerce and NOAA secretaries. Napolitano said the Gulf oil spill
is “unique and still evolving and potentially an unprecedented disaster” but
offered that “possibly it won’t be.” So typical, DON'T PANIC, yet.

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO — Workers gathered to begin lowering a giant
concrete-and-steel box over the blown-out oil well at the bottom of the sea
Thursday in a risky and untested bid to capture most of the gushing crude and
avert a wider environmental disaster.

But the lowering of the box was
delayed late Thursday because of dangerous fumes rising from the oily water, the
captain of the supply boat hauling the box told The Associated Press. A spark
caused by the scrape of metal on metal could cause a fire, Capt. Demi Shaffer
said. Deckhands wore respirators while workers on surrounding vessels took
air-quality readings. It was unclear when they would be able to proceed, though
crew members were hopeful it would still be on Thursday night. Still no progress in stopping the gushing of what they now say could be millions of gallons of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

OCEAN SPRINGS — More than a third of the 7,500 volunteers who registered on oilspillvolunteers.com are from Mississippi and of those, almost 2,500 are from the Coast.

Yet Don Abrams, who set up the site, said Thursday he has been unable to deliver the list to BP or to get the company to acknowledge the list might be of value.

“I’ve offered it to them in any format they want,” Abrams said. But he said he doesn’t think the company is set up to deal with volunteers.

He said the local officials are aware of what these volunteers have to offer, but the people within BP who make decisions aren’t.~ God forbid let anyone local get involved enough to find out the truth.

We know this, the chemical dispersant is killing the wildlife, it reminds me of that part of the movie Erin Brockovich, where they realize that the chemicals in the water is what's causing the deaths, and the lady runs to the pool screaming for her children to get out of the water. I had a long talk with The Captain, about not getting the water on him, do you remember I told you he said it burned a bit when it was splashing on his face? Read this ya'll...unbelievable.

From www.current.com

BP working hard to keep the damage hidden

The weather along the Gulf of Mexico finally cleared today, but with the
wind backing around to the north and east, the spill remains out to sea.

Retired University of Alaska marine conservation expert Rick Steiner
joined us today. He's worked on oil spills around the world, most significantly
on the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound Alaska.

Rick says
that the fact that this spill emanates from the bottom of the gulf (5,000 feet
down), where the water temperature is approximately 1 degree Centigrade (and the
oil is hot) means that by the time the oil reaches the surface, it has
thoroughly mixed with water and therefore does not appear to be the kind of
gruesome slick that is so famous from previous disasters.

It's a PR boon
to BP that this is so, because it means that the oil spill remains hidden from
public view. It does not, however, mean there is not a tremendous environmental
tragedy unfolding. As we speak about this, we need to make that point clear.
It's not just about what we can see from shore and that BP has been proactively
taking steps to keep the damage hidden.

The dispersant being used at the
wellhead – tradename “Corexit,” is nicknamed by Rick “Hidez-it” because the real
reason it is used is to keep the damage out of sight. He points out that oil is
toxic to wildlife, dispersant is toxic to wildlife, but the toxicity of the two
combined is greater than the sum of the parts.

A fisherman we spoke with
also noted that if dispersants are used, it saves BP money because they can hire
fewer fishing boats – at $1,500 per day each – to skim oil.

As we noted
last night, when dispersants are not used, the oil comes ashore and kills birds,
when it is not used, it stays in the water column and kills fish, but it's worth
noting that killing fish means killing birds eventually because of, y’know, that
whole food web thing.

On another BP front, we hear that BP is demanding
that fishermen who they hire in the cleanup sign gag orders, agreeing not to
talk to the media. Rick says it’s one of the many similarities to the Valdez
spill. BP’s reading from the playbook Exxon wrote. This contract was sent to The Captain by BP and another environmental company interested in hiring him. Do I have to tell you they are sitting on our table still unsigned, I didn't think so. Every lawyer we know has a copy though, wink wink.

The rules are:

1 – Understate the amount of oil spilled and environmental damage done.

2 – Overstate the effectiveness of the oil company’s response (or more
accurately, the oil company’s “response theater”).

3 – Try to buy off
the locals for a pittance in exchange for waivers that they will not sue.

4 – Get as many people under a gag order as possible.

Can you believe this shit?

We are
warning the locals that it took 20 years of court battles to get Exxon to pay
damages to the people of Prince William Sound and that the final settlement was
only one-tenth of the original award.

Rick said, “Right after Valdez,
someone told me, ‘Lawyers still unborn will be litigating this spill’ and I
laughed at him. Well, it’s been 21 years and the litigation is still not
finished, so he may be right.”

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this exact view. This shot is a true glimpse into my world readers, I can see The Captain, hopping across the waves out there. Home truly is where the heart is, this is mine ya'll. This is our view.

That's enough for now, I can feel my blood pressure rising. Ya'll stay with us through the weekend, and I will keep reporting what's going on. Captain John is attending Hazmat training tomorrow to be certified, and I have a lot more to tell you. Stay tuned for more.....

I will do the Captain's update tonight for in the morning......

We love you all,

Captain John and his Bumpkin On A Swing