A good friend of mine does weddings on the beach.  She really out did herself this time.  There were canopies of various colors along the beach with three tables that matched the colors of the canopies under each one.  The colors were all summer colors that were bright and vibrant.  Table cloths were of the same colors but the ones under each canopy were the colors of the other canopies.  Do you understand what I mean? The flowers were all tropical flowers and it would take too long to name them all but the beach was a sea of tropical color.

The bride wore a thin white long flowing dress with ribbons of the same tropical colors braided through her long hair and a band of flowers around her head.  The groom had on white pants and a white shirt with a beautiful orange sash tied around his waste that hung to his knees.  It flowed in the gentle breeze as did her ribbons that hung down past her hair almost to the ground.  Absolutely beautiful!  I could go on and on about it but I think you get the idea.

I didn’t realize that school goes back in a week or two.  I guess everyone is wanting to enjoy one more week at the beach before the kids go back because all of a sudden, the whole area is packed with people.  I love it.  I am not complaining at all so don’t take what I said wrong.  It has been such a slow summer that this is very, very welcome by all of us here.  Well all of the businesses here I mean.

I don’t understand why some of the local people don’t like the visitors.  These visitors are the ones that see them through the winters.  They are the ones that feed the locals families but I guess they just don’t see it that way.  They sure need to.

You know, I usually take Mondays off and that’s about the only day I get off during the summer months but this summer, I have been able to take Mondays and Tuesdays off.  That has given me time to really fix up my house.  I have had time to plant some ornamental grasses around my deck to give it a tropical look along with my banana tree.  I even put in a water garden all by myself.  It has plants in it and a waterfall too.  I love the sound of water running, falling or hitting the beach.

I have finished painting every room in my home, added some wallpaper here and there and the place looks great.  My next project will come a little later.  I’m going to try to put down new floors in the house.  I want the kind that looks like hardwood floors, you know what I’m talking about?  At the beach I hate carpet because you can’t get all the sand out and the sand fleas will eat you alive.  I may get some grass rugs for area rugs.  I don’t know but I am making this little house my own.

You know the best part of all I have done?  I got every bit of the supplies to do everything I did on sale or on discount.  Some of the items like my water garden had a bad place in it that was easy to hide or even fix so I saved a lot of money.  For what I spent, if I had paid full price for everything, I wouldn’t have been able to do half as much as I did.  Mama’ & Papa’ taught me good how to save money.

Now that gas prices are finally coming down, people are making a trip to the beach.  Not nearly as many as usual but more than most of us have seen this summer.  This break in the gas just might save a few businesses here on our small beach.  I sure hope so because some of these businesses have been here for generations not just years.  It would be such a shame to see someones family business that their parents started go under because the gas companies were so darn greedy and there was nothing done about it.

The main part of the summer season is winding down now.  Labor Day is just around the corner and school starts in just a couple weeks.  That means that the beaches will go back to mostly locals again.  I have not talked to a single business owner that has had a good summer.  Sales are down across the board.  Property and motel room rentals are down and the eating establishments are down too.  One more summer like this one will put some businesses out of business.  In fact, I have heard several property owners talking about having to sell some of their property just to pay the taxes on the properties they keep.  Still Washington thinks we’re not in a full blown recession and most of the blame for this is high gas prices.