How I Found Pluff Mudd

Ok what I'm about to say, I'm not really all that proud of, I'm actually quite lucky really. For awhile now I've wanted to photograph the bridge and beyond. The bridge I'm referring to is the one right by my house, sort of, it is the one closest to me, I think. It is the Okatie River underneath it, and so it holds Highway 278. Sounds pretty exciting doesn't it? Ok probably not, but there is a tale to be told, and a lesson to remember.


Here we see a tree, which is kind of strange, because there really is no trees in or by the river.



Here is the Okatie River, not really a river, but anyway, a tidal estuary, aint it nice? Now up until this point we really didn't encounter any pluff mud, but I'm working on it, believe me.


This is a crab, they live in pluff mud, they like it there, probably because they are light enough to not sink in it, but that is mere speculation on my part.


All the crabs were tiny, and for the most part would run into their holes... there were a few that didn't make it. God rest their souls.



Here we have made it, this is the side of 278 nobody really sees. We did run into what we thought was pluff mud here. There was maybe a 6 inch layer of mud that we had to navigate/negotiate. What we didn't know is what lay in store for us later...


Ok we made it. Well we did not make it back yet so don't get too excited. I did feel kind if let down as there really wasn't much to photograph.

Except for the sky. And even then there is the power line in the way.

We make our return trip, and everything is pretty much going according to plan. Not that there was a plan, but if there was we were going by it.


Until here. You see, this very skinny peninsula was mildly amusing to me. I walk up to get a closer look and sluuurp I found the real pluff mud. I took a step, and it was like any other but then the ground gave away and I discovered that for all intents and purposes I could grab my, eh hem, crotch or touch the ground, they were both the same. I had sunk one leg past my mid thigh and now I had no idea how I was going to get out of this.

You really can't accurately describe what it feels like to be walking one second, the next you're in mud up to your ass, you just can't. Desperation set in. I can say that, though my 13-year-old, was laughing hysterically, I was methodically thinking of a way out. I gave the camera to my still snickering daughter and pulled up just enough so that I was on my knees, and I knee walked until I felt I could stand again. My clothes were done, but other than that I was ok.

Then it was my daughter's turn to sink in the mud, which really was funny, because she was laughing at me, and she sunk both of her legs down into the pluff, and she lost her flip flop (yes I know, not the shoe I would have worn but kids, you know?). So she sticks her arms down into the hole to get the flip flop and success we have got it, except now my daughter is just about covered in pluff mud, and I take the camera back.

We retreat without further incident, both of us really looking forward to a shower. But if I can take anything away from this trip it's this... You can laugh if you want to, but the same thing may happen to you, and the wife was right in warning me about pluff mud, I hope I never again find myself in it.

That Time of Year Again

Guilty Pleasure = Travian

My guilty pleasure is playing Travian internet game. It is a really drawn out and long process... and takes months before you can do anything, but for some unknown reason, I can't stop playing it. You start out as one of three races, Roman, Teuton, or Gaul. After that you pick a spot for your city and begin to build it up. This is a war game, so with that being said your or others feeling are going to be hurt from time to time.

That is why it is good to make friends with you neighbors, otherwise you'll have lots of uninvited company over all the time. So why bother, I mean what is this all for? I'm really not sure, I guess I could walk away from it, but I don't want to. Of course eventually it will end, as it has to. You amass the right armies and equipment and whatever, and then the powers that be will provide their own armies and you have to fight it out to see if you can win.

Now I am far, far away from all of that... in fact I'm just now getting over my 3rd or 4th wipe out because it just kind of goes like that. You build up you resources, wheat, lumber, iron, and clay while making your army bigger and eventually you get some other like minded individuals and form an alliance. From there on it is really up to you. Conquer or be conquered so to speak. I have heard of people just getting on it to be "farms" to other more powerful players, I can't imagine why though.

Yes it really is a guilty pleasure. I really can't justify it, but I keep coming back to it. So there must be something about it.

Mosquito Control...Not

So I went on a walk with my two dogs, right out my back door, along the side of the pond, and it must be mosquito season, because they lit me up like a a fire. Lord have mercy. I'm talking swarmed. It was unbelievable. I'm from New Orleans, I am used to some mosquitoes, in fact we used to chase behind the mosquito truck all the time. I have never experienced what I went through the other day. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to live in this hell.

I was still in my work clothes, which is a long sleeved shirt, and khakis. The only exposed part of my body was my hands and head, and man oh man... they had a field day. And I was swatting and waving and trying to move... it really did bring back memories of cheap B movies like this:



I hope mosquito control gets their act together, because this is crazy.

FEMA trailers

Ok this story hits close to home... sort of. FEMA has said the deadline for returning the trailers is May 1. Well as you may have already guessed, some people are having a hard time with that. Here's the story. I can understand that people have been ripped off, or mishandled the money or whatever. My grandmother lived in a trailer, she received it after Hurricane Betsy in 1965. And was still living in it some 30 years later.

I don't think today's "travel trailers" are quite like my grandma's (mawh mawh if your from New Orleans) trailer. It was a two bedroom, one bathroom deal, and it had been moved three or four times in those 30 years. Then again, maybe it was, I really don't know.

You could say, "hey why did your grandmother live in that trailer so long?" She liked it there, and really didn't mind it at all. She was also opposed to the color TV, I can remember going with my father to seek out a black and white TV set, because otherwise my father would be over at her house adjusting the color everyday.

So what am I trying to say? Home is what you make of it, my mawh mawh appreciated what she had and didn't ask for anything more. Maybe that trailer is still in use today, My father sold her trailer and the one he was living in along with 6 acres of land to move into a more citified manufactured home on 1 acre of land. I miss the trailer, the land, and especially my mawh mawh.

Squish Face

The 3-year-old has come up with a new game. It's called squish face. Well that's what I call it anyway. She thinks she invented it, but she's 3 so I guess we'll let her get away with that one. It looks like this...

She does it to you and you do it to her... Squish Face, I'll make millions off of this. OK, probably not, but if you find yourself bored and want to kill some time, puff out your cheeks and squish them, make whatever sound you like, and viola... Squish Face!

Classic Film Friday: Stormy Weather

This movie caught me by surprise. You see I really do watch the movies the week I list them, and I really didn't know that this one was an all black cast.

Bill "Bojangles" Robinson plays Bill Williamson a World War I vet that is telling his life story. Selina Rogers (Lena Horne) is an established singer, and Bill knew her brother in the war (he was killed). The two hit it off and before you know it, there is a bit of romance between the two.

There is song and dance a plenty and some of the performers of the day as well... Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Nicholas Brothers dancing duo, singer Ada Brown, and dancer Katherine Dunham. There is 20 different musical numbers in all and it is only 77 minutes long. Check it out, it is kind of light on plot, but with all the music makes up for it.