Thursday, January 5, 2012

January 5, 2012.

Happy Birthday Christopher.

We survived the front. The predictions were spot on and we had quite a bit o' wind for a day and a bit. Right after listening to Chris Parker in the morning we decided to get up and underway for a short hop to Hog Cay. Its only 9 miles and with good breeze we covered the distance in no time.

Hog Cay is the island where one of our Miniature Schnauzers, Molly, passed away last year. We carried her body to a very remote ledge on a prominent ridge line that overlooks most of the cay. There’s not much in the way of topsoil here on the islands so instead of burying her below ground we built a large rock cairn on top of her remains. Next to her cairn we left a small solar powered light like you'd have along the sidewalk by your home. It was kind of like her own eternal flame just like JFK. I'm sure when the people that run Arlington National Cemetery read this and calculate what they've paid for natural gas for JFK's eternal flame over the last fifty years they'll be switching to a solar garden path light as well. Anyway....

This past year Hog Cay took a big hit from hurricane Irene with sustained winds above 100 miles an hour. I expected the “eternal” flame to have been blown away and even though the rocks we used for the cairn were pretty big I figured I'd be doing some rebuilding. There’s no path to the the ledge so the climb is a bit challenging. When I finally reached the summit this year I almost fell right back off the hill. Everything was exactly as we had left it.
Everything, even the 4 dollar Walmart garden light. The entire fuel dock on Long island was destroyed by Irene and here at the top of the hill our monument to our wee dog survived. Go figure.

Of course this leaves me with only one option. Another business opportunity. The Veranda Heights Internment System. A family member passes away, you bring em' to the Bahamas, I cover them up with a pile o' stones, you pay me some money (4 bucks extra if you want the garden light) and your loved one rests in eternity in a hand built, hilltop monument. I still have to work out some of the details but the concept is solid.

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