I have to admit the activity list was a little sparse this week. There was one event worth noting. It was the Hook ’em and Book ’em Bay and Surf Fishing Tournament. This one benefits the Port Aransas Police Foundation and the Police Department.

Here is a shot of the trophies for the winners.

There is also a sponsor list.

At first, I thought maybe I could win a police pick-up truck, but found out it was a display only.

This tournament has fisher folks out in the bays and along the beaches. The participants were not due back until way later, and I had a Kansas and WVU football game to watch, so I thought I would take some photos of people fishing off the piers at Robert’s Point Park.

Here is a person contemplating the best time to throw the bait net.

A man and his dog.

Poles placed in the concrete niches.

A boy and his fishing rods.

A dad and his boys fishing next to the pier.

This week was to be a pirate parade in honor of “Talk Like A Pirate” day here in Port Aransas. Unfortunately, the parade had to be canceled due to rain. We did get a lot of rain Friday and yesterday. Invest 95L dropped about eight inches before it was over. So instead of a parade here are a few shots of the results of the rain.

This is the pond behind our house. Up to now, this is as far as it rose.

The pond is within its banks.

Given the high tides due to water being pushed against the dunes the city moved all the portable toilets to higher ground.

You can see the tides came up to the dunes.

This is Twelfth Street in Port Aransas. The water did not reach any of the houses. That pile to the left is a house recently torn down due to Hurricane Harvey damage.

The golf course needed pumps to get the water off the greens.

The city put up high water warnings where necessary.

Drainage ditches are very full. Luckily the rain quit last night.

Closer to home here is a shot of the access to the beach and the golf cart path and parking area. You can see some timbers have been dislodged. The white fence surrounds the pool, and the dark structure is the new shade structure recently completed. All Harvey repairs. Sorry about the parade but thanks for getting wet with me on the tour.

Today’s View of the Neighborhood is very modest since it is the first go around. I thought I would capture a typical day at the beach.

First, we take a look at the early morning sunshine through the rain clouds in a photo taken by the Producer. More rain later but the day is forecast to be sunny.

Sunny it is. Here is a shot of the crowds. (Yay there are none)

I took a shot of the beach roadway to show how few vehicles there are.

A lone group of swimmers.

I loved the idea of a bunch of friends cooling off, having a couple of drinks, and plenty of conversation.

A lone kite. During the season the sky is full.

A lone golf cart tells the story of the off-season.

“Hi. I’m Bailey, and the canine sisters finally gave me an opportunity to say hello. The reason I’m here as you may guess is to let you know Pops is still not in a position to be roaming around the neighborhood taking photos. I think he could have done it this week, but I heard him say something like, “The only photo opportunities this week are of Labor Day tourists and who wants to see those?”  So, I was nominated to come and explain. I think Pops also wanted to give me an opportunity which Twiggy and Lucy had earlier. I hope next week we will all be back to normal. At least from a blog sense. You see there is nothing normal about our house. With that I see Lucy giving me the high sign. Have a super day and Happy Labor Day tomorrow.

There is nothing like Summer in South Texas. The above heat index map was from yesterday at 11:30 AM. We live under the right side of the  0 in the number 103 F. (That’s 39.444 degrees C) The forecasted high could go to 110.

So what does one do to beat the heat around here? Let me tell you the beach and pools are way too hot.

How about a trip to the library?

Hmm. Boarded door and not accepting donations? I would say they are closed.

I know. A stroll through the Marie Science Educational Center.

Does the word, “temporarily” mean like in four or five minutes they will open? Probably not.

We could head over to the candy shop. Of course, it costs about 1000 calories an hour to stay cool there.

Now we are talking. How about painting a ceramic and having it fired? Let’s go inside.

The first thing you see is the pickup rack. This is where the clients pick up their ceramics after they have been fired. You can see some waiting for their owners.

This is Michelle Shook, the owner of Fire It Ceramics. She just moved into a new location after Hurricane Harvey severely damaged her previous shop. The fish she is getting ready to wrap was started by a client before the hurricane hit. It survived in the shop and is being picked up today.

This is a shot of the color rack. As you can see, there are about 280 choices to decorate your piece.

This wall chart gives the client an idea of what their finish will look like after it is fired. So what you do is select your color and then go to this display and check to see if what you have chosen will come out the way you hope. Michelle says, “You don’t have to know how to paint from an artistic sense to do ceramics. All you do is apply paint.”

Here are the workplaces. While we were there, a group was having a birthday. Their group was about ten, so two tables were put together.

Here are some of the ceramics on display. You choose your ceramic and then paint it.

Here are some more.

A supply table and some T-shirts waiting for design

More choices on what to paint.

Here is Michelle again with her large kiln. She had five kilns working at her previous location. She temporarily has two that survived the hurricane and more on order.

Of course, there is always some idiot willing to stick their head into a cut-out and pay considerable sums to get possession of the data file with the picture.