Singing Christmas ditties

Yes, Thanksgiving's barely over, and Saint Pat is already singing and humming Christmas songs. Purists like MadPriest will heap shame upon her, for sure.

What's a poor girl to do? The merchants have made it clear it's Christmas NOW. The municipal Christmas parade will roll in tomorrow's muggy evening air. (It's still warm here, though a "cold" front is supposed to move in midweek.) Betsy, the best dog in the world, will be crushed to find the saintly employer won't have a float this year; therefore, she will be unable to march in the parade.


Betsy loves marching in parades. She doesn't mind motorcycle roars and truck backfires, as long as she's marching. The only things that spook her are horses. Those are big, scary dogs, the likes of she's never seen before!

Though we won't have a parade float tomorrow, tonight, my employer will take part in the downtown open house, so us employees will have to be Christmas-y.

Meanwhile, what is Thanksgiving weekend without football? Just fine, to me. I don't watch it.

Friends are more into pigskin punting, though, and even get their kids and grandchilluns into the act:


























































Even mighty football players get tired and fussy!





Sunday, my dear friends from church invited me over to feast on Thanksgiving leftovers, then we went boating on the Halifax River.

The Halifax is an intercoastal waterway, separated from the waters of the Atlantic Ocean by only a thin peninsula of land. It is wide and shallow, with salt water from the inlet mixing with freshwater from the Tomoka basin. You can see dolphins and manatees along its stretch.

While the St. Johns River is quiet, deep and mysterious, the Halifax says, "Come on and play with me!" Fishermen, jet skiers, and boaters of all sorts share its waters.

Watch a flock of seagulls winging low over the water, searching for dinner, and you'll never think of them as awkward or ungainly birds again.





The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse looks over the Atlantic Ocean in the background, while a sailboat makes it way up the Halifax River.

To see more photos of the Halifax River, go to Pat's Flickr photo album.