Priceless

I've been pondering how to attack this topic for about the past 24 hours.  Maybe I need bolstered, but if I need it, maybe others do too.  Now that my brain is starting to kick in this morning, and the bowl of multi grain cheerios is depleted, maybe I can get this topic out in a coherent manner. 

Someone said something to me yesterday that just about made me snap.  It doesn't happen very often.  It takes a great deal to get me annoyed anymore.  You know what I mean. The little comment or dig that goes right in your ear, into your brain, to that little nerve that controls the twitch in your right eye.  I don't know.  Maybe it was a combination of factors; the tide, the moon, the heat, hormones, the smell of hot tar wafting in from the parking lot, the screaming sunburn on my shoulders, the bird over the pool that was flying west instead of east. Who knows.  Maybe on a regular day, when the stars weren't aligned, it wouldn't have bothered me at all.  Maybe if the words had come from a total stranger.

"But you're JUST a volunteer.  It's not like you get PAID."

Twitch, twitch.

Sigh.

Happy Place.  Find your Happy Place.  Mine is a pristine and blinding white sand beach, where the gentle surf laps at my feet ::whoosh, whoosh:::, where sea gulls call and children giggle as the little clams tickle their hands with their probing foot.  OH WAIT ! That's my OFFICE!  I'm at WORK!  Huh.

Seriously.  I am so sick of the prevailing attitude of some that being a volunteer is somehow less of a responsibility or makes a person less valuable in a society and community.  I have been lucky enough that my husband makes enough to support the household, to enable me to CHOOSE to volunteer where ever we have been stationed.  I have been a volunteer for the past 20 years: schools, community centers, military groups, civic organizations, government agencies, scouts, the Red Cross.  If there's a need, and I have the knowledge and capability to fill a hole, I do it.  If I can't, I'll find someone that can.  I was just raised that as part of a community, we need to work together to make things function.  Sometimes that calls for volunteering and donating time and experience.

Does it bother me that sometimes I'm doing the exact same work as someone pulling in 5 figures?  Sure.  Does it sometimes bother me that others, including equals that are getting the paycheck, treat me as less for being a volunteer?  You bet it does.  But when it comes right down to it, when I finally crash my head into my pillow at night, I sleep the sleep of the victoriously satisfied.  With all of my education and experience I CHOOSE to Volunteer.  I CHOOSE to step forward and raise my hand and say, "YES, I will." when someone says they need help. I CHOOSE to do this and all I ask for is a simple Thank You in return, and if I'm lucky, I'll get that.  But I am satisfied still if recognition doesn't come, because I choose to do this to make MY community a better place.

So lately when someone says I'm JUST a volunteer, I say, "Nope, I WORK. I just don't get paid"  All while relishing my choice.

Priceless

OK, now that I've vented I'll get down to this morning's business. 

Kudos to the Dyers, who found and reported tar balls down at WO1 and 2 on Sunday.  The find came at BP shift change, but the night crew came out a bit later, and I'm sure they found them. 

Going by the sign out book, we are talking to a good deal of people, 20-50 a day, depending on the crowd size, and the number of volunteers out.  Is anyone coming across any questions they are being asked they don't know the answers too?  Remember to email them to me or write them in the book at the firehouse.  I do check it every couple of days.  (That's why the pages are folded.)

Thank you to the firehouse chief, who has let us set up shop, as well as slap a logo on his shiny door! 

Winds and seas continue to favor us for now.  June grass continues to pile up in areas of the surf zone.  Wave action will continue to be high this week, with the surface buoys already reporting 3 and 4 foot swells this morning out to sea.  Look for the rip tide to be a little more active today.  Pop up Florida thunderstorms, and the sea breeze will all be players in your day later.  Sunny, hot and humid, in other words, normal day.  Drink your water, a couple applications of sunscreen, and a hat are all in a day's work.

Beach numbers seem to be growing.  I'm noticing more and more people coming down to the beach between 10-3pm.  Yesterday at WO 10 there was a group of women coming up the steps as I was going down.  They were speaking to each other, but yelling over the surf, the conversation was actually easy to hear.  I caught "you just wait until I get back.  I'm going to give them such a piece of my mind!"  Which of course caught my full attention!  Had something happened on the beach?  Did a clean up crew member say or do something to tick her off?  Why on Earth was she leaving the beach so riled?  Maybe it was something I could deflect or change in the future for other visitors?  So jokingly I chimed in and said, " that's right ! When you get back you go get 'em!"  She looked up and saw me in my bright orange vest, and just smiled the biggest grin and said, "You better believe I will.  I'm calling every TV station we have when I get home and email all the people I know and tell them, that these beaches are BEAUTIFUL!  There's no oil here.  It's not like what they're showing! It's outrageous! The lies they're tellin' "  You GO GIRL ! 

Priceless!

As for the news on the spill.  A "seep" is still occurring about two miles from the main well head.   It's still not mentioned what is seeping, either methane gas or oil.  The cap is still holding, but pressures are still lower than expected, either from pressure released from the seep, or from the reservoir of oil beneath the well head having been spewing unchecked for 90 days.  EITHER way, scientists are toying with a new idea of sealing the well using heavy mud in both the broken well head and in the side wells they are currently drilling.  Time shall tell.  Right now, I'm just happy it's no longer spewing oil, and that the seas and weather are calm enough for them to continue to clean up out there.  I'm not sure how much longer the tropics are going to play ball.

Let's see: emotionally charged vent, administrative junk, weather, beach story, current events....I think that will do.
Have a safe day out there.
And THANK YOU for Volunteering.