Springtime & the Dirty Crocks

It's funny but for us locals, Croc washing happens when the ocean water warms up. The surf here is fooling with the idea of 70 degrees. Let's just say that if you don't wear socks but you like life in them most of the time, your Crocs are going to look and smell a wee bit shabby. It's time to take my doggies to the beach.

Between the sand and the nice surf water - have to wade in for a few minutes and I like faking I'm "surf fishing" - the Crocs turn out pretty clean and the funkies are all gone. Now brush them outside using a little mild soap, scrub, rinse in the outside shower, and dry: that's a Croc's life for ya.

Now don't be leaving nice Crocs on the beach unattended. Last season some were growing feet and mysteriously disappearing, or possibly stolen. I'm sure that at over thirty dollars retail, they'd be worth at least five bucks in a garage sale. When "going nekked" meaning no shoes I bring my foulest, oldest paint-splattered, lawn-mowing, poop-scooping, offshore fishing Crocs, ones that could make a freight train divert to a dirt road. Trust me, they're still there when I come back from body surfing or walking. Just a suggestion, don't be leaving your brand new, prized Camo Crocs with the cool hunting colors down on the beach.

So spingtime rolls around again - we really didn't get much winter and knock on wood. I've tried the sink, buckets, and all kinds of ways to clean your Crocs but going to the beach and rinsing them really does the trick. I'm so happy I feel like another bonfire.

I Wanna Grouper Claypot

I really miss my fix of Vietnamese food sometimes, and nothing more than grouper claypot. Sorry for the rip-off picture, that looks more like chicken, shitake mushroom, and mung bean or some madness. Yeah you could even have vegetarian claypots and twice-fried tofu and it is wonderful, an essential ingredient of the mighty grouper claypot.

It's the king, the bomb, the best. I got to asking Hao the owner and chef how the heck he did those things. Aside from his wonderful brown sauce, a family secret, he said "it's all in the bowl."

And darn if he didn't show me. Those clay bowls have a snout at one end to insert a 2-foot wooden handle. The pot is lowered into a circular opening in stove top, like an old coal stove or something, sitting about a third of the way down. All of Hao's clay pots had brass wire on the outside: "Sometimes they crack or blow up and make a big mess," he says. Comforting, eh? Serving was a matter of bringing the claypot to the customer with a side of Jasmine rice, hopefully in non-exploding mode but still sizzling.

Basically it's just a vegetable stew with Chinese ketchup and some meat if you want it, I know, but I want one again. Interestingly, the mushrooms such as the Shitake, Oyster, and Morel came out perfect this way (I'm shakin' like Elvis). And I know, grouper is getting to be an endangered species, but there is none finer than a real grouper claypot.

The North End

That's a section of what I call the "North End," about two-thirds of the way between the Shores development and the end of Park Road 100. This piece of land is about exactly 6.45 miles long. The Gulf is on the right, with a white beach and then a skinny black line that is the park highway. To the left of the road you'll see some blobs that indicate large vegetated dunes, some mudflats, and weird stuff due to the resolution of the picture.

Except for a few high dunes on the beach side, the beach is about 600 feet wide between the roadway and the dark sand (see the little red dots?). The brilliant white color indicates a lack of vegetation except in small places, and most of those dunes are small coppice dunes or larger, shifting "air dunes."

I didn't get the best shot here but see that "fan" effect on the bayside at the very top of the picture? That's an indicator of a very large and powerful washover zone. So there are a lot of dangers and risks in building up in this area. Unfortunately, a complete Google Earth satellite view of the entire length of the island in dispute looks like spaghetti so short sections such as this picture are the only way to gain an appreciation for the area.

Let's talk set-backs from the wet sand now, a nice surrogate for the high water mark. We now have 600 feet to play with, and the vegetation line is nowhere near obvious. I'm not a coastal expert by trade but you can drive for quite a while and not see any continuous vegetation line anywhere. That's important because the area between the vegetation line and the waterline is considered a public beach.

Then you has a "building line" which is usually a setback from the waterline of maybe 200 feet to 400 feet depending on the area (the Shores went with 400 I think). That's interesting, since the erosion rate in this part of the island is about 10 feet per year! Does that mean in 20 years there won't be anymore public beach? Gee, I hope to be alive to see that one.

Perhaps I'm being Captain Obvious here but it is clear to me we have major problems just figuring out how to plan that part of the island. I would prefer if nothing was developed up there but that just isn't going to happen. What would you do?

SPI Bees

Okay, not my best picture with $99 automatic but that was supposed to be a close-up of my Meyer's Lemon bushes which were - until I got close - were covered with all kinds of bees. There were at least five kinds of bees. I discovered that aside from a typical honey bee or bumble bee, I had no clue about the bees down here.

But I think you get the message that a bunch of stuff is flowering, including my lemons and some Huisache trees, and when it gets over 75 or 80 degrees the bees are quite active.

There's little teeny bees of several kinds, regular bees, bees that look like wasps, brown-black bees, and a huge black bee that looks like a flying B-52. My online sources such as Wiki, Google, and the Texas Handbook of Insects are totally useless. They like to talk about regular honey bees, some carpenter bees, and the dreaded Africanized bee, which we know are really from Brazil. Useless!

I find it fascinating to watch all these bees play on the flowers, some incredibly small and some large as a nickel in size. Maybe somebody knows? Until then, let's sing along with some Frank Sinatra:

Do bee-do, bee do bee,
Do bee-do, bee do bee do ...

More Beach Graphs

Here's something I believe we need more of down on SPI - beach transects. Imagine if you sliced the beach due east and measured the distance to the beach as well as the elevation. This transect was done in 2005 or so on a place called "SPI02," which I have no idea where that is. But with the new dredge stuff, constant erosion, and probably storms, it's nice to graph these over time and see how things are changing.

In this graph, the sea wall is where measurements are taken. You'll see a hump for a nice dune or two, and then a hump in the middle called the fore-dune. The vegetation line is on the right side of the fore-dune. The rest is all public beach down to the water line.

The horizontal scale is not perfect because I'm a dummy with the new Excel software but that's 300 feet from the condo seawall (historic building line) to the waterline, not bad. Note that this was before the erosion events that occurred later in 2005 due to Katrina and Rita, which would be cool to compare.

I also backwards engineered this graph to show that it is almost exactly 7 feet from the waterline to the top of the seawall - usually the survey numbers are negative and in meters, which are a little tough to read. The 300 feet is a magic number though, as erosion will cause that to dramatically shorten.

Think this is tough stuff requiring professionals? They have students trained at Point Isabel High School who do this all the time!

On Building Dunes

click the pic to enlarge

For the record, I am not a coastal biologist, scientist, or engineer although all three interest me, so be careful about using my words against anybody else. But I think folks may have lost a bit of common sense about "how to build a sand dune." And to learn how to grow dunes, you have to learn how the winds affect the shifting piles of sand.

So that ugly picture is a wind rose from Corpus Christi - the closest one I could find - that show wind direction, wind speed, and wind speed frequency. This one was for a 30 year average of days in January. What you see are two long barbs going to the northeast and the southeast. Other months such as July only has one barb to the southeast because there are no cold fronts with north winds in the summer.

But this means something, chiefly that building a "continuous dune line" will be frustrated from winds coming both directions, not at once of course but that significant dune shifting will result in the winter months, always eroding the face and creating a long slope behind the lee side of the dune.

To me this has two implications: that a "herringbone" type construction is needed instead of a linear one, and second that the idea is to build onto already existing humps, coppice dunes, and mature, vegetated dunes rather than piling sand and seaweed. In other words, any new dunes must grow naturally.

The herringbone construction is essentially a "vee" that slows down the wind from the northeast and southeast during the critical winter dune building months. Either wind direction, the project design works. Other designs, either laterally (north-south) or perpendicular (east-west) will both fail from either wind direction!

But human nature being what it is, folks want to "fill the gaps" with artificial dunes that to me, just won't work. All dunes have a certain wind flow around them and we will never have a true "continuous dune line" no matter what we do - and the air effects around tall buildings makes it even worse in the urbanized part of South Padre Island. We will always have dune gaps and wash-overs - and as long as condo roof drains are allowed to drain onto the Gulf side (a violation of the Clean Water Act), we'll have a horrible problem.

Not many people see things the way I do. I'm not going to get into what did and didn't work so hot. But using some common sense, one can build onto robust, mature dune and make them move up and down the beach. I'd use a ton of railroad vine roots and clippings, is my idea.

Finally, I wrote this because of an article in the Island Breeze which mentioned something like "if we don't vegetate the dunes, we'll get horrible hurricane damage." What a crock. Vegetated dunes were cut down like a butter knife by Hurricane Ike waves. The idea is just to slow down the damage a little bit. All I want is to bring some common sense to the table, no rocket science.

The Stinky Cheese Wars

Ah, who would have thought that such a perfectly foul smelling, wonderful French cheese would be the subject of a global trade war? Nobody really knows. As reporting the the Washington Post, the Bush Administration slapped a 300% import duty of Roquefort cheese in retaliation for the EU prohibiting importation of hormone-injected beef. Why Roquefort? Maybe I need to watch some more Monty Python movies.

If that's not existential enough, take the Stinky Cheese Wars being fought over the Town Lawyer on the SPI Forum. Like Roquefort cheese or the hilarious Flying Circus 'Cheese Shop' we simply have no idea why the idea came up, other than some old farts on the island must have gotten into some ... well some really stinky cheese or too many beans or something. We have no clue why people are mad at the poor lawyer, other than he has a helmet hairdo and drives a fancy Porsche 911 turbo. Hmm, hard to tell really.

I'm headed over to Zeste to see if they have any ugh ... stinky killer cheese balls!

Now that's a beeg plane!

This caught my eye, the biggest commercial jet plane in the world, the Airbus A-380. Quantas Air flies them mainly West Coast to and from Australia. It is so large that Los Angeles Airport (LAX) must stop all plane and ground transportation movements when one approaches or takes off. The local LAX officials like the business but treat the A380 as a royal pain because the wing span intrudes into all of the FAA safety zones.

Four Rolls Royce turbo-fans each output 70,000 foot-pounds of thrust and share a 80,000 fuel tank system. These engines are so large they required special sound dampening controls, or the passengers and crew would go deaf on a take-off. It creates such a turbulent wake effect that other planes must stay at least 10 miles away from it - smaller planes even further away.

Need to hit the restroom or make a fast destination when you've landed? With 500 to 800 passengers, the aircraft takes over 45 minutes to unload unless a third gate is added. Other US airports are looking to allow the A380 to land there (Kennedy does already), but the expense for taxiways and terminals is over 100 million dollars.

Ah, now that's living large, huh? I wonder if Sandy Feet rode one of those to Aussie Land or not.

Sustainabllity Part 4

One more post on the topic and I'm taking a break until the some inspiration (or brain fart) happens about the topic. I would like to say that unlike the early days of the island, SPI was indeed a sustainable place, and there are doubts about the future. Yes the economy will be here, but what kind of economy and quality of life? This is in recognition that the only industry on SPI is tourism.

As stated very broadly on the Center for Sustainable Destinations, there are 5 aspects to geo-tourism and sustainable communities:

1. Sustains tourism
   
2. Protects the destination
3. Conserves the resources
4. Respects local cultures and traditions
5. Promotes quality over quantity

Some of these concepts are being discussed around the island grapevine, without knowing they're talking about big concepts such as sustainability and geo-tourism. For example, Items #2 and #3 are about eco-tourism and the need for recycling and electrical conservation. Item #5 is misleading to many because they often think we need more rich visitors and residents on the island, which simply is not true. While the kinds of tourists that are more educated, stay longer, and spend more money do indeed have some disposable income, it could apply to any type of tourist. More on the topic will follow after a brief hiatus.

Happy Inauguration Day, 2009.

Sustainability Part Three

That's a 1957 postcard picture of the old bridge, also known as the Queen Isabella Causeway. Since that time a new causeway was built in about 1973, the present one linking Port Isabel and SPI. A third proposal is underway for yet another causeway to be built somewhere north of the existing ones. And interestingly, it would be a tollway exactly like back in 1957.

The stated reasons for a second causeway is that additional capacity is needed in case of emergencies or in case a barge takes out one or the other, and plus the existing causeway is quite old (although there are no plans to remodel it). The unstated reason for a second bridge is because developers want a bridge to the North End of the island, so resort travelers would not have to drive through the towns of Port Isabel and SPI. The concept is to create additional capacity (discussed in the last blog entry). One wonders how sustainable the whole concept really is, especially given the estimate of about two hundred million dollars.

The North End is roughly defined as the land between the Shores and the end of Park Road 100. It is also the wild end of the island, relatively thin, and known for hurricane wash-overs and high erosion rates. To construct the huge resorts - a few residential lots have been sold but it is mostly resort - the fragile dune systems would have to be flattened. While there might be some restaurants eventually constructed in the area, it is expected that the business and entertainment zone would be in SPI. The grocery stores would probably remain where they are, the Blue Marlin downtown with the Wal-Mart and HEB over in Port Isabel. So there are a host of gambles, what-ifs, and relationships with the old SPI town core that haven't even been addressed yet. Those relationships turn out to be very important.

Many assume that self-contained mega-resorts or even casinos would be constructed on the North End. However, knowing human nature, they will want to fish, shop, dive, see dolphins, go to Sclitterbaun, see the fireworks, and so forth. So I don't trust the "self-contained" resort paradigm in the least, and building up on the North End will only make our town less sustainable. Further, one would expect very few long-term residents to move into that area, as it would be mostly casino-like resorts for shortime visitors and a few very rich folks who can afford second mansions. I know I sound negative here but there is no plan to accomdate such kind of growth to the North End. In truth it would be best developed for mixed uses that were low-rise dwellings - but development will happen and there's nothing we can do about it.

And on the same subject, I will not dwell on the "leaning tower of SPI" which was supposedly constructed to the best engineering available, yet it failed and will never be inhabited, a stark reminder of the conditions at the "wild end" of the island. So my take is that building up the North End is an incredible risk that will not improve upon sustainability one iota, and would probably ruin the wild beaches and the access to them as well.

In the next section I'll talk about "geo-tourism" which is very different from eco-tourism although they are related. The concept of geo-tourism is directly intertwined with sustainability.

Sustainability Part Two

Sustainability can be differentiated from the town vision statements and comprehensive plans. A sustainable community might be one that is over-developed. The concept there is called "carrying capacity." The easiest example is to compare when the island has exceeded its carrying capacity, such as during:

• Texas Week, Spring Break
• Memorial Day
• Fourth of July

The threshold could be about 50,000 people on the island although numbers are difficult to pin down, other than we know when it happens because the bridge, main drag, and parking become so congested it takes hours to travel a few miles. There are 17,000 taxable residence units on SPI and perhaps about another 6,000 hotel rental units; in addition there are "day trippers" that leave each night, at times estimated at over 10,000 on peak days. There are very serious questions if the island could handle more people even with another causeway constructed to the north, as well as additional dwelling/rental units on the North End. What are all those people going to do?

This is an interesting case because during the off season, SPI can be considered a rural area having a density of less than 5,000 people per square mile, but can have a density of 25,000 per square mile on those peak weekends and holidays. One has to design the city for the peak activity, however. Once a threshold has been exceeded, the "island experience" becomes a negative due to crowding, congestion, and conflicts that create accidents and incidents. This "out of control" situation indicates that the study area is clearly not sustainable.

Yet at the same time, there is an acceptance that more and more houses and condos will be built on the island, which would increase loads even more. Some experts like to call this "managed growth" so as to minimize the negative impacts we already are seeing. Others call it bad names. I'll take on the proposed second causeway and North End development next.

SPI: A Sustainable Town?

Most folks tend to think of "sustainable" in environmental terms, such as reducing energy and vehicle driving and promoting walkable neighborhoods. There are many examples with many of the advanced ones being in Western Europe. Others view it as an economic plan, such as for improved small town and rural areas, such as for expanded education and health clinics in Pennsylvania and Colorado. And for a coastal resort area such as South Padre Island, some would view it in the context of sustainable geo-tourism as opposed to mega-developments and high rises.

The concept of sustainability is simply one that says that rapid growth is not as important as being able to weather adverse conditions over the long term. A town that was built in a boom and became a ghost town was obviously not "sustainable." It's a fascinating topic and there is a ton of information about the subject, but nothing that is really comprehensive - which is why I like to write about it sometimes.

In classical Von Thunen terms, a city or town was a circle in the middle, surrounded by a fringe and then rural lands; the rural lands were cheaper so that is where the farming occurred. As cities grew with population increases, the cities expanded outward along with the fringe that pushed farm and ranchland further away from the city. This theory is still very much alive today with concepts such as a downtown, city limits, an ETJ, and surrounding areas that were under the control of counties, states, or the federal government. It meant a need for constant annexation as far as one could go - in the American West, seemingly forever.

The reason for annexation is because people who lived on the fringes enjoyed some of the benefits of the city, and therefore should eventually be taxed for that enjoyment. Plus in many cases, if the central city did not absorb those lands, other cities would claim the land and thus tax the residents and businesses, a net loss in revenue. Nowhere is the situation more evident than the cities of Port Isabel and Brownsville annexing all the land around South Padre Island.

If you look at sustainable areas such as those in Europe, population growth is fairly flat and the cities have grown all they can because of boundary issues. Our little SPI is remarkably similar, except for a few miles that can be developed and annexed to the north. However, our economic view even here on SPI requires growth for its future, a contradiction in terms. I'll write more about that in the next installment.

Global warming and another cold war

Now that's a big diesel engine. Sucks down about 1,600 gallons an hour! There's a little guy standing in the picture with a yellow suit. About 100,000 horsepower, to be used in a containership to brings us all kinds of crap that says "Made in China." Who would have thunk it possible?

Eric Proposes!

Looks like my son Eric and Cari are getting married this coming September. Here on the island! And she has a huge Italian family, like over 50. Lori got "the call" today and we're real excited. Does this mean I have to wear real clothes though, and leather shoes too? A tuxedo monkey suit? Ugh-oh, but I sure I have plenty of time to practice. But they're so happy, and that's what counts.

Tweet-Up No. 2

I thought the tweet-up at Joni's was great, and it wasn't all that freaky like I thought it ... well I have a fertile imagination. Hm, "tweets"? Had a great time, good crowd, had a beer, and made some friends.

Here's an example of long text, a little different from the 140 characters for Twitter. But it almost makes sense, and has some weird lingo from NOAA and the National Weather Service (evening forecast 8:50 pm CST Sat Jan. 3)

Marine...buoy 20 reported south winds at 15 to 20 knots and seas of 4 to 5 feet with a 7 second period early this evening. Observation on the Laguna Madre were light to moderate from the south. Winds will continue to mix down offshore tonight in the presence of a weak low level jet. Only when high pressure pushes into south Texas from the north Sunday morning to relax the gradient will winds weaken from moderate to light. Winds will remain light most of Sunday...slowly backing to east and then northeast as high pressure works its way into deep south Texas. Winds will become northeast and increase Monday morning once colder air arrives. Exercise caution to borderline Small Craft Advisory conditions are expected offshore Monday. Low overcast clouds with some light rain will be the rule Monday. Loaded new nawave4 grids which initialized the current lower sea heights well.
&&

Bonfire Update #1

OK, I realize I was confusing in my original post. The bonfire is still on for New Years Day, Thursday.

Weather-wise, a mild front is due to come through this morning with fairly strong NE winds. On Thursday, the wind is expected to switch back to the South. The question is the timing of the wind and rain right at about dusk when we want to light the fire. So far, so good.

Calling All SOBs - Bonfire!

Wednesday is the 31st and we're hoping for a good evening for a pachanga at the end of the road again. You know the drill. I'll bring the wood, and hopefully Sandy Feet and other have some contributions, and y'all just bring your chairs, ukuleles, kazoos, marshmallows, or whatever. Oh, some wine and beer is completely acceptable by the way. Food is gud. End of the road, face right due East, and walk about 150 yards and you'll see us.

When? Well we'll have to watch that because nobody wants to go up to the North End in 40 degrees of weather and drizzle, or worse. We want nice. Stay in touch with the SOBs and no problem.

Help needed? You betcha! We lost some of our most venerable surf trucks and Jeeps, so we'll most likely need some help hauling gear and firewood from the street. My back will thank ya.

What time? Well once we get the "go" from the powers that be, including the weather gods, the early crew is out there about 4 o'clock loading wood and stuff so it's still daylight. The sun goes down and we light a small camp fire. The fire gets bigger after dinnertime. One time some locals came by with a ton of wood and old pallets and it was quite spectacular.

What should I bring? The usual stuff plus a flashlight for walking the dunes in the dark. Trash bags are good, since we haul off all our waste plus some more beach trash. We're asking people not to bring fireworks because some dogs will be there, and it scares them.

When? The extended forecast shows New Years Day being OK with a high in the 70s with a low in the 60s but a 10% chance of rain. Looks like a cold front might come in after that, not sure. After a Polar Bear plunge, might be nice! -sammie

Merry Christmas

'Twas a South Padre Christmas and all down the beach,
White sand stretched as far as it could reach.
The flippers were hung on the balcony with care,
In the hopes that Santa soon would drift there.

The Texans were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of Key Lime pie danced in their heads.
Bahama mama in her grass skirt and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long tropical nap.

When out in the night there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my hammock to see what was the matter.
Away to the screen door I flew like a flash,
Tore open the curtains and let out a gasp.

The moon on the water, how it did glow,
Giving a luster of midday to palm trees below.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature yacht out past the pier.

With a little old captain so lively and quick,
I thought for a moment, "Could it be St. Nick?"
More rapid than the waves, the dolphins they came
And he whistled and shouted and called them by name.

"Now Flipper, now Moby, now Sebastian and Willy,
On Flounder, on Orca, on Jaws and Charlie -
From the end of the pier to our port of call,
Now swim away, swim away, swim away all!"

And then in a twinkling I heard on the beach,
The chirping and chattering and splashing of each.
As I redrew the curtains and was turning around,
Through the front door St. Nicholas came with a bound.

Dressed in his trunks with a beer in his hand,
His feet were all covered with snow-like white sand.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a tourist just opening his pack.

His eyes - how they twinkle, his dimples how merry,
His cheeks were sunburned, his nose like a cherry.
His droll little mouth cracked a big smile,
The goatee on his chin, showed he could be kinda wild.

The snorkel he held tight in his teeth,
The mask it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a red face and a sunburned belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.

Trunks and a cold “Gold”, a strange old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A flash of the peace sign and a nod of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the flippers, then turned with a jerk.
Now laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, out the door he goes.

He sprang to his yacht to his team gave a call,
And away they swam past the lighthouse and all.
But I heard him exclaim as he traveled out of sight,
"Christmas in South Padre, now that's doin' it right!"

-adapted from "Christmas in Abaco" by Nick Campbell and Debbie Midwood circa 2004

Half Shares in a Shrimp Boat

That's a picture of a massive crane barge lifting what is left of an 80-foot shrimp boat that got stuck on the end of the South Jetty. Photo credits go to Dennis Barrett and his Sandslave blog.

A bunch of us - maybe nearly 1,500 - were watching the Sky Cam yesterday, which had remarkable zoom ability from several miles away. It appeared that the stern of the shrimp boat broke off, perhaps after the recent heavy winds and high seas. Both sections of boat seemed to dangle and be smashed on the jetty, a horrifying sight! Dennis grabbed this picture once the crane barge was in smoother waters of the Brownsville Ship Channel.

So it was a neat day for watching the waters yesterday, as the shrimp boat was dangled and mangled, and workers were moving 500-foot sections of dredge pipe down the beach. Heavy action to say the least.

Shallow and Cold

For the last hour I've been watching as the sun struggles - finally - to burn through the clouds. This was very strange, as the wind was out of the north yet the clouds were trucking to the north about 20 miles an hour! Obviously, the weathermen called it right as a shallow cold front even though they botched the last three day's forecast pretty bad - the front was originally supposed to stall north of here.

Ah, more sun. Anyway that was neat with the cool wind one way, and the clouds and mist at about a thousand feet going the other. I mean those clouds were trucking, probably meaning a major warm-up is on the way.

I also think it is neat that in these heady times when we think we know everything, we still can't get the weather right. Obviously we don't know very much, do we?