sandy feet’s weblog

Out with the Old…..

The time has come to bid a fond adieu to this blog. As of right now I will be shutting down all commenting (take that you mailbox-muddying, sex pill pushing spammers - ruiners of my morning mailcheck!) though the stuff that is up here will stay up for the foreseeable future. Who knows, I may even fire the old girl up again some other day but for now say bye-bye to the old and…

In With the New

Welcome to the new blog - “being sandy feet” that already has some groovy new stuff on it (the site feed link is http://feeds.feedburner.com/BeingSandyFeet so put that in your reader). If you go there you will learn the real reason why this blog has been shut down so don’t delay and don’t forget to change your bookmarks.

Happy 2006 and hope to see everyone at the Polar Bear Dip!

Santa may care if you have been naughty or nice - but I don’t.

Regardless of your behavior, you are invited to Christmas Brunch Open House at sandy feet’s beach retreat - 117 e. saturn, Dec. 25th starting at 11 AM. When I say everyone is invited that is exactly what I mean, and if you come early enough you will get fresh-squeezed juice in your mimosa. Please stop by for a cup or bit o’ cheer! Here is the official invitation….

Success! KWTX | Christmas Trees To Be Used To Stabilize Texas Beaches

And here is the press release sent out by the city of South Padre Island:

The Town of South Padre Island is working on a pilot project to build dunes within the Town limits. This project will involve placing hay bales, sand fencing, and/or Christmas trees on the beach to catch the blowing sand in order to help build and replace the dunes that were lost to the strong waves caused by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. This is a very important project for us all, and we need your help. To begin, we need the support of beachfront property owners. The construction of a continuous dune line is required by Town ordinance, but the Town has not aggressively pursued this concept in the past due to the number of property owners that did not support the construction of dunes. However, after the waves from Rita and Katrina caused destruction of beachfront properties (fences, swimming pools, first floor flooding, etc.) and after the waves moved between breaks in the dunes to reach Gulf Boulevard AND Padre Boulevard, the philosophy of the Town leaders has changed. Therefore, we are now working on a plan for the development of a continuous dune line in order to protect beachfront properties and the properties to the west as well. Beachfront property owners, especially, will be directly affected by this project and we want their involvement in the process. Town staff will work with beachfront property owners as best as we can to meet our mutual needs. The second request in this process is for volunteers and supplies. In this matter, the Town seeks the involvement of anyone who’s interested in the beach and dune environment. The Town will need your used, live Christmas trees -however we ask that you remove all the lights, ornaments, and tinsel and place your live tree in the right of way (but not in the street) at the curb no later than January 12th. The Town Public Works Department will collect and store your tree for use in the dune building project. “D” Day (Dune Building Day) is scheduled for Saturday, January 14th 2006. We ask that anyone who wishes to volunteer, please meet Town Staff at City Hall located at 4501 Padre Boulevard at 8:30 am unless other more specific arrangements have been made with the Public Works staff. As this project will require a good bit of “hands on” effort, please make sure you wear appropriate sturdy clothes and good working shoes, bring gloves and a shovel if you have them, and prepare yourself for the weather (hat/sunscreen and/or coat/windbreaker). Thank you for your comments and support of this vital effort, and we hope to see you on the 14th. If you have questions about this project, and/or wish to participate, then please call Public Works at: (956) 761-3221 or (956) 761-1025.

The SoBs will be there (at least this SoB), and we plan to honor our commitment to provide adult refreshments for vounteers.

I believe this is the project that South Padre’s own Amazin’ Walter is working on in China right now. He is scheduled to return to SPI on Dec. 21st. I imagine he will have stories and photos to share during Christmas Brunch at sandy feet’s beach retreat.

Int’l Sand Sculpture Festival to open

Sculpture looks Zhuhai sand in the eye

Here are some pics from production crew that came down to South Padre a couple of weeks ago to shoot me creating a sand castle at Neptune Circle. I really like the photo of me at the bottom of this (slow-loading) page. Click on the thumbnail to see it big!

National Geographic Film Crew Visits the Lab

South Padre ferry plan is sailing on troubled waters

This strikes me as a particularly bad idea, though it seems that some SPIslanders feel otherwise.

I have no problem with a ferry landing up there, but why does Willacy county feel it needs to seize a chunk - big enough for say, a casino resort - for something they claim is just a little bitty access point for folks to utilize the nature preserve?

This stinks to high heaven of a developer land grab.

I sat in Beach & Dune for 2 hours today trying to save one lovely and fully functional sand dune, located at the end of Aurora Circle. (I failed.) I really get feeling like the little Dutch boy desperately trying to plug up the hole while the folks behind me are working just as hard to throw open the flood gates.

Well I am off to California for yet another contest and my flight is leaving really early but I just have to say a few words about tonight’s BOA meeting. I wasn’t there but by all accounts it was very exciting with cussing and finger jabbing and lawsuit threatening fireworks galore.

The hotbutton issues of course concern proposed zoning changes. On one hand you have E-zoners who want to live in secure neighborhoods where all the residents are longterm and you know all the people who might stroll down your street. (Pretty much the opposite of what one might reasonably expect to find in a town where the only industry is tourism, but never mind….)

On the other hand you have B-zoners, the majority of whom are apparently here for the short term in hopes of flipping their homesteads to the developers for big bucks somewhere down the line. You heard me. There is no other explanation for the fact that nobody stood up in support of Fred’s suggestion to put a moratorium on midblock high rises. In spite of all the favorable calls he received, in spite of all the support shown on this blog, in spite of the fact that WRT recommended it and SPIRIT supposedly supports it, NOT ONE PERSON spoke in favor of it at tonight’s meeting and instead sat silent while Clayton and Jess jumped all over Fred for daring to suggest it.

I am ashamed that I let my need to prepare for a trip prevent me from attending the meeting and speaking out in favor of this moratorium. It seemed like such a no-brainer and with those very vocal SPIRIT people behind it what could I possibly add? Well SPIRITers - you are looking like a bunch of wusses tonight.

I am discouraged and I am pissed. Why bother throwing a bunch of money at a comprehensive plan if we are going to continue to let the developers have every single thing they want!? What is the point in trying to make this town a real community if the majority of you folks are really just marking time here until you can make a killing in the real estate boom?

This sure makes all those pleas for “community” ring hollow.

I am experimenting with something I modestly call “sandyfeet’s list” as a way to make my sites more useful to both guests and residents of South Padre Island, Port Isabel, Laguna Vista, etc. If you visit it today you will find lots of interesting categories but not a whole lot of content - yet. I need you - my regular visitors - to help supply that. To do so you will first have to register but the process is safe and relatively painless and I think you will soon see the benefits of doing so. Check it out - and post suggestions for new categories or subcategories right here!

This weekend a film crew is coming down from Canada to film me building a sand castle. The show is for National Geographic. They have asked my assistance in coming up with 2-3 kids to interact with me, probably Sunday afternoon (we were scheduled to shoot on Monday but it is looking like a norther will be coming through Sunday night and we are hoping to avoid that.)

If you know anyone who can help me out with this, please e-me: webwiz@spionline.com. Merci Mucho!