Gulf Oil Spill Update

The oil spill is growing by the day. Even if the oil were to be stopped today it would still take 20 or more years to clean up the estuaries. This mess is affecting the entire nation if indirectly. There isn't enough being done to clean up the beaches and to keep the oil from coming ashore. There should be clean up crews working all of the beaches all day instead the crews spaced out here and there and aren't consistent. There are not enough workers cleaning. This past weekend some volunteers cleaned some areas of the beach where there were no crews and went to give the collected tar balls and oil to the official clean up people and they said 'It wasn't his job'. What! This is a reminder of Hurricane Katrina only this is worse. These higher ups at BP are more concerned with their image. This is so frustating to everyone on the coast.

This is an excerpt from WKRG.COM our local tv station. A third fly over was on Sunday and this is part of the report by Debbie Williams reporter for WKRG.

"At first we had to go out 10 or 12 miles before we could see anything," says Walter.We don't see the floating patches of oil close into the shoreline instead, we see a sheen or film covering the majority of the water. "75 percent of the Gulf of Mexico that I've been able to see along Alabama's coast has a thin film of oil and you can see it, it's a shiny film."Beaches in Orange Beach are clean. But further west we see our first clean up crews working at the state park from the beach pavilion to the first crossover.As we flew into Gulf Shores, seaweed was washing ashore and along with it tar balls and patches of oil as big as pizzas littered the beaches.There was evidence clean up crews had been here but left before the job was finished."The further you come the sadder it gets," says Bambi Grods a beach goer from Excel. "I grew up in Pensacola on the beach and it's so sad to see your white sands have all this on it."The waters have been closed to fishing. A swimming advisory has been issued by the state health department and yet swimmers are everywhere.As we fly by the Bon Secour Wildlife Refuge we see more clean up crews and lots more oil, but as we get closer to the point where tar balls had littered the area, the beaches are white again.Still the sheen is everywhere including Mobile Bay and the oil keeps gushing.

On another note the temps here are horrible and getting worse this week. We will have temps in the mid and upper 90's with heat index of 105-112 degrees. Wow. No gardening for me till this breaks. The twice weekly weeding will have to wait till the temps change.

My son will be having surgery to remove about 18" or more of his colon. Please keep him in your prayers. My DIL is here with my sweetheart Ethan. Ethan has Jarcho Levin Syndrome. What a wonderful gift God has given us in Ethan. He is certainly a walking miracle.
Read about Ethan here. http://beccasgardenspot.blogspot.com/search/label/Jarcho%20Levin%20Syndrome. The son didn't tell me till last night that they came in on Friday. If he weren't sick I'd spank him. (well not really - just fuss at him). I can't wait to spend time with them this week.

I went to a plant sale this weekend - a once a year sale - yea! I only purchased 7 plants but they will be beautiful when they have some blooms. I purchased Rose of Sharon, tropical hibuscus, Iris - Cloud Ballet (purple and white) and Jasmine. I am at a lose as to the other plants I purchased. Memory well it ain't what it used to be. I had a great weekend - spending time with an old flame. The flame is still there. We shall see where it goes.

Hope you all have a great day and don't get too hot.