plastic bags

Niki and I have been using our reusable bags for grocery shopping for about a year now, and we are still amazed by the looks of folks in line at the store when we pull them out. They just do not understand the waste generated by those silly plastic bags. I recently read that as many as 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year! How many of those bags enter the oceans each year?? If you are a follower of the leatherback work we conduct, you know the story of "Sara" the leatherback turtle. If not, read about her story on the Project Log.
Now you can purchase a reusable tote bag with a cute leatherback turtle and a great message. Click here to purchase a bag. 10% of the proceeds will be donated to the Marinelife Center of Juno Beach leatherback project. Remember, steer clear of plastic bags!

leatherbacks

I just read a news story on the current Volvo Ocean Race. One of the crews sailing in the first leg of the race from Vigo,Spain to Cape Town,South Africa encountered a leatherback sea turtle! They are currently off the coast of south america and will be making a run towards Africa soon. Maybe they saw one of our leatherbacks that we have tagged on Juno Beach. For more info about that project, click here: www.floridaleatherbacks.com

Hurricane Wilma webcam

The webcam movie has just been posted. Unfortunately it did not capture the worst part of the storm. We had the webcam operating on backup power since about 6am on Monday. Our power in the laptop and UPS went dead at around 9:30am. The camera captured a bit of the fury of Hurricane Wilma! The movie can be viewed here: Hurricane Wilma

Power is restored in most of the neighborhood now. There are still a few blocks with no power, but FPL is in the area and they are replacing broken poles and transformers today.

7:17pm 11/2/05 Fireworks and Horns!

The neighborhood now has power!!! A few hours ago the house recieved power and just a few minutes ago, most of the neighborhood was turned on. Niki and I stepped outside and heard the sounds of horns honking, fireworks cracking, and cheering! I am not kidding! Two giant bucket trucks were parked one street over, repairing a damaged wire. Once they fixed it, a huge block of houses was energized. As the power trucks were leaving, they honked their loud horns and the people yelled and it felt like we were in a movie. It's cool to see people get so excited about something as simple as electrically heated water.

Ten days ago Hurricane Wilma arrived and destroyed so many homes. We were very lucky, and as power is restored to more and more people, lives are starting to move on. I'm still shocked though, every day, as I drive around our city, at the debris and garbage piled up on our streets. Where is all this garbage going to go? Anything that's not vegetative debris is going straight to the landfill. Kind of makes you think more about all the trash you throw away, especially when you see so much of it piled in everyone's yard.