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2 weeks ago | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
What are the wild waves sayingSister, the whole day long;That ever amid our playing,I hear but their low lone song. — Joseph Edwards CarpenterOur world is flush with waves. Light, sound, infrared, radio, TV, cell, Wi-Fi, satellite, radars, microwaves, garage door openers, dog fences. If we could see them all we’d be blinded in an electronic fog.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
There came a day when the clouds drifting along with the wind aroused a wanderlust in me, and I set off on a journey to roam along the sea shores. — Matsuo BashoThey live ever yday up in the penthouse of your mind, rent free. So many of your memories and life experiences are framed and shaped by them.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
Here you are around Labor Day in your bare feet or flip-flops, reading this while contemplations of the end of the summer season are starting to come to mind. No doubt you’re feeling that you’ve become some part of the Island and, likewise, it a part of you. Or maybe not.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
So I’m sailing for tomorrow, my dreams are a’dyin’And my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain. I have my ship, and all her flags are a-flying!She is all that I have left, and music is her name. — Crosby, Stills & Nash, “Southern Cross”Standards. Banners. Gonfalons. Oriflammes. Vellums. Tughs. Pennants. Banderoles. Call them what you will and, sure, throw in some bunting for the heck of it. They’re all forms of flags.
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May 22, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
It was six years since the Lucy Evelyn caught fire and burned. The Bee Gees’ songs were tops on the pop charts. Folks thronged to theaters to see “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and “Laverne and Shirley” ruled the small screen. Earlier in the year, the first GPS satellite was launched, the Amoco Cadiz ran aground off the Brittany coast and Resorts International casino opened its doors in Atlantic City.
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Apr 24, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
My metathesiophobia has really been acting up lately. Yours too, huh? Yeah, that’s no surprise. I mean, anyone who does social media regarding Long Beach Island – or simply drives around with open eyes – is likely a sufferer of this condition. Yes, the whole offshore wind farm matter has certainly brought on this acute attack as of late, but it’s more the long-term exposure that really buggers me up the worst. If you haven’t already looked it up, metathesiophobia is simply the fear of change.
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Mar 20, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
Although you’ve probably never given it much thought, I think it’s fair to say that grass connotes luxury. Think about it. Don’t you always admire that one house on the block
whose lawn is always lush, thick and
green? Even a modest home looks so
much more elegant when surrounded by a rich emerald carpet of grass. And what about a golf course clubhouse set amidst 200-odd acres of manicured perfection?
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Jan 10, 2024 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
I’m continuously amazed by how many coastal dwellers have such scant genuine understanding about the place in which they live or visit. Particularly for those privileged enough to live on an actual barrier island – one of the most dynamic, complex and fascinating places on earth to call home – I think it’s essential or a civic or social duty almost, to possess at least a rudimentary understanding of what the place is all about.
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Dec 6, 2023 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat;And we must take the current when it serves,Or lose our ventures. —William Shakespeare, “Julius Ceasar”Earth has many natural forces that seize our attention and rock our world.
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Nov 8, 2023 | 
thesandpaper.net | Gail Travers |L.J. Wallace Jr.
Over the years, our next door neighbor, Capt. Joe, owned several boats, culminating with a stout 38-foot Henriques sportfish built in Bayville. Iwas kind of a natural at boat handling while Joe’s skills were … well, he really wasn’t comfortable getting in and out of the slip. And so I became our de facto harbor pilot, taking us out of Morrison’s Marina, down the waterway and out the inlet where Joe would take over and I’d head down to the cockpit, swapping my captain’s hat for a mate’s bandana.
