Working My Way Outta a Funk, Sargassum, and An Errand-Ice Cream Date

Morning all,

I’ve been in a bit of a funk these last few days…not sure exactly what it is…but the kind of days when, a few hours after waking…I just feel like going back to bed.

I think some of it was my Monday 2nd dose of the AstraZeneca vaccination.  I experienced what I was calling wooziness – or feeling “out of it” – with the first dose.  And the second was the same.  Just about 48 hours.  The experts seem to call it “brain fog” and it’s pretty normal for this vaccination.  Add it atop my general 47-year old brain fog and well…you’ve got something there.

Then, I had a relatively sleepless night with Elsie mid-week.  She was nauseous and sick and sleepless for about 24 hours – a big deal for a dog that generally sleeps 22.5 hours a day.  She’s much better now.  Thank goodness.  Here she is FINALLY falling asleep.

And then…ok…I’m going to say it.  SARGASSUM.  SARGASSO.   The seaweed, well…brown macroalgae, has been plaguing our shoreline for the last few weeks.  But really badly this past week.  Workers at resorts, town council workers and homeowners have been working hard to clean it up but it overwhelms.  Just huge amounts of it coming in and building up on the beach.  But worse, clogging the water and…rotting.

Nice view

and then…

The sargasso itself is natural – Christopher Columbus remarked on a huge (and I mean HUGE) raft of it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and encountered it on the shores and beaches in southern Florida.

But in the last 5-7 years…the stuff has REALLY started to wash up on our shores and those around the Caribbean.

Report 2 days ago from the Rivera Maya in Mexico (just to our north) – they have a color coded alert system and report removal in tons

An article out of Miami about the excess Nitrogen gas levels registered

A beach closed in St Thomas this week due to the smell

To make a very long story (the history of sargassum and the proliferation of sargasso from 2015 until present) short – global ocean pollution, ocean warming, all of it, is leaving a huge mess in the Atlantic and the Caribbean.  It’s ugly, it stinks.

I had a dream last night that I’d found a HUGE fish tank that had been recently emptied of water.  There were dried guppies and algae caked to the bottom and it stunk.

I was smelling the sargasso in my sleep.

“I’m surprised they haven’t found a way to do anything with it” – “Why don’t they use it for something?”  I’ve received these questions all week from people that mean well.  It’s only human nature to try to figure out a solution.

Well…money, freshwater, money…the same reasons the US hasn’t figure out what to do with all that plastic they use or…

I’ll stop there.  See?  I’m in a funk!

Yesterday I got on a good path to snap myself out of it.  I woke up with intention!

And made an appointment for a pedicure.  A bottom’s up approach. 🙂

Sparadise.  It’s just up the road from Palapa Bar and they are lovely.

I then met Jeff for an errands and ice cream date.

We stopped in at Paradice – just south of town…they’ve got a great selection of flavors.

And a HUGE single scoop of Turtle in a waffle cone was just perfect.

I posted this yesterday on Instagram and got a bit of feedback about the prices.  And I thought about it.  Fresh dairy in Belize – especially on this island – is still very much a luxury.  Many locals are used to canned milk – evaporated milk.  It’s something I NEVER bought when I lived in the US – now we always have a few cans of it in the pantry.

I grew up thinking of milk as an everyday necessity – we had milk with dinner every night and with cereal every morning.

Dairy cows, refrigerated/frozen transport, government subsidies on dairy…all of that is not how Belize works!  So milk and ice cream are a luxury items for sure.

I need to add DAIRY to my Things I took For Granted Until I Moved to Belize list!

Soo…those things worked.  For sure.

In the additional good news category (if I haven’t lost all of you by now) –

• Jeff’s coming home from the camp tomorrow – I haven’t seen him much in 2 weeks!
• I’m making bagels this morning.  Replacing some of the flour from this recipe with my sourdough starter, letting it rise overnight in the fridge, these bagels are SOOO good.
• The pizza oven that we’ve been dreaming about is on the long path from the company in the US to Cayo Frances Farm and Fly.  WOOOHOO!  (Sour dough starter DEFINITELY going in the crusts)

Back to my regular programming tomorrow.