Lundy Says-Amusing Info from Lundy Wilder

for Bathroom Cabinets all of a sudden ... read why.

Good news for those who like both coffee and alcohol. In a recent study of more than 125,000 people an Oakland, CA medical team found that consuming coffee seems to help protect against alcoholic cirrhosis. The study was done based on people enrolled in a private northern California health care plan between 1978 and 1985. From the article: "People drinking one cup of coffee per day were, on average, 20% less likely to develop alcoholic cirrhosis. For people drinking two or three cups the reduction was 40%, and for those drinking four or more cups of coffee a day the reduction in risk was 80%." Were I in the coffee biz, this is information that I would be promoting in as many creative ways as I could think of. Come to think of it, I might even drink more coffee because of it.

Well, today is the day when 2 years ago Miller died in the plane crash. Off the scale sad. Couple days ago, I was in the blow-up pool and dosed off and immediately, I was standing on a dirt road out in flat green fields at a crossroads and Miller was walking towards me and he had Brewer with him and he was bringing Brewer to see me, like "look Mom, it's Brewer, and he is 10 yrs older now" and I moved my arms and they went into the water and it woke me up immediately. It was so real and so strange. The scene was just like out of the movie Crossroads For anyone who doesn't know, Brewer was my firstborn son, who drown at age 15, about 12 years ago. BTW--thanks all dear friends for your sweet calls and emails today XoXoX. On a lighter note, the news story about fake toenails went out to 40 newspapers --you may have read about the writer contacting me a week or so ago. I play only a minor role in this hot topic news piece, but still, I am sure that Miller would have been ...

We finally got a little rain late this afternoon, so the sky is grey. The wind is coming from the direction of that hurricane that might bother FL. Hope we get some more rain, but it doesn't look like it will be today. Here is a link to a live OspreyCam here in Gulf Shores---I didn't even know it existed, well looks like it stopped on May 19th....oh well. The Osprey is listed as Endangered in Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and Alabama. Osprey populations were declining rapidly in the mid-1900's, most likely due to the use of DDT and other pesticides. With the banning of DDT and conservation programs (particularly, creating nesting platforms) for this species, Osprey populations are starting to increase.

Today was Sunday and after I properly encouraged my next door neighbor on Hardwood Dr. in his yard work activities, I spent a lot of the afternoon lolling in my blow-up pool and beginning to read my second Christmas Gift book. It is Sooooo funny. A great pool lolling book. Not at all like The Search--which required my full attention and had only the slightest hint of humor but was a good read and actually brought me to tears at the very tail end. It would not have done that to most people, I am sure. It was about the history of the Internet and the history of the companies that have had the biggest impact in its formation. But John Battelle finishes up with the 'where were you and what did you feel when you first learned of it ' thing, like the 'where were you when Kennedy was killled thing' and I remember the moment in the history of my life when I was just overcome with emotion and the 'this could be BIG' feeling ..... and then John Battelle goes on to tal...

My next door Neighbor at the Hardwood Dr house was in town this weekend and bless his heart, that man is a ball of energy. FOR REAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He cut my (mostly dead) grass, edged all the driveway , sidewalk, and patio, blew off the clippings, washed down the coils on my A/C, moved my sprinklers every 15 minutes. Not just my house but his as well, He cut down two dead trees just across the barbed wire on the wildlife refuge and then cut them into small pieces with a chain saw and put the chunks in the woods for the insect and woodpeckers, etc...hell, he even scrubbed out the interior of my fiberglass boat, rinsed it , moved it around the back yard. His energy is boundless. I baked him 6 small Karo Pecan Pies to Lady Bird Johnson's recipe that I got from my cousin Ruth Switzer of Dallas. I have always thought that the name 'Lady Bird' was a FINE name and that her pie recipe was indeed the best one I'd had. I would have baked one regular sized pie, but my neighbor w...

These forms for growing your own grass or herb armchairs in situ are a great idea. No need to bring them in for hurricanes. Just choose a salt tolerant plant material. I think I shall make my own forms from the plywood scraps from the Hardwood Dr attic flooring project. A couple of arm chairs facing the lagoon for afternoon sunsets, Ospery watching and breezes might be quite enjoyable. But I think I will make them chaise lounges. Order the form here

This is the second year for my supurb Tuesday Morning blow-up pool. It came with a rechargable little gizmo like those blow-up beds, and it only takes about a minute and half for the whole thing to be tight as a drum. It is GREAT ! And as you can see from the long shot of the house , it really isn't an eye-sore, esp. considering all the pleasure it brings and lack of year 'round bother. No pool-boy necessary, no expenses. The Gulf breeze blows across the yard all afternoon (and wide openness as a result of recent hurricanes) and it is absolutely heavenly to lie on a float and go into a hypnotic trance. I throw about a half cup of granular pool-shock into the water in the evening about every 4th day and about every 8 days I empty it and fill it with fresh water. To empty it is a chinch, I just let the air out and the sides colapse and the water pours over the side. Of course this usually moves my parking gravel about a bit and exposes the bright orange MediaCom cable that is bur...

Well, my shrimping experience was delightful but way more mild mannnered than I had expected. Turns out that Mike Broussard hand built his boat in Biloxi on his aunt's property and had a barge with a crane come and lift it and place it in the water and he has been using it to earn a living ever since. He is now doing dinner charter cruises and dolphin watching sunset cruises out of the Bear Point Marina down in Orange Beach where the Giggleing Grouper Restaurant is (old Back Porch Restaurant pre-hurricane). He was born and raises in Biloxi and has used his boat in a variety of ways. It was wonderful---I LOVE summer !!! Just absolutely perfect temperatures. Dolphins were everywhere. When we started pulling in the drag net, the dolphins were swimming right behind and they stayed right around the boat for a long time after the shrimp were dumped out and in a pot downstairs cooking.

Never done this before....what does one wear? Sunset on a real shrimp boat. I have no time to search for re-runs of Forrest Gump to ck out shrimping attire. Jeans and tank top will have to do. What about earrings? Pearls seem most appropriate. Hair? Mine frizzes in salt spray and wind, so a ponytail and baseball cap is probably best. Pink. Shoes? Probably 'topsiders'....I have only seen them in catalogues , never owned any....tennis shoes will have to do. I'm taking cameras and zip lock bags tucked away in my over shoulder purse, in hopes of getting to bring home shrimp along with those photos! We shall see.....

I have had a few questions about the size comparison of my new travel laptop and my regular, older laptops. Here they are together. The Sony VAIO on bottom is pretty standard size. It is about 5 years old I'd guess. Weighs about 8 lbs. The thing sticking out the side is a wireless card---it was purchased fairly recently and just plugs in. (They were not standard and built-in in those days.) The battery on the new little one is the silver cylindar shaped thing running along the back hinge area. It just plugs in and out. It is much lighter than the big old rectangle that slid into the old one. My old one no longer holds a charge, but even on eBay they are not cheap, so I don't even have battery capability with it anymore. I was not going to shell out 75 bucks when I knew I wanted a new smaller, lighter laptop soon. I was at Office Depot today to buy a computer desk for the Hardwood Dr. house and none of their laptop offerings were as compact as mine. I looked just because I was c...

We have had essentially no rain for several months now. Mobile and Daphne have had rain and thunderstorms, but as often happens the rainclouds have skirted around Mobile Bay, going north of us. I watered the grass at the Hardwood Dr house last month and my water bill was over 200 bucks (no well, sewer fee added to H20 usage), and still a lot of it is dead. I just can't stand to see it all die totally. As I have been over there so much, working on unpacking boxes or putting them in the attic, I have tried to give it short spurts of water (I know turfgrass management says that is bad practice, causes shallow roots, but too bad, I tried the other method, didn't do much good) You can see how spotty it is and the brown areas are not dormant, they are dead. I suppose I'll overseed w/ rye in fall, but then, not sure what I'll do for next warm season. If we continue to have such dry weather, maybe consider Buffalo Grass or pavers ! The Lagoon house grass is fine. Since I am dai...

A new restaurant has opened down here and it is the buzz totally amongst locals. I have been three times in 2 weeks. The food, prices, menu and service are great and we want to keep the tourists from finding our about it ! Therefore I will not be blabbing its name on the tourist oriented websites and anyone who wants me to tell them where it is, must take me there !! There is no parking in front street-side, so this will help in not calling attention to the success of it. The guy who has opened it has done stints at several of the better local restaurants, Bayside Grill, Bistro & Bakery and others. Each dish comes on its own special plate or platter. the crabcakes are the best I have had in a restaurant here and they come on bright red triangular plates with a yellow scalloped detail on the edge. Even the drinks come in special glasses, each giving a certain flair to the cocktail. They make up their own BloodyMary mix with tiny cubed cucumber squares in it. One of these photos is t...

I've been getting email asking how I like my new tiny travel 3 lb. Sony Vaio and is it everything I had hoped it would be--yes, yes, yes. I have taken two photos, one with a flash, one without. I set my new little LG flip phone on top of it for scale. The brilliance and clearity of the screen is unreal.....even at sharp angles. Of course this means that if you watch a DVD on a plane all 5 seats can watch along with you--forget working on sensitive documents unless you buy one of those privacy screens I suppose !! It boots and operates faster than any laptop I have ever used. I stopped at a friend's house and it instantly picked up their wireless connection and was online. It has Bluetooth, Ethernet and phone modem connections too. So even tho it looks like I will not be making the Singapore trip I had hoped I might next week, I'll be ready when the next travel opportunity presents itself. Click on the photos to see enlargements for details. I figure that if the screen looks...

Tonight I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda that I have wanted to see for a long, long time. The story is based on true facts in 1994. This might have been yesterday in terms of mankind's time on earth. Over a million bodies left slaughtered and lying in the African roads. Similar things are going on in Sudan right now. I have not ever been able to bring myself to watch the movie 'The Killing Fields'. Iran is a whole 'nother story. I am appalled at the stories of daily life in Iran. Raw sewage running thru the streets, gunning down of innocent families, etc...I read some blogs from soldiers, but have had to stop.....i get to the point that I just can't take it. Last year (or the year before) I read the statement"100 years of psychotherapy and the world is getting worse" the anniversary of Freud's first major book publishing or something. It is so very true. Knowledge of the ongoing suffering of mankind on earth makes our usual U.S. trivial trials pale i...

Fun living on the water. All sorts of woodpeckers lately ---see previous post and photos. Plus I awoke the other day to a very large crane up deep into the yard struggling to eat a snake. I was so fascinated watching him, that by the time I grabbed the camera, he had turned away from me and when he turned back towards me, I could not see the snake, so i do not know if he managed to eat it or the snake got away. It looked like the snake might be winning while I saw the struggle.

Everyone knows Argentines are football crazy, and think about their beloved sport at every waking moment and during most of their sleeping ones too. in the River Plate stadium, where tiny goalposts and balls have been installed in the urinals with the instructions: "Aim well and score a goal!" It's a novel approach to urinating, with the added goal-scoring challenge involving a movable ball. Quoting the Marketing Dept Head, "it's also a question of hygiene because it represents between 40 and 50 percent better hygiene, I mean of a reduction in cleaning costs because urinals get less dirty. And that is why the club welcomed this pretty curious, pretty original product " You will want to see the little video I'm sure. EDIT--Alert reader Ruth Switzer notified me by email that the STORY was REMOVED IT SEEMS, so I removed link

I love living on the water. There have been great birds hanging about lately. All sorts of woodpeckers including this pileated woodpecker who had this large black bird buddy that he was hanging out with. Where ever the woodpecker flew, the blackbird followed, from tree to tree and back again. I took these photos thru the kitchen window as I poured my coffee. Then, on the property next door, every day this huge hawk like bird (I'll have to look him up in one of the books) sits on the high branches of these pines. I didn't have fresh batteries in my 10X zoom yesterday, only my 3X , so these were the best shots I could get. You may have to click on the far-away shot of the tall trees to see the bird in the tree on the right.

Can you believe it? One fill-up here at local Chevron gas station.

Anyone who was a teen or older in the 70's will remember the then scandalous book, The Happy Hooker. While on the phone with the newspaper writer who contacted me about using fake toenails when one was re-growing from damage, I mentioned that I was in a hotel elevator in 1976 in San Jose , Costa Rica w/ Xavier Hollander who was on a book promotion tour and I noticed how shabby her toenails looked and always remembered. She was riding up from the pool as I recall and had on flip-flops. Anyway--News reporter Dru Sefton wrote back to me to say that out of curiosity, she had done a bit of web research and found The Happy Hooker's website and contacted her. Seems she is still happy and lives in Amsterdam and southern Spain. She runs what she describes as an 'unusual' bed and breakfast in Amsterdam and invited Dru and any of her close friends to come for a stay. The (Now Older) Happy Hooker