Summer Sun, Summer Fun

I’ve been with family for the last week for a reunion we call beach week. It’s SO great and also SO exhausting. I also forgot my camera charging cord so guess who doesn’t have many pictures? This guy! At the last minute I was able to charge it so we could get some family pics and I took a few of my sister who uses the pictures for her work, she’s a successful saleswoman and needs pics constantly to keep up her online presence… something I know little about, and care little about for my own self. 🙃

Here are just a few pics but just know that they represent an amazing week of sports, sun, fun, family, and naps. Oh, there was a gator in the ocean, too. Go figure.

-Out of the Wilderness

New Commercial, Bud Light Doesn’t Know When to Say When

I betcha Anheiser-Busch would give anything to go back to the 80s when they had a super pup starring in their commercial. Remember Spuds MacKenzie? Just a simple idea of a dog who’s always the life of the party. Instead, the company who is hemorrhaging when it comes to Bud Light keeps releasing commercials as if the Dylan Mulvaney mistake never happened. Here’s their latest ad featuring an NFL player people either love or hate…

But just go back to the 80s when the bull terrier named Spuds MacKenzie was the star of Bud Light commercials. A little cheesy with the acting but it was the 80s after all.

Bud Light wishes they could go back to showing a dog playing a guitar and their customers would just eat it up (or drink it up, actually). But now they seem to be refusing to admit they misread their customers and since it’s backfired, they still don’t know when to say when. I remember my grandmother filling up my cup at dinner and she’d always say, tell me when… and when it was full, I’d say “When.” Bud Light’s fallout is overflowing but they won’t say, “When.”

-Out of the Wilderness

Lovely morning paddleboard

When I vacation on the gulf coast, I love starting my mornings out with an ocean paddleboard session. It doesn’t always happen because of weather, or I’m waking up too tired from the day before to do anything but sit on the porch and watch the tide come in. But today I went out with my brother-in-law to find where an alligator is slinking around in the ocean. Didn’t see it, but there were lots of sting rays, a couple of sea turtles, ospreys, and fish. A nice start to a beautiful summer day in Florida…

-Out of the Wilderness

Wild predators on the gulf coast

We’ve had quite an experience here on on the gulf coast of north Florida. It’s not uncommon to see dolphins, sting rays, fish, but just in the last couple of days we’ve seen all sorts of ocean life, the kind we don’t often see so close to shore. If you think I’m just talking about sharks, you’d be wrong. Well, we DID see sharks, but added to that, we’ve seen manta rays, a sea turtle, manatee, and… this next one is rarely seen, especially in salt water. Yep, it was a alligator. Conservatively we’re thinking 7 feet or 8 feet. Less than an hour later, an 8-foot shark (possibly a nurse shark?) just a few hundred yards from where the gator was spotted.

The pic was take from looking through a scope, so it’s not the best image. To be honest, though, who want’s to get close to such a prehistoric creature anyway, right? Especially if they’re leaving their normal fresh water domain to explore the sea. Crazy times!

Swimming in the morning or evening won’t be happening. Sharks are one thing, but sharks AND gators…

See you all tomorrow for another post at 1pm central.

-Out of the Wilderness

Independence Day 2023 – Glory, Glory, Hallelujah

I can’t think of a better post for July 4th than including the lyrics from a well-known celebratory song played across the nation during this holiday. It was published in 1862, written by Julia Ward Howe. Here are all the verses with the chorus at the end…

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel
“As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal”
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
While God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.

Happy Independence Day 2023!

-Out of the Wilderness