Baja St. Martin

Well, here we go again. Yesterday I walked in the sun, in 73 degree temps, wearing a short sleeved T-shirt, and today the north wind is whistling and the temperature dropping into the freezing range again!

My sister called this morning to say it was zero at her house right then and a light snow was coming down, but she didn’t seem very concerned. Snow and cold are pretty common there. Although I did take note that she said she had lowered all the blinds in her house to help retain heat. They are the translucent variety so it doesn’t make the house really dark. Her two cats were unhappy, though, ’cause they like to see out the windows to watch the birds.

I will go walking today regardless. Just have to bundle up. Since I suffer just a little from COPD I find it’s more comfortable if I cover my mouth with a scarf so I’m inhaling my own warm exhaust. My recommendation, of course, is to never smoke. I quit probably 15 to 20 years ago, but chemotherapy sort of aggravated old issues which leaves me huffing and puffing sometimes. Not a lot.

The latest Time magazine had an interesting article on the marijuana business in Denver. It’s only been a week since pot sales could be legal and it’s apparently already a million dollar business. What I found interesting, (along with a lot of other stuff) is the fact that national banks in that area are not allowed to accept deposits from the sale of Schedule I drugs so the business owners are frantically trying to figure out how to handle and what to do with thousands of dollars in cash they’re making each day. One person made the comment that the way things are right now is guaranteed to cause more crime, not from the pot but from the theft of all the cash floating around.

The sheriff’s gumbo luncheon for lower St. Martin was very nice as always. I’ll send a short article plus pictures. We missed the sheriff himself.

I had a conversation with Shirley Akers from DA Phil Haney’s office about getting more information to our veterans. Seems like every veteran I speak with knows something that another does not or gets a benefit that another doesn’t. Most all tell me that persistence is the number-one thing when seeking benefits and/or compensation.

The Food for Seniors distribution will be on Thursday, Jan. 30, NOT on Jan. 23 as we’d been told. I’m calling all my recipients to tell them of the change. Jan. 30 at the usual places, and usual times.

Crawfishing is beginning. A young boy I know fishes on weekends and he showed me a photo of a sack he’d recently caught. Seems he said he’d made $140 for that one sack but I might have that wrong. He also said the crawfish were small. I’m wondering if the recent cold weather might be bad for the ponds which means good for the wild crawfish. Usually it’s the other way around.

At the Pierre Part Middle School Social Studies Fair one of the students was dressed in a wig with green, white -streaked hair hanging to her knees. Her topic was Vocaloid, a holographic Japanese singer who apparently is quite popular in some places. The student had recently transferred to PPMS from California.

She was quite knowledgeable about her subject but unfortunately, many of the kids had pretty obviously thrown something together just to get a grade and/or had not done the work themselves at all. I’m looking forward to the science fair next week.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be e-mailed at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.