Hope.....

My last gold ring was found the day after Christmas, two full weeks ago. That seems like years ago. I have hunted the beach and surf almost everyday since then.
The beach is quiet, it is the seagulls and I. These are wintering seagulls. They gather here and there in large flocks. Sometimes as I approach they will grudgingly take flight and then circle and land behind my path. I look back and see the shovel or scoop line in the sand wandering aimlessly, checking out anything that might have even a remote possibility of harboring a coin. There are no dug holes behind me. It has been this way for the past two weeks.
I wish I would see the seagulls with the fancy hairdos, all slicked back, the 50's look. I have not seen them all winter. Where are "The Fonz" seagulls?
The beach is flat, a desert of sand. It was this way last winter for three months. I don't know if I can stand three months of swinging the detector without a gold ring. Sometimes I cuss. I start to dig iffy signals, the burps, which I know are bottlecaps. I think about getting out my PI detector and digging bottlecaps, hairpins and paperclips...and then I know it will stay in the closet.
Florida comes to my mind. But I hate to travel to hunt. It is the expense and knowing that I am burning fossil fuel to get there and back. Damn the oil, the dirty oil. Someday we will learn to do the right thing. I have hope.
I read about windfarms on the internet and I wonder if I will ever see it. I have seen the wind turbines in Colorado, blades spinning out across the prairie and I have hope.
Standing on the end of the pier will make you dream of wind farms. Endless wind. I have hope.
Lately I have dreamed of wind, hoped for wind; lots of wind to change the beach.
And the wind came two days ago, out of the south. A muscular wind, thirty miles per hour, perhaps more. All day it blew and into yesterday.
There is a wooden box nailed to one of the pilings on the pier. I use it to gauge how much sand is on the beach. There were six more inches of box showing yesterday.
I think the box is part of a project to monitor the amount of oxygen in the water. I talked with a guy a couple of years ago that was working on this. He was very concerned. The oxygen levels are not good.
I saw a couple of holes in the surf yesterday. The waves were far too big to work them.
But today the wind is soft out of the NW. I should be able to explore the holes with my detector. I have hope.
Someday I will look far out to sea and catch glints of sun bouncing off windmills and I will get in my electric car and feel good about driving someplace. Someday I will get a check in the mail from the electric company because I invested in a windy dream.
Today my goal is much smaller, much more achievable. I will enjoy the beach, the sun and if I am lucky....I guess I am already lucky.
A thought was emailed to me yesterday.

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Where are "The Fonz" seagulls?