Summer is winding down now in Port O’Connor as Labor Day has passed and fishing tournaments have slowed. School is now in full swing and the children are back in their classes. It was a joy reading the Victoria Advocate Saturday, September 3rd., how Candice Stryker and a group of Teachers, Parents and Volunteers worked on the Children’s Playground at Port O’Connor School. If you haven’t seen the new School Playground and equipment and swings, you need to drive by the back of the School!

Fall is quickly approaching and time for the Senior Adult Retreat at Camp Zephyr. This is an outstanding event, that is scheduled twice each year, once in the Spring and one in the Fall. This year’s Fall Retreat is October 24 – 27. Reservations must be made by October 14. The cost for motel lodging, all meals and refreshments is $100 per person. Transportation to and from the Camp is by Church Van. If you are interested in going and need additional information, please see or call Doyle Adams at 361-983-4866 or Donnie Martin 361-983-2727.

The Pictures for our new Church Pictorial Directory have been taken and the New Church Directory should be ready in about 4 to 6 weeks. Thanks to everyone who helped in making this a big success, especially Mary Nell McGee, who was chairman of the committee.

The Ladies in the Church invite all Ladies to join them in their Tuesday Evening “Book And Bible Study” in Fellowship Hall each Tuesday evening from 4 to 5 p.m. All ladies enjoy the study and the outstanding fellowship.

The Church will observe the Church Ordinance of the “Lord’s Supper” during Sunday Morning 11:00 a.m. Service on Sunday, September 25, 2016. You are invited to attend.

The Quarterly Church “Birthday Bash” will be held in Fellowship Hall, Sunday Evening at 6:00 p.m., September 25. 2016. The Church will celebrate with all those who have birthdays in July, August and September. Everyone is invited to attend and enjoy a fine meal.

See you in Church Sunday!

Now on permanent display at the Levitan Museum between Moscow and Wladimir, Russia is this 7 1/2 feet tall, 3-ton sculpture by Dieter Erhard of Art Center Seadrift.

Dieter explained, “My little climbers called “Kopffüssler” (meaning people with no stomach) have no body, but a big head. Up on the rock is a surprise eg … because really nobody seems to know where they are going. This work reflects this 2016 very unusual year when it seems everybody is running either from politics or for politics,”

Dieter is planning to be in Seadrift October 1 through 16. Stop by and see him and the artworks at Art Center Seadrift.

My neighbors Parker and Patty are always telling me how proud they are to be a part of Port O’Connor, Texas. They say it is a great community and so friendly. The grands were here for the last big weekend of summer and fishing was on the agenda. The whole bunch got up early and hit the water hoping to catch fish and a few last summer rays. Just beyond the jetties, the youngest grandson hooked into a little shark. While fighting to land it, his rod came apart at the joint and flew into the water. It was a new rod to the boy so he was pretty devastated. They circled the boats thinking they might be able to retrieve it. It was indeed floating, so Parker, his son in his boat and his brother Paul in the neighboring boat all began to reach and stretch and make multiple close passes trying to catch the rod. Parker lost his favorite fishing hat on one attempt, his son dropped his fishing glasses onto the back tail of the boat deck and cracked the frame and Parker’s brother dropped his fishing clippers and pocket limit guidebook out of his front pocket and into the water. The grandsons and granddaughters were laughing and cheering and pushing them on to grab the rod and they tried and tried until they finally caught it. The grandson was so happy to have his rod back and the other grands were giggled silly and highly impressed with ‘Grandy Parker’s’ successful efforts. In reviewing the recovery efforts, they calculated one hat, $30, glasses $75+, clippers and guide to be replaced $10. Being the hero that saved the day for your grandson and recovered his first ‘big boy’ fishing rod….priceless. The outing yielded few fish, but lots of laughs and loads of memories. That’s fishing POC style.

A family-centered event following the Fall Carnival on October 29, 2016, at Kingfisher Beach. Trick or Treat from car to car, trunk to trunk. Costumes encouraged. Bring your trick or treat bags.

Trunk or Treat is a new spin on Trick or Treating where local businesses, organizations and individuals bring a vehicle, table or tent and decorate it’s trunk/tailgate and pass out candy as kids “Trunk or Treat” from car to car. Trunk or treating allows kids to have all the trick or treating fun without crossing streets or worrying about traffic. Concerned parents see it as safer for their children, while other parents see it as an easier alternative to walking the neighborhood with their kids.

Trunk or Treat gets the whole family out and will be a really fun time! You can mingle with your neighbors, have fun decorating your trunk as a family and get the kids trick-or-treating done in record time!

It’s here again.

I love the Fall, it has to be my favorite season, even more than the hot and humid days of Summer.

Partially it might be because I was a ‘Fall Baby,’ being born towards the end of the month of October. It may also have to do with the fact that the season also includes the holiday of Halloween, which I have adored since I was a child.

Where I grew up in the Midwest, Fall is a much more colorful time then it is on the Gulf Coast (although I will take Winter in the Gulf over the snow and ice of the Midwest any day), a time of comfortable weather, falling leaves of all shapes and colors and also as said, being the season of my birth seems to hold a special regard for the season that is now at our doorstep.

Fall is also nature’s way of trying to teach us that all things pass, everything ends and loses its life, but with the promise that after Winter is over a new form of that life can also rise again.

Death is but a door, pain is but a lesson and loss is just a trial, a representation of our mortality and our limited time on this Earth. It also shows us that such loss is only part of the cycle of life that has existed on this planet for millions of years and will continue on in the same manner until the day our sun finally extinguishes its light.

Fall reminds us that it is OK to grow old, that everything beautiful about life is just as beautiful as life begins to decline and fade. Even if the ‘death’ is not mortal death but the death of a partnership, phase in life or ideal, it is not truly the end.

Recently, I approached the idea of Fall in the form of poetry:

Through rustling leaves, I walk along,
singing fully, with such a heavy song,
Chilled air reaches out to remind,
That at the end, none are blind.

Days grow shorter, reminder of the fading,
Final wonder, no chance to try evading,
Remind us now, that the story never ends,
For what is now gone will return to rise again.

It is a simple poem, but filled with the feelings and meaning that Fall has come to represent in my heart.

All of us in life must go through our times when our own leaves fall to the ground, be it a lost love, a major change to our life routine or something as mundane as the ever present tick tock of time in our bodies.

Coincidentally, if you liked that poem you can follow the link below and find many other examples of my poetry and other works. Also there is a very deep connection to Fall at my paranormal site News From The Spirit World.com.

However, the spooky stuff may be more appropriate in next month’s Fish Out of Water column…but feel free to drop in and say hello and take a look around and here’s wishing you a blessed and wonderful Fall.

Fall Briefly