I often write about bears, birds, weeds, and ants, so maybe I should change the name of this column to “Mr. Mike’s Nature Corner.” Turtles have become the celebrity creature in our household. For the past several weeks, almost daily, an assortment of box turtles has crawled under the fence into our backyard. At first, we assumed that they, like the occasional bear, were just passing through, but we soon learned that our yard is a destination.
At one point last week, 64 of Florida’s 67 counties were under a hurricane or tropical storm warning. Santa Rosa County, Okaloosa County and Escambia County were the three not under that type of warning.
I saw a Facebook post a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning that caught my attention. It was on one of the Milton pages and featured photos of several players doing yard work just hours after they walked off the field at Bennett C. Russell Stadium in Navarre. They were holding rakes, working and smiling.
In 1985, I went on a short-term mission trip to Haiti with a small team from our church. We were going to help Hosean International Ministries (HIM) build an orphanage in the town of Pignon, 40 miles south of Cap Haitien. There was a lot riding on this trip.
Santa Rosa County has its very first Veterans’ Treatment Court for justice-involved Veterans and Judge Tony Giraud admitted three Veterans to his first court Sept. 11. He will admit 10 more Sept. 25.
As I’m writing this, we are watching the yet-to-be-named storm that will be in the Gulf by the time you receive this paper. We are having daily updates with management and have a good plan in place. As an organization, we have been through Ivan, Dennis, Opal and Erin. However, many of our team members haven’t been through hurricanes, and they aren’t sure what to expect. There is no way to describe it except you will learn a lot about yourself and others after the storm. That is where it gets very real. Time will tell. In the meantime, we now have a “Storm Center” on our website where we will post when there are significant updates. When we post there, it will disseminate to Facebook and “X.” Now is not the time to check your insurance policies or decide you need flood insurance. But it is time to make sure you have 72-hours’ worth of food and water, just in case it heads west instead of east.
I do some freelance work in the Division III college football world and one of the coaches last week said something interesting that all teams should keep in mind as they go through their respective athletic seasons.
His nationally ranked team, a title contender, had been upset by an unranked opponent at home in week one.
Have you ever sat in a class lecture, a business presentation, or even a sermon and realized that you haven’t a clue what the speaker is talking about? I have.
