Once upon a time...

there lived a tired teacher in a little, tiny town that she thought was too far away from anything really worth seeing. Like a mall with more than 10 stores. Or the beach. So on her first summer of not doing anything, she started talking to her dog. Talking to her dog too much for her own peace of mind. Hence, i diari della principessa.
At least now I can honestly say "I am not wasting time on facebook."

The beach comment above is not quite fair, as I do spend my weekends at the Cape. But its fair enough since the weekdays in summer are spent wishing my husband would make the career move into education and we could spend all week on the beach. He'd be a lot happier if I wasn't at home when he was at work.

Oh, the Cape. I just returned from a week at the Cape. I have a 15 month old Puggle, who is like my child. She loves the beach as much as I do (that is, she loves the warm sand and sun and wants nothing to do with the 57 degree water). And, the Cape welcomes her. Our usual beach, Nauset in Orleans allows her to bask in the sun as she deserves if she comes in on the O.R.V. road. And my father in law, he enjoys taking the truck out there too. As do many of my friends who purchased pretty expensive vehicles for the sole purpose of taking them on the beach. So we all rush to purchase $180 beach stickers. (well, not me. I drive a pretty badass corolla, but no one's beliving that thing can offroad in sand)
So, besides New England making some sort of cosmic mistake and believing that it was part of the Pacific Northwest for the past 4 weeks working against our beach plans, further insidiousness interupted the Puggle's plan for beach dominance last week.


The Piping Plover.

"tastes like chicken" "oh, cute" "our new babies" "little f*$#ers"
Go to any beach mid to lower cape right now, and you will hear these comments. I promise you.

No offroading at Nauset until August. No offroading at Race Point until god knows when. Half of Marconi is closed (2 were born). I can't remember which beach, but one beach closed entirely on the 4th of July (also the first sunny day in weeks) because 1 bird hatched. Or so a really drunk partygoer told me that night.

Nature is great. It does suck that we ruined their habitat, but there is a point where we seem to be overprotecting them. If we didn't exist, would they receive the protection they get now?

Eh, I am just bitter because everyone around me is cranky about this.

Personally, I have reason to be happy. We got a National Seashore pass and I get to spend the summer at beaches with bathrooms (!!!) No peeing in sand or running into 55 degree water for me this year. Daily drives up to my favorite towns on the Cape: Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, P-Town. Being able to just leave my beach crap in my car since its my car with the sticker on it. Being on my own schedule.

I will happily take it. I think I am going to go join some sort of group to protect those plovers. They did me a real solid this time around.