Feeling A Bit Shaky

  Mark and I were up before dawn.  It was pitch black as we walked down the old board path to the pier.  A flashlight came in handy as we carefully watched our step.  The boards were slippery from an overnight rain but we were more concerned about stepping on a cottonmouth.  Those critters are out and about on warm, wet nights.  

  After about six o'clock the sun finally started brightening the sky and the horizon was washed in pink. The gazebo across the Bayou was so pretty on the calm waters with a backdrop of a large thunderhead.  Since I cannot resist a chance to take photographs of anything deemed worthy, I set my camera up on the old, pier post and took a shot. Hmm, that was not very clear.  I tried again.  I was beginning to ponder what was wrong with my camera when I realized that the pier was actually skaking a bit.  My photographs were wiggly!  I turned to find Mark throwing the net as he was trying to catch bait.  Aha!  There was the source of the shakes!  

  For anyone not accustomed to self-built piers on bayous, they are a bit wobbly at times.  Instead of the posts being sunk in stiff sand, ours are situated in soft mud....mud that never ends. You can literally take a long pole, shove it in the mud and never come to anything solid.  It is mush!  The posts are in the mud a good twenty feet but will never feel solid.  They shimmy a bit with each step, wave or strong wind.  I can always tell when someone is walking up behind me on the pier even though I never face them.  Vibrations can be felt in the pier boards.

  All of this shimmying makes for some weird photographs but, in a way, I like the "ruined" one.  It reminds me of some abstract painting.