As George Costanza would say "The sea was angry that day, my friends..."

Tropical storm "Julia" is moving up the Atlantic coast and really irritating our previously tranquil ocean. This morning I did a short, very windy, blowing sand 4 mile round trip to the grocery store, then a quick 2 mile run down the beach road and back to see if the ocean's waves, pushed by the tropical storm winds, had overrun NC12 again at the Black Pelican. The morning high tide mark was within a foot of the road, and tonight's high tide is supposed to be even higher.

Even with my heavy vintage hybrid I got roughly smacked around by the TS winds, and pushed several times too close to the sand banks alongside the road. Was a "hands-tight-on-the-handlebars" type of ride. Would have been smarter just to have turned down to the interior roads where the wind is blocked by all the vacation properties. But I was in a hurry to get back, and not inclined to deal nicely with the plethora of vigilant stop signs standing sentry at every corner on each block of those interior roads. And no, you can't blow through them because most of those interior roads connect direct to the main superhighway and those cross roads don't have stop signs on their sides.

6 miles today, and that will be it. No recreational tours for me until the winds die down. A short time ago I did see a pair of sleek road bikes racing past heading south on the beach road, bless them, with a tailwind harrying them along. The red "No Swimming" flags are up and flying high, and the strong winds are making sure that message is seen. The beaches are pretty much empty of all life.