I am not so sure why I am doing this other than I guess I have a lot to get off my chest and really don't want to bother my family with it. I live in Gulf Shores, Al. and have for the last 24 years. My husband and I moved here 24 years ago and knew we had found where we wanted to retire and spend our life together here in paradise. We own a plumbing company that was hit hard by the economy and just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, well that's when the oil spill happened and all I can say is life as we have known it in paradise is no more. The beautiful beaches that once had the softest, whitest sand is now stained with oil, it is very sad to see but what is just as sad if not more so is the people around us struggling to stay afloat. G.S. is a small resort and all the locals know one another and we are all headed for a down fall is we cant get this spill under control. I am seeing fisherman taking their once fishing boats out to sea looking for oil now and shops and restaurants trying to stay open, construction here has come to a halt, (who in their right mind would want to build here with the oil here) never saw this coming and now we are all just living from day to day.
I fear every day that we will have to give up our home and everything we have worked hard for up and I am just to damn old to start over. I have been trying to get a job with every oil clean up contractor down here and have nothing yet, my husband was lucky to get a job driving a tractor cleaning the beaches at night and that has been a blessing but just not enough,I need to work too. There is a saying that "If opportunity doesn't knock then build a door" well I have started building lol.I have written every company even BP themselves trying to get hired. I have heard from some of the people hired to help clean that the folks they (BP, AND THE OTHER COMPANIES) bussed here are taking their first check and just leaving yet the locals are starving or about to lose everything. I have a few more tricks up my sleeves and will for sure put my experience on this blog, wish me luck ...... i have to get a job.