Floridays
“Hoping for a breath, hoping for break. Hopin' for the give without the take.”
There is the vacation you envision. There is the vacation you achieve.
If the travel gods are generous you get less than you desire but more than you than you deserve.
This week, the travel gods were very generous to the Kern family.
Back home, I’m hearing reports that from the heavens another six inches of snow fell as we board the plane heading north towards Jersey.
It is the second major East Coast snow storm this week.
Earlier this week, social media was suddenly filled with winter and football memes. Including news that the nearby Tampa Bay football team crushed my Philadelphia Eagles.
This morning, I sit alone on my private swatch of white sand listening to the sounds of the surf crashing against the seashells that rest underneath my beach chair.
The waves are winning, but the calcium carbonate formed shells are showing thousands of years of hard won ‘resolve’ not ready to give up this battle today.
Two years removed from “60”, I suddenly feel for these aging seashells.
They remind me that you gotta possess stubbornness, creativity and luck to survive this human rat race.
The sky overhead is turning a beautiful shade of orange and aqua brightly reflecting off of the distant lifeguard stand down beach. This is my last vacation sunrise. Insert a big sigh here.
Today, I’m officially one week and four days into year #62. So far, so very good.
For six decades, I’ve had caring humans and guardian angels keeping daily watch over Young Master Scott. Alone on this beach this morning, I’m grateful for their watchful guidance.
Earlier this week, my wife and I were joined here in Siesta Key by my daughter and son-in-law who will be married three years come June. In October, Marie and I celebrate anniversary #42.
Mid week we enjoyed the company of Lin and John, last night Dan & Nancy. The former couple (woman) was an industry colleague turned friend, the latter couple friends formerly from Exit 4, now full time Floridian residents. We’ve logged three decades of ups and downs with both couples.
Besides needing resolve to survive life’s crashing waves like our previously mentioned seashells, one clearly needs the company of like minded folks to see one through the dark times as well as to be present to celebrate the light times.
Someone who we all know and love, once reminded me that while “you take the weather with you” (it was unseasonably cold and rainy) earlier this week. The weather will come and go. Ultimately it is your friends and family that ‘stay’ that make this life journey worth celebrating.
Years from now, our less than perfect Florida weather will fade from memory. What survives will be the personal experiences and stories “we get to tell.”
Stories such as……Enjoying countless meals of fresh fish and local beers. Paddling through the grassy flats and shaded mangroves on a ‘picture perfect’ postcard afternoon. Drinking with locals at the Crescent Club on “Lynn’s Front Porch” late into the night. Riding a scooter up and down Midnight Pass Road with my girl by my side, as always. Cycling from Bird Key Park past Longboat Key up to Anna Marie Island watching the sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico.
Come Monday, I turn back into an office worker, but for seven days and nights my wife and I cheated the Company time clock keeper. Marie retired December 2023. My plan is to follow her into retirement as of December 2024.
Tonight, we arrived back home.
It is a cold and miserable 15 degrees outside. Blackish slush has been cleared from the entranceway to our over 55 condo community home.
Our luggage sits motionless in our family room. Filled with dirty clothes and happy memories. I am eager to have my clothes cleaned and suitcases packed full, with both along with my wife, traveling at my side, once again!
I will make some money over these next few months and before we know it, my wife and I head back out into this big wonderful world again.
Ready to explore its beauty, mystery and adventure.
Until then, thanks for the memories Siesta Key and surrounding communities.
Remember to be like those shells….allow those waves to pound you, but continue to shine brightly.
Scott & Marie
Temporarily at Exit 4, New Jersey
Until we purchase our next “Fun Tickets”
#liveyourdash
Pirate Looks at 50 (pages 146-147)
“Nothing against either creature, but I like who I became just fine. That’s the way life is. We all try to make something out of our lives, and some of us are just luckier than others.”
Amen, Jimmy.
