Kool-Aid

We like to have some sort of desert after dinner.  Knowing that most deserts are fattening, our main treat is sugar-free jello (10 calories per serving) with a dollop of Cool Whip.  It’s tasty and there are a number of varieties. When I make it, I always like to lick the spoon after mixing in the cold water. The tangy taste always reminds me of Kool-Aid.

Kool-Aid was a staple of a kid’s summer diet in my rural neighborhood. We rarely drank water, instead we were given a big cold glass of grape, cherry, or orange flavored drink.  Back then the only kind was the sugary stuff. One glass of it and our engines would be firing on all cylinders for the rest of the afternoon. There were no energy drinks back then; Kool-Aid was enough.

Though I have not had a glass in years, I still associate the many-hued drink with summertime.

Oh yea, and the Kool-Aid guy… he always creeped me out with his super human wall busting skills.

Happy

I think the true measure of  a person’s ordinary life is how they feel about it returning from a great vacation. I found myself returning to work yesterday with a smile on my face and my soul clear and clean.  I felt ready to pick up the reigns again.  I’ve been busy since returning home, but it is a good busy and I am happy with my life, my land, and of course most of all, my love.

nude

Today was our last full day in Fort Lauderdale.  We finally made it to Haulover, the officially sanctioned nude beach of south Florida.  Our penises finally were able to enjoy the good weather as well.  The goddess graced us with a beautiful sunny day.  A thunderstorm threatened earlier in the afternoon, but it was soon dispersed.  Tonight we are dining along the beach and then sitting on the sand to watch fireworks over the ocean.  If we were to have one day without any rain, today was the day for it.

It is always a bittersweet time; the end of a wonderful vacation.  There is a longing to stay just a while longer, balanced by a wish to sleep in one’s own bed and enjoy the comfort that only home can provide.  Tomorrow morning we will have breakfast by the beach and walk in the surf once more before we begin our migration north.

Thank you Fort Lauderdale for a wonderful time.

young

Yesterday started out so promising with the first true blue sky we had seen since the beginning of the week.  By two in the afternoon a violent thunderstorm rolled over the beach, chasing us back to the resort.   After a heavy dose of rain,  the weather settled into an uncertain drizzle for the rest of the afternoon.   We decided to travel to Las Olas for dinner and a movie.  This is the first year we had ventured to that side of town.   After riding up streets like Sunrise and Oakland Park which are a mash of modest homes and old businesses, Los Olas is a big change: beautiful homes, long canals with luxury yachts, trendy shops, and a palm tree lined median.  The street of Los Olas culminates in the Riverfront, a large outdoor arcade of restaurants, clubs, and the theater.  Right beside it is the Riverwalk, a beautifully landscaped walking trail along the New river.   The prettiest thing we saw was the fountain with the dancing waters.  I have a few pictures of it below.

We had dinner alfresco at a waterfront restaurant and watched two movies  (we snuck into the second one).  When we went into the theater at seven thirty, the riverfront looked sleepy, with just a few couples walking along the tiled terraces.  Sometime between then and midnight when we left, the place woke up.  There were masses of young people everywhere and the clubs had thrown their doors open wide.  Jim and I certainly felt out of place wading through the endless stream of pretty young people.  It was their time of the night, filled with endless youth and promise, looking forward to adventure and excitement.

We were content to head back to our room and go to bed.

dancing waters

the lights were pretty

posing by the fountain

a yacht slid by while we ate

foolish

Today looks very promising.  There are no storms on the horizon.  We discussed going to the nude beach at Haulover today, but it has been so nice having just a five minute walk to the beach.   Neither of us want the bother of a hectic half hour drive on the interstate.   Yesterday we were chased back to the resort by a thunderstorm in the afternoon.  We could see the heavy rains slowly advancing up A1A.

I like building sand castles.  They are nothing to look at though.  I have all of the determination but none of the skill.  Still I like digging in the sand.  I enjoy building them at low tide, just out of the reach of the hungry waves.  I can then sit back and watch my edifice slowly crumble and vanish under the eventual march of the tides.  It reminds me of a song from my Sunday school days, about the wise man who built his house upon the sand and the foolish one who chose the sand.

I think there were many times in my past that I built upon sand.  Like so many, I had been enamored of failure. It is easy to fail.  Failure keeps us complacent.  When we win there is the need to look higher.  Failure keeps us focused on the immediate, which is familiar.  I think the best solution is not win or lose, but to do what is possible.  It is a change of mind, to not want to mark each occasion with a gold star or red mark, but to think of it as another step that takes us forward into our life.

So I don’t need to parasail, nor climb Everest.  But what I enjoy is the sound of the surf, the sand clinging to my feet and the smell of the sea in the air.

A1A along where we are staying

our chairs from the back

chairs from the front

Jim asked for this pose

Creatures

We went out to IHOP yesterday for breakfast and sat eating omelets while the rain pounded the parking lot.  One of the waitresses said it was supposed to rain all day.  By the time we finished and drove back to the resort the rain had abated somewhat, but the skies still looked ominous.   Jim became restless, wondering what we would do with the day.  These days, I am a bit more laid back.  I suggested a long barefoot walk along the beach, rain be damned.

We started out under some rain drops, but by the time we finished the sun had broken through the clouds.  That is high summer weather in Fort Lauderdale for you, unpredictable and always changing.  After lunch back at the resort we took our chairs and towels down to the ocean and spent the afternoon watching the storms scuttle past, forming a violent lightning storm far off the coast.  It is a sight to be sitting in the bright sun and watching bolts of lightning dance across the blue horizon.

Of course I forgot to bring the camera.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the ocean is full of creatures.  Yesterday we were treated with our first ever view of a manta ray, or manta rays to be exact.  There were a couple of them dancing along the fringe of the shore, shifting their dull black round bodies much like a flamenco dancer hitches her dress as she sways across the floor.   We also saw a tarpin.  We know its a tarpin from our first afternoon in town.  We had been in the water until we spotted a very large object under the water with a fin cresting the waves.   As it made its way along the beach, people were screaming ’shark! shark!’ and swimmers were running from the water.  A harried life guard kept shouting that the fish was actually a tarpin and harmless, but very few people believed her.    The ocean was clear of people for some time after that.

There is always something new to discover about the sea.  Last year we spotted two waterspouts while sitting on the beach.  At least that time I had my camera.

last year at Haulover

rain

One of the nice things about Florida in the summer is that even when it is rainy, it is still warm enough to enjoy the ocean.  The rain is coming in waves… a few hours of storms and a few hours of sun.   Yesterday we had a beautiful spot of weather all afternoon and spent the sunny time down at the beach.  We are staying at a resort just a few feet from the beach, so it is just a short walk to the warm waters.

Today it appears that the showers might not end, so we will have to find some indoor activities… movie anyone?  Here’s a couple shots of where we are staying.  It is one of the classic two story motels that filled the area decades ago. They are steadily being replaced by mammoth hotels/condos.  You can see a few of them in the background of my pictures.

the view from our room

notice the towers in the background

sixteen rooms on two floors

Tripping

Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early. I’m excited and anxious for the work day to end.  I love road trips with my love.  I will try to post some pictures of the coast.

Evenings

June evenings have a magical quality. They are long and warm.  It is not hard to believe in faeries when there is a half light across the lawn and the fireflies are sitting on blades of grass fine tuning their skills. There is none of the dry heat that will dominate the afternoons in the later months of summer and the air still smells earthy and fresh, not burnt or stale.

Jim likes to putter around the yard and I enjoy reading a book on the deck. The most enjoyable part of our home is that it feels encased in emerald. Technically we live in a suburban setting, but one in which the ratio of trees to homes is overwhelming. It was one of the determining factors in purchasing the property. With the exception of our apartment, each of our homes has had at least one wooded side.

During my twenties I never imagined such a domestic turn of events in my life, but I am glad it has happened. Let others climb distant mountains and venture to exotic lands.  I am happy to spend my days luxuriating in the commonplace.

Shells

In our house a keepsake does not have to be fancy or expensive to be cherished. During our first visit to the shore,  we collected a number of shells. Back home, we bought two boxish looking thick glass containers with open tops.  They were just large enough to grasp with one hand along three sides. We filled them with the nicest specimens of our collection and they have followed us unaltered to five different residences. I always find a nice spot to show them off after every move.

We have many little reminders of time together, after twenty years it is hard not to have them, and I love all the thoughts of the past each one engenders. I have been blessed with a wonderful person in my life, one who never tires of being with me and I never tired of being with in return. It is not the ocean, nor the time away from work that I look forward to, but being able to spend all my time with the one I love.