The Tenancy Agreement

About twenty-two years ago I travelled to Naples, Florida with a friend to interlope at his mother's and step-father's rental apartment on the Gulf coast for a week over the Christmas holiday. My recollection is that the apartment belonged to a Vice-president of Mobile Oil who planned to retire there ultimately but who in the meantime had agreed to rent it.  My friend's mother explained to me that she and her husband routinely spent three months of the year over the winter in Florida; and that they always arranged their upcoming stay in the year prior to the visit while they were then currently in Florida. At the time I marveled at the planning which naturally exceeded anything I had ever undertaken for my comparatively shorter southern jaunts to the Caribbean or Mayan resorts. Now that I have graduated to the vernacular of a retired snowbird the planning routine is a familiar one.

Shopping in Daytona Beach

As much as I am shamelessly devoted to driving my automobile it is an odd repercussion of our hibernation in Florida (or elsewhere in the United States of America for that matter) that apart from the journey to and from here the vehicle suffers ignorance by design. We've become instead overwhelmed by prolonged breakfasts after which we indulge ourselves in schemes of fitness (bicyling on the beach for example or swimming or - dare I say it - weights and pulleys); and by the time all that is accomplished the evening is upon us and there's dinner and the news then bed.  Not what you'd call a dynamic agenda by any standard but nonetheless passably healthful.  I confess our daily absorption in American politics is beyond doubt.  We've even discovered by chance that our political immersion far exceeds what is the perceived normal for most Americans.  Certainly Mr. Trump can be thanked for much of the vigour which swirls about the native political arena but I suspect it is also true that Americans - at least on the level of those who contribute to and watch cable television - have a passion for politics competing with the likes of Nova Scotians in Canada where residents actually know their legislative representatives.

Better tell Jeannie!

For want of a better description we are "snowbirds" from Canada. We sojourn in Florida over the winter in a condominium located on the beach of a tiny barrier island called Daytona Beach Shores. If I may be forgiven the cheek of weighing in upon the esoteric affairs of the condominium association where we reside, I am compelled to note the distinction of its concierge Jeannie B. who undeniably defines much of the delightful experience in this fine establishment. From the moment we were first introduced to the property over a year ago we were smitten by her knowledge and aplomb. To the credit of the condominium association Jeannie is aptly characterized as the frontline contact for the building, its residents and interlopers.

Life's Dreadful Realities

There are so many reasons to be disconsolate. Sure, one likes to think positively and be thankful for what one has. But in the small hours of the morning when flipping back and forth in perpetual anxiety, there's an austerity of optimism. It is then that the drudgery of life and the shallowness of its preoccupations, its random disappointments and blunt realities are transparent. If, as I am, one is rapidly evolving into an era of old age and decrepitude then the frozen truth is even more chilling! The despondency has a compelling authenticity when there is Biblical authority for the inevitable confrontation of the vanity of life.  These hard midnight thoughts urge upon us an admission of defeat no matter how we may seek to disguise our futile human enterprise. The trepidation goes beyond mere mortality or amortization; there is in addition the interim contamination of everything that precedes it - with fear.  How trifling are our exploits!  How harsh is our existence!

Daylight Savings Time

Last night I set my new wrist watch and pocket watch back one hour in anticipation of the shift to Daylight Savings Time (DST) this morning. I brought along four other watches on this trip but I have no intention of re-setting them unless and until I wear them.  Three of them may even reset themselves because they're somehow tied to a GPS or satellite.  All I know is that when I bought them I needed only choose from the settings the closest urban centre and select whether I wished the device to accommodate DST.  Besides I always prefer using any new device for the first while.  In addition the opportunity to wear a watch in this environment is fairly limited, given that when I am bicycling I don't want anything strapped to my wrist to contaminate my tan line; and certainly when I am swimming I don't wear a watch (even if they're purportedly "water resistent" whatever that means). The number of times we "go out" is infrequent but when we do I do like wearing a watch.

Shoe in

We both bought new shoes today.  I like shoes.  I've even considered that I may have a shoe fetish. I once had a pair of shoes custom made for me by a cobbler in Montreal.  Those were the days!  Custom made suits, shirts and shoes!  Now I couldn't be bothered.  For one thing I'm done with suits and French-cuffed shirts.  As for shoes - given my escalating arthritis - the only ones at all comfortable are deck shoes (first popularized by Sperry).  Now every manufacturer has got into retailing them but there are few brands I like - among them Sebago.

Back to the Beach

It wasn't until almost 10:30 am this morning that I first opened my eyes. Through the blinds on the balcony windows it appeared from the dim light that the sky was grey.  I got up and squinted through the centre crack of the blinds. Yes, clouds.  Grey.  That helped.  I hate waking up late in the morning.  In defence we had both been up at 2:30 am sipping coffee and poring over our computers.  I had gone back to bed shorty before 5:00 am. Clearly I needed the rest.  It seems my bicycling is taking more out of me than I imagined.

New Direction

When the front wheel of my bicycle first met the soft white sand of the beach I knew in an instant that I would be going in a different direction today - northward towards Daytona Beach rather than southward towards Ponce Inlet. There was a tangible wind from the north.  And that was the direction I was headed. The strategy would be to go as far as I could - into the wind - then when I felt worn down I would turn back with the benefit of the wind to push me homeward. To my surprise - whether because I was energized or because of the novelty of the expedition - I went along the beach much further than I had anticipated. I suspect it was my greediness for invention which trumped my notorious passion for routine. It must sound odd to advance that within a matter of 5 miles in one direction or another the view of the beach could be much different. Yet it is.  As one would expect the scenery along the coast towards Daytona Beach is more urban than it is in the other direction towards Ponce Inlet. Towards Daytona Beach there are more low-rise hotels, fewer high-rise private condominium residences. There are also more people on the beach for the same reason.  In neither case is the beach swarming with people. I guess that on my entire outing today over a period of about two hours I only passed six cyclists.  There were clusters of couples (mostly elderly) and young families but the numbers in total were still less than 50 - 75 I would imagine thoughout the length of the ride.

Say it like it is!

Words can promote a harsh image. In some instances the usage is as alarming as attending a job interview in the nude, revealing far more than one would care to know or share. To shelter from the embarrassment and abrasiveness of words we adopt variations which insulate us from the undisguised meaning. Consider the popular idiom for war which includes such sanitized editions as “taking out“, “eliminating” or “eradicating”. On the subject of killing we are all too familiar with what are essentially state–sponsored terms such as execution, abortion and euthanasia. Somewhere in the middle of the nuances of murder and war are those applied to the annihilation of animals, the least offensive being "slaughter" or the more disturbing term "abattoir" whose etymology is the blunt French word "battre", to beat down.

Refining the Routine

Incrementally as we settle into our winter digs on Daytona Beach Shores I am refining my petty routine. Though there is unquestionably a marked difference in my daily agenda here from what I do at home (mainly an absence of indispensable medical, bureaucratic, regulatory and substantive hardware concerns), there is an underlying commonality involving such matters of necessity as groceries and laundry. In harmony with what we have regularly heard reported from another Canadian interloper in Florida, Publix grocery store is hard to beat.  We too shop at Publix for the provisions we want without having to search resources elsewhere.  Specifically the fruit, vegetables, meat, cheese and fish are all top quality. I cheerfully say this because one of the staff at the store modestly dismissed the establishment as a "beach outlet" (though pointedly that was said in response to my query about a styptic pencil). The store pharmacy also attended to our seasonal flu shots. I like that products such as Kéfir and premium olives and dill pickles are available.  Publix prepares very tasty complete seafood meals with veggies for between $9 - 13 each which makes for a convenient change from dining out or take-out.  My culinary habits are all but written in stone - breakfast is always orange slices, black coffee and protein (a variety of salmon, hamburger, ham slices, bacon, cheese and eggs accompanied by green pepper shards and halved cherry tomatoes); dinner (we don't do lunch - for obvious reasons) is a bed of chopped cilantro to which I add sliced mini-cucumber, shards of green pepper, a handful of zucchini spirals, halved cherry tomatoes, chunks of cheese all drenched in lemon juice, touch of olive oil and grated salt; then I add protein of any description (salmon, crab cakes, red meat, chicken). Dessert is blackberries swimmig in Kéfir. The secret for the preparation of fresh salmon filets is ZiplocⓉ Zip 'n Steam cooking bags.  Though one can add pats of butter and herbs, the plain fish is an undeniable success - and literally ready within minutes!