I usually read and comment to the family about the beach goings-on while we eat lunch out on the balcony, but now that I have this journal, I guess I’ll WRITE and comment to the family on the beach goings-on.
Our time down at the beach this morning was awesome! The first few days here always are. Then – as with even the most wonderful things in this world – you start to take them for granted. But at this point, the glow of that Florida sun, the hot sand, and those rockin’ beach waves for boogie boarding still feel like ambrosia for the soul. Even better, since good ‘ol Dad has to go out with AJ to boogie board, I get some great exercise. It’s great!. Not only do I get to feel like a kid again, but it’s like my body instantly starts to react to the exercise. Pecs tighten. Arm muscles grow tauter. Abs get a little more defined. Breathing gets a little easier. And I overall just feel better – more energetic, happier, livelier, and more carefree. And the little lady loves it. She always comments on how I start to get my “beach bod” going. And if she’s happy, I’m happy, because then she starts to get all touchy-feely and, well, this is going to be a family ledger, so…we’ll just leave it at that.
Anyway, the waves were great. AJ and I caught some good ones that had us riding all the way in to shore. Then we built a family sandcastle. It was actually more of a big pit with a wall around it. We tried to salvage it from the incoming tide for a while, but as always, it proved a losing battle. But it’s the fun of the dig that counts.
After that, Mom and Dad had a couple beers and basked in the sun while AJ had a soda. Then we adjourned to the condo’s pool for about an hour for some leisurely swimming and sunning before coming upstairs for lunch.
Speaking of which, we’re having ham and cheese sandwiches, barbecue chips, and grapes. Mom’s having bottled water, I’m having another beer, and AJ is having a soda.
HA! We’re watching this guy and his girlfriend walking back from the ocean on the beach access. I remember seeing this dude this morning. Mr. Muscle-bound pulled up in this snazzy little convertible with Arkansas plates. He and his girl got out, him flexing all the while, her prancing around in this little thong bathing suit she could barely fit her buxom boobies into. We’ve seen it all too many times before throughout our years here. Mr. Tough Guy, who has probably spent most of his life pumping iron in the off chance he ever got to strut his stuff on an actual beach, finally has his moment in the sun. And his girl, old Chesty La Rue, found the skimpiest bathing suit she could find so she could make all her friends back home jealous with her mega-tan. Before they left for the beach, he probably had to do 200 push-ups while she ate half of her egg-white and broccoli omelet and then ran three miles to burn off the calories.
Well, after getting out of their car, they grab their towels, her beach bag of lotions and cosmetics, a boom box, and his little cooler (probably full of vitamin water), and off they go. It was around eight this morning when I saw them.
I of course had to hurry inside to get Liz since she loves people watching as much as I do. Anyway, they head out to the beach and do their thing. They were out there at the same time we were, blasting the jams, soaking up the rays, basically baking themselves silly in the sun. Then there was a self-promoted photo shoot, first him taking glamour shots of her posing as if for a swimsuit issue. Then they switched off so she could snap some photos of him flexing. This was followed by a session of him doing handstands, round-offs, and similar feats of strength and agility that I figured weren’t so much for her as for the rest of the beachgoers – the “captive” audience.
After all this, it became apparent that the couple had finally convinced themselves that actually wading into the surf wasn’t going to hurt their magnificent physiques or melt them. This was about the same time we decided to head for the pool. When we left them, the couple was working tirelessly at oiling themselves down with what appeared to be baby oil. They appear to have charred themselves to a nicely skin-cancerous brown.
Now I guess they’ve maxed themselves out and are calling it quits. The problem is that Mr. and Mrs. Hot Stuff didn’t think to bring their shoes or sandals with them to make the 100-yard walk back to the beach access parking lot. And, as anyone who has ever tried walking barefoot in the beach’s white sand during a sunny August day in Florida knows, such a stunt can be EXTREMELY painful.
So our family gets to watch from afar, something all of us have experienced at least once in our lives. And while we sympathize, and have even felt their pain, it makes it easier to endure considering that it’s Beef Cake and Thongy.
Oh man, Thongy’s feet have gotten so hot that she’s trying to jump on Beef Cake’s back, but they’re both so greased up that she keeps sliding off. Meanwhile, he’s doing the hot foot, dancing back and forth, trying and obviously failing not to burn his tootsies. This makes it even harder for Thongy to try to climb aboard the Beef Cake Express for a ride to the parking lot.
Ah haaaa, a few of those apparently fleeting brain cells must have finally kicked in. Beef Cake has thrown his towel down atop the sand and they’re both standing on it. He’s pulled what I guess is his last remaining vitamin water from his cooler and the two are passing it back and forth, rolling it along the soles of their feet in an attempt to cool them.
Well, that’s Florida for you. It’s one of the reasons we love coming here so much. You just don’t see this type of stuff back home.
It looks like we’re done with lunch. On most days here, early to mid-afternoons are the time for lounging, reading, and generally recovering from the morning’s activities. Sometimes we even sneak in a little nap. Today, however, we need to hit a couple more stores to load up on supplies. Yesterday, we got just enough to cover us for a day or two. Now it’s the real deal. We’ll load up on the majority of our groceries, hit the dollar store for things like toiletries, cleaning products, and mass quantities of sunscreen, and get most of what we need for the rest of our stay. It’s never an activity I look forward to when we arrive, but it’s essential nonetheless.
7:17 p.m.
After we got back from shopping, it was almost four o’clock, and much to AJ’s dismay, there wasn’t time for swimming before happy hour. But, good ‘ol AJ, not to be deterred, he donned his suit anyway, saying that he’d like to swim while we chat with the “other old people” as he so delicately put it. It’s fine. The clubhouse has sliding glass doors that face out toward the pool, so we could keep an eye on him while we socialized. Plus, there were other kids down there for him to swim with.
It was good to see everyone again. We skipped happy hour yesterday to go to the store, so today was our first appearance, which is always fun. Everyone gets so excited to see us, and the “fresh arrivals” become the life of the party. It’s all, “How have you been?” “How was the drive down?” “How long are you staying?” “AJ, you’ve gotten so big since we saw you last!” That type of stuff.
Out of the 38 condos in our building, I’d estimate that only about a third of them are occupied by full time residents. Another third are what I’d term ‘occasional regulars’ – people who live elsewhere in Florida and come for weekend relaxing or who are retirees coming for multi-month stints several times a year. The other third are people who rent their units to others for additional income or (like us) can only make it down a time or two each year on vacation. But even though we’re in the latter portion of owners, we fit in better with the ‘occasional regulars’ category and we are accepted by the full-timers as such.
Anyway, it was great to see everyone again. The laid-back socializing is that final aspect of feeling like we’re back in the Florida groove again. After happy hour, we came back upstairs for dinner.
After a brief delay during which AJ and I had to run across the street to the gas station to get more propane, I cooked hamburgers on our patio grill. Technically, we aren’t supposed to have a gas grill on our patio. A few years back, the condo board posted notices that such grills were against safety regulations and that only charcoal or electric grills would be
allowed. But since we’re not here that often, we’re well liked among the other residents, and we do our best to keep our grilling on the down-low (we cook on the side of our wrap-around balcony that faces out over the beach access parking lot), no one has ever said anything and we hope to keep it that way.
August 26th
7:59 a.m.
We’re definitely back in the Florida groove again. It doesn’t take long to slip into that routine of complacency, relaxation, and carefree nonchalance. I like waking up in the morning, getting my coffee, heading out to the balcony, and doing a bit of writing in this journal. But sitting on the balcony can be torturous. The sun really beats down on this area during the late-morning hours. By nine or ten, it’s usually feels like a sauna.
This morning the yoga/workout crew is on the beach. They come out once or twice a week in the early morning for stretches, calisthenics, and to do some weights and running.
No thanks. Not on my vacation. I’m here for some good old fashioned ‘do nothing’ time. And that’s exactly what I expect to do, and I expect to do a whole lot of it, and do it well.
For now, however, it’s time to have some breakfast (I think I’m in charge of cooking the bacon this morning), lather ourselves with sunscreen, and head out to play on the beach.
1:39 p.m.
Ahhhhh…another great day at the beach. We’re sitting down to a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, sour cream and onion potato chips, and fresh cut watermelon. Mmm-mmm-MMM!!! Nothing fancy, but certainly delicious, especially after working up an appetite swimming.
AJ and I were out there battling the waves. We did some boogie-boarding when we first got out there, but then we ditched our boards and spent some time body surfing and jumping into the waves. It was a ton of fun. It’s amazing just how fast time goes when you’re out there. Even Liz came out and did some boogie-boarding with us. Then we hauled out a big inner-tube that she sat in the center of while I pushed her around in the waves.
“The girls” were out too. That’s how we refer to Carrie and Carly Jensen. Carrie is 11 years old, and Carly is 13. The girls and their mother Catherine are full-time residents of our condo building. They live just down the way from us on the building’s fourth floor. They’ve been playmates of AJ’s for years. It’s like they’ve grown up together (during the summers at least). Many summers, since their mother works, the girls are at some sort of summer camp. Therefore, they are often away when we are out at the beach during the morning hours. But with school approaching, and Catherine having taken several weeks vacation from work, they’re back home and looking for something to do.
Today, they were down at the beach shortly after we were. They’re sweet girls and a lot of fun. They know a lot about the ocean and its associated creatures, so they immediately grabbed AJ and began searching for snails. They had little nets that they used to scoop up these spiral-shaped snails that are a couple inches in length and plop them into buckets. They also used the nets to catch a few minnows in the surf. Then I took the kids out for some boogie-boarding.
It’s like I gain two daughters when we come here. And while we were out playing in the waves, I caught something else.
When I felt something hard under my foot while standing in about four feet of water, I released as much air from my lungs as possible to make myself less buoyant, and then dove beneath the salty waves. The object I felt was flat, kind of rough to the touch, and thin. I managed to get my fingers gently beneath it and bring it to the surface where I revealed a sand dollar to the kids. It wasn’t one of those dead, broken, bleached out sand dollars. It was an actual live one, which are darker in color – a sort of greenish-brown.
After the kids passed it around to have a look, I gave it to AJ to swim out to a slightly deeper location, dive down, and replace.
“The girls” are pretty cool. I wouldn’t go so far to say they’re Tom-boyish, but they like boogie-boarding and digging with us in the sand. They don’t squeal or recoil in horror when we find a dead fish or a crab or something. They’ll pick up the dead fish and feed it to a pelican or they’ll poke the dead crab with a stick. Half the time, they’re braver when it comes to that kind of stuff than AJ simply because they’ve been around it all their lives.
Carly is also a pretty good surfer, which is cool. She has even taught AJ how to get up on her board. He doesn’t stay up long, but I’M impressed. I long to try, but then the sensible ‘over-40’ part of my brain kicks in and has me thinking better of it. A 41-year-old father has no place trying to catch a wave on a 13-year-old’s bright pink surfboard. I’d probably just injure myself anyway.
All-in-all, it was a great morning, and it’s nice for Liz to have someone to talk to in Catherine. Catherine and the girls accompanied us to the pool for some leisurely swimming once we tired of baking ourselves on the beach. I think they’re still down there. Those girls are like little sea creatures themselves. They love the water, that’s for sure.
8:58 p.m.
I don’t really feel like writing, but I don’t want to forget things. That’s the whole purpose of keeping this book. And I feel as though I’ll probably have to write more in this first set of entries than I will in subsequent years since I’m laying all the background and groundwork now about this place and its people.
As usual, we went to happy hour at a little after five. We were a tad late since we had afternoon naps and didn’t wake up until after four. The big talk at happy hour was about a new flu outbreak. We typically don’t watch much news when we’re down here, but the older residents here do. That’s mostly what they do all day if they’re not at a doctor visit or playing golf. They lounge, take naps, watch the news, play cards or board games, and generally work tirelessly at the art of living.
So anyway, as I was saying – or ‘writing’ I guess in this instance – the big talk was about this new flu that I guess originated in China. The Zu flu or Su flu or something it’s called. Supposedly it’s really bad. And I guess they haven’t developed a vaccine for it yet or it’s just taking a really long time or something. I don’t know; I was only half listening. I try not to get involved in the news or politics too much when we’re here. It doesn’t do any good. It usually only results in getting the old people riled up and arguing among themselves. We’re here for a good time. We get enough politics, corruption, crime, and death back home in Chicago. This is our ‘happy place’ and we want to do our best to keep it that way.
But tonight’s topic of discussion was hard to ignore even though I was doing my best. And Liz’s interest was piqued to say the least considering that none of us have gotten our flu shots this year. It’s something we usually do around October.
I was kind of glad that AJ had decided to swim with the girls during happy hour tonight because I don’t want him to be scared. Knowing him, he’d pretend to be scared even if he wasn’t just to use this flu thing as an excuse not to go back to school when it resumes. From the second-hand news reports I was getting from other happy hour attendees, the flu originated somewhere in China. And while the Chinese government is doing its best to keep things hush-hush, supposedly this strain is spreading really fast over there and is extremely serious. They’re staying that entire villages have been wiped out…not just infected, but KILLED by this thing. I mean, I know they usually come up with some pretty terrible stuff over there, Bird flu, Swine flu, SARS, that sort of stuff, but this one sounds even MORE serious. And supposedly we’ve had several cases reported in the US already. But this could just be another Ebola thing…all hype and no bite (at least in the US). Even then, at some point, one of these things is really going to rock our world. It’s only a matter of time. I think that people in general are growing too complacent about this sort of stuff. But enough of that for now. Back to happier thoughts.
Tonight we went to Pineapples for dinner. Pineapples is a bar and restaurant right on the beach. It’s a laid back atmosphere with reasonably-priced bar food and drinks. Many nights they have live music as well. So
metimes we walk there because it’s not even a mile from our condo. You can either walk on the beach or along A1A. Tonight however, we drove since it was still too hot out to walk.
We sat outside beneath an awning facing the beach where we ordered disgustingly awesome food – heavy on the ‘guilty pleasure’ side of things. There were beers for me and Mama, with soda for the boy. We had appetizers of mozzarella sticks and chicken fingers, followed by entrees. AJ went with a straight cheeseburger. I had a bacon burger with Swiss cheese. Liz had a buffalo chicken wrap.
About halfway through our dinner, the live music started. Cocoa Beach has some great live entertainment. Tonight it was classic rock on the stage set up in the outdoor area where we were eating. It was cool. Elizabeth and I made sure we got up and did some dancing just to embarrass AJ if nothing else. Even though he didn’t dance, I could tell he was into the tunes. He was bopping his head and singing along to some of the lyrics.
Pineapples is one of our top spots to go out to eat when we’re here. We like places with character. If a restaurant or bar doesn’t have character, even if it has great food, we aren’t likely to become regulars. Pineapples is usually very busy since it’s snuggled close to downtown, and it draws a lot of the tourist and beach crowd.
Then there is Giuseppe’s Pizza Palace, which is a tiny pizza joint across A1A from our condo building. It’s kind of a dive joint, but the food is awesome as are the people who work and eat there (talk about characters!).
The Peninsula is a restaurant across the Banana River heading toward Merritt Island. It’s our spot when we’re in more of a “chill and relax” mood. It’s nestled right alongside the Banana River and has indoor and outdoor seating. There’s even a dock for those traveling the river by boat to pull up and disembark for a bite to eat or just grab something to go. We typically choose outdoor seating so we can watch the river travel as well as the wildlife, often catching sight of dolphin and all sorts of birds.
The Dystopian Diaries Page 57