Vacation Adventures

Old habits die hard. I was up by 4am. Most days I would exercise first, but on Sunday I usually rest or take a slow walk.

So, I read a bit, puttered on the 'puter a bit, and walked outside to watch the sunrise. While wandering around, I stuck my head into the workout room -- they still have my favorite elliptical. The indoor pool area still has that familiar overly chlorinated smell that I somehow find refreshing. I think I associate it with the smell of clean. Outdoors was a different story.

We may not have had oil on the beach, but you can smell that it is there, lurking, like a cat ready to pounce or a horror movie monster roving about seeking whom it may devour. The rip currents around this key, the ones I point out to the kids each year, and show them how to avoid or get out of, had been a protection. For how long was anyone's guess.

The coffee in the lobby was warm and mild. For someone used to take the paint off the walls strong coffee, it takes two cups to keep the eyes open. I grabbed my first one and stopped to talk to Mr. Charlie.

Mr. Charlie lives here year round. He is a retired dentist, and owns the unit next to the one we have. A very friendly man, we caught up a bit on life, and how the kids are growing, and why he quit going to the bigger church to the west because the people there are snooty. Apparently that one caters to the tourists, and he says the priest there is from Michigan. Mr. Charlie goes to the smaller church to the east where locals go.

It's amazing what you can learn about a place when you just sit and chat with the people who live there.

Then it was back upstairs so I could get ready for church myself.


Today is

Ball Point Pen Day

Herb Day

Iced Tea Day

International Day Against Drug Abuse & Illicit Trafficking

National Black Cow Day

National Yo-Yo Day

Nursing Assistants Day

Portugal Day a/k/a Camoes Memorial Fete


Birthdays Today:

Joey Zimmerman, 1986
Tara Lipinski, 1982
Leelee Sobieski, 1982
Hoku Ho, 1981
Shane West, 1978
Elizabeth Hurley, 1965
Michael Burger, 1957
John Edwards, 1953
F. Lee Bailey, 1933
Maurice Sendak, 1928
Judy Garland, 1922
Saul Bellow, 1915
Frederick Loewe, 1904


Today in History:

Frederick Barbarossa drowns leading his troops across the Saleph River to attack Jerusalem in the Crusades, 1190
The first American log cabin is built, at Fort Christina in Wilmington, Delaware, 1639
Bridget Bishop becomes the first person hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 1770
A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China, 1786
The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris; a year later, it becomes the first public zoo, 1793
The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place, 1829
Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered, 1838
The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate, 1854
Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and destroying the famous Pink and White Terraces, 1886
The inaugural service for the United Church of Canada, a union of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches, is held in Toronto Arena, 1925
Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson, 1925
Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire, 1967
Apple ships its first Apple II personal computer, 1977
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, 2003