Can't Get Away from Destiny

Another sunrise walk on the beach that featured clouds turning colors, but no sun could be seen until it was well up.  It was still worth seeing, as i walk toward the east and onto the nature reserve, where there aren't any buildings to interfere with the view.

(Note:  yes, it costs to go on the nature reserve.  Yes, at the beginning of the week i stop there and pay for a week's worth of beach walks, and keep my little receipt with me so if any rangers stop me, they will know i am not trying to get in without going through the gate and paying.)

By the time the sun is well up, it's still not even 7am and everyone else is still asleep except Doc, who get up with the chickens as i do, so i decided to run to the store to pick up a few things, including orange juice for Sweetie, who can put away gallons of the stuff.  In fact, when we are here, he does.  Anyway, i grabbed the keys and headed out -- right into traffic.

It seems to be my destiny to run into traffic wherever i go, even on vacation.  If i went to a place on earth where there had never been a traffic jam, someone would start one.  This time, i was construction on the bridge off of the island's west side.  The workers had shut down one lane and were directing traffic, and someone who didn't want to be so directed caused a nice accident.  So we sat for a good while, up on that bridge, waiting for them to figure out how to get us all around the person who didn't want directions, and at the same time get the police and a tow truck in.

Thus when i got to the store, i helped myself to even more coffee than is good for me and lingered until i was rather sure the traffic had cleared.  It had, although they were still directing traffic around the construction on the one open lane, it was running quite well and everyone was cooperating.

Back at the condo, there was movement and life, so i had my favorite breakfast, a mango, pineapple, and avocado salad.  Then i took my puzzle book, pencils, eraser, reading glasses, and lap desk and went to sit under the waterfall and lollygag and watch the kids swim, ours and other people's.  One lady had a cute little guy in the water in the shade near me, and he swam and played and had a blast.  Watching him laugh just made me laugh all over, and he wore himself out from so much play and went down for his morning nap right on one of the pool chairs.  All of us were chased upstairs by the daily storm that blows through.  They don't last long, but long enough to go have some lunch, at least.

After lunch, Doc had a treat for the older kids -- he took them to an electronics store to buy them each a tablet computer for the upcoming school year.  Because we were sans kids for a while, Sweetie and i went to check out a few of our favorite haunts, and find a few new ones.

Our favorite locally owned souvenir/clothing shop had a beautiful selection of nice, summery dresses, and Sweetie insisted i try one on.  He liked it, so of course i had to get it.  Then he found a pair of sandals to replace the ones he got there two years ago.  He also found a hat for Brother-in-Law, The Mouth.

Several years ago, Sweetie gave his brother a hat of a particular vintage style, and his brother wore it all of the time, until he lost it about a month ago.  He has been bugging the living daylights out of Sweetie, asking him if he could get another.  Now, we have another, and if he loses this one, he's on his own.

Next up, we went to a strip mall to look for clip-on sunglasses for my new driving glasses at a store that specializes in sunglasses.  They didn't have anything to fit, but next door was the best named coffee shop i've ever seen.  It's called "Liquid Life Coffee Shop." Anyone who knows me and my addiction will know i insisted we go in to see if they had coffee mugs with that logo, because i would love that.  It turns out they don't, not yet, but the owner has designed a few things and they should be coming in a couple of months.  In a few months, i'm going to get on their website and pester them to sell them to me online, because i don't want to have to wait a year, i'm too impatient!

Sweetie then wanted to find a guitar shop, so we crossed to the Florida side of the island and headed to Pensacola.  We were in parts of the city i hadn't been to before, and we managed to find the mall, and the guitar place.  He noodled around among the musical instruments, and i picked up a ukelele.  It's a beautiful little instrument that i'll have to take up one day, when i have spare time.  Yeah, right.

As much as i dislike malls, we did stop there so he could get some shoes for work at Dillards.  For some reason, that's the only place that carries the particular type he has to wear at work.  Then we decided it was time to head home.

So did everyone else, as my destiny caught up with me and we got stuck in the afternoon rush hour.  Working my way to the interstate took a long, long time, but once we got on going the opposite direction from most people we made good time.  Even though i've never been this particular route before, i managed to find the exit and the back roads to the island.  Sometimes having a weird sense of direction where i know what leads where serves me well.

Dinner for those who eat such things was Doc's roast and mashed potatoes and i pulled out a salad and insisted on leaving it out until almost everyone had some.  My brothers are notorious for not eating vegetables in any form, and while #2 Son eats salad and veggies almost every day when we are at home, as Bigger Girl noted, the only green thing he's had since we left home was a green Popsicle.  We remedied that.

The rest of the evening was spent on the beach, where the setting sun behind the clouds sent rays like golden fingers into the sky opposite.




Today is

Audacity to Hope Day -- to encourage all to have the audacity to keep hope

Demise of Imam Khomeini -- Iran

Emancipation Day -- Tonga (trad.)

Festival for Hercules Custos -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Hercules the Custodian)

Flag Day -- Estonia

Flag Day -- Finland (Armed Forces observe the birth anniversary of Carl Gustaf Mannerheim)

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression -- UN

Jarila's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (Festival of Jarila, god of the sun and fertility)

Lailat al Miraj -- Islam (observance of Mohammed's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem; begins at sundown, local customs and dates may vary)

Lassie Day -- the first dog to play the role of Lassie, in the movie Lassie, Come Home, was born this day in 1940

National Cheese Day -- not to be confused with Cheese Lover's Day earlier in the year

National Cognac Day

National Frozen Yogurt Day -- not to be confused with the Frozen Yogurt Day celebrated on Feb. 6 in Los Angeles, where the temperatures make such a thing possible

National Unity Day -- Hungary

Old Maid's Day -- supposedly established after WWII, when there were so many eligible young ladies who weren't getting any younger

Plynteria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival in Athens in honor of Athena; date approximate)

St. Petroc's Day (Patron of Cornwall and Wales, as well as many locations in Cornwall, Wales, and England, and Saint-Meen, France)


Birthdays Today:

Russell Brand, 1975
Angelina Jolie, 1975
Noah Wyle, 1971
Sam Harris, 1961
George Noory, 1950
Michelle Phillips, 1944
Joyce Meyer, 1943
Bruce Dern, 1936
John Drew Barrymore, 1932
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 1928
Dennis Weaver, 1924
Robert Merrill, 1919
Rosalind Russell, 1907
Aesop, BCE620 (not certain, but close enough)


Today in History:

Chinese astronomers make the first recording of a solar eclipse, BC781
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1584
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan, 1615
New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians, 1760
A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history, 1769
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon), 1783
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1792
The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title, 1878
Henry Ford test drives his first prototype automobile, the Ford Quadricycle, 1896
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage, 1912
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain, 1973
The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, 1989
Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989
Falcon 9 Flight 1 was the maiden flight of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket,2010