It was an absolutely perfect weather day today. Temps in the low 80’s, and not a cloud in the sky, that color they call “Bahama Blue.” No humidity. It was amazing, and what everyone has told me will happen mid-October.

I went to my sisters “spa” with a friend and did my laundry. We sat by the pool, and in the pool, all afternoon. It’s like being in your own private lagoon. We talked, listened to some music, got a little buzz on, swam, and I got a tan again. I’m happy about that, looking a bit more like a Florida girl,

I got my laundry done. I fell asleep by the pool for awhile, as did my friend. One of my best friends from CT called me while I was there. It was so good to talk to her. I sure miss my peeps back home. Even though, I’ve met a ton of people, I’ve only gotten to know one of them, Beth. I know it will come in time.

Tomorrow night, the guy who went to the artwalk with us last night in St. Petersburg is reading his poetry (he’s the one who is published and has a phd in writing) at a local restaurant or bar open mic. Beth said she wants to sing the two poems of mine she did last night. She said she’s been practicing them, and recording them since last night. I don’t even know how to react, I’m so honored that she thinks it’s good enough to do this. So, I’m just going to sit back and relax and enjoy it. I suppose everyone who writes a blog, hopes to have their work exposed, and I just got lucky here.  It will probably be heard by a couple dozen people.  Not a ton.  Shouldn’t be enough to intimidate me!   I hope people like it. The two she is doing are “Digging in the Dark” and “Not Yet.” I gave her “It Will Have to Wait” too, but that one is long, I don’t think she has done music for it.

Still haven’t met the one I’m looking for. And probably not tomorrow, the reading is at a gay bar, lol. That should be an experience.

I did some car shopping yesterday. I’m going to see one more car tomorrow, and then probably make an offer on one of them. I have to get a car. I need to get my life back to normal. As normal as it can be, so far from most of the people I love.

I’ll get there. I still love it here.

Love and light, everyone.

As promised, the hurricane took with it the oppressive heat and humidity.  I got in my car yesterday at 5pm and it said 102 degrees. This morning it is a cool 75, with a light northereasterly breeze. The sky is clear, except for a few high clouds, which at the moment, are glowing pink and gold. 

There are new boats in the harbor now. Everyone says the winter people will be arriving in droves this month. Apparently some of them come by boat. 

This is the kind of morning that waking up on a boat is heaven. Rocking gently on the tide, the sea calm. Quietude, no noise except the seabirds, and crows (again). Three pelicans fly low across the water, looking for their breakfast. The boats are at anchor, dinghies astern, which is a sign people are aboard. When that was my life, to wake up on the water, I loved this time of day, a hot cup of coffee, watching the world awaken from the sea. 

There is a fisher woman on the end of the pier this morning with me and the crows. I passed a fisherman on the pier, a regular, who is there every morning. And one more man, sitting on a bench, singing quietly to himself. Now the man fisherman joins the woman, and they talk, and are apparently a couple. Their voices carry to where I’m sitting. But not loud enough for me to inadvertently eavesdrop, thankfully. 

I like it better when I have this place to myself.  That’s a selfish thought this morning, I realize. There are many people wanting to take in this beautiful day from the very start. 

The sun is up now. I’ll be going over to my sisters island home today to do laundry and hang out by her pool while it gets done. My friends may come too. At least one of them.  It will be a nice relaxing day. 

Time to head back. Feeling blessed. 

Love and light, everyone. 

I am actually so delighted that the real truth about Donald Trump has surfaced. Not that it hadn’t, but this new stuff is the quintessential Donald, and irrefutable. No one can deny, now, what an asshole he is, and how unfit he is to be president. Oh I suppose there are some people who will turn a blind eye, but the fact that his own party leaders want him to step down and have withdrawn their support of him, makes me believe that there isn’t a chance in hell he will be elected.

And that now his legacy will go where it should. That history will remember him as a mysogenist, narcissistic asshole, who almost bullied and schmoozed his way into the presidency. The universe caught it, and spit it back out. The annals of history will remember him as one of the worst human beings ever to seek power.

I remember thinking back in the beginning of his run, that it was a joke. And then realizing that he was actually running for president. And now, I think, yes my first impression was right. It was a joke, and now he’s exposed for the true asshole that he is.

Thank you universe. For spilling undeniable facts at just the right time. Thank you.

Going down to see the sunrise. Love and light all.

What a great evening I had tonight. Just really wonderful.

My friends and I went to the artwalk in St. Petersburg. They do it once a month on Saturday night. All the galleries and little shops are open, some have wine and food. They are all wonderful places, cool people. Just such unique stuff. Some of the places have people playing music.

We walked into one place and my friend Beth, who has been a singer all her life, recognized a guy playing drums, and hugged him big-time. She used to polay in a band with him. Then she pulled out of her pocketbook 3 of my poems that I’d printed out for her. She’d asked me to, she reads poetry like it’s a song and puts it to music. Next thing I knew, the drummer was playing his drum and accompanying her as she sang my song for all the people in this store. She told them all I wrote it, they all were clapping for her and telling me how great the poetry was….

OMG.

The drummer was this very spiritual guy, who said he has a very spiritual connection to the music he plays, and how he loves collaborating. Since he and Beth had played together, they just blended in perfectly.

But here she took my words, personal and emotional for me, and turned them into a greater thing, that anyone could relate to. The synergy was awesome. I was on cloud 9 all night. She wants to do them again at an open mic somewhere on Monday night. Holy shit.

I’ve not experienced what it’s like when someone really appreciates what I write. I mean, she really likes it. It was just overwhelming to me. I write, because I have to write. It is all personal to me. But she made me see the universality of it. I still could never read it myself. It’s just too much a part of me. I’ve never considered that it’s good or bad, though I’m always happy when I get likes and comments. It was just so cool to hear my poems sung. Wow.

She writes as well, so does my friend Pat. Another friend came with us, Rob. I didn’t know him well, but he’s close with Pat and Beth. He included me in their circle saying he was out with his girls. He’s very gay. He’s also very smart, a published writer, with a phd in writing and teaches classes in writing at a local college. Very interesting guy.

We saw some really great artwork tonight. And many handmade things, of wonderful quality. We went into a jewelry store, that uses stones like I like to make jewelry from. One of their crafts people was working, and I started talking to him about the stones he was using. We talked for quite awhile. He took me around the store, and showed me some of his other work, which was just so unusual and unique. He told me he used to be a lawyer in NYC, and retired down here and now makes jewelry full time. He said he’s just started writing. Beth told him about our Thursday open mic night in Gulfport, and he knows Gulfport well. He’s going to be teaching an 8 week class at a local art school in some facet of jewelry making.

We met the wife of the owner of the store, and talked to her a little while. Such a very nice young woman, with a lot of knowledge about the stones and their properties. It felt so familiar to me, to be around people who are into this kind of thing.

We went in another store that was full of Tibetan singing bowls. I was able to play one of them (I have one at home). Then I saw a gong on the shelf, small one, about 15” in diameter. I picked it up and told my friends to listen as I wailed on it. It was so good to hear a gong again. I had been looking at the bowls and showed my friend how some bowls are hand pounded and some are poured in a mold. Also, I showed her how to play it, and listened to the lovely circular sound it makes. The man who I assume owned the store, said, “Thanks for coming in, you know a lot about these things.” I told him I love vibrational instruments, they have been very healing for me.

So…all I can say is, I feel so at home here. There are so many like-minded people here, and they’re all gracious and kind, and so willing to share their knowledge.

I’m so glad I moved down here. Life is good. Really good.

Love and light.

The insurance called me yesterday, and told me how much they are giving me for a car, and I am not happy with it, but have no say in it. I’ll have to put some more of my own money in it to get a decent car. Pisses me off.

Then he told me I only have the rental car til next Friday I have to find a car in a week. Geezus.

So, I’m going car shopping today. It’s not something I like to do, or even want to do, but I gotta do whatever I gotta do I guess.

I went to a local artwalk in town last night. It didn’t have a lot of booths, but I met a lot of people, because I was with Beth who knows everyone here. Met artisans, shop owners, etc. It was a nice night. The hurricane blew out the humidity, and it was windy. As we started the sun was setting and the last of the clouds from the hurricane were blowing around in the sky. The quarter moon was up, and the clouds were tinted pink and blue and gold, it was really beautiful. I took a picture which doesn’t do it justice.

Beth came back to my house. She had been wanting to see some of my haiku. She is a blues singer, and good. Did it for a living with her band for a long time. She started to read the haiku and then started to sing them. Making up tunes for them. She said she really wants to sing some at open mic night. She had asked me to read them. I told her I don’t think I can. That they are too personal, and too full of my own emotion for me to be able to read them. But that I loved when she read them, or sang them.

So, maybe she will sometime. That would be cool. I’d like people to hear them.

All the people I’ve met, and so far, no one has caught my eye. Still hoping though, still believing. He’s here somewhere. So tired of being alone.

Love and light, all.

Hurricane Matthew didn’t make it to my side of Florida. I woke up a couple of times, and looked outside. The air was still, the streets were dry. This morning, when I got up, I could see that it’s a little breezy but nothing that would make you think there’s a hurricane nearby.

It seems that the hurricane stayed a bit farther offshore than they thought. Winds seem, from the reports, not to have exceeded 100 mph on shore. That’s strong, very damaging, but certainly not as bad as the 140 mph they predicted. They have been referring to it as a Cat 3, not Cat 4. Thankfully.

Still, I lived though Hurricane Gloria in CT, which was a Cat 2, and the devastation was enormous.  So many trees up there, they fall, and they always take power lines with them.  We were without power for a week then.  I’m not trying to minimize the danger of this hurricane.  It’s devastating.

But I guess we dodged the bullet over here. I’m very grateful for that. I am considering going down to the pier, but am not sure I want to go. It won’t be beautiful, nor will the water be dramatic. I’ll probably just stay here this morning.

My son texted me in the middle of the night, and I’d just happened to wake up needing a drink of water. He was a little worried, though I’d pretty much told him there was not going to be a problem here. He still asked me to text him in the morning. What a good kid. God, I miss him.

Praying for all my friends in the Carolinas. Hope it bears east, away from land.

I haven’t seen an updated forecast, but just hope that if this hurricane does what the reports last night said, that it doesn’t hit us on the loop around. Enough already. I’m really tired of my life being turned upside down. As if it wasn’t upside down enough, without a totaled car and a hurricane threat.

Sometime this weekend, I want to go to my sisters, do my laundry, hang out by her pool, and relax. I need a day of respite from this. It feels chaotic, even though I am safe. My friend Beth was urging me to fill my bathtub, and take a million other precautions. I just couldn’t get into the worry. I just was incapable of getting too upset about it.

Tonight we’re going to the local art/gallery walk. There will be live music at the cafe where we were going to go last night. Then Saturday night there’s a larger one in St. Pete, where the trolleys take you from gallery to gallery, and the galleries all serve wine and cheese. One or two of them display Pat’s paintings. That should be fun.

Glad I have some fun things to do this weekend. A friend may come spend the weekend too. She’s kind of stranded here, for a few days, so I told her to come here.

My handyman is coming this weekend to fix my fence. Pretty excited about that. It really needs replacing but at the moment, I just want to get it so it’s standing up, and not leaning into the pad where I need to put a shed. Later on I can decide what I want to do with it. Then I think I’ll have him put the vent in for my dryer, so I can go buy it and get it delivered.

All is well here. Thoughts and prayers for all those who are in harms way.

Love and light.