We made it to the beach. It was a perfect beach day. Hot, not humid, a slight breeze. We laughed at ourselves when we got there because we remembererd the beach umbrella but not the beach chairs. We were ok though, because on the beach there were a lot of chaise lounges, and umbrellas and little canvas cabanas that kept a couple lounges out of the sun, which could be rented for not a ton of money. We got a cabana, and 2 chaise lounges for 3 hours for $20. It was great! It kept our stuff out of the sand while we were in the water, which was a lot. We probably spent almost 2 of the 3 hours in the water, because the water is still in the mid to high 80’s. This is not one of those places where everyone stays on the shore, occasionally dipping a toe, or even maybe running into the water and out to cool off. It is definitely a place where people come to be in the water. Today the gulf was calm.

It did me so much good to be at the Gulf for the day. Even though, most days the fact that I am close to it influences my mood tremendously. Yesterday I wrote that we hadn’t been to the beach for a long while because it’s been so hot and humid, you couldn’t bear to sit outside for long. This was true, but Dan reminded me that the reason was more likely that we had to run to CT for a couple weeks, and then hadn’t really recovered from that when Hurrican Irma showed up. And we’ve only this week caught up from that storm.

Anyway we were glad to get to the beach, and spend a few hours floating around in the ocean, and listening to the waves break. It was just what the doctor ordered. The pic at the top is one I took of our sandy feet sitting in the cabana looking out. I put it on FB too, and my sister commented, “Too bad it’s so crowded.” I had to laugh at that, because to my way of thinking, so used to the beaches up north, the beaches here are never crowded, even in season!

Love and light to all.

Today I had a skin scan done, to have all my moles etc. checked out. I was lucky and nothing was dangerous, or even looked sketchy. But I had one tender spot on my forehead that the dr. felt I should have frozen because even though it was not anything to worry about, placed where it was, he thought it better to get rid of it now. He shot it about 10 times with what looked like a hand held welding torch that was full of liquid nitrogen.

Let me tell you, a shot to the forehead of liquid nitrogen is colder than any brain freeze you ever got from a Slurpee or a Snow-Cone.And he shot it 10 times. I left there at 4 PM with a massive headache, stopped at the store for a few things for dinner and then finally, asked Dan if he would mind missing open mic tonight. Because even though the burning/freezing sensation is gone, the headache is not.

I know, whine whine wine. I am not prone to headaches, thankfully. So I complain when I get one. This one has me just wanting to go to bed. I’m sure I’ll be ok in the morning. To top it off, some of our friends posted video and pics of open mic tonight and it looked like we missed some really good performances by our friends.

Bummer.

The rest of the day was good, and productive. The lawn got mowed, the generator battery got charged and put on the generator, we got new lights strung on my banyan tree, and the rest of the brush that came down in the yard from the hurricane put out on the curb. Busy.

I haven’t had time to sit and focus on my fiction writing for a couple of days. I think I need to do it in the middle of the night, lol. Tomorrow I think we’re going to the beach. Haven’t been in ages mostly bcause in the summer here it’s just too hot, and muggy. But now it’s perfect, hot, but not so muggy, and the water in the Gulf of Mexico is still in the high 80’s. So, I think we’ll have breakfast in the morning and go hang out on the beach for a few hours. Sounds like a nice plan, right? Love being retired, spending the day doing exactly as we please most of the time.

Love and light……

My girlfriends “Writer’s Group” came over yesterday afternoon. We always have such a good time. A little smoke, a little wine. I kept my wine down to 1 glass. It wasn’t even that hard! I read  the first installment of my story to the girls, and they had so much good advice and help for me, especially the one who used to teach drama at a private school, and the one who used to be a judge. So this morning I’ll get busy on re-working some of it to take in those suggestions, and then I’ll just keep writing the next installment.

I showed the girls my new steps, and the generator in my back yard (it’s not put away yet). I told them I will be the “IN” place for the next hurricane. They can come over here and the AC will be going, and the gas grill, and the stove and we will just have a hurricane party, lol.

I spent the night alone here last night, because of the girls coming over. I was sitting here watching The Voice, and reflecting on how I’ve been here a year now, and all the changes that have taken place in my life. I’ve not regretted my move for a minute. I was talking about numerology with my friends last night and how cool I thought it was that my house number here reduces to an 11….the powerful energy portal, the start of new things. Also, going back to CT helped me to realize I didn’t have to give up anything up there that I loved. Keep the good, let go of the bad. It wasn’t all that hard!

Of course, having Dan into my life is one of the best things that has happened to me.  One thing that I love about Dan is his realism. He always says that everything we do is a choice. I have said that too, in the past, but have strayed a bit from that strict belief. I had begun to think that loving someone was not a choice, but now, I would go back to the belief that it is. And probably that what I thought before was love, wasn’t. It was something I needed on my journey, but it wasn’t love. I would guess there was a lesson there that I needed to learn, and that lesson probably helped me to become a woman that Dan could love and trust, because I see things so much more clearly now. At least, that’s what I believe. It was not what I thought it was at the time, but it was part of my life’s journey and there was a good lesson for me in it.

But I still think I manifested him, lol. All those years of me saying that I just wanted to know the love of a good man before I die. A good man, as in kind and thoughtful and faithful and considerate and generous and easy to be with. And funny….God, don’t forget funny. Almost 5 months later, it’s better than ever.

Enough waxing poetic, lol. Time to refill my coffee cup get to work on my story. Love and light, everyone.

Dreams

Grew

Into

A new life

Fullness of living

Fused with fullness of loving.

By Deborah E. Dayen

Picture from William Meader via Google Images

Giddy with delight

We dance under the full moon

Silver satin beams

By Deborah E. Dayen

Image from 123RF.com via Google Images

Weary traveler

Sustained by other’s kindness

Continues journey.

By Deborah E. Dayen

I have said a couple of times I want to try writing fiction. I have actually started a short story, which will be in two parts. It is so much harder, for me, because it requires character development, plot development, and good descriptions. When I write one of my normal blogs, I am just building on past information. The first thing I realized is that all the information has to be encapsulated in the story. But I am endeavoring, and enjoying the challenge. Stay tuned, it’s coming.

It’s also why I have not posted a lot lately, on top of being busy. I’ve been dedicating my writing time to this story.

I was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I was pretty sure it was the kind of arthritis I had. My knees lately had bothered me, on top of other joints. I started thinking about our Italy trip and realized I’d need to be able to walk with a lot more comfort than I am currently. So, I made an appointment with my dr and the labs confirmed it. So, I have started a new med, which is supposed to suppress the RA. It’s actually a drug used in some cancer therapies. Although there is no warning label on the bottle, on line descriptions of the warnings include avoiding alcohol. However, I haven’t yet experienced any of the common side effects. I’m hoping I can allow myself a glass of wine at dinner occasionally. I’ve also been in Dan’s pool and hot tub quite a bit, because that’s the best kind of exercise for it.

Anyway, because of this latest health issue, I am really closely tracking my glucose levels, and my nutritional intake, and my exercise. Diabetes alone is a serious health issue, RA is a quality of life issue as well as a health issue. This makes me want to go back to my daily meditation practice, and work at the emotional reasons I developed this disease. I have Dan’s full support to do whatever I need to, and I am so grateful for that. To be encouraged to believe I can fix my health, not to be encouraged to be a victim and just give up. He’s such a good man.

Our generator is supposed to be delivered tomorrow. I am so excited about that. I am going to try to start the water aerobics program at the YMCA this week. And I’m going to try to finish my story.

Love and light everyone.

The rainy season here in FL is over, I guess.. We haven’t had any rain since Irma left us, almost 2 weeks now. And the air has been nice, not so humid. Yesterday it was 91° but only 48% humidity, which is really low for here. It was comfortable. And last night the temps dropped into the mid 70’s, instead of hovering around 80. It was a lovely night to sit outdoors at open mic night.

They had a good show last night. It seemed all the really talented people showed up to perform. Lots of them had written hurricane songs, some were tongue in cheek, some were metaphoric. All were good. Most of the performers who play there have recorded their music onto CD’s which you can buy for $10. I have one or two. Open mic ran late. Normally it’s over by 9:30 but last night it ran til almost 10. No one was complaining, lol. It was so good to hang around with everyone for a while, just catching up between performances, and enjoying the music.

I’m sitting on my deck writing this this morning. I have not done this since early spring, because of the heat and the bugs. The bugs don’t seem to be too bad right now, but I’m still armed with my anti-bug devices: citronella buckets, coils that you burn that the bugs don’t like, and as a last resort, bug spray. It’s so peaceful here in the morning. We had coffee out here, and watched the squirrels and the birds, and the geckos running around.

I’m expecting my generator to be delivered today sometime. I have no idea when, so I put a note on my front door that if I don’t answer to please come around to the back of the house. Dan had some errands to run, so hopefully he’ll be back when it’s delivered. What a sense of security that will give me, when it’s hooked up. It should be able to run the whole house in an outage.

Yesterday afternoon, Dan built me two steps to step down from my deck. Previously, I had bricks piled up to make a step. I have slipped on them and hurt myself, and he turned his ankle on them once or twice. Now I have two professionally done steps, that are safe. I’m so excited about it, probably because no one else ever did something like that for me. I told him, the other men who used to be in my life would have probably been likely to grease them and tell me to be careful, and then watch me fall. Or they would have laughed at me, if I had broached the subject of needing steps, and told me to have my handyman do it. Dan and I talked about it briefly, how we needed steps. Next thing I knew he had all the lumber and his tools to build them, and in about 3 hours yesterday, they were done.

But that’s the difference, Dan is someone who takes care of the people he loves in his life. I’m lucky to be one of them. There’s not a self-serving bone in his body.

I’m grateful for a lot of things this morning. For the place I’m at and for the journey here. Manifesting dreams continuously.

Love and light.