Plans!

 Winter Approcheth. Winter in the Deep South is more of a concept than a reality. Around here it means dreary days of rain with the occasional complete shut-down inducing flakes of snow followed by black ice on bridges. Anyone remember Snowmageddon that closed Atlanta for several days and caused Chik-Fil-A to deliver sandwiches to stranded motorists on I-285? I remember it. I wasn't living in Atlanta so I just shrugged and made soup.

Anyway, Capt and I make Winter Escaping Plans. Last year we went to South Fla in the Pompano Beach area for a dive trip. That was fun! The year before we went to Key West and I got my first real life exposure to drag queens and snow crab claws. Also Fun!  Capt's making noises now about another trip down to the Keys, for a couple of days of diving and boating (we're going to take The Other Line along), then drive to Tampa to spend a couple days with friends there. I want to hit up the Goodwill store in Naples because c'mon....Naples. You KNOW the Goodwill has to be something special. It's the first place I ever saw 4 McLarens at a stoplight. And some sort of supercar we couldn't identify but later determined it was a Volvo. I didn't know Volvo even made a supercar but there it was.  We ate at a restaurant that had Martini and Mussel Monday (I think it was Monday....might have been Wednesday) and I got the BEST mussels I'd ever had *AND* a proper martini. There were lots of fancy Ladies Who Lunch there and the whole thing was some sort of cultural experience that made me smile.

So yeah, we're making Winter Plans again. Nothing's firm, and initially I was kind of "hmmm" about it but then I remembered the Keys have John Pennecamp State Park and I have dive gear including tanks we could get filled somewhere and Pennecamp is some of the best diving in the country so there's that.  Plus the boat and Capt's kind of grooving on the idea of boating around the Keys and possibly catching a fish. Our friends in Tampa have ample room and a private dock, and Capt would love to explore the flats in the area and maybe do some more fishing. 

The more I think about it, the more I'm loving the idea of it. There's something about getting away to a Tropical Locale in the middle of Winter (or what passes for it in Central Alabama) for a complete change of venue that is deeply appealing. 

I'd have to probably shave my legs. 

And do a couple of practice dives maybe in a Florida spring, just to make sure I remember how. If he's teaching a class at the University around then, I could go into the pool and fritz around. Just to be sure.

Anyway, it's a possibility. For now we're going to do some fishing expeditions in the North Florida flats around Apalachicola and Port Saint Joe because it's that time of year and redfish is delicious.

Where has the time gone?

 Geez it's been a couple of months. What can I say? I've been busy, y'all.  Doing what? What on Earth could a 56 year old fairly recently remarried window mother of 4 grown kids POSSIBLY be busy doing? I mean seriously. I'm not even formally employed. Or apparently employable. A couple of years ago I threw my new resume out there into the proverbial wind. I got a few nibbles to which I enthusiastically responded but my enthusiasm was met with (what seemed to be) Oh. You're Old. I wanted to put on my resume', down at the bottom, something along the lines of "As a 56 year old woman, I will not be called by the schools to fetch sick children. I will not spend the day crying because my boyfriend didn't call yesterday. I will not be out 3 days a month due to menstrual cramps. I make excellent coffee and am not too highly educated to do it." But no. I'm 56. I have grey hair and occasionally swollen ankles. I am not a pretty piece of boobage to ornament the front desk and flirt with the clients. Never mind I can make them feel like their mother just gave them a hug and offer them the best coffee they'd had in a month.

Frustrated much? Naw. Not in the least. Nor is my ego damaged because of it. Their loss, not mine.

Which is slightly a lie. No one likes to be rejected. 

So what HAVE I been doing? Well, The Boat came in. A fine piece of flats-floating work Capt named The Other Line (as in "Can't come to the phone right now, he's on The Other Line"  get it? Huh? Get it? Haw!) So work has been proceeding on getting it fully equipped with all the ancillary stuff like tackle, EPIRB, life jackets, things, the Coast Guard insists on. Also figuring out the best places to fish. Other business stuff like cards, magnet things to go on the truck, getting a website (site has been bought but not yet established)...you know...the stuff of today's business environment. 

Also...a lot of embroidery work...sort of.

And some reading, writing, cooking, gardening, general figuring out of "where do we want to go from here?" Capt's office is getting arranged. The desk needs sorting out and there's some boxes of stuff that don't have a home yet. 

I'm trying to figure out my dog. Bless him. He refuses to let us know when he has to poop so we find it in assorted places in the house and that has resulted in a banishment to the outside. I hate that, but one can't have one's members of the household making deposits of the non-financial sort on the floor. The cat, on the other hand, is very smug about it all. 

Food continues to be a source of stress. Capt has so little he can eat these days without upsetting his system in one way or another. For a person who's a committed foodie, that's more than just an inconvenience. It's having one of your favorite sources of pleasure removed, but knowing it's still there mocks you. Going to the grocery store used to be fun, now it's a minefield and very discouraging. He tells me I don't need to restrict my diet just because of him, but I'm not going to sit down and eat a giant Reuben in front of him, or a pizza, or any other thing he used to love but now can't eat for fear it will make him sick. How rude would that be?  

Today? I'm trying to ignore the news. With a vodka cranberry.