More songs of philosophy on life as I dream of the sand, Jimmy Buffett for a band…
with my adult beverage in my hand,
I’ve been a stand-in, a stunt man I’ve takin’ some falls Troubles… I’ve had my share
the deification hitting the oscillation
But one has to learn how to run before walkin’ ‘Round breathin’ that million air.
Take it from me cuz I found If you leave it then somebody else is bound To find that treasure,
that moment of pleasure When yours, it could have been
Some people never find it Some… only pretend, but me: I just want to live happily ever after every now and then
I’ve been in vans and in bands
On and through stages
One thing I can conclude.
One has to learn havin’ fun is just smilin’ through Those Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
Take it from me cuz I’ve found If you leave it then somebody else is bound To find that treasure, that moment of pleasure When yours, it could have been
African Sunset
Some people never find it Some… only pretend, but me: I just want to live happily ever after every now and then
Just my mind wondering as I listen to my Buffett, in my hammock, sippin’ on my rum drink.
I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Labor Day weekend!
First, my thoughts and prayers go out to those in South Florida and on the Gulf Coast with Gordon making things wet. But I know you have all seen this drill before. Best of luck!
Can you believe its the end of the summer already? It won’t be long until we are carving turkeys and trimming trees it seems.
But I digress…
Well we finally got caught up on everything life had to throw at us this weekend and with the 3 day weekend we finally..FINALLY, made it out to the beach.
I say Finally because I do not think I even made it out to our own beach last year. And this was our first trip to the beach, here at the end of the summer, this year.
We made it out to my school’s Beach House again.
If you remember, once upon a time, we used to frequent this beach house A LOT!
Do any of you remember all those blog posts?
We played, we swam,
Or a little of both…
we burned, er, tanned, marinated a little. We sautéed in the sun listening to Jimmy Buffet’s Tin Cup Chalice.
Or took my greyhound for a walk and let him chase seagulls.
But then things changed a bit and child number one, and then number two made going to the beach a little more challenging..
And then the pool…
And trips to the beach just seemed more like work than an escape.
What I have been missing is the spiritual essence of the coast however.
Sometimes we just need that escape. And this week has been one of those weeks.
This week, and actually the last few months, have been tough for me though, with a lot going on at home and at work and personally. It has taken its toll. And so this day I thought I might take another long walk on the beach, talking with God and hoping for answers.
Have you ever felt a need for that?
It was a good walk. Not too hot or sunny.
I spied the usual suspects along my beach that had been there before.
Sea vultures
…Pelicans looking for food.
The waves were nice size since we are in September.
and the surfers were out.
Touristy fishermen…
even more pelicans
Everyone was with me it seemed… but the One I was hoping for.
….
At the end of my walk it was just me; along with other flotsam and jetsam.
Alone. By our self.
No answers found. Not even a greeting. Or a reply.
Maybe that is an answer also.
Back at the Beach House young Skylar found a friend and was loving the sea.
She gets that from me!
She cracked her collarbone this week on our bike ride to school.
She’s tough.
She gets that from me as well.
We both love the sea!
Oh, to grow old on the beach!
Just give me oysters and beer For dinner every day of the year And I’ll feel fine……I’ll feel fine
I want to be there Want to go back down and lie beside the sea there With a Tin Cup for a Chalice,
fill it up with good red wine And we’ll be chewin’ on a honeysuckle vine
Yeah now the sun goes sliding across the water Sail boats they go searching for the breeze Salt air it ain’t thin It can stick right to your skin, and make you feel fine Makes you feel fine
I wanna be there Wanna go back down and get high by the sea there With a Tin Cup for a Chalice,
fill it up with good red wine And I’m a chewin’ on a honeysuckle vine
Yes and now you heard my strange proposal So get that Truck up and let’s move I wanna be there before the day Tries to steal away and leave us behind I’ve made up my mind..
Sorry I have been away for so long. It’s that time of year again when the kids are in school and I need a personal assistant to remind me what today is, where I am going, what kid is doing what after school, and what the plan for the weekend is.
I love it!
Actually, I have been real distracted this past September. You see I had a xxth high school reunion the last weekend of the month and I was more than a little jittery about it.
I mean, I live over 10 hours away from my home town. I don’t see these people..EVER! I have been a bad classmate and outta touch, hence cast aside and forgotten. Or so it seems sometimes. I have only been to two reunions so far and the last one was 10 years ago.
A lot can change in 10 years!
I just had more than a few mixed feelings about going to this one. But I decided to go any way. There were a few people I really needed to see and reconnect with. Still, I was unsure how it all would go.
Do any of you go to your reunions?
Do you put yourself through this?
Well I found whenever I am anxious about the unknown, if I prepare for it and do some research, no matter how intimidating the event, if I am prepared the outcome always turns out fine.
Know what I found?
Lots of people go through a similar progression of feelings that I put myself through.
So I did some research on high school reunions and here are some common points I found that most people go through when faced with an upcoming high school reunion. See if you see yourself here:
Progressive 14 Thoughts That Inevitably Happen When You’re Invited To Your Next High School Reunion
You receive the invitation and immediately think “OH HECK NO!”
You discard it on your messy table and move on.
You come across it a few days later and begin to think what it would be like.
I mean, it might not be that bad, right? RIGHT?!
You start to wonder what everyone from high school is REALLY up to.
I haven’t noticed much on Facebook lately.
You wonder how it has been this long since high school.
What? How many years?
I feel like I graduated like last year. RIGHT? I am not THAT old!
Then you think that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. You should really think about going.
I mean, people probably want to see me, right?
You start scheming your plan of attack.
What I will wear, what I will say, and how I will make my high school crush SO SORRY that she stood me up and let me go!
And planning your very serious workout regime.
Because I hafta am going to look HOT ASF*CK AS YOUNG AND NON-GROTESQUE AND DEFORMED AS POSSIBLE!
Then you dive deep into the some serious Facebook creepin’.
You know, because I need to know what to expect.
You discover that you might not be quite as successful as some of your peers.
“What? You are the CEO of what?”
10. You look up some of your old high school friends and see if they are planning on attending.
I didn’t really think I would have time with my busy schedule, but surprisingly I think I can make it after all! As long as I don’t have to walk in by myself.
You show up.
And get mad when people say I haven’t changed much. YES I HAVE, OK? I LOOK LIKE A FRICKIN TROLL!
You chat with some people.
Some I don’t even recognize so I have to wait for someone else to use their name. And none of them are impressed with me as I want them to be.
You decide to leave.
It’s hot. It’s loud. No one cares that I am here. And I ask myself why I ever thought this was a good idea.
You vow to never go again.
Until the next invitation comes.
Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare – and precious as a pearl.” Tahar Ben Jelloun
You know what? I had a really good time!
First, you don’t know the reputation that my class and classmates had. While we were still in Jr. High we were the gossip of all the other classes above us in the Sr. High. We were losers, drunks, lazy, and problem kids that “couldn’t plan past the upcoming weekend”….back then. But we still seemed to somehow how pull it together our senior year and accomplish some unimaginable things, together, as seniors.
Still, I went in with my built up anxieties. You know….Will they remember me? Will anyone care? I’m an outsider now. I am old as dirt now, used up, rung out, hairier than a troll, and look like I am older than Moses. ….My cannons don’t thunder. There’s nothin’ to plunder. I’m an over fifty victim of fate…but I still had a great time.
Oh sure I arranged for some important people to escort me into the event to add some credibility to my presence.
And yes, we met at the bar before hand to lose my inhibitions loosen up before meeting everyone. But hey! My favorite college football team was on TV! I couldn’t miss that, reunion or not!
And despite all my month-long pent-up anxieties before hand I did have a really memorable time AND I discovered several things about myself and my classmates that I had never considered before.
Such as:
We have some good-looking people in my class. Everyone really looked great at this reunion! Speaking from a male point of view, all the ladies looked amazing! Where were all you beautiful gals when I was in high school? You weren’t in my class! I never would have run to the other team 40 years ago if you were! Oh wait… that didn’t sound good…. I mean I wouldn’t have ran to the other school for a date. Gosh, I’d like to point you all out individually but I am afraid I would miss someone. So I think ALL sums it up.
2. I was in a room filled with great looking andsuccessful people not to mention amazing parents…..from my class! I was really impressed! It’s funny how some hard work and a good education (which many of us shunned 40 years ago) can erase any tags we carried, whether self-imposed or cast on by others. There were no losers or geeks at this festivity! Just a room full of celebrities that deserve some respect. Some Pearls with Wisdom..
Looking at some pre-troll pictures. I think the page is upside-down Dave…
3. At a 53ish 35th reunion we no longer need bellies full of alcohol to show how grown up we are. Been there. Done that. I saw a lot of people nursing glasses of wine and bottles of beer, even hitting glasses of water (me) instead of a drink. I found I no longer need two beers in my hand as a badge of honor or drinking double shots to prove I am ‘fun’. Well OK most of us had at least one or two (five) …. BUT…. We all had a lot of fun….and we still made our 7am wake-up call or Sunday morning church service. Right ladies?
In contrast to the way I was when I was younger…
I found I went to school with a lot of important people. They just hadn’t told me when I was in school with them. Some might have been a little rough back then, some might have been quiet, some might have been cliquish but pearls just the same. Don’t I feel like a fool for being the punk I was. I mean, damn, you all are impressive! Successful! And good-looking! Who knew? My Class of 80?
You two obviously are at the wrong reunion. This is a 35th reunion not 25th
Everybody has their share of troubles or obstacles they have to face sometime. No one is exempt. But if we all stick together, as the close class we grew to be, we can get through these times together in the future. Most of what I am talking about pertains to our aging parents. I heard lots of stories there. Some of us have our own health issues now to deal with. We all have, or will have these things, now that we are ‘grown up’. No need to hide. Stick together, talk with a friend and take care of one another. I think that is how we make it through the next 35 years. Then there will a party at Kelly’s house when it’s over. Wait! The next reunion is at my place! Come on and join us if you aren’t too old.
I took an old good friend to the airport the next morning to catch an early morning flight and then had a 10+ hour car ride home. I was reflecting back on the prior evening on the ride and smiling the whole way home.
How soon can we meet again?
What a treat it was to see all my old classmates again, whether they were actually the friends I ran with back then or not. What great people they all turned out to be. Them, or us, my Class of 80.
We were no longer the jokes or the gossip of our other high school peers. Everyone came out of their shell and are now shining brightly on their own and with their spouses.
Sorry to have been such a stranger lately. We have a few irons in the fire right now, making for some fun plans this summer; lots of things going on. T-Ball has been a Sand Gnat bitten bad experience so far for the girls and their coach. So that’s why I haven’t bombarded you with shared some more pictures here.
Rookie Card
So this birthday weekend I choose just to flop in my hammock with my favorite Jimmy Buffet song(s) and contemplate the near future. Click on my horizontal triangle below and drift away with me this lazy spring day…..dreamin our life away.
I found out this song was about Jimmy’s father. It’s a great song to sway in the breeze to, my hat pulled over my eyes.
And so, as I lay here in my hammock, I ponder what would my legacy might be with my girls one day….
…I don’t want to jinks anything but we are hoping to have a pool built in our backyard this week, or at least begun. Not that we are that well-to-do or anything. It’s a smaller pool. We just wanted some place for our girls to hang close to us. Its fun planning the details here in the shade and the breeze.
…. I bought some snazzy new Bluetooth speakers for our pool deck a month ago when they were on sale with Verizon. Actually two of them so we can have Jimmy and his band with us by the pool. They get great reviews and have amazing sound supposedly.
But I am having trouble figuring out how to get them to work however. I guess I should get them out of the box and read the instructions….
….We are also putting the final touches on an escape to the Magical Kingdom.What fun that will be for me the kids. I haven’t been there since the 70’s! So I’m getting kinda excited too.
hmmm…. what else?
I may be getting published! I found our local PTA chair started an E-book publishing company and spoke to me about submitting some of my writings. Yea, they sell for about $2.00 and I could get about 70% of that. But then I can put that widget on my blog that says I was published! Anyone else want to do E-Books? Let me know. I will put you in touch. Heck, if I can anyone can!
Dylan has her end of year Girl Scouts party today at the local water park. So I am taking my Daddy’s girl there while Mom was going to distract Skylar and run her out to the beach at the same time..
…ahhh the beach
“Sailin’ on a Midnight boat,
there were no questions asked.
The water’s so green and the air is so clean,
They just stuck right to their task,
Hammock daydreamin….”
Just maybe by the time you read this I will have aged another year. I don’t like birthdays any more. I get the birthday bluesfrequently. I don’t want to get any older. Hell, I look in the mirror and see what I see and I look too old now. But as I wink at myself in my day dream, and raise my head up and take a sip of my adult beverage, I toast to how it beats the alternative…..
…..Have you noticed there are a lot of birthdays in May? A lot of hanky-panky on vacations in August I figure. I’ll toast to that!
…Hey, where’d my sun go? …Darn cloud.
Oh, and did I tell you after they put in our pool I may have to re-sod the entire back yard! I don’t mind, It’s worth it. I’ll get right on it….one day. (yawn)
…..I have a(nother) high school reunion coming up in the fall. Folks, I have moved around so much that my classmates don’t even try to find me anymore. Plus I live about a day’s car ride away. But with the help of a long-lost high school friend or two I may make this one, the good Lord willing.
….And as I lay here swaying in the warm Spring sun I wonder how I can bring my schoolmates to the beach next time for our reunion instead. We have a large banquet hall at my beach, resting on the shore of an exotic beach known as the Isle of Palms. What could be more inviting?
We could make a day of it this way! There’s the beach, cooking out under the pavilion, volleyball matches for those of us who can still jump, beach combing, free beach parking, catching up and fellowship with old friends; and their families, lost loves…..
I may have been conspicuously absent this week. You see it is half way through the birthday season here in our zip code. This week was Dylan’s birthday week.
Dylan turned 7 this week. As when I was a kid we started the week off with her favorite birthday dinner. The birthday dinner she asked for was at Texas Roadhouse. She later asked if her best friend from school could join her for her birthday dinner. Well, its her birthday, why not?
I guess she had a good time for her birthday dinner
We waited till the weekend to have her birthday party. She choose the locally trendy Carolina Ice Palace for her shindig.
What, ice?
Frozen?
Winter?
Hasn’t there been enough cold already?
We had a great time. As part of the party everyone gets to skate for an hour.
Everyone!
Watch out for Mom!
True to form, in this Frozen themed ice palace we saw a Princess Elsa (above) and a Queen Ana (below)
Everyone had some ‘walkers’ or ‘skaters’ to help them if they were new to skating. But it didn’t take my ‘A’ student long to figure it out…
She continued to learn and pick up speed until she more closely resembled a hockey player more than Princess Elsa…
Did someone yell Pizza!
Then there was the traditional cake and ice cream and birthday song.
It was a good 7th birthday for her. At the end of the day we asked her what her favorite part of the day was?
She said having her (long lost childhood friend/ first neighbor/ first best) friend Drayton show up at the party.
Drayton and his family were our neighbors when lil D was born and the two became good friends, as we all did in Dylan’s early days….
But his family moved away on assignment 3 or 4 years ago and they each grew up a bit in the meantime.
That is one pure smile with her buddy Drayton
It was nice to see those two still good friends after all the time past and not feeling too awkward.
Next to come in this wonderful birthday season is the visit of Aunt Sue and the girl’s grand parents for more birthday gifts and surprises, followed by Easter and the Easter bunny, followed by Skylar’s b-day two weeks later. She is planning something much more low key at the local bouncy, jumpy trampoline place…
Stay tuned! We know that’s where she wants to go but everything else is still up in the air…
Drayton, along with all Dylan’s good friend stopping by, seemed to be the perfect cap on a great birthday party, at the end of a fun-filled birthday week at the frosty and Frozen Ice Palace. Yes, it was still a chilly afternoon, inside and out of the skating rink. Its OK though. The cold never bothered me anyway.
Still,
I thought I heard someone holler “Boat Drinks!”
Someone get me two more boat drinks. I’d rather go where its warm..
Boat drinks,later that night we had boat drinks
Visitors just scored on the home rink
Everything seems to be wrong
Lately, newspapers mentioned cheap airfare
I’ve got to fly to Saint somewhere
I’m close to bodily harm
Twenty degrees and the hockey games on
Nobody cares; they are way too far gone
Screamin’ “Boat drinks,” somethin’
To keep them all warm.
This morning I shot six holes in my freezer
I think I got cabin fever
Somebody sound the alarm
Server, I think I need two more boat drinks
Then I’m headin south ‘fore my dream shrinks
I gotta go where it’s warm
OUR LIFE IN 3D 