A perfect day!

By Mike Jastrzebski

I don't want to rub my northern friends' noses in it (well maybe a little) but Wednesday was a perfect day. Eighty degrees, a bit of a breeze, not a cloud in the sky.

I should have been working on the rewrite of Dog River Blues, but instead we spent the morning at the beach. Mary normally works on Wednesdays, but last night she received a call telling her it was slow at the spa and she should take the day off.

So we arrived at the beach about 9:30 a. m., set up our chairs under the palm trees across from St. Bart's coffee shop, and proceeded to do nothing while eating chocolate chip muffins and drinking iced coffee. We always bring an extra chair for company, and we sit and Mary watches the ocean while I people watch. Now you have to understand that we do this on a regular basis, we do the same thing most Mondays and Tuesdays when Mary is off from work. What made today special was that it was unexpected.

We hope that this will soon became the norm. Mary is going to retire this spring and once we start cruising we may just get tired of sitting and enjoying the ocean (okay, probably not) but for now it feels slightly decadent to have an extra day on the beach.

So for those of you who are shivering in Minnesota or Michigan or Wisconsin, we tilt our iced glasses to you, and for those of you who live down here in Florida, we suggest you call in sick and get yourselves out to the beach.