People Watching

I enjoy watching people, especially young families with children, while shopping or at the fair or on vacation.  Last week I visited Disney Springs, formerly Disney Village, by myself as Aloma can’t walk because of her bad hip.  I walked the entire village then sat with a Starbucks and watched people walk by.  The crowd was mostly young families with children, about a third foreign, Asian and Hispanic, both groups mannerly and neatly dressed.  The rest were Americans, the men sloppily dressed, had recently been in good shape but were sporting the beginning of a beer belly and the women pretty but a little overweight and looking anxious as they herded two or three small children through the crowds.  About half of the young women and men had tattoos.  This group was what I imagine that Hillary, in her ill advised comment, called a basket of deplorables.  In any case, they were having a vacation of a lifetime showing Disney World to their children.

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed grilling out while on vacation on the bank of gas grills provided by our timeshare.  I’m rarely alone and often share a grill with someone else.  This year, I met the nicest man from Switzerland, grilling spareribs while I was working on two small steaks.  He answered my questions about Switzerland and asked questions about the United States.  He was semi-retired and travelled over three months a year.  I saw him the next day and asked how his spareribs turned out.  “Perfect,”  he said.

On another night, I had a nice conversation with two men from St. Louis cooking steaks for their families.  On the third night two men from Tampa were cooking enough hots and hamburgers to feed an army.  All were friendly and seemed to enjoy talking to an old man - me.

Our pool had sloping entrances to the water on both ends, was heated to almost 90 degrees and had a nifty water slide.  Although our resort has over ten pools, this one seemed to be preferred by families with children.  Moms would come early with their children carrying towels, sunscreen and a cooler with snacks.  Dads would come come later, lay in the sun for a few minutes and then play with their kids in the pool, throwing balls, tossing kids in the air and playing keep away.  Mon would lather the kids with sunscreen, dry them with towels and dispense snacks.

Moms kept the kids safe and comfortable, but it seemed to me the dads had more fun.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Water, Wind and Fire

Our drive from Cary, North Carolina to St. Augustine a couple of days ago was interesting.  We left beautiful foliage in Cary and stopped in Lumberton for breakfast at a Waffle House.  Aloma asked our waitress about her hair which started a conversation with our waitress, another waitress and a man at the next table.  After the hair discussion ran dry, the topic of the floods after hurricane Matthew came up.  The Waffle House was flooded, as was most of the town, and the  employees recently put in a full day cleaning up so they could re-open.  They pointed out the road in from of the Waffle House was flooded.  One car didn’t realize it and tried to drive through the water and got stuck.  One person got out but another didn’t and her body was found days later.  As we got back on I-95, we noticed the insides of most homes were being stripped and had piles of rubbish in their front yards.

As we drove south, crews were cutting trees along the roadside.  The wind from Matthew had uprooted trees on the west side of I-95 from Lumberton all through most of North Carolina and South Carolina.  Many of the trees were huge, mostly pine trees.  We remember seeing tree damage in the past, but due to ice rather than high winds.

As we talked about the fallen trees, we noticed the haze, maybe some fog but mostly smoke, and we could smell it.  The smoke lasted all the way through North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and into St. Augustine.  Fire from the North Carolina and South Carolina mountains, Alabama and Georgia drifted with the wind to cover the entire southeast coast.  Amazing!

While our car trip had some unusual events, we arrived safely in St. Augustine for a wonderful shrimp dinner at O’Steens.  I told Aloma the shrimp were the best ever, but she said I say that every year.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com

Slow

Now that I’m 78 ½ years old, I’ve been thinking about one word that describes the aging process for me.  The word came to me last night - SLOW.

• I walk slower, at home and going from a parking lot into a store and walking for exercise in Carolina Preserve.  Everyone passes me.
• I drive slower - at least in Cary (and I drive in the left lane because I never know when the right lane is going to end).
• Projects around home take two, three or four times longer.
• It took me two months to (almost) memorize the Carolina Preserve song (I call it our alma mater).
• Sometimes, I’m the last person to catch on to a joke, even on the rare occasion when I hear it correctly.
• Inputting data into Quicken and preparing my income tax on TurboTax take twice as long.
• I leave tools on my stepladder when I move it (I know I shouldn’t be on a ladder at my age).
• Emptying my bladder takes twice as long.
• Mental math takes longer, if I can do it at all
• I bend over slowly because I pulled a muscle in my back a couple of years ago by quickly bending over to tie my shoe.

On the positive side:

• I can do almost anything I once could - if I take my time.
• I still play golf, fly my radio controlled airplanes (fixed wing and multi-rotors), and walk two to three miles for exercise.
• I type as fast as my word processor will accept the letters.
• I work for hours in the yard on my wife’s plants and shrubs and still smile when she micromanages me.

All in all, I enjoy life and find satisfaction in my activities - but I sure am SLOW.

Seasoned Man

stevelem117@gmail.com