Christmas in the Tropics

I have always loved the 1^st verse of, I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.  Legend has it that Irvin Berlin in 1940 was sitting at the pool at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat, and wrote the song.  No one ever sings the first verse, but it explains the song so well.

The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There’s never been such a day
in Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it’s December the twenty-fourth,—
And I am longing to be up North— I am dreaming of a white Christmas…

Spending Christmas in Venice, Florida with the sun shining and wearing shorts and swim suits, makes me want to sing the first verse.  Of course, the temperatures in Bethlehem is in the 50s, and not freezing with snow.  So why do we always think of Christmas with reindeer and snowmen?  Christmas lights on palm trees just look really stupid, but festive.

I spent a lovely Christmas day on the boat in the Venice Marina, Michelle and Duane are cruising the Gulf of Mexico and I am tagging along on land.  One by land, two by sea.  What an amazing life.  I never dreamed of spending Christmas on boat in Florida, let alone living in a 20’ Airstream.  But, here I am.

I was never a planner. I always fell into things, jobs, etc.  I have been extremely lucky, and privileged.  So, entering my 3^rd year of retirement, I am extremely grateful that my luck has brought me here (with my union pension).

All the days are the same, no weekends or holidays.  I sleep-in, which I have always enjoyed, and stay up late.  When I was a kid, I always stayed up to watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  If you wanted to watch the 6:00 p.m. nightly news, in Anchorage, Alaska in 1968 you had to stay up late.  They put to tape on the last plane leaving Seattle, WA and if weather permitted the news aired at 11:00 p.m. Anchorage time.  I have always been a news junkie, and a night owl.

Today we spent some time on the dog beach, after Maggie got shaved.  She is totally embarrassed, because she feels naked!  Tomorrow we go to Pine Island, and in January we will be on the Atlantic in Stuart, Florida.

I am enjoying a news moratorium, until 2018.  Not that it will be any better, but a holiday shut-down seems appropriate.  Of course, my Facebook friends are posting, so it is hard to avoid the stupid…

I am looking forward to 2018, because the Road2Reinvention stretches before us, and we are taking flight.