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Cold weather at last, even if only for a short while! Today is one of the few days so far that we’ve put on long pants and sweaters – we’ve been in shorts, tank tops and sandals for ages. It’s a bit like suddenly developing a new personality, or a whole new outlook on life. Long pants? And where is my sweatshirt? Seeing the neighbors in hoodies and other cyclists in tights and long sleeves is a different perspective for us…

Despite the “cold” weather – it was fifty eight degrees when we left – we were out on the road this morning for our usual twenty-five mile ride up to the Boynton Inlet and back. It was so cold that not even the pelicans wanted to fly – they clustered together shivering in the wind; and the Lady K fishing charter had maybe five hardy souls who braved the cold.
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Each holiday we find ourselves thinking back to the last few years and reminiscing about where we were and what the day was like. Two years ago, the first year of our trip, found us in Santa Barbara at my sister’s house, spending the day with family. Last year we were in Gueydan, Louisiana, writing intently, spending Thanksgiving itself at dinner with Pastor Doug and Mona Beth, followed up by an evening visit to Heuetta and Kenneth.

This year we were alone at home, sitting on the porch enjoying the fabulous weather, or flopped on the couch with the doors open, watching movies and reading.
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Weather

At long last our extraordinary hot spell broke, leaving behind gorgeous days and nights. In October, while the rest of the country was dealing with heavy rains, flooding, and cold we were suffering with 98+ degree weather, with real feel temps of well over 100+ degrees. It began to feel that our hot and humid south Florida summer would never end.

For a week or so now we’ve had day temps in the low 80s and night temps in the mid to high 60s. Ahhh, what a relief. It’s been nice enough to have the doors and windows open all day. To improve things even more, the bugs have completely disappeared, so we are enjoying the gorgeous weather with not a single mosquito, June bug, or insect of any kind to torment us.
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We start our Loxahatchee kayaking trips at Canoe Outfitters in Riverbend Park in Jupiter Florida. We’ve tried nearly every kayak they’ve got in stock – longer, shorter, wider, thinner, sit on top, sit inside; over the first year we finally settled into the Loon 111 as our favorite for this river.

When we arrive, Mike always has the Loon 111s waiting at the water’s edge, with orange life jackets and heavy duty plastic paddles ready to go, inside the kayaks. We pack our Camelbak water packs behind the seat, along with our insulated water-proof lunch bags and padded stadium seats, making sure we have our camera and binoculars.

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All is not gloom and doom in South Florida though. Despite the economy, South Beach appears to be thriving. On our two trips down there, the restaurants were busy, people were out shopping, and the bars had a steady clientele. Though not as busy as it usually is, life still seems to be moving along quite well.

An island off the Miami mainland, South Beach is reached by a causeway lined with massive cruise ships (when they’re in town) and Port of Miami dock structures where gigantic cargo ships are unloaded. Parking is scarce and gets really expensive. Streets are crowded with cars, bicycles, pedestrians, motorcycles, and scooters.
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It’s a good thing we are feeling good about what we’re doing, because it’s sure a lot of highly focused work. We haven’t taken a true day off in over a month, and our “days off” include doing at least two errands each time, sometimes more. Our long days are about fifteen hours; our short days are about six or eight hours.

Even when we promise ourselves that we won’t do anything else, we sit for a few minutes to take a break, talk over what’s remaining and where we are with each project, then off the couch we go, heading towards one more “We’ll just finish this up…”
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Downsizing and house projects continue to take up most of our time. We are dangerously close to feeling like these projects are 12-headed hydras, always growing new heads when one is cut off.

What saves us is that we are finally beginning to see an end.

Downsizing

We’ve been through several very successful Craigslist rounds so far, with another well underway. We’ve sold a surprising amount of our listed items, with zero hassle from the buying side. Our buyers have been truly amazing – incredibly pleasant. Some of them we liked well enough that we gave them our card, and asked them to send us an email so we can stay in touch. In fact, we may go kayaking before we leave with the guy who bought our Yakima lock cores.
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When I look at the calendar and realize how much time has gone by since I last wrote, it seems impossible. Chelsea and I have been up to our eyeballs in getting things done, and time just seems to slip by. We’ve done tree trimming, cleaning, sorting, getting the pool back into swim-able condition, helped Alex’s girlfriend Amanda move apartments, and we’ve been getting things ready to sell. I also quietly celebrated my birthday – a decade birthday, the big 6-0.

Storage

We managed to sell a few of our items from the house, and then got our furniture and boxes out of storage before we had to pay another month. After a week of hard labor doing tree trimming and yard work and cleaning and moving things inside the house, we spent about five hours last Tuesday, just the two of us, moving boxes from storage in the midst of an awesome thunderstorm.
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Being home again is quite an amazing experience. Arriving home, and the process of getting here, were amazing too.

First ride

John D., our first Craigslist rideshare, picked us up about 2:30 on Thursday right at Roger’s trailer. Chelsea and I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, partly from hanging out with Roger and partly because we couldn’t sleep, so we spent the day as quietly as we could. We were packed and ready to go by noon, so when John arrived, it was a matter of a few minutes to get loaded up into his truck.
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