I visited a dear friend last week, fellow author–Gloria Dale Skinner. She has a lovely condo on the beach and she’s such a gracious host. I was so happy to arrive just in time to be one of the first to toast to her new three book deal to write more historicals. We have a lovely visit and enjoyed talking and drinking wine. The first day I got there, we had a great dinner at a restaurant called FIREFLY. Interesting–that’s the title of my second published book. The second day dawned with overcast skies. We weren’t sure if the day would be good enough to take her boat out for a lunch-time spin. But the captain assured us, no problem. I had a wonderful time with the ladies Gloria chose to go out with us. They were so much fun to visit with. In my next life, I think I want a Southern accent. Just as we were coming back to Gloria’s home, the sun broke free and the day promised to be sunshiny.
Back at the condo (Gloria’s second home), we got ready for dinner and I noticed that nobody was on the beach. I would have been considering where I live, we were having school closures because of the snow. Well, I guess the Floridians knew something I didn’t–within hours, we had gale force winds and the weatherman declared a tornado warning until 1:00am.
But the next day was incredibly sunny and just delightful. The beach was gorgeous and the temp promised to be in the mid-60s. Oh my–in my world, that would be a slice of heaven. But again, nobody on the beach. So what’s up with that Panama City Beach people? Your weather was to die for. I’ll trade ya. You come here and shovel my walkway and I’ll sit on your sugar-white beach and enjoy the ocean breeze and sun. Sigh.
People! It’s 10:00am and the day is FABULOUS!!! Why aren’t you out walking on this amazing beach?!
Gloria and I standing in her backyard after a wonderful lunch with friends on the boat.
I’m back home now. The night I arrived home, it was 18-degrees. Oh joy. And the following day, we got seven inches of snow dumped on us. For the most part, it’s melting into slush, but now we have frozen slush. The temp this morning on my car registered like 22-degrees when I took my step-daughter to school.
How many more days of winter do we have . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?
Can I tell you how hard I was laughing when I read this? I am a transplanted New Yorker, so I am used to it being cold. Like really cold, teens cold, for months on end. I too thought it strange that there weren’t more people at the beach in 65 degree temps. When I asked a friend why, she told me “Oh it’s too cold out to go to the beach”. How 65 or 70 is too cold is beyond me!!
I won’t mention that it was 83 in So. Cal. this past weekend. It’s a bit cooler now, of course 60 is still much more pleasant than 22 did you say minus? or just 22? Try and stay warm!
{{I won’t mention that it was 83 in So. Cal. this past weekend}}
HA! Loretta beat me to it… I was going to brag about the So Cal weather… Do you ever long for the old “valley” days?
Although…. I AM sooooo envious of your trip to Florida… I have just recently discovered the beaches in the south (Gulf Shores)… Ohhhhhh they make Southern California beaches look positivly ugly!