Eighty and Still in First Place

Back from the Monday morning walk, grilled a cube steak for breakfast as an open-faced sandwich, with a mug of Kona here on my -- never sure whether to call it a porch or a balcony. It’s about square and the size of the small bedroom, a room in the building, not just a jut-out. Porch, I guess, eh.

One of the great things about it is the clouds that drift from over the Gulf of Mexico and cross the Bay. When I first came outside, this was the view. 

That’s Davis Point to the left, Shell Island in the distance and even if the pic isn’t that good, the early fog has cleared and I can see into the Gulf beyond Shell Island. The Pass is to the right, behind Courtney Point.

Within a few minutes the main cloud changed from a wispy thing to bulky with a dark bottom like it might want to rain.

On the walk this morning, we stopped at one of the benches along E. Beach Drive and watched two yellow boats darting here and there, Robert tells me they test boat motors for Mercury.

Before Robert arrived at our meeting place on Linda Avenue behind Cove School, I snapped a couple pics of something I’ve noticed before.

Didn’t have my HNES keys with me so couldn’t get inside the playground to check it out on the other side; but the old chain link fence has been there long years, and a tree has grown up against it, apparently absorbing the fence. 

I say apparently, but that’s how it looks. The old fence is rusty and shabby, maybe one day the HNES school board will replace it. If so they’ll have to cut down this tree and it will be possible to find out if tree and fence have actually become one.

Robert was always our class athlete, at Cove School and then at Bay High. He’s done it again: this past weekend he beat me in the race to eighty. His daughters, whom he is as emotional about as I am about mine, surprised him by arriving from their faraway places and they had a wonderful birthday celebration weekend catching up, feasting, and enjoying the beach. In September I’ll catch back up with Robert, and then the race is on again to see who can make it to ninety. Actuarial: the SS life expectancy chart says 87.6 for me, for him it says 88.1. Looks like he’ll beat me again.

Shrimp boat from St. Andrews Marina on the way out.

TW in +Time with no time-outs left, and not counting