We haven’t exactly got a lot to do here on Longboat Key – a combination of our own inactivity and the lack of anything beyond the gated residences other than the open sea. Nonetheless arranging something as formidable as lunch requires a measure of calculation. If not that totting up then at the very least the benefit of serendipity. Assuming going to lunch isn’t something we’ve already planned (a superfluity which seldom overtakes unless we’re going with others) then we have to ensure – or hope – several preconditions collide.

Not every day on Longboat Key is a classic subtropical experience. With a high temperature today of a mere 60°F under predominantly cloudy grey skies the flavour approached a decidedly more northern ambience. Many of the few people walking or cycling were wearing long pants and jackets, apparel normally unimaginable. After I cycled from one end of the island to the other and back (a total of 32.31 km or 20.08 miles) the atmosphere began to brighten somewhat, revealing a faint pink on the western horizon over Sarasota Bay and patches of blue scattered about, altering the overall character above the palm trees swaying in the wind from the NNE to the more traditional combination of blue, green and white.

Statement of Facts:

There is not a lot I view as having failed. Yet some I feel are best abandoned. Recognizing as I do that human relationships constitute the real sway I have to admit therein lies my most earnest reservation. If I were to speak critically of myself it would be directed at what has proven to be a relentless and often pointless ambition to cultivate or preserve relations which are either overvalued or doomed (sometimes from the outset). Part of this toxic determination isn’t the laudable drive to persevere in the face of difficulty but rather the bloody mindedness to win. I hate to confess so bluntly but it is that succinctness more than anything that captures the deeper motive – not for example some more glamorous goal to understand others. Indeed if I were to be entirely candid I’d admit there are just some things that do not or may never work. While that is a trite admission from someone such as I with undeniable self-esteem the confession of inadequacy is a severe blow not to mention a rude awakening.

Changing the Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush, while not the highlight of my day, represents an undertaking at least as significant on my agenda as tilling the garden in the springtime is no doubt for some. It’s one of those trifling but meaningful intervals, in this instance especially apt to the mid-point of our six-month winter sojourn in Florida. Coincidentally this preoccupation coincides roughly with another quarterly dental obligation; namely, a visit to the hygienist which I accomplished last week. It’s all part of the fundamental attention to the six senses – sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Less than a month ago I went for an eye examination with a local optometrist (part of what my ophthalmologist recommended as a three-month corollary to surgery late summer). The visit to the audiologist is more of an annual thing as is the family physician’s attendance (though recently the traditional one-year rule has been replaced by the “as-needed” imperative). The family physician adequately covers the generic issues of physiology (“the branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts“). All this is to say that, aside from having gassed the car and had it washed today, everything is in ship-shape repair! Oh, I had my hair cut as well! That – and our recent tour at the nail spa -definitely complete the cycle.

Yesterday we went to Best Buy the consumer electronics store for modern gizmos, gadgets, toys and necessities – televisions and home theatres, computers, smart phones, tablets, portable sound systems, cameras and camcorders, headphones, wearable technology, GPS, drones, collectibles, etc.

It sometimes requires a low mist to capture a picture in the correct light. The brilliance of sunshine – like any other advantage – can paradoxically diminish the view of other things around. I am the first to rhapsodize the value of contrast – that enhancing difference awarded by something or someone else of equal effulgence. Yet as a stratagem of contemplation the lapse into and absorption of limited visibility is consoling and informative.

I awakened late this morning after an unusually restful sleep. The lethargy didn’t however stop me getting on my bike before noon. Nor had the middling urgency prevented me from having a fulfilling breakfast. I finally spread Marmite yeast extract on my Epic Everything bagel. I’m not saying it out-did the Teddie All Natural Smooth Unsalted peanut butter but it at least fulfilled an ambition.

Today and tomorrow are forecasted to have a maximum temperature not exceeding 70 degrees. Combined with a northern wind and a crystal blue sky this qualifies as fresh. The view is however nonpareil. I especially enjoy the scan of the Gulf of Mexico as I approach Block 4000 on my bicycle. The island is extremely narrow at that point and as a result affords a panoramic view of the sea over the tops of the grape bushes sheltering the sand dunes.

All-right, all-right, all-right! There are missing details to be addressed. I admit I deliberately swept them under the carpet – what I mistakenly thought (though quite unwittingly) were the insignificant subterfuges attending the workaday conventions on Longboat Key. On reflection I concede that in the interest of framing an unabridged picture of this otherwise overwhelmingly inspired resort the prosaic information (though patently lifeless by any standard) is nonetheless critical. The supplement is in no way intended to diminish the unassailed enchantment of the island. By contrast my hope is that these plausibly tiresome particles will embellish the whole.

To this moment – as I sit before my computer approaching the conclusion of the day after having enjoyed my evening meal of bow tie pasta and sautéed raw veggies with fresh Parmigiano Reggiano cheese – I cannot account for how I endured today’s unplanned and protracted 31.19 km bicycle ride almost the full length of the Gulf of Mexico Drive along the spine of Longboat Key to the bridge leading to Bradenton Beach and back. Normally the comfortable limit of my daily cycle is the 16 km to Bayfront Park and back. Even today’s lengthy adventure included the ritual stop at the Park on the bench overlooking Sarasota Bay. Nor to my continuing surprise did I linger there longer than usual in spite of the duplication of the length of my ride.