Last night was not a comfy night for me. For whatever reason my left knee and leg decided to cavort unremittingly into the middle of the night in spite of my constant twists and turns in an effort to overpower the jig. It was only the application of my Theragun (and the consumption of Tylenol) which at last subdued the activity and allowed me to sleep. It was late this morning before I abruptly awoke from what I recall was an uncommonly deep slumber and grabbed my iPhone on the bedside table to see what time of day it was. Already it was about 9:30 am, dangerously close to being within that zone of the first half of the day that vanishes all too swiftly. I immediately cornered and smothered myself in the shower, shaving cream and white bath towel. No time to waste! And breakfast would have to wait.  Just enough time perhaps to re-engineer the maniacal routine of a preliminary car wash! And hopefully thereafter to recover the preferred parking space into which I have lately devoted so much attention to employ and perceive the automatic camera alignments.

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Getting things right has always been an obsession of mine.  Whether it was telling my mother when I was five years old that I had lied to her about some now trifling detail; or, succumbing to an esoteric and singularly annoying Planning Act issue when practicing law; or, indeed, getting the air tire pressure right for my automobile as I attempted to do today. While the object is always to meet a standard of perfection – whether moral, professional or mechanical – the achievement of that goal can however suffer a degree of timeliness, interpretation and accommodation. Basically, nothing is perfect – not me, you or it!

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We ritually dressed for work at 6:00 am this morning, preparing for an early mission to the Publix Island Crossing grocery store at 11 Palmetto Bay Road just beyond the Greenwood Avenue entrance to Sea Pines. But first we determined to go to Watusi Café on nearby Pope Avenue for breakfast. They opened at 7:30 am.

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Nothing but blue sky and yellow sunshine!  We were in high gear before eight o’clock this morning, attending to the customary routines and duties, including laundry and a quick drive to the car wash! Having accomplished as well our daily breakfast régime, we were soon set to embark upon the trusty two-wheelers for destinations undetermined.  Because it is the first day of February I sent an email to my car dealership to reignite the yearly process of replacing the car with the latest model.  The dealership usually requires eight weeks to receive the new order which will coincide with our return to Canada mid-April next. Continue reading →

The not uncommon refrain, “Have a nice day!“, is I have learned as fraught with subtext and innuendo as the equally clichéd though often punishing retort, “Good for you!”  On the one hand each of the phrases captures a putative sincerity; but as often they chronicle an underlying lack of interest and even sometimes malice. Seldom is either of the idioms expressive of any compelling desire of the author of the rhetorically gratifying locution. On the other hand, the constructions amount to a standard societal punctuation of an anticipated favourability usually subsequent to a commercial transaction or relationship. But overall the utterances are as meaningless as air. At best they indicate a lack of linguistic novelty; at worse they are a subterfuge. They may further signify an entire disregard.

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The disadvantage of going to bed at nine o’clock in the evening is the tendency to awaken eight hours later – which is uncomfortably close to five o’clock the next morning. I say uncomfortably because there is not a great deal one can do at five o’clock in the morning other than read, not a bad thing clearly but not what I prefer to do first thing in the morning. When – as was foreseen last evening – the weather this morning was forecast to be clear, my design at the start of a new day is more inclined to getting into the fresh air. It is a laudable attribute I seldom tout but which I heartily embrace with the same gusto of a native athlete (which by the way I am not). In any event I didn’t invoke the five o’clock alarm but rather the six-thirty am alarm, or more accurately the instinctive provocation to get moving. There is only so much dithering in the lair that is tolerable. Though I rudely interrupted the laundry schedule remarkably already underway (my bath towel was in the dryer and would not be ready for another half hour), I persisted in my private propulsion and claimed a fresh towel instead, having acquiesced to abandon the necessity of both bath mat and face cloth which were with the other whites.  I reasoned the Dial bath soap and Suave 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioner, with rapid and slightly aggressive application, would bestow the requisite cleansing in this singular instance.

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Admittedly it was torpor more than gusto that propelled me late this morning to nearby Tower Beach rather than heading as is my custom to the less proximate Pope Avenue and across to Coligny Beach Park. In my defence I was feeling the exertion of my limbs from repeated non-stop cycling in the past several weeks; and, in addition I was uncertain about the effect of the northwesterly wind even though my recent insight led me to believe it would be suitable for a tour up the beach from Tower Beach towards Coligny Beach Park rather than the reverse.  This was important because I knew from consultation of the Tide Chart that low tide today was at noon, the ideal circumstance for beach cycling. Of equal import was the sunshine and deep blue sky with billowing white clouds. The views were ineffable! It is however impossible to calculate the effect of the wind when cruising through the parkland from Harbour Town to Tower Beach. The sea pines and other thick foliage beneath the towering boughs mask the true direction of the prevailing wind. Nonetheless as I approached Tower Beach and neared the open sea it became increasingly apparent that I would have the wind at my back if I ventured along the beach in what I mistakenly called northwards when it is in fact easterly. The corollary naturally is that the wind of 24 km/h from the northwest would be at my back.  Turns out I was correct.

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Our primary objective today was grocery shopping. This was not as might reasonably be conjectured an especially pressing matter – indeed it seldom if ever is – yet within the scope of our narrow and uneventful existence it nonetheless provoked singular issues.  Foremost was that the fishmonger at Publix does not (as I have learned from prior inadvertent failure) technically “open” his cutting board and commence distributing his iced filets until 9:30 am. This is so even though the store proper opens at 7:00 am. Weeks ago I learned of this anomaly when I happened upon the fishmonger as he was shovelling huge scoops of crushed ice into the display case, an activity which led me to believe he was in the throes of retail operation. When however I enquired about securing six salmon filets he curtly advised that he didn’t open until 9:30 am. I was there about 8:15 am I reckon.  As I recovered from my initial investigative miscalculation he to my surprise asked what I wanted.  I told him; and he told me to come back several minutes later which I did and thereupon collected my trove.  It was however an inconvenience on all sides I hadn’t a wish to revisit.  And it was accordingly that this account presented the preliminary issue to our early morning grocery expedition today.

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The wind today was generally as it was yesterday though somewhat more northeasterly rather than purely easterly and a fraction more violent. As soon as I got on my bike late this morning I knew in an instant I was in for another treat – sailing down the beach with the sun in my face and the wind at my back! This infrequent charm is ideally suited to my formula of cycling inland parallel to the coast before returning along the beach. It represents a reasonable 15.54 KM Outdoor Cycle which is about half what I would formerly have done. Life has its accommodations.

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It isn’t often we have an easterly wind. Today was the exception. Though the wind was reportedly only 16 km/h it felt much stronger as I proceeded inland up Greenwood Drive to Pope Avenue and across to the sea at Coligny Beach Park. The reason I welcomed an easterly wind is because it means I can sail home on my bicycle with the wind at my back along the beach from Coligny Beach Park to Sea Pines Beach Club, roughly 5 km, the approximate distance from the yacht basin where we reside in Harbour Town to the Sea Pines entrance on Greenwood Avenue. Curiously this favourable direction is not, as I would have otherwise imagined, from the north in keeping with an overall north-south configuration of  Hilton Head Island along the coast of South Carolina. That configuration is however an uneducated one. In fact the barrier island (and indeed the whole of South Carolina’s coast along the North Atlantic Ocean) are predominantly east-west (or at least northeasterly-southwesterly) rather than directly north-south. For whatever reason the predominantly easterly wind is an unusual occurrence.  Obviously it comes flying off the North Atlantic Ocean, whisking the tiny particles of white sand about in sweeps of undulating currents upon the beach. I took advantage of this agreeable wind at my back with pure delight today!

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