Key Largo

Barefeet Rentals is located in the upper Florida Keys. Our Key Largo vacation rentals are situated just a short drive to Islamorada and surrounded by beachfront views of the azure waters of the Atlantic and the calm waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico, known locally as Florida Bay.

It has started already.  The emails from Barefeet Rentals.  I’ve subscribed to their general mailing list.  But most importantly it reminds me of our upcoming contract at Buttonwood Bay condominium beginning next November 1st. We first introduced ourselves to the property manager in the winter of 2020. At that time we had a look at the property where we’re going to stay next winter. While the complex is from my initial look at it more than satisfactory (boat slip, beach, multiple pools, gym and library), my primary interest is the “azure waters of the Atlantic and the calm waters of Florida Bay“.

If I recall correctly it was in 2019 when we stayed at a hotel in Key Largo that I bicycled in the surrounding area and became acquainted with the many opportunities for investigation, the narrow streets on either side of the peninsula that is the Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West. And the heat.  It is all but assured that we’ll enjoy the heat. Already we’ve decided not to bring anything that reminds us of winter other than the jacket we wear when leaving Canada. It’s Old Navy shorts and Tommy Bahama shirts only!

Key Largo is on my so-called “bucket list”.  Our initial 6-month contract there for the winter of 2020 was aborted by COVID. Last year in the late fall when the Canadian border finally opened we were too late to secure a rental there because everything was already booked. Which is why we were so anxious this past January to book for next year.

Whether because of refinement or fear of impending peril, I am commensurately pursuing other critical ambitions. Though I joke about not making it past certain dates my more genuine focus is upon matching self-expression to my age; that is, adopting what is appropriate for my outward appearance and inner condition – including for example the choice of walking stick.  As recently as several days ago I arranged appointments with gentlemen in Almonte and Ottawa to review some internal and external hardware issues. I’m already booked in early and mid May with the endodontist and the cardiologist.  All a matter of taking care of the equipment. It makes me thankful we’ve preserved our healthy eating and moderate exercise habits – especially as we increasingly hear of friends succumbing to the abuse of additives, alcoholic and narcotic. And the refinement feature of the undertaking is to my mind nothing facetious. It isn’t so much a purification as a filtering, a process of removing impurities or unwanted elements, all in the act of clarification and improvement toward discrimination.

As haughty as it may sound the cleansing is but a clarification. But to this point the manifest ingredients are as elemental as time and the fortuity that it entails. I am constrained by that strongest of imperatives – patience.  Meanwhile I have the unqualified privilege and stimulus of conjecture!