When I awoke this morning I was alone in the apartment.  The sun was shining brilliantly. Apparently the athletic member of the team had already begun his intended cycle about the Island as he had indicated last evening he would do. It was Christmas Day and I too was excited to begin another dreamy day on Hilton Head Island. But first the finial atop a bedside lamp needed attention. It was insecure. My amateur skills in matters mechanical proved of little if any advantage in the task at hand. After an unduly prolonged struggle I relented with only moderate improvement of the lamp.

The subsequent application to preparation of my breakfast was in turn protracted.  I sliced my green Granny Smith apple and put it beside my computer. While listening to Handel’s Messiah performed by the Tabernacle Choir I mischievously diverted myself with an on-line investigation of half-rimmed spectacles with nose pads and cable temples, a traditional model I had once purchased from Braddock Optical on Bloor St W in Toronto over fifty years ago at a time when the metal frames were 10K GF (gold filled) but which are now, if you’re lucky, titanium. Considering the price I fully suspect that the frames I discovered through FramesDirect.com this morning are undistinguished material. I further extended my consumer deliberations by confusing two optical sites with what I have since determined are the identical product (though the photos were slightly different). At any rate the payment damage has been undertaken and I now await the arrival of FedEx (through the agency of Beverly Serral).

Irritated as I was by this morning’s perplexing retail sleuthing I undertook my constitutional bicycle ride with less than usual gusto.  I did however punctuate the afternoon by lying in the sun by the pool.  And latterly I decided to undergo the purgative exploit of a swim.  As I remarked upon entering the pool, the water was only mildly cooler (or should I say, icier) than my erstwhile physician’s pool had been when I last swam there in October while still in Canada. Nonetheless I swam for at least fifteen or more minutes. My neuropathic limbs felt instant relief.

Before retiring to the comfort and routine of the apartment for the performance of the evening rituals, I thought to prolong my bike ride to an acceptable 10.90 Kms by visiting the harbour to see who’d recently come into town.