CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN: TAI CHI, BLESSED VISITS AND ANGRY BIRDS

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN: TAI CHI, BLESSED VISITS AND ANGRY BIRDS

April in Key Largo – maybe not as famous a melody as April in Paris, but pleasing nonetheless. The sun is shining, a tropical breezing is wafting over the marina and eyes are watering everywhere, as the Everglades dumps all kinds of allergens into the Florida air. Okay, the watering eyes are not so pleasant, but considering the alternatives – gray snow, driving sleet, drenching rains, slick roads, colds and flu – I’ll take Key Largo in April.

Tai chi classes start up again tomorrow – hooray! We had an open house yesterday, and it was packed with the Taoist Tai Chi Society members and new recruits. Tai chi is about energy, balance, meditation, patience, relaxation, and getting rid of the monkey mind. Yes, the monkey mind, or the emotional mind. Taoists believe we have two minds, a mind of wisdom and a monkey mind (or emotional mind). The monkey mind is always nagging about something – “Did I pay the water bill?” “What are we having for dinner?” The beauty of doing tai chi is that when you focus fully on the movements, the monkey mind disappears. And you have a full hour without trivial, non sequitur thoughts invading your brain. Too bad I can’t do tai chi lying down, when I want to go to sleep at night. That’s when the monkey mind is at its strongest. Just when you think it’s safe to go to sleep – monkeys start flying from limb to limb in your brain. I’m hoping that when I fully integrate tai chi into my everyday life I can minimize the monkey mind. It’s time for the mind of wisdom to expand and drive out the distracting monkeys. I see my tai chi teachers still struggling with their monkey minds (“When should we take a break?” Have we done this move three times?”), so I know this is going to be a long process. In the meantime, I’m reaping all the other benefits of tai chi.

The Admiral and I had a great visit this past week from Sonja, his oldest daughter, who is our most frequent visitor to Slow Motion. These visits may have something to do with living and working in Chicago, but more than likely it’s about the strong father/daughter bond that is between them. It’s fun watching them interact – the Admiral spends half the time soliciting sympathy from Sonja, who loves to dote on him and pamper him. This visit was laid back with no go-go-go, no travel to Key West and back in a day, no sightseeing, just sitting and talking and enjoying each other’s company over a delicious cup of coffee made in the Keurig machine which Sonja gave to the Admiral. We ate healthy, even at Mrs. Mac’s Kitchen, where we celebrated both Sonja’s and the Admiral’s birthday with be-candled key lime pie sliced. The staff joined in with a round of “Happy Birthday”, much to the Admiral’s chagrin. And by the way, if you’re in Key Largo on a Wednesday night, order the prime rib dinner at Mrs. Mac’s – soooo good.

Last week Jake and Michael visited for a day, and they brought news of a lot of changes in our small transient boating community. A bunch of us bonded in October 2012 at Calvert Marina in Solomons, Maryland. Jake and Michael were there in KiKeKo, their 49 foot catamaran, and about 40 Kadey Krogens were there. Cindy and Randy Pickleman were in their 36 foot Morningstar. Seth and Judy were in their gorgeous Kadey Krogen, which had been fitted with lifts and other amenities to help Seth get around in his wheel chair. On this recent visit, Jake and Michael reported that they sold KiKeKo – it took less than a week – and they bought a condo in North Myrtle Beach. Now they have two homes, the new South Carolina one on a golf course and the Oregon house on the Pacific Coast. And they are getting their RV refurbished so they can drive across country at the end of April to go to La Jolla for a seminar that Jake is teaching, then up the Coast to their Oregon home for the summer. They had been living and traveling on KiKeKo for 8 years, so this is a very big change in their lives. I think their journey across the Gulf of Mexico and back last winter may have entered into this decision to travel by land for a while. They were on their way to the Panama Canal, but got held up – literally and figuratively – by Mexican officials demanding payments for phantom infractions they discovered every day that they boarded KiKeKo, when it was at Isla de Las Mujeres. That was such a back experience that they turned around and came back across the Gulf to Marathon, where they spent last winter. Most of this winter they holed up at Lightkeepers Marina in North Myrtle Beach. Here’s something I learned from them about Myrtle Beach – it’s the reunion capital of the United States. Families from all over gather there on a regular basis to update their family trees, or whatever else they do at reunions.

Jake and Michael also reported that Cindy and Randy sold Morningstar and they are now traveling on land in an RV. I didn’t see that change coming. They have owned boats for so many years that I thought they would always be traveling on the water. They had switched from sailboats to their Kadey Krogen, which was the biggest 36 footer you could ever imagine. Cindy and Randy had outfitted Morningstar so that it appeared to be extremely roomy. Slow Motion is 50 feet long, and Morningstar seemed to have the same living space as Slow Motion – minus one bathroom. At any rate, Godspeed to Cindy and Randy in their land travels. Another Kadey Krogen from the October 2012 rendezvous, Sequel, was sold by its owners recently. I didn’t know those folks very well. We shared a few stories at the Calvert Marina docktail parties, but went our separate ways after that.

I was hoping to visit with Judy and Seth in Miami – Jake and Michael had just stayed with them a few days before visiting us last week. But we’re heading north next week, weather permitting, so there’s much less time to make social visits to Miami or anywhere else, as the Admiral starts preparing Slow Motion for travel on the ocean and the ICW. The Admiral noted today that he’s already feeling a little pressure that comes with putting Slow Motion back to work. On Tuesday, Slow Motion is having some work done here at the marina to make her sea-ready again. The Admiral is checking the wave forecast every day for the next week to see when, or if, there is a day of 1-2 foot waves maximum on the ocean between here and Miami. And before we leave, our beloved California neighbor, Brenda, is coming to a three day conference at Coral Gables on April 8, so we have to figure out a way to get her to see Slow Motion in person during her brief stay.

Look out, Charleston! Here we come again! But first we have to slog our way along the Florida Coast for a week or longer. I enjoy some of the marinas in Florida immensely, like Titusville, where the manatees hang out next to your boat. And I really liked most of our forced week’s stay at the city marina of St. Augustine two years ago, brought on by Tropical Storm Debbie, which sank the trawler two slips away from us. That was a tragedy. The good part was the opportunity I had to tour St. Augustine and learn of the history of that part of Florida. Even though St. Augustine mistakenly claims that Ponce de Leon landed there, I don’t begrudge them their efforts to make a few bucks off a so-called Fountain of Youth. And their Ripley’s Museum is a gas! Their black and white swirled lighthouse provides a panoramic view of the rivers, the inlets and the ocean, and the steps to the top are a stellar aerobic workout.

Right here in Key Largo I visited the Wild Bird Refuge again, and I lucked out, because most of the birds were being fed. That is, most of the birds except the pelicans and egrets. However, when food is being dished out, pelicans and egrets are not above begging and pushing themselves in front of the door where the feeder has to exit, once he has fed the birds in the enclosure. I was walking toward the bay, when suddenly I was surrounded by pelicans beating a path to that door, and whipping my legs with their wings, as they motored speedily past me to reach the feeder before he left. Pelicans generally waddle on land, but these birds were so motivated that they half flew to their positions, waiting for the feeder to walk out with the food container. When the pelicans first started flapping their wings and hitting my legs as they raced past me, I was a bit concerned, but the feeder told me that they wouldn’t bite me (only other pelicans) or hurt me. The egrets are not nearly as pushy, and they don’t get nearly as much of the leftovers as the pellies, who push and shove each other as they dip their long necks over the rim of the container to get the dregs in the bottom. None of them looked like they had missed a meal recently, and remember, this is not even their food that they’re fighting over. Once again, they showed the difference between the German words “fressen” (eat like an animal) and “essen” (more refined eating). This was definitely a “fressen frenzy” that I witnessed.

As I was leaving the Refuge, I stopped by the enclosure (cage) of an all-white toucan-like bird, with bright yellow top feathers. He flew over to the wiring of the cage and started climbing down it right in front of me. I moved to the other side and he came over there and started the most godawful screeching, which attracted all the rest of the bird refuge visitors, who apparently thought it was a car alarm (but it was much worse). One of the visitors said: “He must not like you.” But I knew it was his only way of communicating his disdain for his surroundings to me, as he knew I was the most sympathetic human in the area. Birds know that about me. Dogs and cats too. It’s a curse, especially when you’re sitting at a friend’s dinner table and their pets are parked in your lap begging for scraps. As to Screecher, his piercing sounds were finally drowned out by a low flying helicopter, which stirred up all the trees and the ground, scattering leaves and dirt everywhere. No, I don’t think it was another visit by the President, but maybe a dry run for his next visit to the one per center resort he’s fallen in love with, the Ocean Reef Club. Boy, some of the Republican residents of that resort were really put out by the POTUS visit a month ago. That’s not what they pay their handsome dues for. You would think it was Selma all over again, and Obama was trying to integrate Ocean Reef. As Groucho Marx said, “Don’t belong to any club that would choose you as a member.” Just infiltrate the clubs that don’t want you.

Just to let you know that the trip to the Wild Bird Refuge was educational, here are some facts about barn owls that are new to me: “Barn owls have asymmetrical ear openings on their skull; the minute time difference that sounds of prey arrive to each of their ears enables them to zero in on prey by judging sound position and distance. Their heart-shaped facial feather discs act like radar dishes capturing and directing more sound to their ears.” And we thought our snazzy GPS devices were sophisticated – ain’t got nothing on the anatomy of a barn owl. And one more thing: Screech owl babies are “unflighted”, which means that they get hunted and killed by outdoor cats. They are also prone to poisoning, as they eat the poison that people put out for mice. And they get stuck in uncapped chimneys and can’t escape – so please cap your chimneys.

When not visiting the Wild Bird Refuge and hanging out with the Admiral and Sonja in the past week, I have been reading. I finished an Elizabeth George mystery – a British tour de force in which she uses words like “tenebrous” to describe the sky. This is not your “Get Shorty” type of writer, not even the alphabet mystery writer, Sue Grafton. I agree with one reviewer that George writes mystery novels, and they are chock full of descriptions of the countryside, the houses involved, the cast of detectives and suspects, and of all sorts of forensic research in the field of criminology. If you like mystery, and you enjoy fluid writing, you will not be disappointed by any Elizabeth George mystery novel. Now I’m reading Donna Tartt’s number one best seller, The Goldfinch, which Janie sent to me. I had no idea what to expect, and I was shocked by the huge explosion in the art museum which practically opens the story. Scattered bodies and body parts and glass and concrete pieces are not generally a good way to involve the reader – especially the squeamish reader, who has enough of a problem watching the explosions and aftermath at the Boston Marathon this past year. I’m going to continue reading the Goldfinch, in hopes that the shock value wears off and there is actually a well written story that follows this tragedy. Clearly, a lot of readers think so, as this book remains on the best seller list. Stay tuned, and I’ll complete my review when I finish the book. Thank you, Janie, for adding to my library. I knew that after finishing Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer I would have a hard time finding a writer of her caliber and a book that is as entertaining and informative as that one. Thanks to Cathy for that gem of a novel.

Which brings me to my visit with Cathy and Rob in Reno right before I returned to Florida. I drove up through the Sierras – beautiful sunshine, dry roads – and arrived at their fashion plate townhouse on Friday evening. We had a super meal prepared by Cathy, then watched the first of our movies, Nebraska. What a show! Bruce Dern is the star of the film by far, but Bill Hader, who plays his loyal son, is wonderful in his support of his father’s quixotic pursuit of One Million Dollars from a Publisher’s Clearinghouse type mail fraud gimmick. Contrast the greatness of that road movie or buddy movie with the film we saw on Saturday night, Inside Llewyn Davis, and there is no fair comparison. There is no likable character in the Davis movie (Coen brothers production) – not one. Fortunately, Rob had insisted that I watch The Incredibles, and this animated film was top notch, erasing the blah-ness of Llewyn Davis. Rob has an amazing media conglomerate in his upstairs living room and downstairs studio, and he treated me to one of his own recent features on the Reno art scene. I love visiting Cathy and Rob, because their walls are covered with Rob’s masterpieces. Everywhere I look there is a stunning landscape, both inner and outer. The slot canyon photo/painting was new to me. It reminded me of our camping trip in Utah a few years ago. Cathy and Rob have a full plate of medical appointments for Rob, and that is a major concern. However, they are so together and upbeat about the future that it’s not about the medical issues, it’s about their lives together. Go Team Berkley Barnes!

Ah! The strong stench of oil permeates the salon as AJ is working in the engine room, presumably changing the oil. It is perhaps the hottest, most humid day of the year. AJ could have made this job a lot easier by showing up at 8 a.m., but after several phone calls by the Admiral about his arrival time, AJ showed up at high noon. And now the work is smelly, sweaty, yucky, sticky. This is the start of getting Slow Motion seaworthy again. Right now the waves on the ocean are between 4 and 6 feet – not something we would ever venture out on. And the spring winds have really kicked up – not enough to chase away the humidity, but plenty to stir up the ocean waves. In the meantime, we’re working on the engines to prevent another sudden cessation of power on the ocean or the waterway. The fire suppression unit has been fixed, but we’re still finding problems caused by Dozier’s marina’s faulty electric outlet, which fried more pieces of equipment than we were first aware of. The Admiral just started the engines – and they both work, for now. One is running very rough, however. It’s always something – the Admiral says air got into the line and that’s why the engine’s having trouble running. On the positive side, a Coast Guard Auxiliary member inspected Slow Motion last week and gave us another certificate, good for a year at least, that we have all the safety features on the boat working properly. It was a very thorough inspection this year, plus the chap offered that Slow Motion is a “beautiful boat”. Yikes, here we go again, trying to start the engine – no luck at all this time. Amazing what a little air can do. I’m going to keep you in suspense right here. Tune in to the next blog to find out if we can start our engines.