Ah! You feel that? It's called relief. The stink in Washington has cleared out and the tension, the paranoia, and the fear. The winds have shifted and the sweet smell of success is in the air. Congeniality is back. I thought I was going to do a big page spread on January 20th with a big title--"END OF AN ERROR!"--but I was in elation mode all day while watching the inauguration, the luncheon, and the calvacade to the White House. When Obama stepped out of the car with his wife and walked a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue, I felt intense terror that the unthinkable would happen. That someone with their twisted mind would end his presidency before it got started. But, with a sigh of relief, he got back in the car without incidence and the cavalcade went onto the parade reviewing stand. And then I went into deflation mode. I was too happy to do any writing about it. I just sat back and savored.

Speaking of savoring, Bill has two weeks of vacation time left that he has to use by the first week of March or he'll lose them. Somehow, we didn't realize that he had that much time off. We kept thinking that he only got two week's vacation a year but each year that he's been at the library they've added one day of vacation. Holy cow! Now that we understand that, we'll use it more wisely. But, then again, having two weeks in the middle of winter might not be such a bad thing if one wants to go to Florida every year to get rid of the cabin fever, the winter depression, and the cold. He's been nagging at me to go to Florida again, which really surprises me, and I think he's got me convinced that we do need to go.

We went last year at the end of February just after my mastectomy and just before I learned I had Stage IV cancer. We stayed with my friend Lizzy and her husband Alan. Now, while that is a great way to make the trip less expensive it is also a bit more confining. We rather felt like we had to hang around with them all day every day. I'm not used to that. We did go to one place I wanted to go but I felt that they were uncomfortable with the crowd at the Parkesdale Farm stand. Well, actually, Bill and I didn't like the crowd either. The strawberry festival in Plant City was going on and this orange stand was absolutely swamped with people. My daughter-in-law had raved about the strawberry shortcake there and I wanted to try some but the lines were too long. I picked up some oranges and had Bill stand in the long line for the cash register. Me and my friends just stood around not quite knowing what else to do or say while we interminably waited. I really wanted some oranges and I knew that Bill and I wouldn't stop once we got on the road home so I felt that was my last chance to get some. Then there was the awful getting in and out of the back seat of their Mercedes-Benz SUV since they were doing the driving that day. The leg space to get my legs in the door once I had sat down was too narrow. I had to bend my arthritic knees too far and it was excruciating.

The next day we used our car to drive over to the gulf beaches. I had a yearning to see them again and to go to Frenchy's restaurant where my son Dan used to work. It's not a visit to Florida if I don't get to taste a grouper sandwich and conch fritters from Frenchy's. Lizzy and Alan had never been there so I thought I might get them hooked on the place. They live in Lakeland and really don't go to the gulf side but I thought they might if they discovered the delicious food at Frenchy's. Turns out, though, that Lizzy doesn't like seafood. Alan said he'd go but he didn't want to drive because he knew how crowded with cars it would be. I knew it would be, too, but I had wanted to see all my old haunts again. I thought it would probably be my last time down there. They piled in our back seat this time and I got to get in my car with comfort. I wanted to sit down on the sand and breathe in the expansiveness of the water so that's the first place that I directed them. I should have known better than to go on a Sunday but...I wanted, no, needed to go anyway. We drove all up and down Gulf Boulevard trying to find a parking spot at the public beach accesses and couldn't find one. I had this intense feeling in me to make sure that my friends weren't getting bored or feeling put out with my whims so, reluctantly, I abandoned the idea of seeing the beach and the ocean and said we might as well go find the restaurant. We did find the restaurant after scouring half a dozen nearby streets. I had forgotten the street name that it was located on. Here's me in the back parking lot of Frenchy's taken by Lizzy.