By the sea

Well of course I didn't start packing until this morning so I arrived late but here I am live blogging from the beach.

I drove up to the realtor's office to find it closed. After a conversation through the locked glass door with the cleaning guy, I found myself at the police station collecting my keys. The cop at the desk told me they had been doing it for years as he rifled through his file box. Apparently I was not the only late arrival.

Once I dragged all my stuff in and I brought more than usual because of the weather and because you have to bring your own linens, I took my ritual walk on the beach. It was already sunset and the wind was bloody freezing so I wore three sweaters, a fleece and my pashima. Keeping my sneakers on besides, I stayed above the water line. Ahead of me was a woman walking through the surf. We were the only ones on the beach.

Eventually we intersected and spoke for a few minutes. She was from California here on some business I couldn't understand. She started out talking about worm tea, which is a compost kind of fertilizer for gardens and then told she was here setting up a kitchen of some kind for a restaurant. Clearly I misunderstood one or the other as the sea was very agitated and loud. Her legs and her nose were very red from the cold.

The sunset was magnificent, and there was just one sandpiper bravely pecking through the sand that looked that it was covered with a glistening pink and purple film as the wash from the surf caught the last rays of sun. It was a beautiful, a blazing mass of red and purple clouds on the horizon. I watched the last of it from my deck. It perfectly situated for this time of year. I sat at the table and the last rays were shining straight on me. As I sat there a pair of cardinals showed up and sat on the next deck to watch with me.

I like the condo a lot. It ain't glamorous but it's comfortable. I'll have more to say on that tomorrow.