Sniff
As I write this, it’s Friday night but I’ll post this Saturday morning.
It’s time for me and Janis to say goodbye to Annie.  In the last several days, we’ve driven 14 hours to get here, a couple of hours longer than it should have been because of a flat tire. I’ve replaced two tires , of the four that need it. The three of us have unloaded stuff, unpacked boxes, put stuff away, broken boxes down for recycling or for storage, muscled a microwave into submission, hung curtains and pictures, put a desk together, gone to Home Depot for sonic repellents for the expected bugs (this is Florida, after all) and the mouse Annie suspects she’s sharing living quarters with.
We’ve watched one cat, Sassy, discover the joys of the screen porch and the other, Trixie, decide the porch means nothing better than DOOM and DESPAIR. Trixie has been so upset about Sassy going on the porch that she started picking fights with her, growling and hissing, the whole nine yards. That, in turn, made Sassy decide, “Well, OK then, the porch is mine and you will not set one paw within 5 feet of it”. This eventually degenerated into a screeching, yowling hissy fit on both sides, put to rest only when Annie got out the dreaded water sprayer.
We’ve eaten at some really good restaurants and played in the hotel pool. Some of us went on the beach—moi going only so far as the hotel deck while Annie and Janis exhausted themselves on the insanely wide stretch of sand to get to the water for a toe dip. We’ve all gotten a bit of sunburn but not too much.
We’ve done the touristy thing, riding on the Ripley’s Train around the historic area and taking the Scenic Cruise, spotting a trio of dolphins and a bunch of herons but no manatees, I’m sorry to say. We did see pink flamingos, though!
But now it’s time for us to go and for Annie to start her new life. Her temporary part time job (with a political campaign) starts Monday and she plans to go to a Meetup group event later in the week. She also has to do tedious things like DMV stuff and getting cellphone and internet service so she’ll be busy right at first.
I, on the other hand, will be feeling very sorry for myself. It’s comforting having Laura and Drew living just three hours away but it’s not quite the same as being able to pick up a phone and say, “Let’s go to a movie” or to dinner or the Farmer’s Market or to Williamsburg for a shopping spree at the Yankee Candle flagship store. I’ll adjust, though, and I know Annie will do just fine in St. Augustine for as long as she wants to stay.
July 24, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller
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