The regroup

An island to myself

Home from vacation. I had a great time with family enjoying the beach, food and laughter. I got to go to Seaside ( www.seasidefl.com ) to times but both sort of hurried. I was hoping to venture over and spend some time shooting the beach houses. Always next year.

I had to leave on Thursday rather than Saturday in order to get my mom back to Vicksburg for my aunts funeral. We left Destin about 7:30 and got to Vicksburg at 1. I got it right on the dot to when I thought we would make it. I didn't really think it would affect me leaving a couple days early but it did. I was so depressed packing to leave. I hate packing to come home from pretty much any trip but this one really hit. My folks used the word "Sorry" so many times. It was something that had to be done and even though my sister offered to drive all the way to Mobile, pick them up, they would have had to leave the day before, spend the night, take the folks to Vicks, spend another night then home. It was just too much.

While on vacation I did have some time to think. On morning I drove over to the island and had the place to myself until a waters edge runner came through. Just me and the birds.

I turned 50 in May and decided to take a break from a lot of things including the bike. It has been good but I gained weight and laughed about it. Now, starting today I started my journey back to a smaller tummy. I gained 18 lbs in 2 months because I did nothing but eat and sit. This morning I woke and headed out on the bike. It was a nice ride in the cooler morning temps (68 degrees).

I also thought a lot about other things in my life this past week. I thought about how lucky I was to have a family like I do. There is also a good steady job that I wake up knowing I have every morning. I have a close set of friends that I know I can call on should the need arise. And other than having some hearing loss, I'm one of those folks that takes no medication of any kind and even passing on Advil and stuff like that.

Life is good.... real good...