Busy in the Keys

I guess the old adage is true, when you retire, "When Did I Find the Time to Work?"is the mantra of the day.  Each day as the sun sets, we turn around and look at each other and ask, "Is it Bed Time Yet?" or "Where Has the Day Gone?"

Morning typically will bring out the cooking in me.  It's my time to get the day started for us with a great breakfast.  Nothing better than starting the day with energy for what's to come.  I'm a firm believer that in order to perform well, the body needs good fuel.

While cooking, it's usually the time for the sun to rise.  We make it our special time to thank God for bringing us and our family and friends safely through the night and ask for a bountiful day.

We have volunteered to help out every other Saturday morning with the Venture Out pancake breakfast cooking.  That means we are up at 6 AM to go and get things ready to start serving at 8 AM.  By the time we are done cleaning up, it's almost 10:30.  Then it's home to wash up and get rid of the vanilla pancake essence.  Saturday is also our day for a little exploring around the Keys, along with any other day we feel like going.

Then during the week, there are the regular things like morning walks, bike rides, water aerobics, catching up on the latest national & political news, emails, telephone calls to family & friends, laundry, dominoes, mah jongg, cooking gourmet meals, up-keep on the RV, reading, and of course, fishing.  It's amazing how the time just seems to fly accomplishing all this and more.

Then there are the special events.  Our church here, St Peter's, recently had a friend of theirs, Jim Trainer, from New York here for a visit and a night of Christmas entertainment.  It was a lot of fun joining him in singing Christmas carols.

For the Christmas season, I joined a choir and will doing a Cantata  at three different venues this month, including St Peter's, Venture Out and the Methodist Church.  I guess that's being ecumenical in the season.  It sure does take a lot of practice to get it sounding decent.

We have also decorated the RV inside and the area outside with our lights.  Many people in the park have decorated their units really nice.  We enjoy it all.

Oh, I mentioned fishing as one of the occupiers of my time.  Virgil & I went out on Wednesday for about 6 hours and came back with these fish.  The one I'm holding is a Mutton Snapper that was 28" long and weighed in at 11 lbs.  I must say that it was a really fun day.  I also caught 2 others that we threw back because of size and caught 3 others that never made it on the boat.  I came close on one that we identified as a dolphin but the other two are unknowns.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Then there is just sharing good times with our friends here in the park.  It always amazes me on how different the RV community is from the one that we lived in in the different cities. It this community, people get out and meet others through their walks around and just in the daily activities outside.  In the city community, people were more apt to get inside the house and stay there.  Here, life is more outside and prone to interaction with each other.  It would be nice if more communities were like this.  It reminds me much of the times when I was growing up and people spent more time visiting with neighbors and out and about.

I guess the lesson we are learning is that there is so much more to life than just work and we are glad that we have this great opportunity to experience it.

The rest of this month will be even busier with birthdays, family visits, community holiday happenings along with daily life.  Hopefully we'll also be able to a little more fishing in with everything else.