here I am!

I don't know why I haven't been here lately, but there ya go. I seem to be spending a lot of time on the computer, but it's all email and facebook and eBay amd craigslist - not my beach. I've gotten some more travel in, too - but not to my beach.
It isn't that my beach has been far from my thoughts. Never! I've just been too wrapped up with other agendas. I want to come to my beach, I'll even have topics to put forth in black and white, but something else always seems to beg my attention first. Well, I need to do better about that. I do, indeed. My beach is MY time and it belongs on my calendar at least as much - if not more! - as all the other things vying for my attention. As i do keep mentioning elsewhere, there are so many CHOICES of wonderful events to attend and people to see and places to be... but there is only ONE me.
These past two weeks, I have spent more time at home, after losing twenty hours of my life on the road between Pigeon Forge and home. True, the time spent in Tennessee was quite enjoyable and I spent that time with people I love who love me, so that part was all good. But the trip itself, trapped in a hot car, was the absolute pits. I drive a stick shift, so traveling mountain roads for three hours in the dark to get there, coupled with incredibly asinine road delays, was extremely tiring to my thighs and to my nerves. Thank God for my ex-sister-in-law's mom and sister and the jacuzzi or I might not have ever regained my sanity.
As bad as the trip up there was, the trip back was even worse. I again found myself cursing and driving and crying, this time in the heat of the day, all morning, all afternoon, and most of the evening. I, like most of the rest of the party, had decided to take a differnt way back home, to avoid the problems encountered on the drive up. Well, that sounds good in theory, but in practice, it really didn't alleviate the problem. Basically, I detest driving in mountains. Moreover, although I regard mountains as beautiful, I just don't find myself drawn to them like I am to beaches. This was my second trip to mountains in less than two months and I consider myself DONE with that for a while. (At least, I hope so, but I may have another trip soon enough to see an ailing friend.)
(Deep breath.) So, the one thing that helped me endure the ELEVEN hour trip back to home was this: I resolved to not travel ANYWHERE for at least three weeks. Not to Beaufort, not to Charleston, not anywhere out of Savannah. My bird laughed at the idea, but I've stuck to my guns on this one. Maybe it was the heat exhaustion, maybe it was the total lack of familiarity with my surroundings and no one to read the map for me... maybe it was jitters over some upcoming surgery. I think it was a combination of all those things and probably a few more that led to my resolution.
I sure miss Mama.