Day 106, Year 11: Connecting with Friends
Date: Friday, February 5, 2016
Weather: Overcast, Winds Northerly 15-20, Rain Overnight, High Temp Upper 60’s F
Location: At Anchor in West Palm Beach City Anchorage, FL
Today was all about connecting with friends . . . on the phone and in person. We had a nice, late get up after a windy, rainy overnight. The wind blew all night and all day, but the temperature climbed from the 50’s into 60’s fairy early, so we were warm enough. Some reports say it hit 73 today, but I have a hard time believing that. It looks like we are in for cool temperatures over all of next week before it warms up again for Valentine’s Day. But cool is relative. We’ll still have days in the 60’s. Even though that feels cool down here, it’s better than up north, so we’ll gladly take it.
Mark spent time working on his consulting job today and I emailed and called friends. I talked to Helaine Kanegsberg from New Hampshire. She and Alan are here in Florida visiting and we arranged for them to come here next Saturday. They will spend the night on Windbird and then take Mark to the airport on their way to Fort Lauderdale on Sunday. We are so glad they are going to be able to spent time with us. Then I talked to Lynne Kirwin in Nyack, New York. It is wintry up there, but she and Ed are so excited that they are going to get away for a couple of weeks that the snow is not bothering them. After Ed’s chemo treatment on Monday, they are going to drive to Georgia to visit their boat, Constance. Due to Ed’s health situation, they left the boat so quickly last spring that they took nothing with them. This is the first chance they have had to return to Constance, so in addition to checking on the boat, they plan to bring lots of things back home with them. Ed has been in chemo treatment since last spring and is elated that he now feels good enough to travel again. Go, Ed!
After finishing his work for the day, Mark did some research into places here in West Palm where he could have chemo treatments if that is what is prescribed as a result of his trip to Boston. We learned yesterday that there is a of the Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston which is west of Fort Lauderdale. It is associated with THE Cleveland Clinic and has a good reputation. What we didn’t know is that there are about four branch clinics located here in the West Palm Beach area. One is at City Place which is within easy walking distance. Plus, the free trolley goes from just across the street from the dock to there. Mark was able to call and get himself registered on the phone, so if he does need to have chemo while we are here, we won’t have to get to Fort Lauderdale every two weeks like we did last year. This will be so convenient. We’ll hope he doesn’t have to resume treatment right now, but better to be prepared than not.
By this time it was mid-afternoon and we decided to brave the winds and row to shore. We were hoping that a good long walk would do for Mark what it did yesterday. He felt better after yesterday’s walk than he has in weeks. Unfortunately, the walk today didn’t do the same. But we did get some groceries that we needed and stayed in town to have dinner with friends. While I was in the grocery store, Mark walked to the post office to see if we can receive mail here c/o General Delivery and we can. Since we are going to be here a few weeks, we were just curious. We walked from the grocery store back downtown and saw the neatest new thing on the way. Where there was an empty lot last year, this year there is a community park with a musical swings. Different swings play the music of different instruments—piano, harp, guitar, and vibraphone. Each swing can play the notes Do-Re-Mi-Fa depending on how high you swing. It is intended to encourage cooperative ventures between people on the different swings. How cool! I want one of these in Falmouth. But we tore ourselves away and continued walking to the Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach where I wanted to pick up a calendar of activities. There are so many free lectures, classes, and music presentations at the library and we’d like to attend some of these. As we left the library, I noticed that I had a missed call on my phone. It was Jane Woodin back in Falmouth, so we stopped and I called and talked to Jane. She reported that they had 2-3 feet of very heavy snow today. We haven’t talked to Heather and gang so I don’t know if it is too wet and heavy to play in or not, but I’m sure those Goldpebbles found some way of having fun in it.
After the call from Jane, it was time to meet Lee and Lynda of Sea Turtle and Mitch and Martha of Journey. Mitch and Martha are buddy boating with Lee and Lynda this season. Mark had made arrangements with Lee for us to have dinner together. It seems crazy that we have all been here in the same anchorage for a week and are just now getting to see one another. They will probably be headed to Fort Lauderdale on Monday so it was great to have this chance to say hello in person.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a lazy day. We will try to make it to shore to go to the Saturday GreenMarket in the park across from the dock. But that will be the extent of our activity tomorrow. It is supposed to rain and it sounds like a great day to sit on the boat and read.
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| 160205 Day 106 Florida, USA–Dinner with Sea Turtle and Journey, Swings in Downtown WPB |
