Peaceful Sunday

On this peaceful Sunday I took Bill for a ride down to Rehoboth Beach early this morning.  I haven't "walked the boards" (i.e., walked on the boardwalk) all summer.  Now that the summer crowds are gone, I could do a straight shot down Route 1 to Rehoboth Beach, which is ten miles from where we live north on Route 1.

Bill doesn't like to walk, so while he waited in my car I walked one end of the boardwalk to the other end.  That is a mile.  I think I'm out of shape because I am now sore all over, especially in my buttocks (ass).  However, it is a good sore.  Reminds me of the times in high school when I used to go out for track.  Those first few days of calisthenics and running around the track let this 17 year old mighty sore.

After I finished my walk I drove us to North Shores, which is a beach a few miles north of Rehoboth Beach and part of Cape Henlopen State Park.  During the summer the road to this beach is lined with bicyclists and walkers all headed for a Day at the Beach.  Not today, we had the road all to ourselves.

The waves were rolling pretty good at North Shores.  Here on the Atlantic coast, we don't get the big waves unless there is a nor'easter roaring through or a hurricane.  No storms today, just an active ocean.  There is some sort of primal pleasure I get from hearing the waves roll in.  Bill says it does nothing for him, he prefers the wooded hills of Pennsylvania, our previous home.  I like the woods too but I much prefer the sights and sound of living near the ocean.  I love hearing the seagulls and the smell of the salt air.

After talking a few videos we headed home again, another day of Domestic Bliss for me and my loving partner of forty-seven years.  On days like this I think of my neighbor Don who just lost his partner Al.  They were together forty years.  We can see Don's house from our house.  We drifted apart as friends a few years ago but I still feel sorry for Don.  He's in his big house all alone now.  Of course I know a lot of gay guys who live alone but it must be especially tough when you've been with someone as many years as Don and Al were together.  I wonder how I would cope if I lost Bill.  I just don't know.

I'm feeling a little guilty about posting the "Judge Beats Daughter" blog but I felt I must post it.  For too long beating children has been an accepted part of our culture.  Maybe making this horrendous act public will cause some parents to pause and reconsider how to discipline their children.  I certainly hope and pray so.

In my blog I related my personal experiences with my own upbringing.  Of course that wasn't my only experience with children being beaten.  Bill has horror stories of his own to tell.  He got beaten so bad by his step father that he ran away from home when he was only a young child.  When he got caught his step-father locked him in a closet all day.  Bill said that was worse than the beatings he used to get.  Then there were my cousins Jackie and Charlie who had the alcoholic father.  We were visiting them once when their father came down in a drunken rage and both Jackie and Charlie went running because they knew they where going to get beat.  There are other stories that I won't go into here.

Maybe, just maybe some potential child beater parent will see now that it is socially unacceptable to discipline their child by beating them.  And for a judge to do beat his child, totally unacceptable.  That judge should be sent to jail for child abuse.  But the really scary thing is how many people still approve of disciplining children by beating them.  That has to change.  I think it will change.

So we had a peaceful Sunday here.  Tomorrow I'll try to plant my fall bulbs.  Tuesday is a visit to my VA doctor.  Then back to work Wednesday and Thursday.  I have to tell you, I'm not in the holiday mood this year.  I don't know why other than perhaps because it's this prostate Thing hanging over my head.  I get the biopsies taken on January 6th.  Happy New Year.

P.S.
Yes, that is Bill walking away from the camera at the end of the video.  He didn't want his picture taken.  He puts up with a lot from me.  He's a saint.

A Day at the Beach

Today I did something I haven't done since I retired to the Rehoboth Beach area of Delaware in November of 2006.  I walked on the beach. 

That's right, I left the boardwalk and put my sneakered feet on the sand at the beach. 

Years and years ago, before I was diagnosed with acinite keratosis (a pre skin cancerous condition) I used to lay for hours on the beach.  That youthful folly went out the window after I was warned I could develope skin cancer by prolonged exposure to the UV rays of the sun.

I did not move to the coastal shore of southern Delaware for the beach.  I moved to Delaware for many reasons, the main ones being that Delaware is very tax friendly to a senior citizen like me.  The other reason is that the Rehoboth Beach-Lewes-Milton area of Sussex County has a large gay population.  While I haven't made too many friends within the gay population (I can count on one had the gay friends I have made), I am more comfortable in a community where I don't engender stares when I shop or dine with my life partner Bill.  There are just too many same sex couples in the Rehoboth Beach area of Delaware to make the appearance same sex couples in public seem unusual.

I love living near the ocean.  Living near the ocean has always been my goal.  Three years ago I was finally able to realize that goal when I retired to Delaware.  But something unusual happened when I retired to Delaware.  I found that I spent very little time at the beach. 

One of the reasons was that I did not venture into Rehoboth Beach at all during the tourist season.  From Memorial Day to Labor Day, I avoid Rehoboth Beach like the plague.  The reason I do this is that I don't enjoy sitting in traffic.  Yes, traffic on Route 1 in the summertime is a nightmare in Rehoboth Beach.  I've tried it once or twice and have vowed never again to spend two hours or more just to get in the lava flow that is called the Rehoboth Tourist on Rehoboth Avenue.  No way.

But one thing I have noticed over the years I have lived here is that there are many perfect weather day in the off season.  Today was such a day.  And I took advantage of it.

This morning, after ordering photos for my class reunion at Wal-Mart, I made a right turn out of the Wal-Mart parking lot towards Rehoboth Beach. Normally, I make a left turn out of the parking lot and head north on Rt. 1 to my home on the outskirts of Lewes. No, this morning I was going to the beach.




Traffic was light as I made the left hand turn into Rehoboth down Rehoboth Avenue. All the parking meters had hoods. No parking fees! I pull into my regular parking spot across from the Purple Parrot Restaurant. The time was 10 o'clock. I planned to kill two hours wandering around Rehoboth before taking lunch (by myself) at the Purple Parrot.



I walk down to the boardwalk and began my brisk walk. This would be my exercise for the day. I walked all the up to the south end of the boardwalk until I got to the part of the boardwalk under construction. Then I went down the path between the protected sand dunes and walked on the beach. I'm on the beach. My feet are in the sand for the first time in three years.



There were a few other people the beach. On the beach today were a group of five fishermen; a man with a metal detector and a young couple taking a lazy stroll on the beach.



The beach had big ruts from some kind of vehicle. On this day there were no sun worshipers with their brightly colored towels and soft bodies on the beach. However, there were a lot of clam shells that had washed in from the ocean. Some sea gulls were perched on solitary pilings in the water. I took my camera out and started to take pictures. Surely I'm not the first person to take a picture of a sea gull at the beach but it was the first time I have done it. This was a day for me.



After about an hour on the beach I decided to take a ride to Gordon's Pond at Cape Henlopen State Park and North Shores. My sun worshiping friends spend their summer days with their friends at North Shores. I wanted to see where they go. A friend of mine at work had told me about Gordon’s Pond and how beautiful it was. They were right. The Gordon’s Pond section of Cape Henlopen State Park is a beautiful, natural wetlands preserve. Under the bright sun hung in the crystal blue sky and 75 degree temperatures, I found a seat by the trail. And there I sat.



I made a phone call to my brother in Greenville, South Carolina. I wanted to tell him how relieved I was that my Mother now living with him and his wife and getting care that only other women can provide. Mom will spend her winter in South Carolina, away from the cold snow and ice of Pennsylvania. John and I had a good conversation.



My stomach was telling me it was time for lunch. Off I headed to the Purple Parrot in Rehoboth Beach. Again I pull into my regular parking slot (no parking meter fees, I love it) and saunter into the restaurant. Violet, the waitress brings a menu over to me. But I already know what I'm getting. I'm ordering a Wimpy which is actually large hamburger. I ordered my Wimpy with all the fixings (or as my friend Tom tells me "You look like you're ordering your last meal). I order a side of French Fries. I ate all of them except two.



Now I'm stuffed. A Wimpy hamburger isn't a wimpy hamburger. Stuffed as I am I wander up the street to see if my friend The Cajun is at Job #2. I don't see him. I go up the street and turn around. I look in again; he's not at his post. Oh well, I only wanted to stop in and say "Hi!"



I go to my car. It's nice not to have to worry about the parking meter time running out. I back out and head up Rehoboth Avenue on my way out of my Day at the Beach. I loved it. And to top of a perfect day, my meal at the Purple Parrot was half off. They have a special going on in the off season, every Wednesday all day half off all sandwiches. Now I know what I will be doing on my Wednesdays until Memorial Day next year. I'll be paying a weekly visit to Rehoboth Beach,weather permitting.  I love living in Delaware.