Well, we're back again in the sunny
south after a holiday season full of great visits with Jenn and Greg,
Sam, Jeremy and our grandsons, Nathan, Chris and Ryan, as well as
with Sandra's sister Paula and her brother Scott and family. What a
full and enjoyable three weeks for us! Of course it was winter up
there. We managed to get slowed down by a winter storm as we
attempted to make it from Virginia to New Hampshire in a day. It
ended up taking two. We were glad that we kept our winter jackets
with Sam in New Hampshire. With temps dipping down as low as 5
degrees, we were reminded why we spend this time of year in the Keys.
After the visits, we drove our car down to the Keys to provide us
with extra mobility as we've done for the past two years.
The title of the last blog entry
included the word “Home” in the title. Now that we've returned
to Marathon and our boat, I've been thinking a bit more about what is
behind that term for us. During our travel north, we visited areas
of the country we once called home. While still familiar, they don't
any longer fit the definition of “home” for me. How do I define
home these days. Do I not have any real home. Certainly the
definitions offered by the norms of our culture fail to provide as
adequate description. Most people have a house or rental unit in
some town they call home. We have the boat,but it isn't connected to
a particular geographic location.
As I thought more about the subject, I
came to the conclusion that other factors are key. While we are here
in Marathon, we are more involved with local activities. We appear
to be more social as well. While we can't say that the friends we
spent time with last year while here are the ones we socialize with
this year. (There's always some change in the population each year.)
So far we've split our time between boaters we called friends last
year with others we met after we arrived this year. There are still
others who live in Marathon all year. We've reconnected with a few
of these as well as the boaters in the harbor. When we combine all
this with the list of activities attracting our attention, we find
ourselves forced to make decisions about what we will engage in and
what we'll bypass so we don't find ourselves over scheduled. We
still look forward to spending time at the beach or taking the boat
out periodically to some remote island in Florida Bay for a couple of
days of isolation.
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| A Bahamas seminar |
We've been back here after the holidays
for two weeks. In that time We've been to a couple of seminars
focused on boat maintenance and the Bahamas; Sandra has also spent time helping others
learn how to make pine needle baskets;we've both been to Tai Chi
classes in addition to spending some time helping others new to Tai
Chi; we've been to contra dancing twice, once led by our local
dentist. We've both also worked on several boat projects. And we
spent a couple of days out in Florida Bay totally by ourselves.
Additionally, we've had friends over to dinner twice and been on the
boat of friends on another occasion. Our schedule at any other time
of the year in other places has been nowhere near this busy. Does
this level of activity help to define “home” for us? I'm still
trying to figure it out. What do you think, and how would you define
“home”?
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| Our neighborhood...home? |
I've been dealing with energy issues
and the repair of our windlass, but these will be the topic of a
future blog entry. Till then....
Carpe Diem
Captain Bob
