Day 5 - Good Friday

This morning began with a beautiful blast of sunrise that introduced itself through my open drapes. Sunrise its introduction just about 7:30am and I awoke without the normal cell phone “reminder.” I had set it for 7:45am but as usual, didn’t need it. I’m writing today’s blog post on the balcony of Patsy and Mya’s balcony on the second floor. I’m staring at an endless horizon of deep, blue-green ocean and only when the wind swept waves approach the shore is there any change of color; the color change is basically the turbulent white produced by the wind swept, on-going push of the wind. The tide is low and there is a raised, fenced in grassy area immediately beyond my balcony. At the fence line there is a four foot drop to the sandy beach below and then, from there, begins the fifty yards of flat, hard packed smooth sand. Scanning from left to right or about 180 degrees of beach/shore line, I can count seven people walking the beach, four are in the ocean further to the north and the occasional vehicle continues to pass by. There’s talk of banning such vehicular activity on the beach say P & M but that’ll be difficult in this area where the Daytona 500 was born….actually born on the beach.

Temperatures today hovered between 71 – 75 degrees, the sun was bright in a mostly sunny sky. Last night’s full moon, although shining through a hazy cloud cover, only added to the beauty of the moment. Seven pelicans just flew southward overhead and on and on go the images that one thinks of when thinking of the Florida shore.

Today after my shower, I met P & M, who had just dropped Zane and Zahni off at Spruce Creek High School, and drove to Rossi’s Diner in South Daytona, FL. They had told me about this diner and I’ve been looking forward to stopping in. Mrs. Rossi wasn’t there but who, I’ll assume, was the daughter, seated us and smiled when she found out she had Mr. Rossi as a guest. Small chit chat revealed that the family was originally from Syracuse and, as is so often the case, they left the cold and wound up in sunny Florida.

After returning from breakfast, Patsy went off to the new house with Lucian to continue work and I took Mya, Patsy’s sister, Mickey, and Lucian’s girlfriend, Oana, to a medical center to drop off Mickey. Mickey had fallen and broken her wrist and is still in therapy for that. For the hour while we waited, Mya, Oana, and I drove a bit further to a huge mall that had a JC Penney and Sears. I decided it was a good time to do some long overdue shopping for myself and pick up some new clothing. As is my style, within the hour I picked out, tried on, and purchased. 2 pairs of khaki slacks, 2 pairs of shorts, and 3 shirts. Happy about the fact that there were no alterations necessary, I am now the proud owner of some new clothes.

Later on, Mya and I picked up the kids from school and I took her to her medical appointment, picked up some things for dinner, including clams and shrimp, and then home we came. As I write this, Patsy and Mya are in the kitchen preparing a linguini and clam sauce special of his. In addition to the biggest bowl of clams and shrimp you’ve ever seen, he also made shrimp scampi for his brother, Louis, and me. One dish was with garlic, the other with onion. Delicious. And this was our Good Friday dinner.

I mentioned the name Lucian and girlfriend, Oana. Lucian is the truck driver that brought P&M's belongings down to Daytona. He drives for Wheaton’s Moving and his tractor and 53’ trailer is parked across the way in the small parking lot in the mall. The first night he arrived and parked there after emptying the load of P&M into storage, his tractor trailer was towed away from that area. After paying the fine and discussing the situation with the owner of this group of businesses, he’s been paying a nominal parking fee. He’s been waiting for a call to pick up a load and haul it back to his home base in Boston. Today, he turned down a job that would have taken him to Seattle, Washington. Wrong direction, sorry. So, as new friends of P&M, they spent their nights here in the condo on air mattresses and will probably take off Monday for home. Both have their roots and ancestry in Romania and his tales of trucking and long haul travels are completely fascinating. As a newbie traveling I-95, the stories he has to tell are fascinating—from the trucker’s point of view. I learned a lot about what it takes and it all renewed the respect I already had for profession. Previous to fulfilling his personal dream of driving a truck, Lucian taught English as a second language to immigrants at Boston College.