A New Lease...(get it?)

I've decided to start a new blog. I'm fully aware that I had ended blogging with my last post entitled, "For Ada", but lately I've felt the need to "connect" with y'all and this is simply the best way to do it. I had mentioned that I crave symmetry and that is still true. This new blog is one byproduct of a brand new phase in my life.

I have a new lease, you see.

I'm not being maudlin here. I really do have a new lease. It's for a lovely, stand-alone cottage in the Sandestin Resort, just east of the town of Destin, Florida. It's about 40 miles from my current digs on Navarre Beach. I'll be moving there at the end of February. Kate has foolishly agreed to join me in this venture.

After much deliberation, including a determined effort to think of all the reasons NOT to do this, Kate and I have decided to "combine households". What a lovely, politically correct phrase, don't you think? Think for just a moment about the odds of two people meeting, finding out they are compatible and thoroughly enjoy each other's company, AND discovering that each of them has a lease that's ending at the same time, enabling them to begin life-part three together.

Someone is definitely pulling the strings on this deal, and we all know who that is.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the area, Sandestin Resort is very much like Sea Pines in Hilton Head. There are four championship golf courses scattered along either the Bay or the Gulf. Condos, townhouses, cottages and homes form numerous neighborhoods with clever nautical names like Lloyd Bridges Lane, Crawdad Crescent, and Bivalve Boulevard. There are luxury hotels, restaurants, cute shops that sell things that most people don't need or want, art galleries, health clubs, community pools, and a beautiful beach on the Gulf. Most of the inhabitants are vacationers or second home owners from Louisiana, Alabama, or Georgia. Kate and I will be among the few full time residents. Our little two-bedroom cottage is only about 100 yards from Kate's previous residence. Our landlord, Pete from Watertown, MA, seems like a very decent, straightforward guy. I know he's pleased to have two "mature" tenants, or even one mature tenant and Joel.

Of course one of the reasons for combining households is so that each of us can save money. Here is a partial list of what I intend to do with the money I save each month: join a health club and then choose not to go; buy one article of clothing from Tommy Bahama's; download an entire album from ITunes; go to the SECOND lowest-priced gas station around; play golf with one of my "regulars" for more than a quarter a hole...and actually pay up when I lose!

And this is just a partial list.

I don't know what Kate will be doing with her savings, but it's all fun to think about.

I'm looking forward to joining a golf club near our new rental. It's called The Santa Rosa Golf and Beach Club and it appears to be a lovely, challenging course with two holes that come right down to the Gulf of Mexico. It's the kind of golf club that requires current members to look over my application and either accept or reject me. It's reminiscent of the hilarious episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in which Larry and Cheryl are trying to gain entrance to a very exclusive WASP country club. I hope I have to go through an interview. Wait'll they get a load of me!

Of course I would never join a club that would have me as a member.

It's good to be back. Ain't life grand?

Much love,
J