It is incredibly bright as the sun shines on the water and attempts to blind me, looking deceptively warm when the thermometer reads "only" 37 above zero! My sis-in-law's sister and family are down here in Orlando on vacation and I apologized to Mona yesterday for the terribly cold weather. I recall a vacation we took over 20 years ago to Florida where we froze and my mom was so upset about it. "It's not supposed to be cold in Florida!" People in a bayside restaurant in St. Augustine were ogling and rejoicing the snow in the air, and Mom was furious! Once we got to our destination of Ft. Lauderdale, of course, it had warmed considerably and from our experiences living here since 1988, we do know it gets cold in Florida!
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This morning I woke well rested and ready for the day. Many thanks to family and friends who offered their good wishes and support as well as their company on this mission, I believe my attorney, Nancy, and I will be just fine. It would be 'out of order' and awkward for me to show up with my posse, but thank you all anyway---save the airfare and/or time off work for a fun time, okay?
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My boy bought me dinner last night and as we sat, enjoying our Chinese food (I will have Asian dreams again!) we discussed what our futures hold, at least our financial ones. While real grown-ups ponder the longer range issues such as condo fees and toilet paper (not really), my pseudo-grown-up boy wonders if he can live without Netflix! I try not to make comparisons to his father but sometimes it simply comes out---what his father was doing already at the age of 21, compared to wondering if one can live without Netflix. But, his father was not in college at this age, so I guess that argument fades.
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Mona and I talked about this a bit yesterday, the growing up on a farm 'work ethic', the benefits of having this instilled from early on versus the "entitlement' mindset some kids have. Allie, my niece, recently got her driver's license (yikes!, I am getting old!!!) and now takes herself to school and related events. At first, John and Mona were not going to allow her ready access to the older minivan but have since permitted it, due not in small part to the wretchedly cold weather and window scraping involved. But, Mona's point was that it seemed almost natural for Allie to simply "assume" she'd have that car free and clear---it was hers, an "entitlement" mentality. We speculated upon whether or not we, as parents, foster this type of thinking or does society have the stronger influence....hmmmm.......Like I tell Sandy H. about Olivia and Justin and their classmates---we created monsters!
