Getting Away From It all

I flew to Florida last week, taking a brief vacation from Coronavirus, swapping surgical masks and paranoia for palm trees and sea breezes, Franz Kafka for a trashy beach novel. Here, lounging poolside at a tiki hut clinic serving rum cocktails with a fancy straw instead of vaccines in a syringe, it's good to feel the sun on your uncovered face. After all, the only protection required in these parts is UVA/UVB factor fifty. Nobody whispers anxiously in your ear 'Peter just tested positive andJanice is self isolating.' There is just the soothing sound of waves crashing on the shore and a waiter asking if you need another drink.

The pandemic is a bothersome stingray in the ocean of life. But we should still go swimming regardless. Vacations are always far too short, so don't hide away in your hotel room playing solitaire on a laptop and staring out the window. The water is warm, the sand is golden, the sunsets are spectacular.

Comments

[John]

I drove to the Texas coast last week, with my bicycle in the trunk. I had a hotel room for two nights; on two days, I took long sunny rides. Perfect.

As for reading, I did none on the trip itself, but before it I finally finished, or rather examined in full, Inside The Company, the 1970s CIA expose. You can dip it as I did, exhaustively as I did; or just start at the beginning and go straight through as the author intended; either way, it is a true Latin American period piece. I have been all over Latin America but never seen a golf course; I am still wondering what the Yugoslavian Embassy to Uruguay was like; tales of Ecuadorean naval vessels opening fire on each other and Brazilian interservice rivalry on that country's sole aircraft carrier are alien trifles now; but the continent remains chromatic.

[Stephenesque]

I can’t imagine anything more sane these days than your cycling expedition. I envy you. Also Uruguay. Always wanted to visit but never have.