buckle-up

  Remind me again why we are taking up residence in Florida? In particular, in the Florida Panhandle alongside the Emerald Coast? Oh … that’s right; fall and winter are mild in comparison to what we experienced in Colorado. Having watched the news and seeing monstrous snowstorms hitting the Rockies and the Sierra Divide, not to mention the more recent bomb cyclone that caused even greater havoc in Washington State, we have become appreciative of the milder conditions fall delivers in this part of North America. In my previous post I wrote of how we were warming to our new location. As yet we have not put our toes in the water, even as we are now the proud owners of our very first pairs of Crocs. That will likely change shortly but for now, even with the mild temperatures we are experiencing, this week we have seen daytime temperatures dive down to the mid 50sF. Ouch … finding the right attire for such chilly conditions saw us pulling out clothing we had tucked away in our closet....

Formula 1 gained an enormous boost to its popularity with the Netflix, made-for-television series: Drive to Survive. It gave insight into what makes an F1 team tick even as it shone a spotlight on some of the drivers. Who could argue that before this program, few would know who the Honey Badger was or how popular celebrating a win with a shoey is. No driver benefited more from all the attention than Australia’s own Daniel Ricciardo. For much of the year, Margo and I couldn’t say we spent time behind the wheel of our car with anywhere near the same level of intensity as an F1 driver or that we tried drinking champagne from our sneakers but then again, there were times when we might have been tempted to do so. Many days driving beyond 600 miles only to see the next couple of days requiring us to drive an additional 500 miles, both days. We can now attest to the fact that the US is a big country. Now that I have made that statement it should come as no surprise to read that we have not ...

  The decision has been made. Our home beginning mid 2025 will be Florida and we will be residing in Latitude Margaritaville Water Sound (LMWS). The decision made included settling on a block of land in the community and paying down for the building of a new construction home. Hopefully, it will be completed mid 2025, so that for now, our plans for the coming twelve months are firmly set. Why LMWS? Why Florida? If you have been following the posts for this year, particularly the most recent posts going back to May, you might recall our decision to move to sea level. Our choice of Florida, as far as it is from Colorado, was influenced by the beach-focused lifestyle and the selection of a location in the Florida panhandle, smack in the middle of Florida’s most hurricane prone coastline, is something we took into consideration but came to the conclusion that the upside greatly offset any negativity or reservation we may have had about moving this far east (and south) in the US....

  Margaritaville, along the shoreline at Panama City Beach. The second installment of the film Avatar carried the subtitle, The Way of Water. While I remain a fan of this epic story and yes, I just read about the third installment planned for release late next year, it didn’t escape my attention that much that occupied mine and Margo’s time had to do with water. Making a move from the mountains to the sea has a certain poetic ring about it and for us, it’s a story that has only just begun. We left our Longmont, Colorado, condo early in July and now, well into August, we can write about our plans for the future with more certainty. Central to these plans will be our move to Water Sound, Florida. As for our choice of location, having gone back and forth on our options as you tend to do before making a serious move to places unknown, we have settled on a new build in the development, Latitude Margaritaville Water Sound (LMWS). Extra-sunny days meant bubbles coming from the train a...

"Blue days All of them gone Nothing but blue skies From now on.” -  Irving Berlin I am always told that when it comes to looking on the brights side, do so with caution as you may risk inviting adversity back into your life. On the other hand, it’s fair to step outside your comfort zone occasionally and reflect on life’s journey. This time last year we were simply cruising along, looking forward to yet one more conference and a break from daily routines. Imagining the changes we have made in just six months just wasn’t something we were giving any thought to; and then it all changed. Margo and I had built a house on a golf course in the city of Windsor. This House of Windsor, as we are now referring to the home we created and lived in for seven plus years, was to be our place of refuge in our twilight years. But then, for Margo, along came COVID not once but twice and our situation took an unexpected turn that left us rethinking everything about the life we had planned to liv...