DAY 586: Lazy Cloudy Days of Winter

The trip after the festival to find beaches on the Gulf of Mexico did not go as well as planned. It was long distances to get to island beaches for which there is no overnight parking, and long distances to drive back to somewhere you could park. After driving a 30’ skoolie on island streets natives travel in golf carts, and finding nowhere to park, I gave up and headed back to the hippie hideout. My days have been spent lazing, visiting, reading, watching hysterical cat videos and keto meal ideas on TicTok, journaling, meditating, walking, transferring information into my 2022 planner, and napping. One afternoon was dedicated to feeding quarters into machines at the laundromat. Time stretches and each day blends into the next so that I often don’t know the day of the week, let alone the date. And to think, I made fun of my father and my aunt for not knowing either after they had retired. I didn’t know how easy, or nice, it was to not know. Nestled in the woods, I feel distant from the world outside the gate.

I’m planning another trip, but going further south this time, leaving if and when the stars align after Mercury goes into retrograde on the 14th. Since that storm Sunday night, the temperatures have been cooler, so I’ve used the diesel heater, and with the lack of sunlight I’ve had to plug in to charge the batteries. Mostly I’ve been embracing the dark nights, noticing they are not quite as long as they were just two weeks ago. And last night I put my shoes outside, along with an offering for la bafana — an old Italian tradition.