Hilton Head Farewell

Friday -- Day Last

It must be nearly time to leave.  The weather is definitely spring-like and I saw my first local gnats today.  Bad germs are still hovering, taking one more bad night's sleep.

But it's been a good week.  Some beach walking and some good food.  Good books, lots to think about.

Vacations alone are fine for me.  The advantages are plenty:  I don't have to worry about what other people want to do, or feel responsible for whether we're all having a good time.  I get to choose movies, foods, activities (or none) that I enjoy.

But also it's a time to visit past vacations.  First, I see things I've enjoyed that I'll probably not do again -- bicycling, for sure, and possibly, sadly, tennis.

When I am on vacation, my family is there with me, my first years with Stephan, my babies, altogether, and then just us three.  There was our first time, the two of us, in the Caribbean, Paradise Island, where we did the new tourist bit of turning lobster red, but I also read aloud on the beach, could have been Mark Twain.

There was our first Disney vacation with our two little ones, when I began writing the first of the three Antoinette and Nikko stories.  I'd write a chapter a day, and read it to the family later.  I worked harder on those stories than I've ever spent on my writing.  I haven't looked at them in the many years since the rejection letters, but I still remember them being pretty good, and featuring two wildly fun kids that just happened to be my own.

A clue from the first Antoinette and Nikko adventure

Then there was our first solo Florida vacation, at Sanibel Island.  Nikko not yet seven helping to lug our assorted stuff up a couple of daunting flights of stairs.  After that we three had a couple more Disney vacations, until Antoinette informed me that next year she would be in high school and couldn't take a week off to go to Florida anymore.

So many bits and pieces of memories of great times.

I'm hoping that there will be more vacations together in our future, and do I dare to hope for family vacations with a grandchild or more?

Sir Terry and Me, continued...

Last year it so happened that the Discworld book I took with me featured a man of power and evil, and nicely put a face to the demons I wrestled with at home.  This year, as our politicians continue to search for ways to avoid making our country safe from gun violence, we have the power and evil of the gonne.  And here, believe it or not, is a quote from this book written in 1993:

"Gonnes don't kill people.  People kill people."  -- The Gonne