The Emerald Rose

       We all have dreams, some good, some bad, some just dreams, but I have a recurring one so I thought I’d share it with you all.

       Feel gentle trade winds, the cradle-like motion of the 45 foot sailboat rocking at anchor in a tranquil teal colored cove. The rhythmic “clang” of the halyards tapping the mast, and the sound of a few sea birds squawking, and the sun rising over the palm trees and the beach off to our east. It’s about 75 degrees Farenheit, and there are only a few puffy little clouds in the sky,…..another golden day starting.

          I can’t stay in bed aboard, everything is just too beautiful and calming. I can see up the companionway and the slight swing to the boom as it slides back and forth through the traveler. I stretch, wake up my wife and get ready for another great day in paradise. Time to brew some coffee, have a small bowl of fruit, some cereal, and plan the day.

         There are charter folks coming this morning about noon for the next four days. Usually they are state-side up tight business folks looking to relax and enjoy some down time. I don’t do the diving thing, or the snorkeling thing, my wife handles that, so we work as a team and “entertain” the clients for four days, taking them out for day sails, overnights in small hidden tropical lagoons just right for snorkeling and kicking back, working on a tan, and otherwise forgetting “the regular” day they all have come accustomed to every day.

       Meals are always a fun time and we split the duties for breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and finally dinner. No VCR, no DVD’s, just good old conversation and story telling, of sorts. Our job is to teach them how to relax, if only for the four days they have booked with us. After that go for the Blackberry, the laptop, and the entertainment systems, but for four days you have to do it my way, relax, chill, enjoy the food, the company, the drinks, and the world God has made. Swim, fish, snorkel, read, listen to music, whatever, but r-e-l-a-x.

       Learn to cherish a sunrise, to marvel at a sunset, to listen to the world around you of nature and it’s many wonders. How can that be a bad dream?

       Years ago as a kid growing up there was an old early television series called “Adventures in Paradise” about a guy (Gardner McKay I think was his name) who sailed around the South Pacific delivering cargo, taking on passengers between ports, and just doing exactly that. No Income taxes, no fashion to be concerned about, no nasty neighbors, nothing except pursuing life. That should be a good thing. (Be right back I think I will google it up and see what the almighty Internet can tell me,…be right back.)

          Damn! A few key “clicks” and I can have an eight DVD set of the old Adventures in Paradise TV series in Black and White with a great sound score as well. James Mitchner (sp) was the original guy that pitched the show to the TV folks and ABC did it from 1959 – 1962. So should I plop down the $34.95 for the set of DVD’s, get a cold six-pack, load them all on my laptop and go sit on the beach and fantasize, or do what every crazy hombre does, just go do it myself.

        Frankly I think it would make a tremendous re-make series in this day and age. Doesn’t everyone just want to run away and escape to a simpler time in life?

        On another front I’m closing in on my overall 2010 goal for my walking. As of October 31, 2010 I have already done 972.8 miles on the treadmill at the gym alone. I should hit my 1000 mile goal by the Thanksgiving! (Ok so what do I do for an encore? Got to take a stress test (treadmill run by a cardiologist who tries to “blow out” your heart in fifteen minutes or less) in February so I guess I’ll start training to blow away the stress test, increasing the elevation of the treadmill to six or seven from the two or three I usually keep it at. I have taken a total of 2,554,406 steps since January 1, 2010  as well, and burned off 176,202 calories (I don’t really put to much emphasis there as I “replenish vital bodily fluids” with a few Mich Ultra’s after each workout. If you are interested statistically the 176,202 calories would equal a net of “0” if I had 1854 bottles of beer! (That’s even a bit much for me as it would be five bottles a day every day of the year,…..see,….I told you I’m winning the “Battle of the Bulge”.

       Well gotta check the mail, eat lunch and head for the gym.

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     “Curse ruthless time! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram in it!       -Sir Winston Churchill