Notes - morning dolphins and other matters / Tammet completed /

         0853 The sky is mostly clear and cool and a pod of dolphin are merrily playing their way north about twenty to thirty feet off shore. At least two of the five or six are young – three to four feet in length. Fun to watch. About a hundred yards out was another swimming north. And, another pod about fifty yards out is swimming south. The water is a lot calmer than yesterday and it is suppose to be in the upper seventies today rather than 68 to 70 for the high yesterday. Wow. One adult swimming north is only about ten feet from the shoreline. I don’t think I have ever seen one closer. Very cool. A few people are out walking in long pants and jackets or sweatshirts. The doors were closed last night and we miss the sounds of the surf – too quiet, more like home (not that we don’t like it that way at home). I am opening the sliding door slightly. Four more people going by, this time with shorts and a few in short sleeves. The air is still cooler but love the sound of water hitting the sand and casual small shell [puddle-like] packings along the sand-stretched way. Carol is out of the shower and soon we will be off for a morning treat at Dunkin Donuts (a national company that is a real local favorite in this area). As the sun rises higher the water shifts to a more solidified greenish blue – reminds me of the Key colors moving out to Key West. Such is the Florida we love.

         Later, dude. Post. - Amorella

         Late morning. You are sitting a McD’s dock enjoying the scenery while Carol is on page 501 of the Jack Bleacher book, A Wanted Man. The flags are blowing straight under an easterly wind and you are watching numerous gulls vying for McD leftovers on the patio end (five tables and two trash cans) of the very clean dock and pier. – Amorella

         1140 hours. We washed the car (it still has water spots but at least the salt and subsequent grime is off. You park in a beach area and this is an expectation you live with. Once home and after the Ohio rains forecast for Sunday and Monday I’ll get it cleaned up. Carol has already begun packing some things. We have to be out by ten on Saturday. I assume we are taking Linda and Bill out for either lunch or supper then leaving first thing Sunday morning. We should be in by eleven Sunday night. We are relaxing and enjoying what we love to experience once, twice or even three times a year. If we lived here it wouldn’t be the same. Where would we go for the vegetation beside further south to Key West?  (That wouldn’t be all that bad.)

         I cannot imagine what the Dead might do for pleasure. This is about as good as it gets in taking a practical vacation. We enjoy traveling too – hope to go on a trip out to the Pacific northwest sometime in the next year or so with Craig and Alta but that is a different sort of experience. We are sitting under the shade of a young thirty foot southern oak with five palm trees to our left and two palm to our north along with other assorted mid-Florida flora and subtropical foliage.

         You bring up a point not established in the books. From my perspective the ‘vacation like treat and pleasure’ would be addressed by whom you establish contact with and the pleasures of meeting new acquaintances as well as old established friends – much of what one might experience in the best of a two or three day high school and/or college reunion. Carol just completed her book and has a new one to take its place David Baldacci’s Split Second.

         Later. You have completed Daniel Tammet’s Thinking in Numbers and here is a list you compiled on a piece of Stick-um-Note to read again:

 147 – on the unconscious and dreams; 153 – hopscotch as a literary structure (akin to how the Merlyn books are structured); 167 – money and the Greeks – Tammet sees no way to create a social order in which there are no poor; 170 – the distribution of wealth, usually in societies 20 percent or higher hold most of the wealth, the rest digresses downward; 173 – Tolstoy’s short story: “How Much Land Does a Man Need” is mentioned but the conclusion is not mentioned; which is, only enough to bury him; 189 – chess, you enter the dark forest with another (in your move, your strategy) and only one may return; I take this as good advice and also see the deeper meaning of learning from one’s mistakes to better grasp the game; 192 – chess is like conversation in terms of how it is conducted; 208 – morality tables do not take into account one of the most important aspects of life, variation is the essence (of survival of the species) not statistics; and 228 – metaphors are the essence of mathematical thought.

         1441 hours. The above notes are what I remember from those pages. They are more than I noted (usually a word or two besides the page number).

         This is a better way for you to take notes, boy. They are more personal and direct. – Amorella

         I sit here in the doorway to the balcony because otherwise i cannot sit in the chair, which had a large table on which to set the laptop. The sun is warmer and the clouds scattered. It may be a better sunset (or perhaps not) but after Linda (and perhaps Bill also) arrives we my go to supper. We had lunch at the Frog Pond for the first time. It was good, expense and alas northern in its diet. We shall not return soon I suspect. (1449)

         You have re-rooted yourself within the confines of the bedroom and shut the door to within a foot of closing to escape the glare. Linda will no doubt arrive shortly. Carol is taking a short nap on the bed after the balcony sun bathing and a quick shower. Post and continue to think on how this book will be helpful to you in your books. - Amorella