Hot, Hot, Hot

 

The hot steamy tropical climes of South Florida in the summer are not enjoyable to everyone, but this quiet subtropical season has a steamy silver lining. The usual morning greetings and small talk can be dispensed with as I am all alone. Early each morning Edwardo sings me back to consciousness as I am plucked rudely from the arms of Morpheus. Edwardo is my resident song bird and he serenades me from a palm tree having adopted me as his human charge. I have never heard a more beautiful serenade at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, or on Broadway.

It is still cool and misty outside, as I head over to the outside pool’s shower for the required rinse off before my plunge. I believe it is the seventh commandment on the long list of commandments brought down from the Mount by the Co-op Board. They are big on rules in South Florida, like the laundry room schedule on which I am commanded to wash my clothing on Thursday mornings from 8am to 11 am. I am free to scoff at these rules now while the complex is abandoned.

The smooth, blue glasslike surface of the pool parts as I pierce its membrane diving deep into the abyss. It is very refreshing and I am completely alone as most Northerners have left Florida well before the dog days of summer, that sleepy, breathless, baking season when Florida presses pause. With no small talk or polite niceties to hamper my morning swim it is refreshing and therapeutic.

A green lizard has stopped by to bask in the sun. We are on eye level about two feet apart and neither of us is impressed with their newfound companion. I watch him as the little sun worshipper limbers up warming his blood and squinting his eyes in the rays of the smoldering summer sun.

With my swim over I head across the street to Officer Scott A. Winters Memorial Park. I pick up my copy of the Pompano Pelican, a Pennysaver publication where diners and restaurants that have decided to stay open during the summer months compete for the remaining business, offering reduced prices and early bird specials. Some merchants sweeten the deal with a cut-out coupon for a free continental breakfast or even a full breakfast depending on the amount of money spent for dinner. The park is on the inter- coastal where the ocean hugs the coast flowing between the mainland and the barrier islands such as the one I am on. I sit down on one of the benches and watch the occasional boat pass by on its way out to the ocean. It is quiet this morning and any meandering manatees need not worry about speed boats slicing through the waters. A brown pelican nods to the resident iguana; they are old acquaintances.

 

Back at home, I have opened all the windows facing west to the intercostal and east towards the ocean a block away, causing a cool gentle breeze to flow through the apartment. By 11am the heat will set in and South Florida will be a sweltering oven till about 3 pm. With all windows closed, the air conditioners of the few remaining residents will hum along, keeping their owners comfortable until the summer sun relents and a cooler evening returns.

 

                                                                             Jim- August 22’