After the Florida Prep trip

In a tiny bubble, the trip to Florida was a success.

As I drove from the Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood International Airport I stopped at the The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami (hereafter known as RSMAS and UM because I am not into typing that long name) to make my first visit to that portion of campus. Unfortunately, I was not early enough to meet with too many folks but Evan did his best to show me around. While I have not been offered the position, I was introduced repeatedly as the new keeper of Broad Key. The visit went well and some headway was made to introducing me to the facilities, people and even some interesting off island options for get-aways. 

It was at one of the little meetings that my on-land boat storage went from $110/month to $0. The owner of the island (Remember, UM leases the island) has a tree nursery. It was thought of and immediately arranged to keep the boat and trailer at the nursery.  Perfect.  And to finish the coverage of this part of the trip:  Lindsay and I took the boat to the nursery and met Moses who lives on the property. Moses chose a great place to park the boat and I feel like I have made another friend in the area. Good guy.

By the time I made this trip, I already knew about how to deal with the storage unit I will need and the post office box.  While Evan has said to use an address at RSMAS, I feel like I should do something more local and less reliant on others to transport my mail and packages.  Maybe both?  Bills to RSMAS and care packages to Homestead PO Box! You can tell where my priorities are... Did you know that the USPS PO Boxes will not receive packages other than those shipped USPS?  UPS PO Boxes receive and hold packages from ANY shipper. Guess which I plan to use. Both storage and PO Box are something I have to commit to and therefore could not arrange on this trip.  Remember - no offer from UM yet.

The other part of the this trip was Lindsay's move. While I had hoped to get to BK, I realized what Linz was going through. There was no way I could do anything so selfish as take to the water. Lindsay has been in her current position with NOAA in Miami for about three and a half years. She has made quite an impact on their small boats program there. She and Erik established their first real home there. My grandson was born and spent two years there. Erik and Lindsay made a home that was welcoming to all who knocked on their door. And now she had to pack it up...

Erik and Ethan went north a month ago to stay with his parents. Lindsay's summer schedule would only allow a few days of dual parenting time. While Erik is about the perfect single parent, it would be nice to have the additional help from his parents. So Linz was left to prep the house for the move. And this was the weekend before the movers took their stuff away. I was there for her...

For many reasons, it was an extremely emotional time for me. I guess, as it relates to the BK transition, I was looking at my family all moving or existing up north. While I was moving south, alone (but for Inja and Qat). It was very hard...  It is hard to write these words right now.

So it was with Linz that I spent my weekend. I did not even think of water...

cz, 08:55 7/25/2014