Time to wrap up...

The same storm pattern that hit downtown Atlanta at the end of last week, headed our way for the weekend. It could have been a dangerous situation for us, or at least a very wet weekend. But the weather system timed itself perfectly to arrive late on Saturday and it was already gone by Sunday morning. And luckily not nearly a hundredth of the punch it gave Atlanta, whose residents are now cleaning out their big mess.

One event that was spared this weekend was the “big” Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in Emerald Isle. “Big” in the sense that this is traditionally the wake-up call for the city to welcome the busy upcoming tourist season. During the last couple of weeks I have already been witnessing the evolution of the town from a quiet winter refuge for the few of us, to what is expected to be a busy time with all the visitors seeking refuge from grueling 9 to 5 jobs, tough school years and regular stressful life in general. Of course, this is assuming the US economy maintains itself afloat from the current choppy economic waters it is currently facing, and that is still to be determined. I’m sure the town, and the beach home rental property owners, are hoping for the best.

The welcoming of the busy season on the island means the beginning of our time to wrap up and say our own goodbyes. This weekend it became obvious for us that the end of our stay is just a matter of days rather than weeks. Most of my house repair projects are complete, packing of our few personal items done, our food pantry is thinning out and I have already scheduled our moving-in date to our Miami Beach condo.

But what made it more obvious was that several of our good friends from RTP did their pilgrimage to pay us one last seasonal visit before we leave Emerald Isle for that big city at the southern end of the eastern seaboard.

Now that the time is finally upon us, the big city looks even bigger from this vantage location. Point in case is a conversation I had with a fellow Cuban that lives on Emerald Isle, all his Miami friends keep talking to him about the problems with heavy traffic, lack of parking spaces, rude drivers and many other big city problems that overcome long—time Miami residents and make them wish to do what he is doing –living on Emerald Isle. Well, no time to look back, this train only moves in one direction and it is now facing south.

Note: Pictures of some of the weekend visitors practicing an AARP version of Tai-Chi or something like that.