Home Again

Cocoa Beach from the International Space Station

Florida – Home Sweet Home

I divorced Sally and moved back to Florida in the summer of 2014. The rental market in Cocoa Beach sucked, but I was able to find a nice, newer home for rent close by Sattelite Beach. It was an excellent place to reestablish myself while I found something to buy back home.

Sammy and I moved in with the M Coupe as our only car. I drove the scooter all the time. The house was one of the nicest I have ever stayed in, which made it even more enjoyable. It was a five-minute walk to the beach, and Sammy and I would go twice daily. There was a swimming pool in nearby Indian Harbor Beach, and I would swim in the early morning. I had a nice office setup to do my work with IBM. It seemed I was home again and happier than I had been since leaving.

I stayed there for a year and a half after moving to Valhalla. I started drumming again in earnest and played with one of my old childhood friends in the area. I bought my kayak Serenity and did a lot of paddling in Indian Harbor Beach and my old stomping grounds, the Thousand Islands.

In 2015, I started looking for a place in Cocoa Beach. Something quickly came up, but it was an older, run-down house on A1A – the only highway that passes through Cocoa Beach. You will end up in Key West if you follow it far enough.

It needed a shit-ton of work before I could move in. However, it was one block from the beach and less than 1/4 mile from Ramp Road Park, a gateway to the southern Thousand Islands. It also sat on a .quarter acre lot that was 150 feet deep. The house had many bids, but my realtor did a great job and got me the house. Thanks, Robin!

---

It would be named Valhalla. I moved there in early 2016. Unfortunately, Sammy passed away at 12 years old, right at the same time. I got a new Tibetian Terrier puppy, Buddy, soon after that.

We started fixing up our somewhat run-down new house. Tragically, Buddy died during the surgery to neuter him. It’s unclear to me now if this was a congenital heart problem he had or just the fact that my vet fucked up.

Regardless, I got Jacob from the same breeder that August. He was a little older, but we bonded quickly. I now affectionately call him my son, and we spend all our time together.

I enjoyed playing the drums again but grew increasingly frustrated with my electronic drums. I discovered that Roland had come a long way from the kit I bought in the early 2000s and had addressed my big complaints with what I had. I purchased a new TD-50 kit, and – boy, howdy – it sounded great! I started trying to learn how to play songs – especially now that I could hear everything well. My playing improved, and I’ve been playing constantly ever since.

I worked a lot on the house in 2016 & 2017. I had a brick driveway and patio installed. I reworked the garage, replacing walls and shoring it up as much as possible. I eventually had almost all of the windows upgraded. I remodeled the bathroom, closing off one doorward and replacing the crappy vanities. It came together nicely. I worked a lot on the backyard, filling in the mysterious depression and establishing my garden.

I built a deck and put a hot tub on it. I had a hot tub while living in Colorado and Atlanta and enjoyed them. Jake and I spent much time on the kayak in 2017 & 2018.

I bought my first powerboat, Lark’s Tounges in Aspic at the beginning of 2018. I had wanted a zippy little speedboat since my youth! I also bought a used, red 2003 Ford Ranger Edge to tow it. We explored my old aquatic stomping grounds and often swam in the ocean.

At the same time that I moved back to Florida, my mother moved from Cocoa Beach to Panama City with Dave. It was getting increasingly difficult for Rick to take care of her after my father died in 2002. Initially, Dave was going to put her in assisted living. She fought that and ended up buying a house for her right across from his home in Panama City.

I tried to go up and stay with her at least twice a year. I could work out of one of the bedrooms and help Dave care for her. After Hurricane Michael destroyed Dave’s home in 2018, she lived with me for several months. I was glad to be able to spend more time with her before her passing in 2019.

Our last gathering was the joyous wedding ceremony and celebration of our nephew Carl and Dr. Kariline Bringe (yes – she is an orthopedic surgeon, which has already come in handy!). We gathered in Ormond Beach at the bride’s parent’s vacation home. She passed about six weeks later after a brief illness. Thankfully, I could spend the last couple of weeks with her.

I continued to work for IBM until I retired in 2018. The last couple of years leading up to that were busy, and I was glad to be done. By the end of my tenure, I was essentially responsible for the site’s design. I worked with teams in India and Argentina. We worked with a group in London to craft a self-service web system. It was based on design templates, and end users would create and publish their pages. I became well versed in that system (Drupal) plus modern UX design applications like Sketch. I moved from Windows to Apple during this time and am glad to have finally dumped Microsoft.

I retired at the end of 2018 after starting my career in the spring of 1980. Nearly 39 years – most of it spent in what has since been termed high-tech.

Early on, I moved from being an engineer to becoming a computer weenie traveling worldwide. I am happy I finally returned to the halfway point when I worked in Product Development and became a User Experience designer. The marketing stuff was fun until it wasn’t – then it became a burden because I wasn’t sure I could do anything else. I am glad I was able to prove myself wrong 🤩!

---

Meanwhile, Jake and I are living the dream! I made peace with my demons 👹. Or at least a truce 🤩. We love our little beach shack Valhalla.

I’ve been making so much sawdust that if I am not careful, I overload my dust collector, and it’s a pain to clean up!

Traveling in Excellent Adventure has proven to be better than I expected – we love our little dog house on wheels.

I enjoy learning about the natural world, physics and astronomy, Mother Earth, and the stars. I’ve adopted the album cover from King Crimson’s Lark’s Tongues in Aspic as my moniker. I believe we are all star stuff – formed from dying stars in the cosmos. Amazing stuff.

We walk on the beach many mornings at sunrise. Cocoa Beach finally made it legal to do so several years back. We don’t have to be worried about the cops stopping us anymore!

It seems like the only time I leave the island anymore is for doctor’s appointments. I got myself a new left knee in 2022 after the original one failed spectacularly, turning me into a disabled person for a while.

I managed to get back on the road with the Jakester in the Fall for a trip to the Appalachians.

One of my musical heroes is Sting. I loved his solo work in the 80s and 90s, and he became my poet-laureate. One of the lines from an early album has become one of my mottos for life: While the world is burning down, you make the best of what’s still around.

---

---

Be here now

---

50th High School Reunion

---

---