tadhana: still in cocoa, FL.

it is the end of the first week without consuelo. we feel her absence acutely. every time we open the refrigerator door, we expect to see her little face poking through the baluster, every time we see baby carrots, whenever we look in the corner of the salon where she normally sleeps during the day, there is less and less dog hair in the vacuum bins, etc. etc. yesterday, we took TADHANA out for a sea trial after tom replaced the water-injected exhaust elbow the day before - a whole day affair that involved a lot of sighing and cursing and groaning and two trips to the NAPA auto parts store. anyway, it was the first time the boat ever left the dock without consuelo in it. out of habit, i checked to see if she was on board, and of course, she wasn't. later, as we were doing maneuvers out on the indian river, TADHANA's engine was put on wide-open throttle and since tom was checking below in the engine room for leaks, the hatch was open and the noise was terrible. again, i checked to see if she was okay because the noise always bothered her. anyway, that's how it has been this whole week. we look and she's not there. we miss our little girl very much.

to me, the cure for this terrible sadness is to get a new puppy. the old dog isn't there to mind the intrusion and it certainly is NOT an insult to her memory - she would not want us to be sad. you find yourself in the state of shock going from geriatric to pediatric and too busy and overwhelmed by this new bundle of energy to feel any sadness, plus you're giving the little one a home and lots of love. it's really a win-win situation in my opinion. yes, we plan on getting another dog but it will have to wait until we get back to the chesapeake where we can sit for a while and whip a new puppy into perfect boat dog shape. this is mainly because our plan is to hightail it up north as fast as we can and 12-hour cruising days just wouldn't be fair to a new dog. so, well, we will have to adjust to this dog-less life and carry on as best as we can. i honestly don't know how other people can say that they just can't take that kind of pain again. with life comes death, that is a given. it isn't death that is crippling - it is pain. anyway, well, that's just me, i guess. we are all different.

in any case... so this week, we kept ourselves busy with work and, today, we left TADHANA once again and drove up to the canaveral national seashore. our original plan had been to go to the kennedy space center but after being almost paralyzed by the atrocious price of the entrance tickets, we figured it could wait until we were a little less poverty-stricken. as an official senior citizen, tom has a national parks pass so we went to the national park instead. it actually was a good choice because it's our kind of thing anyway - except for the part where we found out that dogs aren't allowed on the beach. well, we didn't have a dog anyway so i guess that worked out. they are, however, allowed on the trails and the lagoon side so we are going to have to keep that in mind for next time. it was food for the soul to be out there in all that open space and natural wonder and even though it's spring break, where we were there just weren't a whole lot of people. i am sure that we will be back again and again and we even thought about bringing the boat into mosquito lagoon and staying at anchor for a bit if it isn't too shallow for us. we will see. the fact of the matter is that this is our first year as snowbirds and there is so much more to explore and, the truth is, life, at this point, is just starting to get exciting! i'm glad that consuelo was there for the beginning of our dream and that she made it as far south as marathon in the keys with us. she had a great life, full of fun and adventure and new things to smell. how many dogs can say that they chased an armadillo?

today is my sister-in-law, marie's, birthday. we got together with family and had dinner out at a japanese restaurant. tomorrow, we are going shopping, and, hopefully, will come home with a new laptop for tom. it would have been cheaper to go to the kennedy space center.

since i don't know how to do panorama on my camera, i just did a video of the beach instead.

some photos from the canaveral national seashore: