Living History

I saw a video the other day that made an impression. It was about the fact that we are not just experiencing massive disruption of our daily lives, and all the anxieties and inconveniences that go with that, but we are living history. The video made the point that some day, this will be over and people will ask, "What did you do during the pandemic of 2020?" I looked around me today with an eye towards history and progress, even in the age of the corona virus.

The golf cart barn and pro shop at the Dunedin Country Club (open to the public) finally is getting off the ground. There have been numerous delays. I think it was supposed to be completed this past March. The project started out small, just a refurbishing of an existing building. Then it was deemed too expensive to bring up to code, so a new building was designed and funds appropriated. Since the city owns the club, the whole project became controversial because the price tag kept going up. It's good to see a vertical dimension to the project at last. The course was designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1927. From 1945 to 1962, it was the home of the PGA.

We made our way on foot this morning to Mira Vista Park again. Many of the streets in Dunedin are constructed with brick pavers, such as the ones in the photo above.

Here's the view upon arrival at Mira Vista Park. It's a little pocket park at the end of the street. There's a side walk, two benches, and a bulkhead. It was mostly cloudy and in the mid-70s.

I included this picture of a float boat for my sister. These boaters were setting their anchors and getting ready to spend the day on the spoil island (made from dredging the channel).

We walked on to Weaver Park. Everything is closed except the facilities and the walkways. I noticed this marker honoring an Indiana native on the way out. Sometimes it seems that everyone in Florida is from somewhere else. That's usually how conversations start. Even though John and I have spent most of our adult lives in North Carolina, we were both born in Florida, so that makes us rare Florida Natives, at least technically.

We came home, caught up on the depressing news, and took a nap. That's DeeDee snuggling with me. She came into our lives in 2007 while on vacation in Cedar Key, Florida. She was a stray with mange, probably 4 months old. At the time, she was our back-up dog, but since our much loved yellow labrador, Dexter, died in 2013, she has taken over--as best she can--the number one position. It's tough to grow up in a great one's shadow, hence, all of her insecurities. She must be touching her humans at all times. I suppose once abandoned to the streets, one keeps a close eye on one's caretakers at all times.

What a view to wake up to! Rejuvenated we made a quick bike ride out to the end of the causeway and back to make sure it was still there. The traffic was light enough that we could ride our bikes in the street to practice proper social distancing. But that does take a bit more concentration and checking of your mirrors. It's not as relaxing as riding on the trail.

We learned that the new bridge is designed to have a 15-foot wide pedestrian section on one side and 5 feet on the other. Currently, the wide side is about 5.5 feet. The car lanes will remain the same (11 feet), but they will add an 8-foot breakdown lane that could be used by bicyclists. The current bridge was constructed in 1963 and has reached the end of its lifespan. The new bridge will be 14 feet taller to reduce the number of openings and closings for sailboats and tall boats. The bridge has yet to be funded, so we may be using the current one for a while. To paraphrase Yeats, progress "comes dropping slow."

Here's a view of the current bridge from nearby Mira Vista Park:

We rode our bikes to a friend's house to pick up our new face masks that she made for us. They are lined and pleated with a hidden pipe cleaner to bridge the nose, and there are built-in elastic ear loops. She had the scraps left over from a trip she took to India in the 70s--vintage print!

Living, breathing history!