balmy

Today, just before sunset, i walked down to the river--to sit and watch like i often do--it was still in 80's, no breeze, very humid and, well, like Florida is often described like many other like places--balmy--i used to like to travel in the fall or winter to places such as Texas, DC, Tennessee, any place further north than here--so when i got off the plane at Orlando, the moist, warm air would hit me and i would feel home--well, as much as anywhere feels like home now. Today, as i got closer to the riverbank, the humidity increased and i could feel the damp saltspray and the smell, i love the smell of saltspray. i found one of my favorite seats on an old piece of landscape timber/railroad tie and lost myself there. as the sun sank lower, the clouds turned from white, to a light pink and as the sun dipped further, then a Maxfield Parrish sky, with the pink and orange glowing as if lit from behind (i was facing east, so the effect was even more pronounced)--i am not a big fan of pastels, as in Miami Vice, but when they appear as painted by Parrish, well, yes, it is beautiful. Then i noticed a small pod of 4 or 5 small dolphins--they were pretty far out in the river, which is at least a mile wide, so in the fading light it was hard to tell what kind of dolphins they were. Bottlenose are the most common, but if that's what these were, then they were juveniles, very small--but they looked darker--so perhaps they were harbor dolphins which are smaller and darker than bottlenose dolphins but have a lighter stomach. i watched as they broke the surface and then started coming out of the water and turning flips and even tailwalking. You know, the kind of stuff they train them to do at SeaWorld--right--i think these did just fine without a trainer--as if i am arrogant to think their performance was for me. As the clouds faded to grey, an easterly breeze picked up and the salt smell washed over me, cool and welcome--an old friend, as sweet to me in its own way as wisteria or azeleas----
oh, almost forgot--got a rejection e-mail from a person named Cook at Ambersand (&) for a story i had submitted. I must say that this, even though a rejection, was handled with a lot of class. Obviously, Cook had actually read the story--told me the things, hmmm, not sure if Cook is a he or she, anyway, that he/she considered good, some suggestions to consider, etc. i wrote Cook back addressing a couple of things and got a response in a few hours--again actually considering what i had written and commenting on that--in other words, every thing a good rejection (if there is such a thing-no, that's not fair, like it or not, if you write, rejections are a fact of life)--anyway, this rejection was handled with professionalism, class, and actually trying to help--no arrogance, ego, or cute statements like "we don't have any idea why we chose what we did but your effort just didn't fit whatever we were looking for" nope, i did actually appreciate the response from Cook
peace
-will-