Beach Walking

In the summer 0f 1969 and 1970, I lived in Cocoa Beach and worked at the Kennedy Space Center. Having then spent 4 years in Florida I found I really enjoyed just being at the beach. No need for surfing or sailing or fishing; just the beach. My ambition was to become a professional beach bum, but I couldn’t figure a way to make a living on the beach. Since my little efficiency apartment ($65/month) was only a 5-minute walk from the beach I could easily get there and on any given weekend it wasn’t unusual for me to spend most of my time there.

The real world finally won and for the past 36 years I’ve gone to the beach often, but there was always the need to be back by a certain time and take care of responsibilities.

So now I find myself retired, living only a 15-minute drive from a beautiful beach and I am taking advantage of it. One requirement if I am to enjoy retirement is to get myself in at least reasonable shape. Unfortunately the past few years have not been good for me. Problems with my back and shoulders have made it difficult to do both strengthening and aerobic exercise. It’s taking a while but these are being fixed. An exacerbating side effect of some of the medication and the lack of exercise (while continuing to eat well) is weight gain. But barring some new problem (the right hip comes to mind) in about a year I should be in reasonable condition to do all the things Penny (Penny has health issues too and that’s another consideration.) and I want to do

That’s where beach walking comes in. I’ve described my beach walk routine in an earlier blog. With the walking I am able to be at the beach and work on getting in better shape at the same time. The beach is different at each visit even when I go on consecutive days so it stays interesting.

I told Penny that I am going to do this until I get burned out for the beach. Since, as I am walking, I don’t see any regulars I think the routine must get old after a while. We shall see. Penny has been very understanding, even encouraging on this issue. I don’t think I’m going to beach walk in cold weather. It will likely be back to the treadmill then. For now I will hit the beach as often as is reasonable (once or twice a week) after all, I’ve waited 36 years for this!