Daddy Daughter Day

I was sitting at my computer yesterday when I had to ask myself, Jeez, Dan, why are you sitting at your computer? The weather has been perfect--high seventies, almost no humidity. What the heck was I doing indoors?


I take the spring off. There are some definite disadvantages to not being on the same schedule as my colleagues at the college (though summer/fall is a pretty sweet gig as well), but I wouldn't trade for a traditional schedule. I love to play golf, jog the trails of NE FL, fish and take hikes. This is the best time to do those things, but I haven't spent much time at any of them.


I've written 30,000 words since January 3rd. It's been nice, but it's also a bit of a grind. A bunch of days, I sat down at 9:00 and didn't budge until 4:00, and that's just too much time at the computer for my tastes. 


So yesterday, I went and picked up some fresh shrimp. I told Lyla we'd have a daddy/daughter day, and you should have seen that girl's face light up! We got up early and drove up to Fort Clinch, where we took a nice hike (I've got photographs of a gator wallow, complete with tracks very near the sign in that top picture). We had a picnic and fished for an hour, then walked the beach, where we collected five snail shells and a bunch of gull feathers (we're making some feather caps tonight!).


It was a great day.


And even though I'm meeting up with Will Ludwigsen tonight for a cold'un and a chat about--you guessed it--speculative writing, I'm going to have some more of these days in February. I'm going to work on the house and the yard and my golf game. I'm going to spend time with Jeanne and Lyla, and that's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about time off!