During my black-out time, I had a birthday (Oh, yay, older but not, you know, gone), and my anniversary same date (if I had a re-do, I would choose another date for the wedding and then I’d get TWO dinners), and Ed and I went to Tarpon Lodge in Pineland, on Pine Island, next island over. It is a beautiful place on the water – you take a winding narrow road, heavily forested on both sides, like driving in a tunnel, and then finally around a curve, there is the water and the lodge is 1/8 mile up.

John L. Lewis, the labor guy, used to vacation there, I am told. They also used to have a grand piano that they got rid of because they are musical nitwits and now rely on “music” groups who come with their own electronic keyboards, to which I reply, “Oh, vomit”.

A while back I wrote to a writer in the News-Press (Fort Myers) who had done a piece on musical offerings in various cafes and nightclubs (I use the term loosely – let’s say biker bars with a mike). I tore the SW Florida music scene to shreds. They printed it in the Feature section on a Sunday. And later I got a phone call from a reader who said he loved it. That was fun.

Back to the dinner – Ed had filet mignon, I had chicken stuffed with crabmeat – very good indeed. A family came as we were finishing, to sit across the way from our table, with an infant and two toddlers and the obligatory behavioral problems. We were happy to be leaving. Even though I am childless, I would like to think that I would have always gotten a sitter before going to dinner in an elegant restaurant. Yes, I know, you pay for sitters but the Tarpon Lodge is not cheap – I am sure their dinner bill was easily $300. So do you think they could have afforded a sitter for progeny who couldn’t tell the difference between the Lodge and Macdonald’s? I’ll never understand that mindset.

So it’s another year, and Ed and I have now been together 17 years married and 2 ½ years before that hanging out. It seems like yesterday.

xx, Teal