Tropidaze (2nd excerpt from chapter 25)

I never expected my life to evolve to one of wearing sandals and flowered shirts. It was too close to visions of old guys on golf courses, pants pulled up over their beltlines, white shoes and hairless heads. But in the Sunshine State, I became thrilled with the sight of dolphins showing off in the Gulf and enjoyed comfortable January nights of star gazing from our lanai. The soundtrack in my head was now laced with steel drums though, only a few miles from our new home, musicians played bluegrass regularly at a riverfront bar. Sometimes Florida sounds take on a whole different spin, such as classical music concerts performed by the Charlotte Symphony in a Punta Gorda theatre that was magically spared from the wrath of Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Mostly, the music had become the e-mail moniker that I had used since the inception of the internet. The name now became a tropical love song set to a smooth rhythm:

Tropidaze

Palm trees are waving on my front lawn
Tropical birds are waking up before the dawn
The afternoon thunder brings the usual rain
Followed by sunshine in the daily chain

I just can't believe that I'm not dreaming
Florida realizes its cliches
I just can't believe that I'm not dreaming
I'm living my tropidaze with you
I'm living in our tropidaze, tropidaze

The footsteps we leave behind on the shore
Not like any others that we left there before
The bars and the restaurants have a different glow
Vacations are pictures but this is our home

So many people come from everywhere
The bustle is growing but nobody cares
The call of the ocean that draws us to come
Gather at sunset where we're humbled as one

I just can't believe that I'm not dreaming
Florida realizes its cliches
I just can't believe that I'm not dreaming
I'm living my tropidaze with you
I'm living in our tropidaze, tropidaze