Monday, June 30, 2008

100 Business Days Out: Day 60 - Safe Harbour

Patti and I are entrenching here in RI for the summer. Our summer place is in a great little neighborhood in Quonochontaug called Central Beach. Here is a YouTube video of what it looks like in the fall/winter:



I guesstimate that there are 60 houses in the community and believe me when I say it is a real community. This coming Friday will be the annual Fourth of July 4 mile road race and local resident parade. Traditions that have been going on for multiple generations now. It's a true slice of Americana. People live here from all over. We know of at least five other houses owned by California residents and who summer here. Each year on the first Saturday night before July 1 the community association throws a summer welcome party on the beach as the grand opening of the season. We usually aren't here in time for the event but this year we were so we attended. Everyone brings their own appetizer and lots of people bring their dinner and drinks and everyone hangs out and reacquaints themselves or meets others for the first time. It's a cocktail party with no shoes. For me it was 90 minutes of a very safe harbour as I explained to people that I was taking time off before I decided what to do next and I was being disciplined about how I was going about it. Unlike the west coast and SValley where you get the crooked head and raised eyebrow, here there are no questions asked and everyone takes it all on face value and finishes the sentence for you with..."and what better place to enjoy the time than here on the beach". If that's not a safe harbour then nothing else is. So, as we dig our feet down in the sand for the summer, I'm just like everyone else here...using the beach and the summer houses to get away from it all...slow down...let the mind wind down for a bit and.give the digits a rest from the keyboard...and do it all within our safe harbour of Central Beach.

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