Beach "Seen"

We pay attention to the things in which we have the most investment. The things that matter to us get our attention and may rile up our emotions. My greatest investments include my physical health and activity, my job and health promotion. I also appreciate and thus attend to, my environment and surroundings. My favorite place is the beach - the ocean, the sand, the people, the waves - in Florida, I am blessed with the Gulf Coast.

I took a vacation day today. I drank my coffee and prepared for my morning run at my leisure - ran a nice six miles without worrying about getting ready for work -had breakfast and then drove out to Lido Key Beach. The drive should take 20 minutes, but the traffic has been heavy recently. On my way there and when I arrived, I noticed many things. I decided that I would write my blog about the things that got my attention - as they would be different from what other people might attend to, because my investments and passions are different. The deciding factor for this idea was that I saw positive things too. I wanted my readers to know that I am just as much aware and impressed by the good that I see.

The first of my observations occurred on the way to Lido. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a very large woman in the driver's seat of a truck. I would guess her weight at over 300 pounds - I noticed the handicap placard hanging from her mirror as I watched her smoking a cigarette. I could not really wrap my mind around it all.

Here are some other things that I zeroed in on today:

A child drinking root beer soda, but at least it was in the miniature cans.

Many people wearing sun glasses.

I wore a hat, some others did as well, while others wore visors or nothing. It is important to protect your scalp from the UV rays of sun.

I saw people applying sunscreen and people applying tanning oils. I heard a teen- aged boy tell his friend that he could not go in the ocean after the football because he had just put on sunscreen (yay!)

I saw some people with big hats and coverups - that is very smart.

I ratted on two women who were smoking next to me - Lido is one of several beaches in Sarasota County that are deemed tobacco free. It was not easy to pass that city ordinance and the youth in our SWAT teams had some influence there. SWAT is Students Working Against Tobacco. Unfortunately, when the lifeguard informed the women of the Tobacco Free Beach policy, they stubbed their cigarettes in the sand.

On my way to the restroom, where there is a concession stand, I passed a family that was eating lunch. They all had these sandwich wraps in their hands- and a little boy, maybe three years old, broke a peeled orange in half (seeming very happy to have this fruit to eat!). At the concession stand I saw people drinking fruity drinks with whipped cream and others eating french fries.

I saw many people drinking water and a few drinking beer.

People walked the beach. Children played in the sand and ran along the shore. I saw a little girl, maybe two years old. She was very white skinned and had blond hair. She had the biggest smile on her face. I hope she had on sun screen!

It was a beautiful day and I was impressed that people brought their coolers, had fruit and water, wore hats, sunscreen and glasses, walked and played and hopefully - the ones that did not - might do so next time.