I can see It. I can feel it. I can taste it. – KGUA #3

This week’s prompt for the KGUA Monday morning writer’s hour was I can see it.  I can feel it.  I can taste it.  I gave it a shot, and my draft was read this morning, May 4, 2020.  I like that writer’s hour is not a contest and that they try to read every submission.

Submitting my 317 words by voice memo, I will email the voice memo to you if you’d like to hear what a 72-year old still has in his tank.

I can see it.  I can feel it.  I can taste it.

I can finally see California from Maine.  Really, it’s true, I can.  It’s hazy, not from its wildfires, but because of the plague.  For the last two months, I couldn’t see the Golden State at all. It was Gone Girl.  It was as if California didn’t exist.  But now, thanks to a new woman in my life, I can see it.

The angel that removed the cataracts from my eyes was our Governor Janet Mills.  I love her, that is if you can really love a governor.   She is relaxing some of her Stay at Home restrictions and I can now see the shadow of a path next winter to California.

You see, my wife Hannah and I come to California, lately to Santa Barbara, to take a big bite out of the Maine winter.

Despite what you hear, Maine in winter is not pretty.  Oh, it’s pretty in a “looking out the window at the first snow falling” kind of way.  But truth to be told, there’s a lot of inside time for us, even without the coronavirus.  We just aren’t into skiing, skating, or snowshoeing, and certainly not into being so damn cold.  Which begs the question why do you two live in Maine!

That’s where California comes in.  We are sunshine people.  We climb the mountains of the Central Coast, we walk the beaches of Kevin Costner, we bike in the towns of Ashton Kutcher, we pickleball beneath the Montecito Country Club.

We are certifiably crazy – exercisers.  And our Fitbits have just added to our obsession.  We get our 10,000, 20,000 steps no matter the amount of rain, wind, and snow.

I thought 2021 in California had disappeared, fell into the ocean.  But maybe, just maybe we will return in eight months.

I can’t feel it.  I can’t taste it.  But I can certainly see it.  I’m California Dreamin’ on a winter’s day.