May Day…Then and Now

Midday/Early Afternoon, Thursday, May 1, 2025, Miami, Florida

Hi, everyone.

It’s a muggy, summer-like day in South Florida on this first day of May 2025. It’s technically spring, but that season is so…subtle in the subtropical zone that it feels like we go straight from the cooler “dry” season to the hot, wetter, and meaner summer season. It’s not like, say, Madison, New Hampshire, where – because it’s in the more northern latitudes – the four seasons are more clearly defined.

I say this from experience because, as many of my regular readers know, I lived in Madison’s Eidelweiss district between December 15, 2023 and October 17, 2024 (my mother’s birthday, as it turns out). Not quite the year, nor the “forever” I thought it would be, but at least long enough to experience all of the four seasons, starting with – ugh – winter and ending with the second month of autumn.

One year ago, I wrote the following observations about the weather in “Almost Maine”:

It is a gray, chilly first day of the month here in Eidelweiss District, Madison, NH. Currently, the temperature is 45°F (7°C) under cloudy skies. With humidity at 95% and the wind blowing from the north-northwest at 1 MPH (2 Km/H), the feels-like temperature is 54°F (12°C). The forecast for today calls for cloudy skies and a high of 55°F (13°C). Tonight, we can expect scattered rain showers. The low will be 44°F (7°C).

Today, I’m living some 1,600 miles to the south, where the temperature outside is 82°F (28°C), but the heat index is 85°F (29°C) under partly sunny skies. It’s jeans and T-shirt weather here; no need for even a windbreaker, although a hat and sunscreen are highly recommended.

All Quiet on the Writing Front

Since May 1, 2024, the biggest change – besides my living arrangement – is that I had just finished Chapter 15 of my novel Reunion: Coda and was about to start Chapter 16. I was five months into my “adjusting to New Hampshire” phase, and I had established a more or less stable routine that allowed me to work on the novel in an almost perfect writing environment. I had some not-so-good writing days when I was less productive, and that did slow me down some, but I was sure that, if nothing else, I’d have the book ready for a Winter 2024 release.

As of May 1, 2025, things have changed. The novel Reunion: Coda was completed just a month ago in Miami-Dade County, surprising everyone as it was finished later than planned. Now, the living situation is similar to what I had on the other side of Florida, though it’s not quite the same. I’m currently pouring my energy into promoting the novel to potential readers, rather than dreaming up new adventures for Jim, Maddie, Mark, and the rest of the crew.  

Life – it’s full of weird twists and turns, isn’t it?