Each year on the gulf coast of Florida, around Christmas, we don’t get snow but we do get tremendous, creepy, blinding fog. It’s really cool! The other morning, we woke up to our first foggy day of the season. This is Mason on the 18th floor of the “home office.”
The next day, I had to drive down to Bradenton to meet Ali for our annual girls’ day of Christmas shopping. On the way there, I had to drive over the Skyway Bridge. It was already 10:30 a.m. and the sun should have been out but I couldn’t see 20 feet in front of the vehicle. Thank goodness everybody was driving veeeeeeery slowly.
After lunch, the fog had cleared and it was a beautiful day, sunny and around 70 degrees. We hit a store in Bradenton, and then we drove to the big mall in Sarasota where we met our son, Frank, at the Cheesecake Factory. Ali and I then spent the rest of the day shopping at the mall. I tested so many perfumes that I started to smell like a harlot. And, no, I didn’t like any of them.
When we emerged with our arms full of packages at 5:00 p.m., the skies were clear except it looked like there was a very long line of dark clouds to the west, in the direction of the island. It only took us a few seconds to realize that the fog was coming back, and in a very big way! By the time we got back to Bradenton only 30 minutes later, the fog wall had pushed into the mainland. It was dark gray outside and you could see the mist racing by in the muted streetlights.
We stopped at one last store to try to find Christmas dresses but didn’t have any luck there. I then quickly drove through the darkening fog to drop Ali off at her house. I was nervous that the Skyway would be closed on the way back but it was still open. By the time I drove on it, it was completely dark and the visibility was even worse than it had been that morning.
Ever since the kids were little, I’ve called foggy days “froggy days.” When they were small, they’d laugh, and try to correct me, thinking I was mispronouncing the word. Now that they’re older, they just roll their eyes and groan. 😉
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Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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Interesting! I had no idea that Florida had such fog! I learned something new. Thanks!
Hi, Angela, this is a very good newsletter you’re sending out. Perhaps my work will make the list one of these years. From your list I’ve already sent a query to a religious publication regarding a piece I wrote today and another I’m working on. Danke.
Do you notice a lot of elderly people in Florida? I am only seventy-one but with severe arthritis (that keeps me at my desk, writing!) and I can’t help but wonder that any elderly people with arthritis living in many of the winter-cold parts of our country must pack up and move to Florida.
All the best and thanks again.
Peter Garland M.A.