Gray's Academy

It has been wonderful to have my little front porch all to myself. No one has been renting the two bedroom unit next to mine. There is a flight of stairs from the street that lead up one floor to a small balcony and tiny foyer that gives access to two small apartments over restaurant Liola. The little apartment is my unit. The larger two bedroom has been vacant all week.

Ahhh – I took that porch to be mine. When I was headed to dinner tonight my landlady was meeting a future tenant to look at the two bedroom unit right next door to mine. After dinner, I was lounging on my couch and had my front curtain open, and a man walked by peeked in and made a little wave. The apartment was rented! Grrrrr. Now I have to close my curtain. More grrrr.

A short while later I heard the foyer door open and peaked thru my now closed curtains and there was this man in speedo underwear smoking a cigarette on what was once my balcony. He had a big belly hanging over those panties. This was not a pretty sight.

In Sicily it is still ok to smoke on the street and outside small bars. There aren’t a huge a number of people smoking but occasionally I will get a whiff. Ughhh, cigarettes are stink bombs. My father smoked like a chimney-in the car, in the house, wherever he was his cigarettes were with him. This was in the sixties and seventies. Smoking was ok even on airplanes. I grew up inhaling a large amount of second hand smoke. My father died at age 55 from stomach cancer. My mother is still rocking this world. She will celebrate her 90th birthday in a few weeks and she has emphysema. She never smoked a day in her life. Thanks, Dad. 😠

I don’t care what kind of undergarments a man wears but I know that men and women think of their undies as a little mystery that is only revealed to a select few. Larry was a tightly whitey guy but he did sport a speedo in St Barts and it made me smile. He had a little more swagger in his step when he wore his black speedo. I thought it was cute. I loved seeing Larry strut his stuff.

There is a new layer to my adventure. My new neighbor has as much right to that balcony as I do and he can smoke whether I like it or not. Some of you may think this is a sign that a new man is coming into my life. I don’t kiss ashtrays so he won’t be that kind of man for me. He has already been on the balcony twice so he is more than a social smoker. Can you tell? I hate cigarettes!

Taking a solo adventure tomorrow to Savoca. Dinner tonight at Ethica was good enough. More on that later.

Buena Sera