SURFIN' SAFARI SUMMER ONE - DAY TWO - June 15, 2019

THREE SURFIN’ SAFARI SUMMERS: In the summer of 2019, three years after my wife Anna Huling-Siciliano was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, it became clear that I was losing her. Time was precious, health precarious, money short, and I decided to mine the riches of Southern California and launch a defiant series of regional Surfin’ Safaris as health-driven, couple-shared adventures out of the mausoleum our home had become. As a family we’d always been beachgoers and it seemed a safe bet for my wife who was slowly losing her mind. She could sit on a blanket - as she always had - while I surfed. Things didn't work out to be so neat and clean, but that's the story. Reporting being of a second nature to me, I concocted Facebook posts after each outing through which I intended to keep friends and family apprised of Anna’s condition, and to put them at ease about her quality of life (ie; how I was treating her). Of course, others could read the posts, which were grouped under the title “Surfin’ Safari Summer,” and some liked them enough to request a second summer. That batch picked up a few more adherents as the posts took on their own style and flavor - a strange amalgam of SoCal travelogue, Alzheimer's nightmare, and the musings of a mediocre middle-aged surfer and writer on life's downside (That's not false modesty; it's bragging). The emerging story followed the arc of Anna’s precipitous decline. We went for a third summer during which a growing bunch of friends followed that arc. The posts often drove the Safaris; by which I mean the need to do more interesting stuff, go farther places and such, ultimately affected our travel and dining choices; at least at the outset. My own life rhythms and physical condition saw radical change as what started as a side-project became a lifestyle. It was a lot of surf and travel which led to the development of new habits. And then I stopped (not the surfing), because I felt it to be written out and because Anna could no longer play her part. I have printed some 70 comments urging that I put the posts into a book and a couple of people closer to home refused to let the matter go. There was enough written material, so I fashioned a manuscript and also the web page I am sharing here with you, for easy access. I have engaged a professional to help shape and make it work, if it does at all, and then those 70 comments from my delightfully literate friend list will be appended to the book proposal.

In all, there are 64 Surfin’ Safaris chronicled over three summers, with profiles of Anna I have done before, interspersed to flesh out her character, as it were. So, without further ado - working title - “Three Surfin’ Safari Summers.”