We (Melissa, our son Will, and I) had a nice overnight stay here at the Hampton Inn in northern Daytona Beach on the ocean. After the very stormy two evenings we just experienced in nearby Gainesville, we expected more of the same here. Instead, the clouds parted and the skies have been clear...and the seas calm. I even got to stargaze a bit from our eastern-facing balcony, noting the rising of the constellations Pegasus, Casseiopeia, and the great "summer triangle" of first-magnitude stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Down below I observed other "points of light": beachcombers wandering around the beach with flashlights. Melissa and I got up before sunrise and marveled at the beauty of the extraordinarily calm predawn ocean...along with the spectacular presence of Venus just above the horizon and Jupiter above it. Later this morning I was walking on the beach with Will. I remarked that usually there are a lot of people out running on the beach, but the humidity right then was so high that no one would dare undertake such a venture. Immediately after I said this, an elderly man ran past me from behind....
