The Nude Life

We managed to get out of Dallas/Ft. Worth before the season’s first ice storm hit, so we are warm, dry and nude in Orlando now at Cypress Cove. After checking in, getting our clothes off (of course!), getting unpacked, and renting our golf cart for the week, we toured the residential community to survey the many homes for sale right now. There are a lot to choose from, and by the time we meet with the general manager for our prospective resident screening interview, we should have a good list of possible future home sites to select from.

Our first visit to Cypress Cove was probably more than a decade ago. Back then, the resort was way, way outside the boundaries of development of Kissimmee, far, far into the country. We remember driving past the edge of town, into the black darkness of moonless Florida summer night without a single street light to shed any light — and then finally, Cypress Cove’s entrance was there in the darkness. We can only imagine how remote and “past the end of the world” it was 44 years ago when Cypress Cove first opened — before Disney ever heard of Orlando, and before there was anything like commercial air service to the region.

Now, of course, the huge growth of Orlando has spread all the way to Cypress Cove and beyond. There’s a brand-new Lowe’s home center opening up in a few months, directly across the highway from Cypress Cove’s entrance. There’s a Publix, a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot, and everything else you can think of from a typical suburban American city, right outside the gates of this beautiful retreat. So, we won’t lack for convenience or shopping choices once we move here.

The goal of the week is to get a good offer ready on a home to buy here, and to go through what we think will be a formality of a resident interview. The criminal and credit background check will take about 30 days, and then the Cove’s Executive Board will vote on whether to approve us for residency. We’re certain all of that will go well.

Tomorrow, some sightseeing in the area, some sunning by the pool if the weather cooperates, and then Friday night’s activities at the Cheeks Bar and Lakeside Restaurant and Lounge. We hope to get to know some of our soon-to-be-future neighbors. And we are very glad to be far, far away from the ice and cold of Dallas this week, able to enjoy mild, sunny, nude days at Cypress Cove.

We’ve been nude for the better half of 2008 so far, six days into the new year. Since the big Nude Year’s Eve party we enjoyed on the last night of 2007 with about 50 nudist friends, we returned to work on January 2 but still spent nearly the whole of New Year’s week nude. Besides extending the bliss and comfort of a wonderful 11-day holiday break into 2008, we’re enjoying more warm weather right now which allowed some decent outdoor nude time over the past week.

There’s simply no doubt about it: being nude as much as possible helps our peace of mind, our well-being, our happiness, and needless to say our comfort and feeling of freedom. Being nude most of the time since the final days of 2006 has renewed our conviction that nudism is something we, along with the rest of the world, need a lot more of.

And so, we have set ourselves the goal of making 2008 our nudest year ever. We aim to be nude at all times when at home unless there’s a very good reason not to be, such as when non-nudist visitors are in the home; we aim to be nude as much as possible when on vacation at as many nudist destinations as we can get to this year; and we aim to spend virtually every minute spent in hotel rooms while on the road nude as well.

In short, nudity will be the default condition starting with 2008, and we won’t make excuses for being nude; instead, it will require a good reason why we shouldn’t be nude from now on.

It is a more pleasant and simple way of living, and certainly one that is more blissful and comfortable. There’s just no reason not to try to maximize our nude time from now on. So 2008 will be our nudest year ever — and so far, we’ve made a very good start at it.

And how’s your nude time in 2008 going? Share your experiences with other nudists from around the world in The Nude Life Forum.

The meteorological muse was good to those of us in North Texas again this past weekend, and we were able to enjoy the whole weekend with our nudist friends. A pool party under the warm sun on Saturday let us luxuriate once again free of the clammy bathing costumes that feel so unnatural now on the rare instances when we are compelled to wear them.

That happened Friday night when we stayed the night at a hotel with an outdoor hot tub and pool. After dinner with two friends, we made our way to the hot tub and hit the switch for the bubbles to start the warm water circulating. Noticing that our hotel had very few guests in-house for the night, and that the hot tub and pool area was out of plain view of nearly everything else around, we quickly dispensed with our bathing suits and enjoyed the half-hour in the hot tub together nude as we all preferred. There was an audible “Ahhhh!” as each of us shimmied out of our swimsuit and felt the warm water tickling our bodies all over.

We struggled and groaned when the time came to wriggle back into the bathing suits for the short walk indoors to the hotel room. What a bother — and so totally unnecessary! Nudism is not only much, much more comfortable, but also much more convenient!

At the pool party on Saturday, things felt much more ‘normal:’ glorious warmth and relaxation free from the clammy constraints of soggy, chilly and clingy bathing suits we had to use (albeit briefly) the night before. And since there is no wet bathing suit to try to towel off after leaving the pool, beach towels stay much drier than when you have to soak up all the water absorbed by the superfluous textiles of a bathing suit.

So to the long list of great reasons to try nudism, add this: convenience! And just a whole lot less to worry about and fuss over when enjoying a fun day outdoors.

The blog was neglected last week as we were on vacation out of town — our lone non-nudist vacation planned for this year. As such, we were obliged to spend the bulk of our time clothed.