Sarasota Trip and A Little Nature

I am so excited to see comments left by you all. I had no idea that our newly made friends and even brief acquaintances read our blog. Thank you all so much. I love it. I love it. I would love to reply to your comments, but I don’t know how. Other than posting another comment, which you probably won’t see because you would be reading a new one, I don’t know if I can.

If any of you know how, please leave a comment on the procedure (or email me).

Monday night was fun when Donna came over for dinner and brought her dulcimer. She pulled out some music sheets and she and Gary played together. I manned the computer to find out about songs that we had a question about. The dulcimer is a beautiful instrument as you can see and has a lovely sound.

Tuesday was a beautiful day and we got up early (had to set that nasty alarm thingy) and headed out to Sarasota to do some work on the house. On the way, my hairstylist called to move my appointment which turned out to be a good thing, so we carried on to storage to put some things away then drove to the Eye Dr. to get our prescriptions. We had a little lunch at Einstein Bagels downtown then headed back to storage to pick up the Little Giant Ladder (which is no small feat) and stuff it in the Jeep.

Our tenant was out washing his car when we arrived at the house, so we got right to work. Gary caulked the back window and some other little places, power washed the fascia board and porch walls, then he climbed up to the roof and proceeded to wash the roof.

I took the ladder to the back (another no small feat) and painted the fascia and windows.

I had to quickly wipe off and run to my hair salon and got a cute cut. A wash and wear model, or my summer cut, as I call it. It’s usually so humid that my hair does what it wants to and I don’t want to spend time blow drying it before it does what it wants to anyway.

When I got back, Gary was just about finished, but we painted the windows on the side of the house, too. Finally we said good bye and drove over to Jean’s house for a little visit before Debbie arrived from work. After a drinkypoo, we followed Debbie to her new digs and admired her view from the balcony. We loved her new little home. We played with her kitties, Dobie and Bella (yes, just like our coach) and then we were ready for dinner. She took us to Gecko’s Grill and Pub where we had a great meal: Gary had wings and sweet potato fries with an apple butter dip (YUM), I had the veggie pizza and Deb had the sausage and onion hoagie. Outside we gave each other hugs among the aroma of the honeysuckle in bloom. Fabulous.

We got home at 10 and immediately hit the sack. It was a hard work day.

This morning was again supposed to be sunny and warm at 85 degrees, but got a little cloudy. All of a sudden I heard two booms close together. ‘That was the sound barrier – the Discovery has entered our atmosphere’ said Gary. We flipped on the TV and watched her land for the last time. Discovery will be decommissioned over the next several months and sent to the Smithsonian Institution for display.

Gary suggested we go to Poinciana to see the Osceola School District Environmental Nature Center. It’s a 19 acre segment of the Reedy Creek eco wetland system. We missed it, turned around and noticed that the gate was half open. Hmmm. We off-roaded it and drove in. There was a car there with its trunk open. I knocked on the door, and Craig came to open it. We asked if the nature walk was open, and he said only on the weekends. But he was nice and said that we could take a walk, but he was going to leave in about 30 minutes. We grabbed the camera and binoculars and started down the boardwalk. Here’s Gary taking a look at whatever he can see.

We did see lots of vegetation, but then he spotted this huge snapping turtle. It probably was two feet long at least, not including his head or neck. Notice the ‘thorns’ around his neck?

We saw hawks and anoles (lizards) other birds and something crashing around in the underbrush (but not clearly enough to identify it) alligators and other Florida turtles out sunning. You know that little bit of mistletoe you find in stores around the holidays? Well, this is how it grows. The kind you buy is preserved, but live mistletoe is beautiful.

Of course, there were the obligatory aligators, some large and some small.

This is called an airplant because all they need is air (no soil) and moisture to grow.

Thirty minutes came and went, but Craig had a minute to talk about himself. He runs the Nature Center, and is from Maine, but attended Duke in NC. He loves his job here in Florida, wished us well on our travels, and followed us out the gate.

We had some lunch on the veranda (as Gary like to call it) and then our daughter, Michelle, called. Would we like to spend spring break with them in Hilton Head? Does it include golf? asked Gary. So we are now going to spend five days at the Palmetto Bluff Resort in Bluffton, SC (just west of Hilton Head). It won’t be as warm as here, so we’ll have to pack our cozies. Sounds like fun!

No Jeep tires yet. Bummer.

Last Few Days and Tax Fever

Our new tires haven’t come in yet. Maybe today.

Thursday our friends, Donna and Ron, and we drove over to Disney Marketplace to take some photos of Flat Stanley. If you haven’t heard of Flat Stanley, I’ll explain. Flat Stanley is a book by Jeff Brown. It about a young boy named Stanley who is accidentally flattened “as flat as a pancake” when a bulletin board falls on him while he is asleep. Stanley is very, very flat but otherwise fine. Schools have decided to use Flat Stanley as a learning tool by giving a child a ‘Flat Stanley’ and asking them to take him on various journeys. Because he is a paper ‘doll’, he can be mailed to relatives and friends around the world and have his picture taken in fun places as proof he traveled there. So Donna decided to take Flat Stanley to the Disney Marketplace for his picture. Of course, I used her camera for the photo, but I wish Gary had taken a picture, too. Sorry.

Saturday we decided to get an unsavory task done. Cleaning and organizing the bays. It wasn’t too painful, and we jettisoned a few things, making room for our new chairs. Can you notice the pockets on one end and the fold up table on the other? They’re pretty comfortable, too. We’re leaving my old green recliner for the fire circle.

The clean out didn’t take too long and we found some new stuff we didn’t know we had from the previous owner. Some of the things I think we just took along with us thinking we would work out what it was used for, but we still haven’t worked it out. So we stuffed it back in to figure out later. Ron and Donna picked up a work shift and that meant I needed to put the crockpot roast in the fridge for Monday’s dinner. So Gary chose to grill something for dinner. He zipped off to the store and I worked on the taxes some more.

Yesterday (Sunday) we expected it to rain, so intended finishing the taxes. But Donna came over to talk, then Ron and by then it was 2:30 and I was starved. Last week at Sweet Tomatoes, our receipt included a coupon for a special price that ended Sunday. Well, it took us 20 seconds to get ready. Donna and Ron had to work, so they took their work clothes with them. I love the picture on the wall: Plan Ahead. Everything is very tempting, but my favorite is the multigrain bread. It’s a molasses colored bread with every conceivable grain sprinkled all over the outside. But, I’m trying to control the carbs, so I only ate two pieces. We decided to walk at Downtown Disney to help work off a few calories, so walked from end to end. Maybe a few calories?? Then we said our goodbyes, and headed home.

Monday is almost over, and we began with washing the sheets and clothes, and tackling the TAXES. We broke for lunch, then finished the taxes at 2 pm. YAY! Ron picked up another work shift, so just Donna will be here to enjoy the pork roast. She is bringing her dulcimer, so we will expect some music.

My favorite music is nature-made, but I also love stringed instruments. So I will be listening tonight!

A Little Fun and New Friends (Davenport, FL)

Well, it rained some on Tuesday, not too much and no storms. The plants were happy. But it was out of here by the afternoon and Donna and Ron had returned from their trip up to the cold north, so we decided to go to the movies to see the Oscar winner “The King’s Speech”. First we were hungry so we stopped at Sweet Tomatoes and tried everything. It was all good, as usual. When we arrived at Downtown Disney to see if it was playing there, we discovered it was Senior Discount Tuesday! Yay, we saved $2 apiece. We also had 2 hours to kill, so we walked down to Little Miss Matched, a cool store of clothing (especially socks) that mix and match. The socks come three to a package so that you can make many different combinations. Donna found some bargains. Then we asked at a kiosk where we could find information on Disney cruises. Off to Guest Services to ask. I was given a brochure with a tiny 800 number on the bottom back page. There is no office you can visit. Just get on the phone. Hmmm.

Finally it was time to go in. There are something like 23 theaters in this building, but they are small, and it was a good thing we went in 30 minutes early. It was jammed. Then it was sticker shock time. Highest prices I’ve ever seen for popcorn and a drink. And we thought we wouldn’t be hungry after lunch. Bottomless pits we are, apparently. That was our dinner.

Yesterday Donna and Ron’s friends Mary and Larry came in to stay until Sunday. We had dinner with them and they are a lot of fun. Unfortunately one of their little dogs was very ill last night and this morning we got a quick photo of them before they loaded up and drove back home to their vet’s. The campground was really nice and refunded all of their money – even last night’s!

March is here, came in like a lion and is doing some roaring every day. It is windy with gusts up to 20 mph, so our awning is up and down like a toilet seat. Today we paid for our last month here. It’s so hard to believe that we have been doing our full-timing for almost a year. How fast it goes. Looking back, it was an up and down year, perhaps like every year, but I swear I can remember every day. The people we met were the best part of the traveling. The things we saw were second. We made a few mistakes with the coach, but not very expensive mistakes thank goodness.

The jeep tires should be here tomorrow, and we were asked by Jim and Linda to come to their place in Vero Beach for some kayaking. So after ‘baby’ gets ‘new shoes’ we’ll make plans to get in the water! We’ll keep you posted!