Catching Up With Us Again

Well, by now you must have thought we died. Gary is out of the hospital dragging his little nebulizer and a half dozen prescriptions with him. It’s funny to see what albuteral does to him. He kinda shakes his feet in a jingly sort of way. Very keeping with the season. He is feeling very much better, and looks better, too. He’s only got a little booboo under his eye and he says he can see perfectly again. Yippeee.

He officially retired from Disney today. They didn’t offer any apologies, but did accept his resignation without too much objection. Our friends, Bob and Mary, called today from Massachusetts to chat. They have been working at Disney for years on a limited basis, but just enough to get the benefits. They agree that sometimes it seems that Disney gives with one hand and takes away with the other. But getting into any park for free is a really big perk.

Late yesterday, we felt like going with Donna and Ron to the Yacht Club to see the chocolate carrousel. I hear you asking ‘A what??’ Yup, it is a carrousel made from chocolate and gingerbread. Here is a photo.
I wish you could smell what we did.
See those happy faces? That’s what chocolate does for us. Here’s even a beautiful white chocolate horse named for our grandson, Jack.
Then we took the monorail from the Contemporary Resort to the Grand Floridian to see the 45 foot Christmas tree,
the Gingerbread House

and listen to the orchestra play Christmas Carols. Ten dollars for a martini just wasn’t going to happen for Gary, though, so we ended up going to Chile’s for dinner. Two-for-one beers was more his style. It could have been the beers, or maybe that he has pneumonia, but he was pooped, so it was early beddy for us.

Today I returned all my Disney costumes and made sure my check had been direct-deposited. We left the parking lot a little sad that it hadn’t really worked out for us. But, you know my policy: it happens for a reason.

On the way home, we stopped at Publix and, I swear (usually I don’t) they are soooo nice there. Everyone. We passed the manager, Adam, in an aisle, and he asked if we were finding everything OK. We asked where we might find Tahini (sesame paste for Gary’s hummus) and he took us right to it. Awesome. If he gets hired, I think Gary will like working there. Amazingly, while I was getting my hair trimmed next door, the stylist said that the shopping center was actually built over a mobile home/RV park. Apparently the management put a notice on every door one night that said that the property had been sold and they needed to vacate the land within a week. Imagine! They gave no notice other than that, took the money and ran. There are some sorry people out there.

Our freezing temps last night should be the last for a while. This is a photo of our outside temperatures at 7:15 Tues. morning. Yea, that's 28 degrees fahrenheit.
It’s going up to 75 tomorrow, but down a little to 65 over the weekend. We really need rain – the fire hazard rating is way up there. We might get a sprinkle on Sat. Maybe we’ll put the awning back out and hang up our little lights again.
The hooded merganzer ducks, blue and white herons, mallards and ibises were all cavorting in the low water today.


Can you spot the male belted kingfisher in the tree? - a little to the left of the middle of the photo.
We haven’t seen the alligator (fine with me – as long as he isn’t keeping warm under our coach!)

Well, there you are. You’re caught up. I can’t believe Christmas is next week. I hope you are all getting in the spirit, even though some of you are digging out. Please drive safely. HoHoHo