End of January

The last time I got gas I noted that the person who used the pump ahead of me had purchased $99.86 worth of gas.  How times do change.  I can remember when I lived in Baltimore thinking how a fill-up of my Camaro at the Sunoco station polished off a $5 bill.  Back then they pumped the gas for you and gave you a free steak knife or sports tumbler with a fill-up.

Yesterday was my final visit to the Andrew’s Institute.  My thumbs are doing fine.  I can expect my right thumb to be fully recovered in May and the left in July.  The doctor was funny.  When I said this was the last time I would see him and I had some questions to ask him he misinterpreted what I was saying.  I simply meant I didn’t expect to return because we were done with the thumbs.  When we were leaving he asked why we wouldn’t see him again.  Were we moving or were we snowbirds?  I explained and he said well, you can still come see me.  He then gave me his card and said I could e-mail him if I have any more questions.

On our way home we ate at the Hawaiian restaurant.

Yesterday we went to Belk's to order something for Penny.  When we walked in the door there was a display with 70% off Columbia jackets.  We looked and we bought some windbreakers and a heavier coat for me.  We went back today to pick up what Penny ordered yesterday and the jackets were now only 50% off.

Today Penny got a temporary crown on the tooth that was root-canalled last week. We had lunch at a new restaurant that is owned by the son of Sam (he-he) -the guy who owned Sam’s back when it was my Dad’s favorite (and only) place to eat fried amberjack.  It was good and their gumbo was up to snuff.  The place is primarily a drive-thru and is easy driving distance from us so I see more gumbo in my future.

I still am fighting this cold but I did finally get back on the treadmill today.  The bad news is that Penny’s been coughing and sneezing all day.  Now she’s got it.

I Voted

All my life It’s been hammered in to my head that our right to vote is our most precious freedom.  I guess that’s true but while we have that right we don’t have any real control over who runs for office. If all choices are perceived as bad for the country what good is having a vote? The system churns out self-centered rich candidates that do and say whatever is needed to win.

We are all sick of the negative adds and robo-calls attacking candidates with half truths and lies while ignoring issues, right?  Well why can’t we stop them?  Why do they work?  Do the majority of voters decide based upon the information in these adds?  Who are these people that like these adds? 

I used to have faith in the American system.  The Obama election destroyed any remnants of that faith.  Obama sounded good but never really said anything substantial. People heard him saying what they wanted to hear rather than actually listening to his words.  This was so obvious to many of my generation but we had a vast new inexperienced generation of voters who voted their feelings and hopes rather than using logic. After all, once in office he would “do the right thing”.  But the real problem was that the man the republicans put against Obama was clearly unelectable.  Who, in their right mind would want that tired old man in the white house?  Another election where voting was useless.

It really bothers me that the electorate and the candidates are so out of sync. I want to hear solutions to our economic problems.  I want to hear a reasoned civil discussion of issues.  I don’t want to be told how nasty someone is.  I want to know who is qualified and why.  But I can complain all day-and I’m not alone-but while voters are fed up no one knows how to change things.  A candidate that runs a positive campaign is overwhelmed  by the system.

I’m seriously waiting for people’s frustration to turn violent.

So don’t forget to exercise that right to vote.  Many lives have been lost guaranteeing you have it.

It’s Squared

Penny and I teamed up today to try to square the Popoli quilt today.

I set up the newly purchased (75% off) ping pong tale, which is 9 x 5, with a 8 x 4 extension to lay out the 9 x 9 quilt.

We managed to do the job but the quilt dictated the rules.

         Penny working on quilt – How’s it look Popolis??

I took a sunset beach walk tonight.  I thought the sunset would be more dramatic tonight but it turned out just to be nice.

 

I haven’t hit the treadmill in about a week and a half.  The cold I have has slowed me down some.  I’m hoping tomorrow to be well enough to walk a couple miles at least.

I also have my final appointment with the Gulf Breeze doctor for a last check on my thumbs.  They seem to be doing fine but I just want to ask him a few questions before he goes away.  We may eat Hawaiian for lunch tomorrow.

April in January

Like the rest of you we have had a warm January – 14 days with temps above 70.  It is strange running the heat 1 day and the airco the next.

I picked up a cold in Jacksonville and have been under the weather this week.  Considering the quality time I had with family in Jax It was worth it. I had a couple of hours straight with Lucy 1-on-1 reading and playing.  I provided Sophie with her first ride in her new booster seat and got to see her joy at discovering the freedom of the new seat.  We gave K & T a date night, went to the circus with the Feagins and got to see the kid’s marvel at the circus acts.  I even had a good talk with Kerry.  We even got in a brief visit with C&C>

I haven’t done much back home yet.  I coughed so much on Monday that my ribs were sore on Tuesday and hurt every time I coughed.  Today I’m getting better and actually did a little productive stuff.  I’m hoping tomorrow is better.

It’s going to be better than Penny’s day.  Tomorrow she has a root canal.

The Ordinary

The days of normalcy continue but I am enjoying doing all the chores and tasks and other things with very little thumb pain.  Actually there is no thumb pain of the type I used to have.  Now any pain I have is caused by the remnants of the surgery.

So doing laundry, opening jars, shaking hands, taking anything out of my pockets and just about anything I do is a better experience.  At the end of the day I used to have sore hands—paying for everything I did that day.  Now that is gone and I marvel at the difference.

Penny has had a toothache for the last 3 days.  Of course, it happened on a Friday-the day our dentist is off.  It then didn’t get so bad as to consider an emergi-center until after 1 on Saturday when they close.  Penny didn’t want the emergency room experience so she gutted it out until this morning and finally got to see our dentist.  Tonight (Monday) she is starting to feel better.

My biggest issue is trying to get in the exercises I’m supposed to do each day for my thumbs. I’m supposed to do 10 different strengthening exercises on each hand 3 to 4 times a day.   One session of the exercises on each hand takes at least 40 minutes to complete.  I’m lucky if I get in 1 session each day.

And finally, we went to Lowes on Saturday and once again found some nice negotiable deals.  One of the items for sale was a stack of 7 metal house numbers.  How often have you looked at discounted letters or numbers and found ones you could use?  Well, the 7 numbers contained 2 “ones”, 2 “twos” and 2 “sevens”—2 sets of the numbers we use.  I saw it as a sign that I needed to replace my mailbox. So I gave the negotiation task to the master-Penny- and she went in the store and got them for 20 cents a piece.

Mowing in January

I never get completely away from having to mow the yard.  In Summer sometimes I mow twice a week.  In winter it is every 2-4 weeks.  I mowed today, not because the grass is tall but because the weeds are tall.  It’s also a good way to clean up the leaves and other debris.

I would guess that if I posted my mowing on Facebook that I would be accused of rubbing in the fact that I live in Florida.  But I don’t live in that warm part of Florida.  If I did I’d be eating BLTs today instead of fried green tomatoes.

We are only 2 months away from the Gate River “Run” and while I have been on the treadmill I am still behind where I need to be for the 9-mile walk.  I just can’t do the walk with no preparation like those youngsters I walk with.

We are in for another cold spell to end this week.  It means that I probably won’t have to mow for another month.

Good Day for a Movie

It’s a rainy Tuesday and apart from cleaning up the yard, shed and house there isn’t much going on.  Penny felt OK today and she’s been wanting to see the Sherlock Holmes movie that’s out now…so we went to the movies.

The movie was fun and entertaining, nothing taxing for the brain, and I enjoyed it. Penny did, too.

After that we returned books to the library and picked up some new ones.

This week has been uneventful but still fun if one has the correct attitude.  The highlight of my trip to Publix yesterday came at the bakery.  I picked up a loaf of unsliced Chicago Italian bread and got the baker’s attention to slice it simultaneously with a grandma arriving at the counter with a sixish-year-old boy.  The baker-lady looked at us and said to me, “I’m going to get this kid a cookie before he gets upset.  He looks like he could beat me up and you don’t”.  The kid was there, in fact, to get a cookie as part of their cookie club.  It brought back memories of us when K&C were small.  I found one of their cookie cards when I was cleaning up the shed a while back.  Anyway, I enjoyed the little encounter at the bakery and after I got the bread sliced I told the lady that I would try to be more intimidating next time.

As all 5 of my readers know my deck and shed have a view of the elementary schoolyard and on school days there are usually a bunch of kids out there having recess or PT or whatever.  Last Friday I was clearing out the clutter in the shed and noticed a lot of screaming going on.  It turned out that 4 little girls were watching me.  Every time they saw me either inside the doorway or coming out the door onto the deck they would scream and run away to the other side of the schoolyard.  They would then gather up again and walk back to where they could see the door again  and repeat the routine.

About the 4th time they did this after I noticed them they finally waved and said “Hi”.  That got them a reprimand from the teacher and the game was over.  I did wave back and say hi to them.

My tomato experiment is officially over.  The plants are uprooted and I have a bag full of pink and green tomatoes to dispose of.  We had a couple of days of freezing weather and more is on the way.  Once the tomatoes see temperatures less than around 45 degrees they lose their flavor permanently.  If I want good tomatoes next fall I must plant earlier and/or make a hothouse to keep the temperature and light consistent with flavorful maters.

I harvested these while C&C were here and Penny made us tomato soup.

This is what the plants looked like after the freeze.  At least I had no problem this year getting tomatoes to grow!

Both of the outside cats have been showing up AM and PM for the past 3 days.  As I said – nothing exciting going on.  After the holidays it provides a good chance to unwind.

Pictures

I didn’t write much the last couple of weeks of the year so I’ll do a quick picture essay to remind me what we did in Jacksonville, High Springs and here.

……And lots more, including a family reunion/Christmas dinner at the Brophy’s.

It was an enjoyable ending to 2011.

Happy 2012

The year got off to a great start.  C&C are visiting and we took our whole “fleet” of kayaks out.  This is the first kayaking I’ve done in 18 months and it’s the first time I’ve kayaked with good thumbs. Having good thumbs makes a huge difference in the enjoyment .
C&C used the tandem kayak and Penny and I used our  singles.  There was a strong wind but it was still shirt-sleeve weather.  I intentionally didn’t bring a camera, which I knew I’d regret, but I thought the logistics of 3 kayaks, 4 people and our gear didn’t need any further complications.  We went down to the end of the bayou, up the little stream and back down the bayou again.
Along the way we saw many types of birds.  A bald eagle was cruising high on the winds, pelicans were sheltering  from the wind in a cove, our winter loon visitors were diving for fish and of course there were a couple heron to be seen.  Penny also saw an otter.
The only thing missing from the experience was a visit by friendly dolphin.  Christy successfully summoned dolphin when we were at Harbordocks so I asked her to do some dolphin whispering for us.  It worked!  Within 5 minutes she spotted a pod moving up the bayou.  C&C paddled over to them and got a good close look.  I paddled further up the bayou and got my close encounter as the dolphin left C&C.
This has been a fun visit with C&C. We were in vacation mode. We’ve eaten at all our favorite places starting with Aloha and including the aforementioned Harbordocks, Fat Clemenzas,  Waffle House, and McGuire’s.  Today we had a wonderful New Year’s meal prepared by Penny.  Of course it included black-eyed peas.  Tomorrow we will likely breakfast at Mother Earth’s.
We went to Pensacola on Friday.  We climbed the lighthouse and then wandered around the restored area before taking a short walk downtown.  Saturday we visited Harborwalk and then went to the outlets.  We toasted in the new year with Champagne.  Today we kayaked, had that luscious meal and cranked up the 3D TV to watch a Narnia movie.
Happy New Year!