That's a photo of last night's sunset by the way.  We have observed since living here that the night(s) before a big storm, the sunsets are especially beautiful!   Last night proved, once again, that our assumption is, in fact, true.  The air was cool, the breeze was refreshing and the water was just as calm as could be. In fact, it was so calm that we saw not one but two manatees!   (they usually spend their time under water so the most you will ever see is there cute little snooties as they come up for air.)

I only mention this because of the coming storm.  In case you hadn't heard, there is a storm heading our way.  Right now it's south of us prepared to wreak havoc on Cuba.  When it's finished, it will come into the gulf.  Where in the gulf remains to be seen.  It's all a guessing game right now.  I mean, right now the map below is what the meteorologists are predicting but even they are saying, "we don't know anything for sure yet" .  This is the current map of what they anticipate with  Tropical Storm/Hurricane Ian:

At  the moment it seems that where we live is not going to be a direct hit which is a relief for us, but at the same time, someone else is living where they storm plans to make landfall and that is very very bad.  And even if it does arrive elsewhere, there will be residual  storm effects from the outer bands here, there and, according to the map, in lots of places including Georgia and South Carolina!

That said, I think we are pretty much ready for................whatever.  We have food, water and gas for the generator.   Mostly I wanted to touch base and let you know that you don't hear from me again this week, it just means that internet is down. That's all it means.  We will be fine, I am absolutely positive about that!

If nothing else, once the storm has safely passed us by, I will try to post an all clear on facebook.  Hope all of you had a great weekend and I will post again as soon as I can!

​Hugs all 'round

"Good Fences make Good Neighbors".   So said Robert Frost.  And while we do have a fence around our backyard, that is not why we have good neighbors. And we do. Honestly, we really got lucky when we bought this house because it came with the best neighbors ever.  The are friendly without being intrusive, helpful without being pushy and delightful to spend time with.

And this was especially apparent during the past few months as I've been recovering from surgery.  While the surgery certainly wasn't a secret, I mean I blog posted about it after the fact for heaven's sakes, I also didn't advertise it before hand.

Oh of course immediate family knew, but otherwise, I just wasn't ready to talk about it.  I guess I was coming to terms with it on my own. And I am, in an odd way for a person with a blog, kind of a private person.   There are the things I am comfortable writing about on my blog, but there are also things I only tell family and maybe  those few very close friends. There are other things that I only tell Tim and then there are those few tiny things that I only discuss with myself.  This one, at first, fell into the only family category.

But one day, as I was coming home from a walk and passed my neighbors house, I saw that she was outside so we stopped to talk for a short time.  As we caught up, I was surprised to find myself telling her, candidly, about my upcoming surgery.  She was surprised and concerned and very kind. But it was a brief discussion and I changed the subject  very quickly.  Apparently that was all I needed to do.

Post surgery there were almost daily, cards, flowers, notes, avocados and lemons from almost everyone around us wishing me well and asking what they could do to help. I was surprised but in the best  possible way.  The care and concern has continued even though I'm out and about and doing very well thank you.  I've been taken to lunch, received book recommendations and had other books loaned to me.  Puzzles have been dropped off to help me pass the time and there have been many sincere offers to drive me anywhere I need to go. 

Well Tim is happy to drive me and he handled being the chief cook and bottle washer just fine, (he is an excellent caregiver) so we really didn't need to call upon anyone for their assistance but it was wonderful to know that so many people were ready to jump in and help.  I greatly appreciated the many offers.

I'm doing so well now that my entire journey is pretty much something in the past  as far as I'm concerned.  I am back up and running. Okay not running, but I'm walking at a sprightly clip.  There are no more cards, notes, books or flowers left (or needing to be left) on the doorstep. Things are back to what passes for normal around here.

Which is why it was such a surprise to look out the window on Sunday and see activity in the front yard.  What?  I stepped outside to find two of my neighbors working in our front yard.  They were, first of all, cleaning up an area under one of the remaining palm trees that has some wildly growing things that usually, during the cooler months, once a year, I trim back hard.  I have no idea what I am doing of course.

She on the other hand, is a Master Gardener and knows precisely what she is doing.  She brushed off my surprised thanks and pointed to a different spot.  And to my surprise, suddenly, we have a new shrub!  

Do you remember when I wrote about how we had a couple of ginormous palm trees cut down and that  there was an empty spot in front of the courtyard wall?  The naked spot between the two large bougainvillea's bothered me.  I was debating what to do with it.

Well it is empty no longer!  We now are the very pleased owners of a pink Plumeria!

Okay it looks like a baby now but eventually, once it's used to it's new home (perhaps the next blooming season?) it will have the most gorgeous pink blossoms!  They look like this:

I thanked both of them repeatedly and promised to pay them back in baked goods and was told to not be ridiculous.  It made them happy to do this!    They insisted that no repayment of any kind was necessary.  My Goodness!  How did we get so lucky??

I was instructed on the care and feeding of my Plumeria and have been faithfully following instructions.   It's been four days now and so far, so good.  I haven't managed to kill it off yet, thank heavens!!

So how exactly do you thank a neighbor for such kindnesses over and over and over?  Well of course, by being kind and a good neighbor in return. But I do believe a lot of baked goods are in order here.  That is absolutely something I can (and will) do.

So, like I said, the best neighbors ever!

snip snip

I finally FINALLY got  my arse to my hairdresser so that I could become  transformed  from a sheepdog to a human.  Geez!  It was more than three months between haircuts this time around and wow, that is just too long.

I am always astonished at how transformative a haircut can be.  And obviously, the longer between trims, the bigger the difference.  Once again, I wish I had thought to take a before photo but I did not.  The closest I could come was about two weeks post surgery, which means the end of July.  At that time I looked like this:

The hair was not great at that time, but it was also not horrible.  That was probably the point where, normally, I would have been heading out for a trim.  Instead I waited.  I was trying to wait until I felt up to at least pretending to be a normal human being and then I waited a bit longer.  And then a bit longer than that.  In fact, I waited until September.  Whoa!
​
I'm not sure why I waited so long.  I suspect that, at that point in my recovery process, my hair just wasn't a priority.   Too many other, more important things on my mind.  But eventually I knew that I just couldn't put it off any longer.  If for no other reason than to get my bangs under control.  

Growing out bangs is one of the most awkward of all hair related moments.    I've written about it before here.  I've tried clips, barrettes, braiding, hair bands, pretty much everything you can think of and honestly, none of it is a good answer for me. Usually.  This time, it didn't bother me much.  Again, other priorities.  I was, shall we say, distracted, from the hair issue.

And then all of a sudden one ordinary morning I woke up, showered, attempted to do something (anything!) with my hair and realized that it looked horrible.   Not merely bad, no it had gone all the way to truly horrible.   And this wasn't just my opinion.  When I arrived at the salon, my lovely hairdresser came around to corner to greet me, came to a complete stop and her eyes opened VERY wide in shock. 

Oh she is a professional. She caught herself, smiled warmly and said, "don't worry, I can fix this".  HAHAHAHAHA!  She did a great job and when she was done the floor was littered with bits of hair that were about 3 to 4 inches long.  And I once again looked human.

 A little different wouldn't you say?

The one good thing I could say about my hair before the appointment was that for the first time in a long time, I could whip it up into a ponytail. On a really hot and humid day, that felt good.  But this looks better. More kempt. Tidier.  More intentional.

Have you ever known a person, man or woman,  who always looked the same to you?  I mean no matter the hair length or style, regardless of the combination of beard, mustache, once they have radically changed something,  nobody notices?  Not only have I known people like that, I always thought I was one of them.  Until the day, a VERY long time ago, when I came home from getting a perm so instead of long straight hair I had long big loopy curls and while my older two children ran up to me with no problem, the youngest one burst into tears and demanded his "real" Mama.  I guess I did look a little different after all. 

A change in hair colour is a whole different thing.  A horse of a different colour, as it were.  It's really hard to miss a different hair colour than usual. Especially if it's wildly different.   When I used to have a standing appointment for hair colour, every 7 weeks, faithfully, I would show up and let my hairdresser do her magic.  And sometimes the colour was in the blonde family, sometimes red and occasionally different browns.  We both had fun with it. Until one day it stopped being fun and started being a chore and then I stopped. 

It felt like forever waiting for the artificial colour to completely be gone so that I could find out what the real colour of my hair was.  Frankly, I expected a lot more grey/white/silver and I was more than a little disappointed to learn that the actual colour of my hair is kind of mouse brown with bits of grey/white/silver here and there.  I can only assume that will change as time goes by.

It was just another change in a lifetime of changes.  When we were very small, our mother used to do Toni Home Perms on Joy and I.  They were supposedly especially made for children and called "tonettes". The smell was ghastly, I vividly remember the smell. Eye watering!  And the results were never good.  We always ended up looking like sheep.  Fuzzheads.  When the perm would start to grow out, Mother would trot us off to the hairdresser who would cut the remaining fuzz off and then trim what was left into a "pixie" cut.  Not everyone looks good in a pixie cut.  Joy does.  She looks adorable, like an actual pixie :)  I look like a boy.  It's not good.

As I grew up and began to take more control over what my hair looked like, I opted to grow it quite long.  Drove my poor Mother mad.  She really hated it.  Sometimes I just wore it the way it grows, long and straight. Other times I would braid or ponytail it. 

Once I had children, long hair was a bit more inconvenient and I began having it cut to somewhere between chin and shoulder length, depending on the mood of the hairdresser that day.  As the boys got older, my hair once again, got longer.  Until I started working in medical offices. Oddly enough, they preferred that their professionals actually look professional and back in those days, it meant returning to the somewhere between chin and shoulder length again.  Sometimes I had bangs, sometimes I did not.

I actually do care what my hair looks like,  just not enough to spend a lot of time or money on it.  Additionally, I don't have a lot of skill in that realm either.  When I meet a new hairdresser for the first time I always tell them the same thing:  "I need something super easy that does not look like a hat, a wig or a helmet"  That's it.  Those are the parameters.   I'd say the guidelines were met.

I just do not have the patience or the talent for fussing with my hair.  Once upon a time I owned a set of "hot rollers"  and if I wanted to change up my look, I would slap those  babies  in my hair in no particular order or pattern, rather willy nilly, and for a few hours anyway (my hair is stubbornly straight) I would absolutely look different.  Better?  Probably not but definitely different.    Nowadays,  the only time I look different is when I'm overdue for a haircut.

I will try to be better now about going regularly again.  I loved that big transformational moment, but I think just attending to it regularly so it's not so monumental a change would be a good idea.

The three hero's of this story!   I am so wowed by this.  Probably, it's something that everyone on the entire planet knew except for me, but on the off chance that I'm not the only one, I will share with you this awesome tip that I just  recently learned.  

It was something that popped into my facebook feed.  Occasionally odd things just show up.  Usually it's things that I don't give two hoots and a crap about, but every once in awhile a recipe or an interesting story or a helpful household tip appears that I am forever grateful for.

According to the little video that I saw, the above combination of salt, dish soap and white vinegar can remove stains from pots and pans.  Even those ugly little bits that have been on the cookware so long that it seems to be ingrained into the metal.  I don't know where that icky stuff comes from.  Rumour has it that these discoloured areas have something to do with the city water that so heavily treated in certain areas around the country.  But of course I have no idea if that is true or not.  All I knew for sure was that I really didn't care for the way it looked.

I swear to you that I clean my pots and pans.  In fact I am one of those ridiculous people who literally clean my dishes before I put them into the dishwasher. I don't know why I insist upon doing so, but I do.  So they are very clean. Cleaned twice in fact.  But still those blemishes persist.  I would scrub and scrub to no avail.  I've even used Brillo with very poor results.  I dislike brillo and any other brillo-like products.  I don't like the smell, I don't care for those little metal filaments that imbed themselves into your fingertips, and it seems as if the effort to result ratio is WAY off.  

So I was resigned to simply living with the marks on my pots and chose to believe that they were just something that comes from age and use.  Much like the wrinkles around my eyes?  So anyway, I saw this little video and I was surprised and honestly in disbelief that it could be true. I mean really, is anything on media today true?  Could it really get rid of those marks?  I was dubious to say the least.

But yesterday, I got a wild hair and decided, what the heck.  I already have all of the ingredients necessary. I have a little time on my hands, I will try it on one small cooking pot.  First I poured a bit of the vinegar into the pan, then I added a handful of the salt and then topped it off with a healthy squeeze of dishsoap.  I spread it around the pan and let it sit for a few minutes and then used a sponge to wash the pan, especially the bottom (which is always where most of the stains seem to be) To my absolute amazement, with very little effort on my part, it actually worked!  I was so excited I did another pan and another and another and another until my sink was full of all sizes and shapes of pristine cookware!

 Obviously when I was finished with the " treatment" I needed to do a regular wash up just to make sure all of the salt/vinegar/dish soap was gone. Not a problem.  I didn't mind one single bit.  Especially since my pots and pans looked like new once again. I am very excited!  Probably more excited than I should be.  The oddest things get me charged up.  Hah!

But there you have it, just in case you ever wanted to know this and those discoloured bits on your cookware bothers you, here is a very simple solution.   I use my pots and pans hard. I love to cook and do so nearly every day and they looked it. They definitely showed that they have been worked ruthlessly.  And now, they are beautiful once more.  

So I guess, thank you to Facebook and the mystery video that materialized in my feed.  I seem to pay less and less attention to social media as the years go by, but this one time, I am so glad I looked!

If this was great new information for you...Hurrah!  If it wasn't, I shall endeavor to be more entertaining next week.  Regardless, I wish you a wonderful weekend!

Joy is away for a few weeks so there are no actual photo safari's going on.  Not really.  BUT I did manage to find a non-rainy part of one day recently to at least go on an extended walk here on  the island to see what I could see.

I starting out headed toward the beach because, well, it's the beach.  Of course I would start there!   Rain was, once again, in the forecast, so it wasn't quite as bright and shiny and sunny as it usually is, but no matter, it's always beautiful.  I was surprised (and pleased) at how few other people were there.  Which makes it sound as if I don't like people.  I do like people. Just I prefer my beaches a little less people-y.   Wish Granted!

There were a few beach flowers and some interesting beach art to admire along the way as I strolled down the sand for awhile:

Eventually, I sat  a moment to empty the sand out of my shoes and then continued my walk through town.  I was lucky enough to find a few critters out and about that that early morning hour too:

There were a few buildings that caught my eye as well.  No particular reason, they just appealed to me in that moment:

I love the natural canopy's that grow over many of the streets and also the sidewalks:

The final stop in my trek was the Venice Avenue Bridge.  I could see the sky growing ever darker to the west and could hear thunder rumbling in the distance so after this one last shot, I headed for home with no more stops.  Made it just in the nick of time too!

So I managed to cover roughly a third of the island in this little walkabout.  Perhaps I will do this two more times to, eventually, photo document the entire thing.  What do you think?  Sound like a good plan?

​

Why are donuts so wonderful?  Is it the fact that they are seriously non-healthy food and therefore taboo which, as everyone knows, ups the desirability factor of pretty much everything.  Or is it some associated delightful childhood memory?  Is it the fragrance of all of that sugar and fat and more sugar that calls to you?  Is it that sweetness melting on your tongue which,  ultimately if you eat enough of them, practically puts you in a sugar coma?

I honestly do not know what is it, but it's something and that something is awesome.

Because of the "bad for you" element involved, we do not often eat donuts. In this house, we honestly try to eat with nutrition in mind most of the time. But every once in awhile, as a special treat, we absolutely do indulge.  It's usually centered around a special occasion but recently we dropped by our semi-local Five-Oh Donut shop to satisfy my cravings.

  It was after a particularly miserable and very early morning doctor appointment which was way up in Sarasota.  After we left the doctor office, Tim asked if I wanted to go out for breakfast.  It was a very kindly intended offer.  But quite honestly, at that moment, the idea of sitting in restaurant having eggs and fruit and other healthy things just didn't sound at all appealing so I declined, with apology and asked if we could just go on back home.

As we were leaving though, and I was feeling completely sorry for myself, suddenly what I wanted most  in the world was a donut.  Yes, I was comforting myself with food.  One of the things that every nutritionist in the world will tell you to never do.  That very thing.  Yup.  I do it all the time.  

Because Tim is a nice man, he did not point out the foolishness of my request and we made the quick stop.  Five-Oh Donuts is a wonderful place with "Arrestingly Good Donuts".  That is their own descriptor by the way.  They have the standard stuff, of course: glazed, frosted and filled, but they also constantly come up with new and interesting ideas.  The hardest part of visiting there is making a choice because what I always want to say is, "Yes, I will take one of everything please". But of course I do not.  We each selected two donuts and we waited until we got home to eat them.

The anticipation just about killed me.  I could smell that yeasty sugary wonderfulness wafting through the car the entire drive home.  By the time Tim's coffee was ready, I was prepared to devour everything in the box.  But I resisted.  I only ate my own.  I considered (for about 30 seconds) saving my second donuts until the next day. And then I laughed and laughed and gobbled up the second one too.  Heaven.

I have known people who do not care for chocolate. I have met people who don't really enjoy pizza.  I have even heard that there are folks who dislike ice cream.  I do not understand any of that but I accept it as true. However, I have never EVER heard of one single person who dislikes donuts.

 I'm sure there are lots of folks who opt to not eat donuts.  Probably very health conscious people with far more self-discipline than I.  But choosing to not eat them is not the same thing as disliking them.  I'm sure everyone has a favourite flavour that they prefer above all others but really, is there anybody out there who actively hates donuts?  Really?  Is it true or are they just saying it?  Sometimes people say things just for effect or they are trying to convince themselves.   Because frankly  if you tell me that you despise donuts, I'm not sure that I will believe you.  

In the words of an old friend of mine,  (you know who you are!)  "I never met a half dozen donuts that I didn't like".    I'm with you, kiddo!

And in case you are wondering, it worked.  Afterwards, I felt much better.  The healing power of a donut cannot be denied.

You see that note?  I wrote it.  I put it on my keyboard. And the directive popped into my head throughout the entire day yesterday.  And in fact, I remember considering,  as I was about to start dinner last night, "should I take it out now while I'm thinking about it or wait until after dinner?"  Ultimately I decided to wait.  It was a decision made in the name of efficiency.  The assumption was that I would, most likely, creative at least a little bit more refuse to add to the bin while in the process of making dinner.  It was not a good choice though as this morning the garbage cans remain at the side of the house instead of at the curb where they would already have been picked up, dang it all!

We are lucky enough where we live that year 'round, we have two garbage pick up days each week, Monday and Thursday am. Which means that, if we want our trash taken away, most people around here wheel the bins to the curb on the night before.  Generally,Tim and I do not generate enough waste to need to use both days 99% of the time, we only use the Monday pick up. In fact it is a Very Rare Occasion that we take advantage of that second day.  This week however, since the Monday pick up day was a holiday,  Thursday was the plan.  

For a change we had a rather full bin and it being the end of summer with hothothot days, it was, ummmmmm, shall we say, getting a bit fragrant.  Let's face it, that garbage  was ripe and ready to go.  But Thursday pick up being outside the norm for me, I was concerned that I would forget.  So I wrote notes. I left them in obvious places (like my keyboard). AND I asked Tim to please  remind me, if I forgot.  And still, guess what.  I forgot.  Ratz.  

Why do we do things like this to ourselves?   Why?

Then there was the duck sauce incident.  Sigh.    We always have duck sauce in the house because I put it on my fried rice.  And I don't want any comments on what a travesty that is.  I'm the one eating it and that's how I like it so hush.  My order at our favourite take away Chinese food place is veggie fried rice.  AND I've learned to just buy my own duck sauce and keep it in the fridge rather than use those teensy little plastic wrapped packets that they provide.  (I dont' care very much for theirs)

The duck sauce resides in one of the racks in the fridge doors. You know, along with all of the other condiments and odd ball things.  We have the usual mustard, mayo and ketchup in the door rack on the right side along with salad dressings, tubes of garlic and tomato paste, horseradish (ick) and a couple of thermoses of water.  On the left side, however, are the less frequently used things such as chicken broth, soy sauce,  aloe vera (for sunburns) and, obviously, duck sauce.  Just a little tip, unless those racks are completely totally and entirely filled, the jars and bottles rattle around a bit every time the door is opened and closed.  Usually it's no big deal.

Well apparently the last time we ordered Chinese food, I did not properly twist the cap on the duck sauce closed.  At some point, the jar tipped over in the closing and/or opening of the door.  Which means, eventually the top came off and the duck sauce came out. With each opening/closing of the door, more came out but nobody noticed because, well, who looks at  the condiment racks in the refrigerator unless they are looking specifically for a condiment?? Not I, certainly.  And on that particular side, since it's more odd ball stuff, I probably look even less frequently.  

It came to my attention while I was making a grocery list .  Prowling through the pantry, freezer and fridge, looking to see if there was anything we were out of or nearly so, I saw the tipped over jar and automatically righted it.  My fingers came away a bit sticky.  What?  So I looked closer, put down the pen and paper and removed the jar entirely.  DANG IT!  Big Old Pile of refrigerated duck sauce.  Turns out that while it was a very tasty spill, it was not an easy clean up.  And now duck sauce is back on the grocery list.

I have nobody to blame but myself. I am the only one in the house who uses duck sauce and since I am chief cook and bottle washer, there is a 99.999999% chance that I am the one who put it away without tightening the cap.  Turns out I boobytrapped myself.  Big dummy.

Oh yes and then there was the time, (over this past weekend in fact)  when Tim was working on a project.  While he was busy with that I decided it would be the perfect time to dust, vacuum and wash the floors.  Once that was all done, I offered to help him out with his project and he was happy to have an extra set of hands.  I became sort of the 'runner' trotting back and forth to  garbage bins,  fetching things as needed and refilling his water glass.  Which means I was..what was I doing class?...That's right!  I was walking through the dirty project area and across my newly cleaned floors over and over and  over.

You can actually see my dirty footsteps!  Yes I did that to myself once again!  Sabotage is one thing, but sabotaging yourself?  It's kind of crazy.  Dang it, I say!   Rasenfratz!  Kreplach!  Iggysnatz!  And all of the other made up substitute swear words that I thought up when the boys were little.

I cannot be the only person who trips themselves up.  In fact, I am positive that I am not. I hear stories all of the time of similar sorts of things going on in other households.  But do we learn from these mistakes?  Well, speaking solely for myself, yes, sometimes I do.  But then I go on to make brand new exciting other mistakes instead.  

(insert much shaking of head here)

The  human animal continues to be one of the oddest creatures in existence.  I mystify myself on a daily basis.

Well hello hello!  Hope everyone had a terrific nice long holiday weekend!    Tim and I spent most of it getting stuff done around here, but we did take a few breaks.  And one of them was to spend a little time, one afternoon at Myakka State Park.  

It wasn't so much a hike as a combination of  short drives and short walks, but my camera was in my hand and therefore, it counts!   Myakka State Park is a different sort of place to visit.  There is a long, beautiful winding road that goes completely through it with periodic places to park, get out and hike.  Often we ended up just pulling over on the side of the road because that's where the picture needed to be taken.

This wasn't something we planned ahead, it was more a random, "hey, we finished what we intended to do today, what do you wanna do  now?" moment one afternoon.  I have found that mornings and evenings are generally the best  times to do a photo safari.  Partly for the quality of the light and partly because the cooler parts of the day usually provide  the best critter activity.  BUT afternoon was when we had a little unexpected free time so that's when we went.

Obviously, for the above reason, we had very low photo expectations. To our surprise, those expectations were a little surpassed.   I was pretty sure I would be able to get some photos of the river and I was correct.   The Myakka River is always photo worthy:

 If we had come away with just these river photos, I would have been happy and considered it worth the time.  But, for some reason,  I got a ton of photos of various sorts of white birds.  It could be just that in the heavily forested and sun bleached afternoon,  the white birds were the only ones that stood out against the dark forest enough for us to really notice them.  Or perhaps white birds don't mind the hottest part of the day?  Regardless, here is a sampling:

To our surprised, we did find a few other birds and some other creatures venturing out into the heat of the day.  What is that old saying about Mad Dogs and Englishman venturing into the noonday sun?  Apparently it applies to a few other animals as well. Including Tim and I, now that I think about it.  Who is crazier, the wildlife who have nowhere else to be or people who do have nice air conditioned places to hang out on a very hot day?  Don't bother to answer that one.

I guess that's the most of it.  I believe I shall call this particular photos safari, the Afternoon at Myakka Hike.  Not very creative, but accurate.

I will leave you with a couple of rando photos. Hope you enjoyed this little abbreviated photo safari report :)

Last week, instead of doing another photo safari, Joy and I walked the avenue.  We mostly window shopped but we did pick up a few things that she needed and some stores are just so enticing you have to go inside and admire their wares.  

Venice Avenue or "the avenue" is one of two truly wonderful and charming retail streets in our town.  Venice is one, the other is Miami.  Yeah, named after the Florida cities.  Not especially imaginative but I wasn't in charge so there it is.    No matter the names, they provide delightful  restaurants and shops that are small and unique and, for me, perfect for gift shopping mostly.  I almost never buy anything for us or our home there.  

It was a gloomy, muggy, misery of a day with rain threatening at every turn, which is why we didn't attempt another mini-hike.  Still, I suppose, we were walking up and down the streets so that should count as exercise, right?  Joy and I both had our umbrellas at hand, just in case, but we tried to not think about the weather and just enjoy ourselves. And so we did.

Now I am one of those people who can admire something greatly and them move on.  I can talk about how pretty or clever or well-made a thing is, put it back on the shelf  or rack and continue on never giving it another thought.  I walk the avenue fairly often and love checking out the window displays and even, when they on occasion exist, thumbing through the sale racks out in front of the stores.  I just enjoy looking at pretty things.  Looking being the key word.

Usually.

This particular day, even though we saw so very many things, as usual, I was looking just to look, enjoying the stroll, sort of like walking through an art museum, admiring pretty things. When we paused in front of one of the stores that had a sale rack and I happened across this particular blouse.  (photo at the top of the page).  It may not be your cuppa tea but it is absolutely mine.  I loved the  fabric (sooooo soft), the loose-ness of it, the colours, the "patchwork" sort of style and I loved the sleeves.  I did something I almost never do. I picked it up off the rack and looked at it closer.  I checked out the seams and I admired the craftmanship.  I noticed that there are gathers at the cuff of the sleeve and that the back is a longer than the front.  I wondered if the v-neck was too low for me or if it were too long for my short self. And then, with firm determination,  I put it back on the rack.

Meanwhile, Joy was furtively watching me out of the corner of her eye.  She knew this was unusual for me.  She pretendly admired a pair of wide legged gauzy fabric pants so that I could continue to admire the blouse without feeling rushed to continue.    Then I did something I do not often do, I took the blouse back off the rack.  I held it up to the front of me to me to see how long it was and I looked at my reflection in the  window glass of  the store front.

"That really looks like you" Joy said to me.  I nodded.  "It's perfect for you" she continued.  I nodded again.  Then I looked at the price tag, sighed, hung it back up and said, "Nope, can't do it".  Even on sale it cost more than I would normally spend on one item of clothing. (I'm pretty frugal as you may recall)  Never one to be too pushy, Joy said nothing more about it and we continued on down the avenue.  Normally that is enough.  Usually just walking away from it would be enough to put it out of my mind. But for some reason this time, it was now stuck in my head.

"Very Odd", I said to myself.  "Why am I still thinking about that stupid blouse?"  It was a little annoying really.  I continued thinking  about it for a week to my aggravation.  Then I realized that  I should have at least tried it on. Then I would know that it's either not my size, not my style, not my age or something else that would have proved to me that walking away was the right decision. At last I was resolved.  That's what I needed to do to exorcise the blouse from my stupid head.  I made up my mind that one day this week, I would do exactly that.  If the blouse was still on the rack in front of that store, I would go over, try it on, it would look dumb on me and I would hang it back up and never think about it again!  If it wasn't on the rack, even better.

So yesterday, since it was yet another do not dare hike becoz of the grey and threatening skies day, instead Joy and I ran a few errands, mostly off island.   I mentioned my thought about the blouse to Joy and she was totally on board.  At the end of our errands, we came back  on island, parked the car and walked to the store in question.  The rack was still in front.  The blouse was still on the rack.  I wasn't sure, was that a good thing or a bad thing?   I picked it up again and asked myself,  "do I still feel the same way about it?"  Dang it, yes I did.

The we heard a familiar voice greeting us. A lot of shop people on the avenue have kind of gotten to know us over the years, or at least recognize us and feel comfortable enough chatting, outside of their place of business when we cross paths.  This was a lady who works at a shoe store that we frequent.  She happened to be walking down the street when she saw us.  She saw the blouse I was holding and gasped.  She had been admiring it as well.  I offered it to her, she laughed and declined, it was not her size.  She and Joy together urged me to try it on.

I agreed, let's get this over with.  I will put it on and laugh at myself,  show everybody (Joy, the shoe shop lady, the shop lady for the store we were in and every customer in there),  we can all have a good giggle, and then I can hang it back up, walk away, and I'll be done with it.

It was a great plan, except, I liked it.  I liked it a lot.  Dang it all.

I stepped out of the change room to oooo's and aahhh's and words of encouragement.  Ratz.   This was not the plan at all!  

I went back into the dressing room and put my own real top back on and gave it all a minutes thought.  How do I justify this?  I ended up with: this is my reward to myself for getting this far through this particular, rather unpleasant, chapter in my life and doing it pretty darned well.  Yeah, that works.

​  Honestly, it wasn't that expensive,  $36 with tax, but becoz I'm such a cheapo, it's still more than I would normally spend.  I get a little panicky when I spend money so I could feel my heart rate go up immediately at the thought of buying something I don't actually need. I have blouses, I have tops of all sorts. This is not a requirement.  I went back and forth and back and forth.  

Finally, I made my decision.

I am so tickled with my new blouse! I love it, love it, love it!

​

​

This is the front of our house.  And the back of Tim's car.  Oh well, I didn't plan this photrograph very well, did I?  Regardless, yes, front of our house.  As you can see, there is the house, a cute little courtyard encircled by a wall and some rather large shrubs on the outside of the wall.  

Recently we had some trees cut down.  They were MASSIVE trees. Just absolutely enormous palm trees.  I am told that they were "Washington Palms".   Washington Palms grow to be in the 80-90 feet tall range.  Whoa!  They absolutely towered over the house.  I'm not sure who thought it would be a great idea to have  sequoia wanna-be palm trees that close to a house but I'm sure it seemed, to them at least, to be a great idea at the time.  It was not.

I tried to find a photograph of the front of our house when the trees were still standing, but clearly I failed in that task.  My computer used to allow me to "draw" on a photo so I could have showed you where these massive beasts used to be but in the last so called update, that feature was removed.  Dang.   Ok, the trees used to be side by side on the outside of the courtyard wall between the two giant bougainvillea bushes.   Can you kind of picture it?

We really like green growing things.  We genuinely do.  And even though these ridiculously huge trees looked downright silly in front of our little cottage of a house, we were happy to live and let live even though trimming them was a major pain in the arse.  Yes, Yes, I know palm trees are iconic.  Everyone romanticizes them and associates them with the tropics and Florida and beaches and vacation. Lovely! Beautiful!

But here is the thing about palm trees that not everybody knows.  They need a lot of attention.  Some of them kind of prune themselves.  When they need to shed a frond or two, they just kind of whisper  "Timber" to themselves and release the frond.  Then at some point, I notice it on the ground and drag it around to the side of the house for the lawn guys to take away at their next visit.  Others palms need to be trimmed by humans. These Washington Palms were of this ilk.   Usually if a palm is not too tall, I can stand on a stepladder and use my big old chonkers or a saw to cut off the dead fronds.  But when a tree is 50 something feet up or more, well, I don't have a ladder that tall.  Few people do.

In which case,  most folks hire a tree trimming company to come by several times a year to trim their giant monster palms.  And here is the thing about that.  While the tree guys do a great job, it ain't cheap.  I'm not saying that it's not worth the money. I'm saying that there are other things I could spend those couple of hundred bucks on. Like groceries.  Or gas.

And the trimming part of the equation is moot anyway because in our particular case, the doggone trees up and died on us. Sigh.  So there we were with two colossal dead trees smack in front of the house. Not pretty.  Also dangerous.  While we've been unusually fortunate this year (thus far, knock wood) regarding the tropical storm/hurricane season, we do live in Florida where such storms are not uncommon.  And dead trees are the first to go in a  bad storm.  Giant dead trees are just as susceptible as smaller ones to the  whims of a heavy storm, but when they go down, they do far more damage.

So, they had to go.    Early one recent Saturday, the tree trimming guys came by with their gear and those trees are now history.    And I tell ya, the sound of those big daddies hitting the ground when they were cut down is still resonating in my brain.  I could feel the vibration right down to my toes.  The thought of something that dense and thick having possibly hit our house or one of our cars during a storm makes me shiver just a little bit.  I think we made an excellent decision.

The tree guys pointed out another tree that while not actually dead yet, was well on it's way.  Tim said, "Take it down"  So that one is gone too.  That last 3rd tree was in what we call the "island'.  We have one of those half circle driveways and in the middle of that half circle are a bunch of things. One of which was another of those brobdingnagian sized Washington Palms.  It's gone now too, see?   

It looks so much better and it feels so much safer.  And as you can see, there are plenty of other trees around. There is no shortage of green here. Well maybe in the lawn in front of the house. That looks a little patchy though it's getting better ever day.

We have decided to save our admiration of giant palm trees for the ones in other people's yards. We will not have any of those on our property again. Ever. 

Anyway, that's probably the most exciting thing that happened around here lately.  We live life in the fast lane for sure.

Wednesday was Photo Safari Day!  It was another short jaunt, I'm just not ready for any of the biggies yet, but it was, as they almost always are, still a terrific time. This one kind of named itself because one of the most notable parts was that we saw not one, not two but THREE hawks!  So this will be forever known as the Three Hawk Hike.   I believe that all three of these are Red Shoulder Hawks.  (Jo, please correct me if I'm wrong)  Kinda awesome.

It had rained heavily the night before so some of the trail was more than a little wet.  I was all the way to mucky.  And while Joy and I have been known to slog through muck before, this was not the day for it.  Which meant that our trail options were limited.  But that was fine too. We found enough dry or even semi dry spots to enjoy the beautiful preserve and the gorgeous morning light.

There were so many dragonflies that it felt as if we were walking through some mystical fairy land at times.  Alas, there were no castles,  actual dragons or unicorns.  Dang.  I did manage to capture photos of these four.

There were some exceptional botanicals.  One never known this time of year what is out there still blooming in the August heat but we hit the jackpot this time.  It was a bumper crop so before you start looking at the flower photos, better take a bathroom break and bring back a snack:

There were a few other creatures that we actually saw, not just saw the footprints of (though that's always exciting too).  And I did manage to get a couple of photos. Just so you know, my favourite photo from this entire hike will be in this group.  Let's see if you can figure out which one it is.

It was a great hike even though returned filthy, hot, sweaty and tired.  Or maybe because we did??    Either way, there you have it, another photo safari report. This time, the Three Hawk Hike!  

Hope you enjoyed.  

And have a wonderful weekend!

Please bear with me until I remember how the heck I used to think of things to write on a regular basis!~  Funny how quickly the knack goes away but awesome how quickly it comes back once I really try.    I remember  that I used to keep a running list of things that occur to me and I've started up another one.  At the top of that list was an update on the birdbath.

To remind you how it all started, quite a few months ago now (geez time flies!) I mentioned to Tim one night over dinner that I thought I might like to have a bird bath again.  We had one in our giant flower garden in Connecticut and it was a very popular birdie hangout.  Here it would also be a place for them to cool off on a super hot day which is to say, Florida summers.

Quite honestly, I had figured out in my little punkin' head how to make one from things we already had on hand.  But just a few days later, Tim arrives home from an errand with a bird bath.  Actually I think it was supposed to be a pedestal planter.   BUT the top part was still a nice heavy duty plastic bowl (for all intents and purposes) and certainly  would serve as a bird bath!  Yay!  I was so excited!

Originally I set it at the end of the path in the courtyard in front of the climbing wall of bougainvillea.  Perfection!  It looked like something out of a magazine too.    But as it turns out, birds do not give one single dingle for esthetics.  They want it they way they want it and that was not what they wanted.  Ratz.

I did everything I could think of to attract them but, alas, they did not show up for it.  Which is odd coz our courtyard and the surrounding trees and shrubs are LOADED with birds of all sorts.  I suppose that puts a big old kibosh on the "if you build it they will come" saying, eh?

But just as I was going to give up and turn it back into a planter, one evening,  Tim just picked it up and moved it  next to the woodpecker tree.  Suddenly  there were birds.  We could watch them out of the kitchen window as the birds splashed around to their hearts content and it was really kind of awesome.

Until one day, they just stopped.  What the heck happened?  So I began cleaning the bath and changing out the water more often.  Nothin'.  Hmmmmm.  We did a little reading and it turns out that birds are attracted to bird baths that are painted blue.  So Tim painted the underside of it in blue.  Still no birds.  We read that they liked to have a perching area close by, so we put a big old chunk of quartz in it that I happened to have laying around. (I do have the oddest things on hand).  Still nothing!  What On Earth??

Then I remembered my rubber duckies.  A few years back, one of the sillyfun things that Tim put in my Christmas stocking was a set of rubber duckies.  I was delighted and put them in the guest room bath.  I loved the whimsy of it. But other then moving them when I cleaned the bathroom, I didn't really pay attention to them anymore.  Perhaps they could serve a higher purpose.

My thought was that maybe if birds noticed other "birds" using the birdbath, they would be inclined to use it as well.  So I put the duckies in the birdbath, went back in the house and waited.

Didn't have to wait long either.  Before I barely got in the house some mocking birds came by.  First they yelled at the duckies a bit, then gradually, they got into the bath began splashing around. They were followed by a blue jay who was followed by some small little brown birds and the list goes on and on.  With not one single photo as proof because I was too entranced by what I was watching out the window to think to grab the camera. Dang.

Regardless, I was so happy!  It worked. Right up until it didn't anymore.  Turns out birds are fickle creatures. They stopped again.  No bird activity whatsoever.  I was just baffled.  Well maybe they don't want to share with the ducks who are such snobs that they refuse to "talk" to them ?  So I took the ducks back out, but I decided that I kind of like having them outside in the courtyard and I tried to put them in a lot of different spots and ultimately they ended up on top of one of the posts at the entrance to the courtyard.

One day a Mockingbird flew up to the top of the post to yell at the duckies up there, but as usual, the rubber duckies were too classy to yell back. And there the rubber duckies remain, in the rain or in the sun.

The birds, meanwhile, do occasionally use the birdbath but, as I remind myself, this is rainy season, which means there are puddles after the rain which is probably a more "natural" bird bath and they would naturally gravitate toward those.  

Anyway, that is the birdbath update. If anything else interesting happens, birdbath-wise,   I will absolutely let you know!

Tomorrow I will do another Photo Safari report!  Yup, Joy and I (and Bob!) were out tromping around the trails once again, cameras in hand.  It was another short hike, but a pretty darned good one (though a little mucky)

Hope to see you here again tomorrow!

​Hugs all 'round

We did it!  First photo safari in far too long.  (in case you are unsure, that's me on the left in the green shirt and Joy on the right with the white hat)

It was not a long hike, not more than about 90 minutes but that was plenty long enough for the first foray.  We left early enough that while the temps were certainly warmish, the full on heat/humidity/rain hadn't yet kicked in.  Nice.  And as a bonus, we were the only ones out there and that is always nice.  It was quiet and peaceful and beautiful and we saw some amazing things.

First of all, when you leave early there are early morning sun photos to be had.

And since it's relatively cool out at that time of day, there are dew drops and leftover raindrops here and there:

And the trails were lush from our daily rain storms so the greens were deep and dark and the vegetation abundant and flourishing:

In fact, the creek had overflowed and prevented us from crossing to the second part of the preserve, but that's ok.  I think for the first time back out there, half the preserve was plenty.  The river was still and dark and quiet and provided some absolutely perfect reflections:

We were lucky enough to capture a little bit of wildlife. My favourite, and the most unique (for me anyway) was the armadillo.  Those buggers move fast and as it zoomed through the underbrush, I tried so hard to get a clear shot without upsetting the animal.  It's an odd angle, but it's clear and clearly an armadillo:

Unusual for me, there were some fungi that I just couldn't resist snapping photos of:
​

There were a surprising number of lovely botanicals considering how late in the summer it is right now.  Perhaps the cool, green shadowy forest is just a better place for flowers?

I'd say, for a short hike and the first one in months, we did okay.  It was fun, I was shocked at how "heavy" my camera is, and once I got home and cleaned up , I absolutely had a little nap.  But I'd say the photo Safari was a rousing success!

Hopefully there will be more to come as the weeks go by!

Hello Hello!  It's been one month since we last met so I thought this might be a good time for an update!  As you can see, I'm still me.  Maybe a few more grey hairs and a couple more wrinkles, but still me :)

I'm doing fine, in case you wondered.  In fact, I'm told that I am doing a spectacular job.   Nice to know :)  Recovery is slow and is taking WAY more time than I want it to so it's been a real test of my patience, but it's happening, little by little.  

As I predicted, there is nothing interesting or exciting going on here.   Well, I suppose they are exciting to me.  Small victories.  I was very excited the first time I did a pile of ironing.  Took me most of the afternoon, but I by god did it!  Woohoo!    And now I'm back to doing most everything just like always.  Yesterday, for example, I did the entire full normal noonwalk with Tim.  A banner day!

I'm not yet released for lifting heavy things yet or driving and I have to wait two more weeks to start my exercise routine once again (slowly and gently I was firmly warned)  but that's all good stuff to look forward to:)

In case you wondered, I did hear back from the photo contest.  If you recall, it was about the 2023 calendar photos for our city.  None of my submissions was selected for the calendar but they did send me an email asking my permission for them to use one of my photographs on social media to promote the city.  (of course I said yes).  If I ever notice it out there in the world being utilized, I will let you know.  It was this photo:

And that kind of brings us up to date.  Hard to believe that I used to have enough going on in my life to write a little something multiple times every week!  Hah!  Actually I think that Joy and I are going to do a teensy tiny itty bitty photo safari later this week (weather permitting).  It will be my first one in awhile so I have no idea how it will go or if it will result in any photos worth mentioning. BUT if it goes well, then maybe next week, I will have a new post for you.

Just wanted to check in.  How are all of you?  What's happening in your world?  I've missed you!

​Hugs all 'round

That's a promise. I will be back. Eventually.  I'm just not sure exactly when.  Let's just call this a medical leave of absence.

Dang, more medical stuff?  Yeah, it's true.  After the whole small cancer surgery thing back in March, I thought I was done. It was over. I spent a ridiculous amount of time patting myself on the back for making it through to the end.  But I was wrong.  Ratz.    After all was said and done and I was starting to feel more like my old self again,  it turned out that it was time for yet more testing.  Oh my gosh, the testing!  Exhaustive testing.  And consults. And discussions.  And my own research and thinking and talking with Tim.   Ultimately what it all meant is that I need more surgery.

Again, I was going to walk around this topic very circumspectly, just like I initially thought I was going to do back in March.  But exactly as I did then, I decided to just be honest and straight forward.  I know these are conversations that make people uncomfortable and it's certainly not my intent to do that, but hey, this is life.   Or at least it's my life, which is what I write about.  So let's talk about something that makes some people a little itchy.

Bilateral Mastectomy with reconstruction. Yup, that's happening tomorrow.  Wow!  That's kind of a big deal.   I won't even pretend that it's not.  But the situation absolutely called for a big solution.  No tippytoeing around.  There are some thing that just cannot be dealt with delicately and cancer is one of them.  My own personal feelings about cancer is that you fight it like a war you intend to win.

While there were many conversations with various medical people and Tim, the final decision, of course, was solely mine.  There were other things I could have opted for, but all of them were too wishywashy.  Obviously I considered every possibility. But I have several things stacked against me.  One is family history. There is a very strong history of cancer in my family.  Two would be the fact that I already had cancer and it was of a Very Aggressive persuasion.  The medical terminology is High Nuclear.  That sounds scary doesn't it?  And the last thing that I weighed in considering all this was that right now, otherwise, I am Very healthy.  If you are heading for a big fight, you want to go in at your physical peak, not when you are older and sickly.  Nope. Now is the time.

I'm told that once I am home from the hospital, I should anticipate about 8 weeks or so of recovery to get me back to a relatively "normal" functional level.  So that's the goal.  Which takes us into early September.  That's what I've got my eye on right now.  By then I plan to be back out there, having adventures, taking photos and returning home ready to regale all of you with tales of my escapades and general thoughts about the world, the universe and all the folks in it.  Just like I've been doing for the past almost 6 years.

I know that I will most likely be capable of typing shortly after being discharged from the hospital, but what on earth would I write about?  I have no intention of turning my blogsite into the "cancer chronicles".  There is absolutely nothing wrong such a thing or the people who choose to do so. I support them, I am proud of their courage and their sites are very helpful.  That said, it's just not my style.  Instead, I will read a lot, rest a lot, watch a lot of old X-files, Quantum Leap and of course Outlander reruns and heal, heal, heal during the interim.  None of that is interesting enough to bother to write about.

The question people aren't asking me, but they are thinking, is how do I feel about all this?  Well, in truth, I'm a little anxious of course.  Still I am confident that I've made the correct decision (all of my doctors told me AFTER I gave them my choice that I made the decision that they would have made too.  Good to know)  It'll be a big change, physically, but when you think about it, our entire lives have involved physical body changes.  

Like everyone, I started out a tiny baby, somewhere in the 6 pound range.  In the first year alone, as we all do, I went from a dampish blob that wasn't capable of much to walking and talking.  That's pretty big.  Then from toddler to child to teen to adult, all involving big changes. (Let's not even think about puberty!!)  Once married, 3 pregnancies absolutely changed my body forever.  I gained and lost the same 10 pounds a thousand times at least and somehow accrued a roadmap of scars from one dang thing or another.  And now, as I'm  older with greying hair and crow's feet galore, this surgery is just another in a lifetime of physical body changes. 

I have a good attitude, I have great doctors and a wonderful support system.  Most importantly, I have Tim who is my everything.  That'll do.

So anyway that's what's happening.  I will be back, eventually, as promised.  Meanwhile, all of you, please stay safe and have fun.  And if you wouldn't mind, and you have a few minutes, please throw some positive thoughts out into the universe for me?    See you soon!  Hugs all 'round.

Tomorrow is my birthday!!    AND our local library is having another $5 a bag book sale on the same day!  What a Perfectly "Sam" sort of way to celebrate!! I am very excited ;)  I will absolutely be there with my five dollars in my hand, as soon as they open their doors! 

Since this is being posted the day before the anniversary of my actual birth,  you know what that means, right?  Yup, it's time for the Birthday Rules!

As you all know, I am a firm believer in the birthday rules and once every year, I  feel compelled to remind everyone about those rules!  Since tomorrow (my actual birthday) is a Saturday and I never post on a weekend, this year, the Birthday Rules are coming a day early.  


                                                                 BIRTHDAY RULES

1. Number one and most important on this hit parade:  It's all about the birthday person.  It really is.  No exceptions. If it's your birthday, everything that day is about you. Period.

2. Of course, to be absolutely fair, I am not a person who really likes being the center of a big crowd of people. But a small, comfortable, familiar crowd is fine. In fact it's awesome.  A small group of people that I really care about it absolutely perfect.  If that group consists of me and one other person, sometimes that is the best group of all.

3. And there should be at least one treat that a person rarely has, like cake. Or ice cream.  Or cake AND ice cream.  And for heaven's sakes, if a person is going to indulge, it should be the good stuff. The real deal. No fake, crappy substitutes.  And speaking as a person with Lactose Intolerance, if I'm going to suffer later, I want the suffering to be worthwhile, which means the ice cream must be primo.

4. There should be a few cards, some of them should have sparkles, some flowers, some funny, some touching or maybe thought provoking. I like cards.  I set them up on top of the big display cabinet in the living room and admire them for far too long afterwards.

5. There should be some sort of contact from people far away, whether it's phone calls or emails or texts or facebook posts or telepathic thoughts, heaps of good wishes from folks far away makes a birthday extra special.  To think that all of those people bothered to take the time to acknowledge your existence on your birthday shows that you matter in this life.  That's important.

6. There should be no chores on your birthday.  Not one single solitary gotta-do should be done by the birthday celebrant.  Those things can either wait a day to be done, or someone else needs to do them.  I'm immovable on this fact.

7. The birthday person gets to choose what or where to eat for dinner.  And no matter what they choose, that's what dinner is.  Doesn't matter what anyone else thinks.  It is the ONE day of the entire year where nobody else's likes/dislikes/or personal opinion should take precedence regarding food.

8. It should be a happy day.  Only positive comments and thoughts please.  It should be a day of smiles and laughter. If there is something negative or sad that needs to be said, keep it to yourself for one more day.  Not even boredom is allowed.

YAYAYAYAYAY!!  I'm very excited.  Yes, this means that I am officially one year older.  I have no idea what time of day I was born, so I will just say as of the moment I open my eyes tomorrow morning, I will be 69 years old!  Holy Cats that sounds old!  BUT it doesn't feel any older than I was last year, or the year before that or the year before that........     I'm sure you see the pattern there.  It's just a number.  And it has only as much importance as I choose to give it.  I choose to give it VERY little.  I will be too busy celebrating ME to be bummed about a silly number.

Monday will be Tim's birthday and then the rules will apply to him :)  See how that works?

Have a wonderful weekend. I absolutely will.  It's Birthday Weekend!  Huzzah!​

 I mentioned seeing (and photographing) a spectacular rainbow in yesterday's post and promised to write more on the topic of rainbows today.  So here we go.

First of all, I do love a rainbow. Always have.  So there is something else new that you didn't know about me.  I am a big fan.  Not to the point of having rainbow patterns depicted on my window treatments or bed linens, but just a general feeling of rainbow connectivity, y'know? Some people gravitate toward images of the sun, the moon or the stars. I like those things but it's rainbows that have always been extra special to me.

And yes, I am well aware that suns, moons and stars are more in the celestial category and rainbows more meteorological.   Still, they are all things that I look skyward to see and therefore, for today's purposes,  they are in the same group.      And also, before you say it, yes I know that rainbows are equated with the admiration of adorable little pre-teen girls not grown arsed adult women. Don't care.  For me Rainbows are, and always will be, kind of magical.

Yes yes yes, light refraction yadayada,  I know!  I aced the vast majority of my science classes in school all the way through college.  (All but that one oceanography class that we will never speak of again)  Don't care one single bit. My opinion remains steadfast:  Rainbows are magical.  

 Nowadays rainbows are also the chosen representative symbol of LGBTQ+ associated folks and good on them.   I get it and I'm absolutely fine with it.  But the casual passer by is often confused by the "Statement" I am making  if I talk about or display a rainbow mostly because of this newest meaning.  Trust me, the only statement I am making when I say "I like rainbows" is that I like rainbows. That's it.  Nothing deeper. 

I have no problem sharing the rainbow concept. None at all.  But I do not want to misrepresent myself.   This is the thing that folks need to keep in mind.   Rainbows can be an innocent magical bit of atmospheric sleight of hand AND also represent a culture.   Rainbows can legitimately mean more than one thing.   Lots of things have more than one meaning.   But it can get confusing.

The word, "cool" for example.  Cool of course refers to lower temperatures.  "After the sun went down, the air felt a little cool."  But it can also refer to an unfriendly attitude, " His reception to me was cool."  Coolness is also related to demeanor.  "In all the craziness, he remained cool and calm".   And, finally, cool can also refer to a positive judgement, "What a cool car!" 

So there you go, one word, four different interpretations.  Just something to think about if you spy a rainbow of colours displayed.  As it turns out, the word Rainbow comes up a lot more than you might expect and in a lot of different ways!

In 1984 there was a cartoon called Rainbow Brite.  It was also a doll, I think.  Rainbow Brite was the protector of Colours!  Oooooo.  Awesome job!   Then too there is the rainbow on the box of Lucky Charms Cereal!  That's been around since 1964.   Judy Garland sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" way way back in 1939 in the movie," The Wizard of Oz".   The song, "Rainbow Connection" sung by Kermit The Frog in the Muppet Movie in 1979 was an instant hit. 

The first literary mention of a rainbow that I recall is from the bible. It was after Noah's Flood.  And it was a promise from God that he would never again flood the earth.  I'm not a biblical scholar but I know it's somewhere in Genesis:

           "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me             and the earth. I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures              of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."

There you go, the Rainbows even exist in  Literature.  They are freakin' everywhere.  Open a new box of crayons, go ahead, I'll wait.  What does it look like?  A Rainbow, you betcha.  The produce section of any grocery store.  Colours for days  Almost any clothing store has racks and racks of the exact same shirt/pants/skirt/etc in a variety of different colours and this looks like.....what class?  Rainbows!  Yes!

Once upon a time, a very long time ago when my boys were very young, we had a cat the kids named Rainbow.  She had stripes and was many colours, hence the name.    There is an author whose name is Rainbow Rowell.   Currently some 3,056 people have  the name Rainbow. Some of them are first names, some last. I do not know what the percentage is of either. 

There is that famous poem about pets crossing the rainbow bridge. It's tells the story of a journey after death that is both very sweet and very sad.  And then there is the lore which tells us that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if you can just find it.  Turns out that is blatantly untrue.  I once saw exactly where a rainbow ended and ran through the rain to stand in it.  I was told that I appeared to be rainbow coloured while I stood there, but once I was inside of it, I could no longer see the colours. Interesting.  Also, no pot of gold.  I was gypped. 

Did you know that there are white rainbows?  Yuppers.  It's not super common but they do exist.  They look exactly like regular rainbows, the giant arch in the sky, only it's all white.  They are also called Fogbows.   Fogbows are much the same as rainbows,  always opposite the sun, but fogbows are caused by the small droplets inside a fog or cloud rather than larger raindrops.  Very Cool, but not a  regular rainbow. Just a little side note.

Anyway, I don't think there was really a point to this post. Just idle rainbow ramblings.    If there is any sort of purpose to this at all it's a reminder that there are a lot of rainbows of one sort of another around.  Also, I just happen to like rainbows :)

Happy 5th of July!  Hope your Independence Day was a Great one and whatever you ended up doing, you had a great time doing it;)

We ran a lot of errands and got quite a few things done around the house, which while not exactly something I would list in the "fun" column, at least gives me that yummy feeling of satisfaction when we crossed those things  off the gotta-do list!  

But we did take some time out for some fun things too.  Naturally, knowing us, you guessed (I'm sure) that we spent time by various bodies of water. Of course we did!

We watched some dolphins for awhile for instance.  They are endlessly entertaining but hard to get a picture of because I never know where they are going to pop up next!  There were at least a dozen  in the general vicinity of us that day so you'd think, with ample opportunity, I would have done a better job!  sigh.  Oh well,  here are my rather feeble attempts:

We saw quite a few birds too.  I was too busy watching them to take many photos but here are a handful. Ok a small handful, still, it counts.  Birds by various bodies of water.

And there were sunsets to see, pictures to take and people to watch:

And the biggest surprise of all, one evening of the weekend we got to have this beautiful moment:

Holy Cats!  It was just breath taking!  What a gorgeous rainbow :)  I could go on and on (and on!) about rainbows. And in fact, tomorrow, I think I will!  But meanwhile, today, still talking just about the weekend in general, the last fun thing we did was see the fireworks.

We almost didn't go this year.  I mean, it's late at night, the walk there is fine but the walk back home, carrying beach chairs, in the dark on narrow, winding, sidewalkless roads that we now must share with cars eager to get back to their own homes and therefore might perhaps not be driving quite as safely as they ordinarily might.......  well,  it's fraught with potential hazard.  AND the forecast said rain.  And in fact, there were times throughout the day where the sky grew very dark and the temperature dropped, the wind picked up and thunder rumbled in the distance, so we truly believed that the weather guru's  were correct and it was going to rain!  We have been caught at the beach in the rain before.  Not my most favourite thing.

So there we sat at home, reading, talking, watching TV and just before 9 pm (when the fireworks were supposed to begin) and it wasdefinitely NOT raining.  Suddenly Tim looked up and asked if I had decided if I wanted to go to the fireworks or not.  I said, "Well even if I wanted to go it's a little late now isn't it?"  My thought was that by the time we put our shoes back on, grabbed our beach chairs, locked up the house and walked over we would have missed half the show.  We live less than a mile from the beach but at the moment, I cannot teleport or translocate so it would take 15 minutes to quick walk over and it's only a 30 minutes show!

Tim said, "Who said anything about walking?  We could drive over"!  Well driving now, that's a different kettle of fireworks altogether.  I hesitated for a nanosecond and then in a seize the day kind of moment said, "Let's go".  

​Bear in mind, we have never tried to drive to the fireworks on the beach before because we've always walked over.  Therefore we had only our fireworks attendance assumptions to lean on which turned out to be very correct.  Every parking spot and a few non-parking spots were filled (we found that out on the way back home).  So we didn't try to go to the actual beach, just somewhere nearby.  And that somewhere turned out to be a gravel spot in front of the boat rental place where we could see the fireworks above the beach condos.  As you can see from the photos at the top of the page, it was absolutely good enough.  We just stood there and watched and smiled and enjoyed! (and in my case, at least attempted to get a few photos)

We left just ahead of the finale because we suspected the roads would be packed. And we were correct. It was like trying to leave the drive-in theatre the very instant that the last movie ends. Everybody is trying to leave at the same time !  And it gets a little crazy!    Lucky for us, we know not just the roads, but the backroads, and only had to put up with crazy for a very short time and then we were happy happy, back at home, safe and sound and ultimately glad that we went.

Hope you had a great Holiday weekend too!

Super Quick post today.   Just two things:

#1.  While most of us get to enjoy another three-day holiday weekend, remember that not everybody does.  Some retail stores are still fully open for business and that includes grocery stores; most restaurants will not only be open, but also packed with patrons; police and fire departments will be busy all day and all night and of course hospital staff are ever vigilant.   Please appreciate your extra day off and be kind and grateful to those who do not!

#2.  However you choose to celebrate Independence Day, I want you to remember the two most important things:  Have Fun and Be Safe !!!!

I'll be back on Tuesday! 
​ Meanwhile, hugs all 'round

Thank you to everyone who offered up their opinions, thoughts and votes as to which pictures I should submit for the photo contest!  I really appreciate so very much that you took the time and trouble to respond to my request!  Wow!  So Many Great Thoughts!

Actually I was a little surprised at the outcome.  First by how many of you responded (Did I say thank you already?) AND by the photos that you were most drawn to.  It honestly was different than I anticipated.  That said, it's exactly why I threw the photos out into the Blogiverse and asked for your opinions.  Sometimes when you stand too close to something, it's hard to see it clearly.  My Nana used to mumble under her breath, "Can't see the forest for the trees". Totally get that now.

I sent in my  submission yesterday and I want you all to know that I took all of your thoughts, opinions and votes into consideration before making my decision.    And I wrestled with it for some time too.  I know that the chance of one of my photos being selected is somewhere between slim and none but, as my Dad taught me, if you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability.  All or nothin'.  So I am good with whatever the outcome.  I truly believe that I treated it seriously, read all of the instructions carefully and submitted the best that I had to offer.

Ultimately I had to consider several things when making my selections:  their guidelines (of course, the photos that best represented our city as I view it, your input and my  heart & soul.  One of the photos I sent in, none of you chose as a favourite.  But it was my favourite and everytime I look at it, I remember that day, that moment. Perhaps it's too personal a choice, too emotional of a decision but that's when sometimes you just gotta go with your heart.

Thankfully, I was allowed to submit four photos, so the other three are the ones that got most of your votes (thank you again!)  

In case you are curious, here are the four photos that I submitted:

I understand that the contest closes Mid-July and the winners will be announced some time in August.  Soooooo  I guess we will all find out then :)  

Meanwhile, win, lose or draw, I am the big winner because I have all of you folks who are so endlessly kind and supportive.  Thank you!  

PS I will absolutely let you know if any of my photos are selected!  Stay Tuned

(Ok, it's not a great quality photograph, but I suspect that  you get the gist of it.   Yeah, that's me taking a photo of me with the camera on my phone as reflected in a full length mirror in the guest room).

I think most everyone has a favourite outfit.  The go-to garment(s) that, when you choose to wear them, you already know ahead of time that you will be comfortable all day long and you look good. Or at least good enough.  The outfit in the photo above is mine.

The shorts are seersucker. Admittedly a very old fashioned fabric but it's so awesome!  Cool, lightweight, comfortable and dang cute.  Why on earth has it gone out of favour?  And bonus points?  I found them on the clearance rack of a Beall's Outlet about 5 years ago.  Woohoo!  They are easy wash, it's not necessary to iron them (though I usually do) and they have an elastic waist band which adds Super comfort!  (not the horrible gobby elastic waistbands that make whatever you are wearing look like a diaper!!  No, the new fashioned sort that's wide and smooth and awesome)

The top is only one of several that I tend to wear with those shorts.  It's made of breathable cotton (which I adore) loose and airy and cool and comfy.  Comfort as a concept obviously looms large in my mystique.  Almost everything in my closet, from the grungiest of hiking and yard work clothes to my fanciest dress up outfits are, first and foremost, also comfortable.   I can honestly say that I only own one thing that isn't comfortable.  It's a top that looks perfectly fine but it itches and I keep meaning to throw it away.  On the other hand, this navy blue top is a keeper.


When I try on clothes at a store,  there is a list of questions that I ask myself before deciding to buy:  1: is it comfortable?  And that means in all different positions, standing, sitting, bending over, etc.  2: is it easy care?   i.e.  no dry cleaning or other bothersome cleaning methodology 3: do I have other things that go with it?  That's because I generally buy separates.  And I prefer to have more than one option with each top or bottom. Increases my wardrobe exponentially!  4: does it serve a useful purpose in my current life?  I rarely have tea with the Queen anymore so I honestly do not require much formal wear and 5: is the price reasonable?  And by that I mean is the price VERY low. The shorts I am wearing in this photo were around $5. I do love a clearance sale.

Because the above outfit hits every single point on my list, I went ahead and purchased all of the pieces.  On different shopping trips!  I believe that I bought the shorts an entire year before the top.  Still works together just fine.  You might think that the navy blue of the top would make it too hot to wear here in the summer time.  Dark colours and hot, humid weather do not automatically seem to fit together.  But honestly, it is amazingly comfortable and cool.

 I love everything about this outfit.  Whenever this is clean, ironed and hanging in the closet,  on a hot summer day, THIS is the outfit I reach for.  I try to not wear it more than once a week but I confess that there have been times when I did.  And the sad part is, and this is always the saddest part, because I wear it so much - and therefore wash it so much - it will wear out way before clothes that don't have quite the same appeal.  Dang.

So far, it seems to be holding up surprisingly well, especially for the price.  We all know that cheap clothes don't seem to last very long.  I can only assume (though one should never) there is a difference in the quality between reasonably priced clothes that are on sale and cheap clothes.   But the truth is that eventually the day will come when this outfit will be ready for the ragbag.  And I will be sad.    Worse, I will have to find a different go-to outfit that is my new favourite and right this minute, I cannot imagine what that would be.  

Even if I went to the store to shop for a new, similar, outfit, you know that I would not find an exact replica.  That's because fashion changes constantly.  Even when shopping in an outlet store where the offerings are not the latest and greatest and most up to date styles.  More like previous years top sellers.   And that's fine as I've never been "In Style".  Honestly, If I look super fashionable ever, I can only assure you that it is by accident.  Truth be told, my personal style is about half and half, classic and quirky.  Classics are easier to replace with similar but quirky is impossible to find again.   

It's not as if I dislike the rest of the clothes in my closet.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I like everything hanging there.  But there is a difference between liking your garments and having that favourite thing.  It's sort of like a toddler and that stuffed teddy bear that they insist upon dragging around with them everywhere they go.  The stuffed bunny  in the toybox is perfectly nice and they like it okay but it's not the same as the teddy bear.  All parents understand this.  Heck, all toddlers understand this!  Psychologically,  I do not fully comprehend the why of it, but I except it as true.  The favourite, be it stuffed animals or outfits, is, in a manner that defies explanation, different.  It is better.  It is the best!

And any day that I get to wear my favourite outfit, is automatically a great day!

You are all very familiar with this guy by now, right?  This is is the dad half of the red bellied woodpecker couple that moved into the birdie condo that was created in the dead palm in our courtyard.  All well and good. They have been very nice neighbors, entertaining, quiet for the most part, and (as I once said before) they don't borrow yard tools and then forget to return them.

​Well, as of yesterday, this guy swoops into town:

It's a different kind of woodpecker. I think it's a Downy Woodpecker but of course I am no bird expert.   I was so surprised when I saw this guy drop in and start poking around the same tree as the other woodpeckers that I just about dropped the plate I was drying (while looking out the window obviously).

This new guy, Downy, just boldly fly right up to the doorway of the birdie condo and stuck his head inside as if to say, "hello! Is anybody home?"  Then strutted up and down the outside of the tree for awhile.

I said, 'What the actual  heck?'  Are they friends? Cousins?  Frenemies?

I did a little reading and according to what I found it says that red bellied woodpeckers are very territorial and will fight other birds that dare show their little feathered faces 'round their nests.  Really?  Coz what I saw was very cordial.

The red bellied woodpecker, from here on in known as Red and the other guy, Downy, seemed to be old friends.  They cruised up and down the outside of the tree, each on one side, seeking particularly delicious bugs. It was as if they were out shopping together.  Or perhaps sharing good times on a bug hunting trip. They did not appear to be mortal enemies.  Which kind of flies in the face of what the experts say.

It was fascinating to watch them.    Sometimes Red was inside the nest looking out while Downy cruised around, sometimes both of them were outside together. Occasionally one would fly off and then return over and over.     

Today I notice that only Red is around.  In fact, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Red both this morning.  She was inside the tree, he was outside.   But Downy has thus far, been nowhere in sight.  Did they have a disagreement?  Or perhaps Downy was just passing through and stopped by for a quick howdy do?   It's a mystery to me.

As I said before, I don't know much about birds of any kind really, but these guys in our courtyard just fascinate me.  I spend a ridiculous speculating about what they are saying or doing.  Occasionally I offer them human voices, that is I speak for them and offer them scripted dialogue that is probably completely Not what is going on at all.

Just  a short time ago, I observed Mr. Red cleaning house.  Whatever will they do next?

I am so easily amused.

​

Well dang, another one bites the dust.   Add this to our slowly growing collection of broken picture frames. 

I don't know if you remember, back about 4 or 5 ago, I was so excited to write about these picture hanging command strips that Tim found.  We used them to hang art all over the house.  All sorts of art and all sorts of sizes.  As long as we stayed within the weight limit clearly indicated on each particular size of command strips it worked beautifully!   And not one single nail had to hammered.

I try to avoid using hammer and nails to hang pictures. Mostly because I'm really bad at it.    And we have a lot of art. So imagine every wall in your house with nail hole after nail hole (because I measured incorrectly the first and sometimes second time) and a few ooopses where the hammer slipped and hit the hall instead of the nail.  Yeah. It's not pretty. 

Initially, I avoided hanging any art at all in this house just to avoid having spackle and mesh and paint repairs to do.  (If I don't damage it, I don't have to fix it)  But the walls looked naked and the art was languishing in boxes in the utility room taking up space.  I'm not sure which was more bothersome to be honest, the naked walls or the art taking up valuable space.  After about a year I was thinking that if we weren't going to use our art, we should probably just get rid of it.  

While it was a logical thought, it was a sad one.  We love every single piece of art that we have.  And we have a lot.  More than there is actually room to hang up.    Some pieces were gifts, others we purchased and some were inherited.  There are oils and water colours and photographs (none of mine) and pen & ink and a few are just prints that we loved.  About half of them are beautifully and professionally framed the rest are Sam-Framed from cheapo frames bought on sale at Michaels and Walmart.

By the way, gravity does not care one single bit if a frame is wildly expensive or really cheap.  When the command strip lets go and the piece hits the tile, the frame breaks.  Dang it.  And obviously,  so does the glass.  Sigh.

99% of the art went up in the same few consecutive weekends.  Some of it crashed back down to the ground fairly quickly.  Those, I attribute to an operator (that would be me) error issue.  Either I didn't guess the weight correctly (very possible) or I didn't follow the directions 100 percent correctly (even more probable).    Those we reframed or repaired and rehung right away.  And for awhile, it looked so great!  The artwork that we loved looked back at us in nearly every direction from nearly every room.  Yayayayayay!

But now, every once in awhile, with no forewarning at all, one of them leaps from the wall to it's death.    And it's so random!  There seems to be no rhythm or rhyme to it at all.  One giant one in the kitchen crashed to the ground around Christmas time two years ago. A beautiful painting in the living room that was a cherished gift  fell last autumn  just a few weeks after an inherited picture of an old barn ended itself in the guest room.  Then nothing else until  the cat picture (which was my mother's) yesterday.  I just don't get it.

Other works have been hanging just as long all over the house and remain - apparently safe and secure.  They were all hung the same way using the same product in the same general time period.  Yet this one falls and that one does not.  The living painting that jumped off the wall was one of six pieces in a group.  Five remain.  I do not understand.

And I keep debating with myself.  Should I just preemptively take down all of the art so no more frames are broken and I don't have to endlessly sweep up glass?  We would be back to naked walls again but at least the art would be saved.  But on the other hand, what if the remaining pieces were never going to fall? What if everything else is as immovable as granite exactly as it is?   Decisions decisions decisions.

Eventually, I will have all of the broken stuff reframed - whether I pop for some cheapo sale frames myself again or have it done properly by people who actually know what they are doing.  And then I will have to make yet another decision, do I use command strip picture hangars again?  Or do I risk using actual nails?  

I am positive that I did not see an expiration date on any of the command strip picture hangar packages.  Positive.  However, I admit that I did not do any research, which is unlike me.  I guess that would be step one.  But it would be silly to have an expiration date on a picture hangar product wouldn't it?  Yes you can use our product to hang your pictures but only temporarily. 

Once I have pictures hung up, there they stay (usually) until the end of time.  Or until we move.  I don't re-decorate. Once it's done, it's done.  Why?  Well as we all know, I am seriously tight with a buck.  Decorating is expensive!  Re-decorating seems like an unnecessary expense to me (to me!  This is just me talking about me)  As long as something still works it stays.  However, the instant that it no longer works, it's outta here and replaced.  If a table breaks, it's gone.  On the other hand, if it only has a scratch a chip or a worn area I call it "character" and it stays.  

So there you have it.   That's the story for today.  The mysterious falling artwork.  Maybe we have a poltergeist?

I wonder if you guys would mind helping me out.

The city that Tim and I live in is holding a contest.  They are seeking photographs for their 2023 Calendar.  And I'm thinking, what the heck, maybe I will submit a few pictures.  I got nothin' to lose right?  It's good to stretch yourself, to do things that you might not ordinarily do.  And this is absolutely something that I would not normally do!

There are rules, of course.  Things like, the pictures must have been taken within the city limits of Venice.  Which meant first I had to learn exactly where those city limits were.  It isn't always obvious.  Luckily for me, Tim found a map online somewhere which very clearly outlined the area.  Good start!

Then too, the pictures have to be in colour, very minimally altered (for instance it's okay to crop them but not to photo shop them) and they have to be landscape and not profile in presentation.  Okay, I can do those things.

The pictures must represent our city naturally and cannot be of people (although there can be people in the background).  The photos also must be of a certain size. That part is tricky because I have no idea how to determine a pictures size.    The pictures must be recent and must be submitted by July 15th which is coming up quickly so I must make a decision about this. Dang.  Right now that is the hardest part, which is why I am asking for your help!

 The only thing standing in my way right now is my inability to make a decision.    Maybe you can help me choose?  I can submit up to 4 photographs.

With that in mind, here are the pictures I am considering.  If you wouldn't mind letting me know which one (if any)  that you like, I would very much appreciate it:

So that's it.  The only ones that are even half way decent that fit the criteria.  

I find this sort of thing rather scary actually, but I'm digging deep and finding the courage to through my offerings out into the world (well my corner of it anyway) knowing full well, that it is VERY unlikely that any of my photos will be chosen.  Still, I am operating on the thought that if the worst that happens is that they don't like anything I send,  it really makes zero difference in my life.  It's not a big deal.  Therefore,  why not go ahead and do it.   After all isn't the old saying, "Fortune favours the bold".  I wasn't actually looking for fortune (thought I am not stupid, I wouldn't turn it down either) just possibly having one of my photos on next years calendar.

So if you wouldn't mind and you have the time, if you could let me know which (if any) of the photos here you like, I would be eternally grateful!  Thank you !!

It appears that, unintentionally, I lied to ya'll on Friday.  The last thing I said was that I would "see" you again on Monday.  And this is Wednesday.  Ooops.   My bad.

Hope you've had a great few days.  We absolutely did!  

We started out with a Minock Day!  Been way too long. As you know, Minock Days are always the best days.  They invited us up to just relax in their pool and let me tell ya, on a super hot summer Florida day, that is awesome.    Tim and I have lived here now for six years (already??) and we are accustomed to Florida summer.  We know it's going to be hot and humid and potentially for a few months.  But this past week was a little beyond the pale.  Every day was not just hot but "weather advisory" hot.  The temperature might have been in the low 90's but the 'feels like' was over 100.  Yikes!  We always enjoy Minock Day.  We always talk and laugh and eat and talk and laugh some more.  But add in a nice cool pool on an especially hot day and now you have added "Ahhhhhh" to the party.  It was Awesome!

Tim and I also tried to beat the heat with a visit to our local non-pool water.  Come sunset we wandered over to the jetty and were lucky enough to time to visit with some cooler air, a few dolphins and a gorgeous sunset:

Tim, who is such a smarty pants, had another great idea which was to go to the movies!  Yeah!  Those places are WAY air conditioned.  Great Plan!  But we didn't just go to any movie theatre, we went to the CineBistro.   It looks like an ordinary theatre from the outside:

But the inside is so much more ummm, what is the descriptor that I am looking for?  Lux.  That's it.  Lux.  Tim ordered the tickets online so we walked in the door, 30 minutes ahead as instructed, tickets already in hand. Well actually on his phone, but you know what I mean.  We had great seats, top row, center, perfect view.  The aisles were nice and wide so there was no skootching through trying  to not step on people's feet saying," excuse me, pardon me, sorry". Nope there was PLENTY of room to get by. And the seats!  Oh my goodness!  Each seat was a leather, or leather-like maybe, recliner (RECLINER!) with two cup holders per patron. So comfy cozy.   There was also a swing-away tray for each seat.  Why would we need a tray, you ask?

Well it's right there in the name cine-bistro.  This is the bistro part.  As soon as we were seated a lovely young lady came up to hand us our menus and explain how it all worked. We made our selections which were brought out by an equally nice young man.  We could have chosen just appetizers, popcorn and candy, just drinks or nothing at all, by the way.  By the time the previews were over, we were finished and our trays removed and we settled into enjoy the movie (our first movie in a theater in several years by the way).  We saw Top Gun which was awesome!

Somewhere in the middle there we celebrated Father's Day, for this guy here.  He's so silly :)

I've been having a wee bit of a connectivity problem here so while I'm typing this up right now, I am not absolutely certain when it will be posted.  But I'll keep trying!  And hopefully,  I will see you here again tomorrow!

​Hugs all 'round