Well, taadaa! We made it through another hurricane. This one, Idalia, we are being told, was very unusual in that it followed a path never before seen in recorded weather history! Wow! Which means it also hit an area that has never had a hurricane before. At least not a direct hit. Those poor folks :( My heart goes out to them! We had lots of wind and rain, flooding on the roads closest to the beach but otherwise, it's all good. I've already picked up the deadfall in the yard. 3 garbage cans later...jobs done. But I'm leaving most of the sandbags in place until the end of hurricane season - just in case. So many lovely people have been checking in with us, to make sure we are ok. That is so thoughtful and considerate!! Just warms my heart. But in talking with folks, I think there is a little misunderstanding of how a hurricane works. If I may do a small tutorial before I move on? Think of a hurricane as a pinwheel. Imagine each of the petals of the pinwheel has streamers attached to the tips. When it spins around, obviously, the streamers reach way way way farther than the edges of the pinwheel right? Ok. Now imagine that pinwheel is 350 miles across. That's roughly the size of the state of Colorado. Now then, the center of that pinwheel made landfall in Cedar Key Florida which is more than 3 hours north from us. Only the streamers of the pinwheel lashed us. The strongest part of the storm is the actual pinwheel. Does that makes sense? Good! Now bear in mind that this pinwheel travels counterclockwise which means the top of the pinwheel (or north side) is pushing at things including water and the bottom of the pinwheel (or south side including us) is pulling water. Which is why the backside of the hurricane can also be very damaging; Storm Surge! The storm literally pulls the water onto shore. Storm surge is often the worst part of the storm. Meterologist sometimes refer to the backside of the hurricane as the "dirty side". Dirty as in dirty tricks! Hope that helped! One of the hardest parts of getting through a "weather event" is the not knowing. You don't know for sure where it's going to hit, you don't know for sure how bad it's going to be, if you are going to lose power, or be underwater, or have trees down, or house damage even! And it's a lot of waiting. Waiting. Waiting. I paced a lot. Used up my nervous energy cleaning and organizing and doing things that didn't really need to be done. Tim on the other hand is pretty relaxed about it. His feeling is that there is nothing he can do to control it, so he is more focused on being prepared as much as possible and dealing with the rest afterwards. He is so smart. Wish I could do that. The sun is shining brightly today. At least for right now. Weather predictions suggest rain later, but that's ok. I'm loving the sunshine right now. It was still windy and rainy yesterday so mostly, I stayed inside and re-organized part of the pantry, cleaned bathrooms and made a coffeecake with brown butter icing. I shouldn't brag on myself, but it tastes reallllly good. And because we are always curious, instead of doing the noonwalk, Tim and I headed out in the car to see what we could see. I brought my camera of course. At one point we assumed that we were between rain bands and headed down a boardwalk toward the beach only to have the sky, suddenly, open up and, needless to say, we were drenched! But that's ok. Once that band cleared, we continued and the pictures happened. Even saw a couple of birds! It was windy and rainy enough that the camera lens kept collecting wet sea air and moisture (which also means salt) so I had to keep cleaning the lense. It was hard to get really good shots, but I did the best I could. Please bear that in mind: I did have a teehee moment the day of the hurricane. At one point I suddenly realized that last year, when Hurricane Ian came through, I was wearing the exact same clothes! LOLOL It seems that I have an official hurricane outfit! What a silly thing to remember.
Labour Day weekend is coming up! Hope you have something wonderful planned! I'll see you at some point next week! Have fun and be safe ya'll. Hugs all 'round.
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What is it with the letter "I"? The first hurricane we truly encountered since we lived here was Hurricane Irma, last year it was Hurricane Ian. Now we are expecting Idalia! All start with the same letter! What are the odds on that? The rain part should begin later today but the actual landfall of the storm won't be until sometime Wednesday. At least that's the story for right now. And according to the map, a t this very moment, it seems to be heading north of us. Which means we will mostly just get heavy rain and wind. But things change and honestly nobody, including the weather people, know anything for sure. I guess we will all learn about it at the same time. Tim and I headed over to the jetty last night to see what we could see. There was a brisk wind, much cooler temperatures and some awesome clouds: Other than a few people stopping by to take photos like us, the jetty and the beach were the least crowded we've seen in months! I was able to line up a couple of fun shots of other photographers tho. Perspective, sometimes, is everything! We saw two little girls blowing soap bubbles and watching the wind carry the bubbles away. They were sort of enchanting. I didn't even try to take a photo of the children but I got one of the bubbles. You may have to do a Where's Waldo level search to find them, but I assure you, the bubbles are there: Once the rain reached us, we headed home but quickly outpaced the storm and found, instead, a magnificent rainbow! Naturally, I paused to take pictures of that too: Our weekend started out so good too. We had a Minock Weekend! Yay! They drove down Friday late afternoon so we got to have dinner together and then hang out just talking and laughing, way way way too late. But up bright and early to share breakfast (and talk more). The we split up girls/guys to hang out for awhile. She and I walked the avenue and poked around the shops. (and talked more!) Then we all met up again at the house and talked and laughed still more until it was time for them to hit the road and go home. How on earth do we come up with that much to talk about?? I dont' know, but we always do :)
It was a GREAT beginning of the weekend. And now we wait to see what Idalia will bring us. Fingers crossed that it's all much ado about nothing. If you dont' hear from me later this week, it only means that we've lost power. I'm sure we are absolutely fine and eventually I will be back to post the rest of the story on the storm. Everybody hunker down, stay safe and we will meet again soon! Hugs all 'round In a moment rather unusual for me, I actually have nothing to say today! So I will leave you with wishes for a wonderful weekend and a few pretty pictures.
Hugs all 'round On a fairly regular basis, ideas pop into my head about what to blog about. It might be something I've recently done, or places we've gone, things we've talked about or read. And it sparks an idea and I immediately write it down in a little notebook that I keep at my desk for just such things.
Then, when a day comes along that is a blog-writing sort of day, if I don't have another plan already, I consult the book of ideas, get re-inspired all over again and get to work. This morning, I sat down, blog construction page opened and blank and ready to roll, my fingers were poised over the keys and.........................nothin'. Bupkus. Zippity-do-dah, zilch, zero, nada. So naturally, I consulted the idea book and, holy cats! I had already used up all of the ideas! Now what? I blame August. It's such a blah month. It's hot, it's boring, and it's still freakin' summer even though by now everybody is over it.. August is like the guests who stay too long at the party. NO matter how many hints you give, they linger. Even my desk calendar for August is dull. Other than my museum days schedule, it is virtually blank and that NEVER happens. Usually my desk calendar is an absolute wreck with all of the days full of different colours of ink and markers, little sticky notes slapped on here and there and things written in the margins with lots of not at all helpful arrows. August's calendar page, on the other hand is very nearly pristine. I suppose I ought to appreciate it for it's calm in an otherwise whackado world but it surely cuts down on subject matter for blogposts! Perhaps if I led a more interesting life it would be different. There would be scads of things to write about every week! Heck, there would be things to write about every day! Imagine living that life? Always on my way to here or there, thither and then yon. Always doing, and seeing and being and going. Busybusybusy. Gosh just thinking about that makes me tired. I guess I'm more hardwired to a quieter life. But not quite as quiet as August. I honestly didn't realize just what a snore my August life was until I was on the phone with my sister recently. She had been away for a few weeks and we were catching up. I asked her what was new - an innocent enough question - and my goodness! She is busy and going and doing and it was so exciting and fun to hear about! But somewhere along the way she turned the question around to me, "So what's new with you?" And I had to pause to think about it. Quite honestly, nothing was new, or exciting or interesting or worthy of mention really. So I said, "nothing really, just y'know, ordinary stuff". And my voice trailed off and the answer just kind of hung there in the air in silence and then we promised to get together later this week. Ordinary Stuff is the truth. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with ordinary stuff. Most of our lives is just ordinary stuff. People get up, they go to work, to meetings and they get their jobs done. I stay home and get my job done here. I clean, do laundry, cook and bake, and do some yard work. Grocery shopping gets done and errands get run and books get read and seriously, that is my regular life. There is a comfort in the predictability of it all. But usually, in non-August months, here and there, something different drops into our lives. And that livens things up a bit for awhile. Because one unusual, unexpected thing frequently leads to others which leads to others which then lend themselves to yet more non-ordinary people, things, places and ideas. How very exciting! Except in August. So anyway, that's that. Ordinary August. Luckily, the ever so boring month of August is heading to a close and I see September on the horizon. September will be far more interesting, I have no doubt at all. And in the meantime, I am going to get on with my day, try to get excited about washing towels and sheets, cleaning bathrooms and doing the ironing. Hold me back, I'm not sure I can stand the excitement! Hey! Look what I almost sort of remembered how to do? French Braid! Wow! I'm so tickled with myself right now!
Sure, sure, it's not perfect. It looks a little wonky and I seem to have oopsed a section down toward the bottom, but still, I did it ! And yes, it required a couple of pins to keep it all in place (and a significant amount of hairspray) but it still counts. Are you tired of hearing about my hair yet? I know I'm getting tired of trying to figure it out. The electric rollers thing is working out pretty well, but I don't always have the time, the energy or the umph required to deal with all the steps involved: First I have to think of it in time. Then I have to go to the linen closet and pull out the rollers and the clips and plug it in. Next comes waiting for it to heat up. After that comes the actual rollering which is both time consuming and a little painful. I still burn my fingers a little bit every time. Then is the time spent just walking around looking like a satellite waiting for the rollers to cool off. Followed by unrollering and putting everything away, giving the freshly unrollered and unbrushed/uncombed hair a general blast of hairspray and waiting for that to settle. Lastly, brushing or combing it. All that means thinking ahead! Which sometimes just doesn't work out for me. Plus it's just nice to have lots of options for my hair. One of the best parts of having longer hair is having more hair style possibilities! I love that part the most. So now and again, I fiddle around with my hair trying to come up with another new idea. In this case it was a new/old idea. A long, long time ago, I braided my hair on a regular basis. It was quick and easy, kept the hair out of my way and looked nice. Bonus! One braid, two braids, big braids, tiny braids, pinned up, left down, crisscrossed across the top.....there are a lot of choices with braids. So I thought I'd play with it a little bit and see if my hair was finally long enough to actually braid. Turns out it is, just barely, but it is. Ooooo, exciting! Something else to mess around with :) I love when that happens. So while I was playing with various sorts of braids, it struck me! "French Braids!" Which was immediately followed by, "Do I remember how to do that?" which was then followed by, "Can I still do that?" There is only one way to find out! It took multiple tries and failures and by the end of that first day, my arms were tired out just from being up in the air so much. My right arm in particular (you will recall that was broken in two places back in January) doesn't bend exactly right anymore so I have to accommodate for that. And then too, I'm working with fingers that, thank to arthritis, also refuse to properly cooperate. ARGH! So Frustrating sometimes. But I kept at it. My personal policy in regard to physical limitations is to find a way. If I cannot do something the normal way anymore, then I need to find a different way of doing it! Honestly, most of the time, I actually do find another way. Not every time. But most of the time. And I was pretty sure that I would figure it out this time too. It's not a life altering function. The fate of the earth does not hinge on whether or not I can french braid my hair anymore. But it was important to me. And that was sufficient reason to keep trying. I'm actually rather pleased with the results. Imperfect yes, but I still did it! And I think, with more practice, it will get even getter. Not perfect probably, but good enough. :) I do see, in this photograph, how very grey I am getting. Funny how I don't really notice it when I look into a mirror. Ah well, I earned every sparkly bit of it. One of these days, soon perhaps, it will all be either silver, grey, white or a combination. By then, maybe, I will have that french braid thing down cold! Yay me! Have a great weekend. Hugs all 'round ya'll I keep reading articles about how "malls" are a thing of the past, that they are failing rapidly all across America and that they represent an America that no longer exists. I'm not sure what that thing is that no longer exists, by the way. Just telling you what people who seem to know what they are talking about are saying. Or rather, writing.
We have two malls near us, the closest one is the Sarasota Square Mall and the other is University Town Center Mall, better known as UTC. Both are in Sarasota which is only a half hour from here. There are Zero malls in Venice off or on island. We are mall-less. Your choices for shopping in Venice are either free-standing big box chains off island (and there's nothing wrong with that) or the pricey but adorable little boutiques the line the downtown area on island. (and there is nothing wrong with that either) I have done some gift shopping at the boutiques as well as more functional, purposeful personal shopping at the chains and both perfectly suited whatever purpose was intended but neither of these things has the convenience of a mall. In much the same way as I have heard that some people from other countries react during their first America Grocery shop, I was entranced by my first shopping mall experience. I actually do remember it. It was in Connecticut. I vividly recall stepping through the heavy glass doors and just stopping to marvel at the sights and sounds around me. How beautiful, how clever, how very convenient. Is the day very hot out? Very Cold out? Very rainy out? Doesn't matter. Inside there is no "natural environment", it's just shiny and pretty as far as the eye can see. And you certainly could stay for hours without realizing it because, much like casino's, there are rarely any clocks or windows. But that's ok, because not only are there endless shopping options, there are also so very many restaurant choices, comfy sitting areas, hair and nail salons, movie theatres and very clean bathrooms. It's almost like a biodome. I spent a lot of time way back when, hanging out in a mall, both with and without the kids. Sometimes we would just go for ice cream or pizza and then walk around. Take the kids to the movies? Sure? Back to School clothes shopping? Absolutely. Christmas ? You betcha! Or just window shopping! And then when the kids were older, it became one of their hang out places. There was even a term for it, Mall Rats. Not a pretty term, but people threw it around liberally. It doesn't happen for me much anymore. Due to my driving chicken heartedness, I cannot drive to either of the mall's in Sarasota so I must implore someone else to drive me for one thing. And for another, I just don't shop very much these days. Just not how my life currently is. But occasionally it comes up and with our local malls I have seen both the proof of those articles I referred to earlier and the disproof! The Sarasota Square Mall is older and is showing it's age. The grand opening was in 1977 which was 46 years ago. I'd say for sure it has done it's time. And in the past 5 years or so, one store after another has closed or relocated leaving only JC Penney, Costco and a multiplex movie theater. All that enormous space and there are now only three things in it. So sad. I haven't shopped at Penney's in quite some time but we hit Costco once every few months. We have never been to the theatre there, I don't think. There is some talk about turning the existing building into a combination of office spaces and living space. Interesting idea. By contrast, the UTC Mall is still vibrant, exciting, shiny and almost fully populated. Even though it is now 20 years old, it still looks brand new and spiffy. It doesn't hurt that the area immediately around it has sprung up countless other plaza's full of shops and restaurants and businesses. In fact, the Mote Aquarium is currently building immense, beautiful and very contemporary looking new home right on the other side of the UTC parking lot. It's a happening place. We recently visited UTC at my instigation. It was a super hot day but I wanted to get some walking done so for the first time in several years, we hit it up. Managed to do a little more than 2 miles worth of walking. We bought nothing but did look around. Every once in awhile I like to check out ladies clothing stores to see what's currently in fashion. Usually a walk through the mall gives me some glimmer of an idea. But oddly this time it did not. Even though we went into every single store that sells ladies clothes, I saw every style of fashion imaginable! So I guess maybe the style right now is, "Anything Goes"? It's odd that I wanted to check out Ladies FAshion because the only times in my entire life I have ever been in style hav been completely by accident. Maybe it gives me some sort of grim satisfaction to know just exactly how out of style I am? Well this time it didn't work. This time every single woman in the entire mall, regardless of how they were kitted out, apparently, was wearing current fashion. Nice! At any rate, I neither proved nor disproved, the articles statement of Mall's being a thing of the past. Perhaps some are and some aren't. And I really am not certain what the magic ingredients are to ensure a mall's success. And of course I only know, first hand, the mall concept's temperature in my own area. What's it like where you live? I assume that on-line shopping has severely impacted brick and mortar shops. But if that's the case, why would one mall continue to succeed while others fail? Internet shopping cannot be the only variable. It's not as if the answer to this question has the fate of the planet riding on it. I just wonder about things sometimes and then I look it up and sometimes, I cannot find the answer. And then I wonder about that too. iInsomnia. Who hasn't had a few sleepless nights here and there?
Basically insomnia is just not sleeping. Not because you WANT to stay awake, but because you simply cannot sleep, no matter how badly you want to. For some people, insomnia is a very rare experience, usually during a time of stress. Other folks are brand new to the torture of long and sleepless nights. And for others of us? It's a lifetime experience. For me, it's now 70 years of being, what one of my childhood doctors used to call, a "bad sleeper". Bad Sleeper! Shame on you! As I get older, I'm noticing more and more people complaining about Insomnia. Most of these people are somewhere in the range of Tim's and/or my age so I was curious if this is just one more delight in the aging process. Turns out that it is. Yup. Dang. We just cannot catch a break. (more on this below) Actually, as I researched, insomnia covers a wide range of sleep disorders. There was even a little questionnaire: 1) Do you have difficulty falling asleep? 2) Do you fall asleep easily and then wake up during the night, unable to fall back to sleep? 3) Do you wake much earlier than you would like and therefore get fewer hours of sleep than you need? 4) Do you have nights of little to no sleep at all? By the way, my answer to all of these questions is a resounding Yes. I am a walking sleep disorder apparently. Or perhaps I am all of them? Regardless, the causes suggested for all of these types of insomnia are legion. There are loads of reasons why people do not sleep. Stress and Anxiety of course, as expected are at the top. Everyone has times of stress and anxiety throughout their lives and probably have sleep difficulties because of it. My assumption, though to be fair I didn't look any further into this idea, is that probably people who are always stressed and anxious, always have difficulty sleeping. Makes sense to me. Another reason that some people do not sleep well is side effects of medications. Interesting, interesting. A subset of this reason was caffeine, recreational drug and alcohol intake. Not really medications but there it was. Apparently, weight can be an instigator in the sleeping wars too. I get the connection if a person's size has also caused sleep apnea but otherwise, I really do not see the correlation. Folks who have chronic pain - also logical but sad struggle with insomnia. AND too much exposure to "bluelight" meaning tablets, phones and television can disrupt sleep patterns too. And then there is the worst, the one thing that I cannot do a dang thing about for me or anybody else, Aging. What? Apparently, as we age, our own natural circadian rhythms get disrupted and therefore, we have difficulty sleeping. What kind of crap reason is this? It's not bad enough that we have wrinkles, grey hair, arthritis and occasional bouts of can't-recall-itis, now our bodies are sabotaging our own sleep? Well that just stinks on ice. Experts still recommend between 6 and 9 hours of sleep a night. HAH! That's hilarious. Sleep is important. So important in fact, that, according to my research, going without sleep, leads to cognitive impairment, irritability, delusions and even hallucinations! Ask any parent of a newborn. They already know this. But did you know a mere 24 hours with no sleep is equivalent to having a .10 blood alcohol level - which would of course be above the legal limit to drive. Yikes! 36 hours without sleep can cause:
After 48 hours of no sleep, the body's immune system becomes compromised on top of everything else so now insomnia becomes potentially a health risk. If your insomnia becomes a chronic condition other problems can rear their ugly heads: Well, as far as I know I don't have any of those issues, but just knowing that it's a possibility kind of stinks. The articles I read, over and over again, stated the importance of getting a good nights sleep. Well, and I think I speak on behalf of all of us, I would love to. On the rare night when I sleep soundly for an entire 6-8 hours, I wake feeling brand new, energetic and happyhappyhappy. If I could do that every single night I would be overjoyed. But the fact of the matter is, I can't. No matter how much I wish I slept through the night, every night, I don't, I wish I could. I have tried adjusting my diet (as suggested), my exercise routine, cutting myself off from all 'bluelights' and every sort of relaxation methodology known to humankind. Not one single bit of it works. I've even tried Melatonin with absolutely no improvement. My thought is that I've lived an entire lifetime of poor sleep. If that's just how it's going to be for the rest of my life, well, at least I have had plenty of practice. And, honestly, if I'm not sleeping anyway, I may as well use that time to catch up on my reading or heck, blue lights be damned, watching TV. If I'm already not sleeping, a little more blue light exposure isn't going to make any difference. And in the middle of the night is when the old TV shows are rerun: Dick Van Dyke Show, My Favourite Martian, Dobie Gillis, Starsky and Hutch, Mannix, Barney Miller, the X-Files, The Pretender, Quantum Leap, oh yeah, the list goes on and on. Some of those older shows actually hold up pretty well and are still very entertaining. Other's, not so much. I love seeing the old cars, decor, fashion and even the way people talked! When was the last time you heard anyone call someone else a Turkey? heehee. I've gotten to see some of my favourite old movies, too. Classics like "Casablanca" and "12 Angry Men" and "Some Like it Hot". Newer (but still considered old now) movies such as "Stargate" and "Breakfast Club" and "Ferris Bueller" and "Dead Poet's Society" are still really good films. Now and again, I click on a movie I've never even heard of before. Usually they are terrible but occasionally I'm surprised at how really good they are. I have no idea what the answer is, but it was kind of comforting to know that I am now of an age where most people have difficulty sleeping. It's not just me, anymore. I am in good company. Everything I've read suggests strongly that a person with insomnia should really discuss it with their doctor. With absolutely no animosity to any physician that I've ever actually talked to about my insomnia, they didn't have anything helpful to say. Oh well. I guess it just is what it is. And if you are one of the zillions of people who battles, even occasionally with insomnia, I feel for ya. I really do. It probably doesn't help at all, but please know that if you are awake in the night, I most likely am too. Wishing you good sleep and sweet dreams this weekend! How was your weekend? Ours was great! And unexpectedly great. I don't mean unexpected in a depressing way. It's not as if our weekends are horrible. They aren't. But normally they are uneventful. In general we manage to get stuff done and checked off the gotta-do list, run some errands, maybe catch up on some overdue sleep, and probably eat at least one meal out (or take-out). And then it's Monday again and Tim is at his desk working his job and I'm all over the place working my job and we are looking forward to the weekend once again. But this past weekend was different. Not the weather, No, that wasn't different. It was hot and humid in a way that only Florida in August can be which means that we will very wisely be spending most of our time inside......somewhere. But it started out with not one, but two flat tires. Flat tires are not a good thing. But they are a real thing. Flat tires happen. How poor Tim managed to get two flat tires on his car at the same time while driving in a normal fashion on a normal road is still a mystery. But it's true. He knew that it happened immediately. We had been out running errands and were very close to home at that point so we carefully continued the few remaining blocks. Once we pulled into the driveway and got out to look, yup, very flat. Dang. But Tim just shrugged and said "good thing I have a spare". It was late in the day though so the plan was to take care of it the next day. Saturday morning, while I was outside checking on green growing stuff while Tim was taking care of a housey chore, I noticed that it wasn't just one flat tire, it was two. Sigh. When I broke to bad news to Tim, he just shrugged. "And that's why we have Triple A" he says. No longer was this just a "change the tire" situation. Most people have one spare tire, but few people have two on hand. We did not either. So now the car had to be towed. While Tim was being very "it is what it is" about the situation at hand, I had a giant cash register going off in my head. Buying New Tires! $$$ Towed to a car related place! $$$ I fretted very quietly to myself. Tim kept very calm. It's who he is, it's what he does. Turns out, both tires were able to be patched! Hurrah! Much more reasonable price. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY! Great! To say I was relieved would be understating things :) Then, I had mentioned recently, that while I hated to say it, I probably needed new sneakers. My current ones were starting to make my feet hurt which means the innersole was breaking down. Dang. Once again, here I am thinking $$$. When I really looked at the shoes, not only was the insole beat to death, there were holes in the uppers and when I flipped them over, in the actual soles too. Gotta have decent footwear. So once we had the car back Tim says, "Let's go get you some new shoes!" Yay! We headed to the place we almost always go, Peltz! It's a really big store with lots of shoes of all sorts, sizes, colours and styles and, normally, much better prices than the average store. I like that. I like that a lot. What I didn't like was that almost every pair of sneakers in my size that fit and were comfortable, were black. I really did not want black sneakers. I know, I know, I'm being too picky. What difference does it make what colour they are? Well the last time I bought sneakers, which was, as it turns out, two + years ago, I also had to settle for black shoes and I just plain didn't want to do it again. We live in a sunshiney place. I wear light bright colours most of the time. I really didn't want heavy, black, dark, depressing shoes again for two more years. please? So we left and went to another store. The sneakers I already had were the brand "Sketchers" so Tim decided to just go to the Sketchers store. My concern was that since it was the Brand store, the price would be higher. I was wrong. They were having a back to school sale and even though I'm not going back to school, the sale applied to me too. YAY! AND then they were also doing a special thing that weekend, buy one pair, get a second pair half price! AND they had shoes in my size they were every colour, not just black. Woohoo! I left with two pair of shoes for LESS than the price of one pair anywhere else. SCORE! One one pair has kitties on it! There was some sort of special thing going on with those kitty shoes where part of what you pay for the shoes goes to support pet shelters! Bonus! Sunday dawned very sunny, very hot and even more humid. Like just shy of rain humid. Typical for August in Florida but no less miserable for it. Once again, we had no plans, but we had learned that a new donut place in town had opened so naturally we had to check it out. Sunday morning sounded like a great day for donuts! And eating donuts is an Inside thing! The new donut shop is called Parlour Donuts out of Illinois and they are very different than standard donuts. They are more like croissants or perhaps brioche donuts, if you can imagine such a thing and they came in many different varieties, including gluten free, vegan and even Doggie Donuts! We stood in line, marveling at the options and decided that, to truly experience these new-style donuts, we needed to each select three. A half dozen, if you please. And we each chose something different to cover more choices. I had one called French Toast, which realllly tasted like french toast which was kind of wild. The cinnamon roll definitely brought the cinnamon and my last one, the Turtle definitely had the caramel and pecans and chocolate that one might expect from a turtle candy. Tim had turtle cheesecake, lemon and something else, I cannot recall. All of them were good, very filling, very satisfying, but quite honestly, not a donut. It's something else, a different species of breakfast pastry. And as such, needs a different name, in my opinion. We had to sit around digesting for a little bit after that. (I pigged out and had two yesterday but managed to save one for this morning. Sooooo Good) And then just started automatically just doing things that need to be done. Tim worked on one of the last final little details of the project room (family room) and I piddled around doing other small but necessary housey stuff. Then Tim finished what he was doing and says, "let's go". So we got in the car. It's not unusual for us to, at some point in the weekend, just in the car and go somewhere because Tim needs to just not be in the house for awhile. Think about it. He works from home. He spends the majority of his waking hours in one room. Then, when he's not working at his job, he is working on the house. So while it's a different room, it's the same building. Sometimes he just needs to be somewhere else. Anywhere else. Which is probably why he doesn't mind, occasionally, going to the grocery store, or hardware store or... you get the idea. It was already past noon and since it was impromptu, I knew we wouldn't be going that far. And it wasn't. We ended up at the Bishop Science and Nature Museum. And it was awesome. It's not a huge place but big enough. We saw a planetarium show (I LOVE those) and then just meandered around learning about early Florida inhabitants including those of the prehistoric sort, Florida wildlife and that kind of segued into getting to meet the two current temporary resident manatees! It turns out that the Bishop does rehabilitation for injured manatees and once they are healthy again, they are released back into their natural habitat. I like that too. We spent a couple of hours there and enjoyed every minute, in spite of the feral children whose parents were allowing them to literally race through the place weaving around other visitors and exhibits. Grrrrrr. It was nice and cool, it was, surprisingly, not crowded, and there was a free parking garage across the street. All good things.
So for a weekend where we had NO plans at all, we managed to do a lot and it was all awesome! And unusual for us ;) A TREAT for sure! Well I'm feeling pretty dang good about myself right now! I finally got around to doing some long overdue yard work. LONG overdue. Like really really long. Longitylong. Wow! What a slacker.
I'm not sure why I put it off so long. While I didn't get it all done, and in fact, have only made the merest dent, it actually took less than two hours to fill three, count 'em, three garbage cans full to over flowing. So it's not as if it was a full day's worth of toting that barge and lifting that bale y'know? Still, tickled with my accomplishment. I think part of the reason I procrastinate about yardwork is the weather. Naturally, the rainy season (that would be now) is when everything grows like mad and gets totally out of control. But that also means you have to pick and choose carefully when you undertake yardwork endeavors. I do not recommend waving around metal objects while standing in the rain during a thunder and lightening storm. Just not a good idea in general. So, good rule there, no yard work in the rain. On the other hand, this time of year it is unpleasant, to say the least to be outside when it's not raining. It's hot, really hot and humid, really really humid which means it's buggy, really really really buggy. Yuck. All things I try to avoid. Especially when exerting myself. And yard work does require physical effort which, even on a nice pleasant day, means getting dirty and sweaty. On a hot and humid day it's dirty and sweaty times a thousand! Million! Zillion! Or heatstroke. Also something to be avoided. So clearly the best idea is to tackle a job like this early in the morning on a day when it's A) not raining B) not threatening imminent rain C) Very Early D) Very Very Early in the day. So today I rolled out of bed before the sun was fully awake and into my hiking clothes - becoz those clothes are already beat to crap - added ball cap, work gloves, sunscreen and I was out the door. I grabbed a rake and my big old chonkers on the way. I particularly wanted to get the totally out of control stuff along the back fence, a little more under control. Some previous owner of this house, for reasons unknown, planted some purple flowers along the back that honestly are more like weeds than flowers. They have long tangledly stems and they weave themselves together until it's like a crazy quilt mat of purple flowers. And that would be fine, I suppose, except that seeds get dropped into the midst of the crazy quilt and then other things try to also grow there too. Thing like baby trees. And I really do not need a forest encroaching on the yard. I waded cautiously into the morass, my eyes zeroing in on a particularly tall specimen representing a great place to begin. I have no idea what sort of tree it was planning to become, but Not On My Watch. I know I sound like a monster, cutting down baby trees at a time when we all want to SAVE THE TREES. But Florida is a different sort of place. With the least bit of encouragement, things grow. An untended yard, in one season, becomes a rainforest. And it's not just that the idea of living in a house surrounded by forest that we are opposed to. It's the stuff that lives IN the forest too. All sorts of critters live in the stuff I'm pruning and cutting and so forth. Critters that object strongly to what I'm doing. I'm speaking of spiders and snakes and wasps and well, heaven knows what else is lurking out there! Spiders, snakes and wasps have important roles in our eco system and I agree that they should be allowed to exist. I am even okay with them existing in our yard. BUT they are not allowed to bite, sting or freak me out in anyway. Nope. Not allowed. We have seen racoons, oppossums, mice, rats (shudder) bobcats, coyotes and several species of snakes in our yard when it's pristine. If the yard gets completely out of control, lord knows what else could be back there. Bears? Panthers? Wild Pigs? Triceratops? Yikes! Anyway, I was very brave but also cautious and, as I kept an eye out of anything I didn't care to see up close and personal, I cut and chopped and raked and filled our three extra garbage cans and then dragged them up to the front of the house, as I said. And then I had to stop. We only have the 3 extra cans. Once they are filled, I have to wait until next week after garbage pick up to do another section. It looks better, it does. You can tell that I worked on it. But it's also very obvious how much more there is to do. Hopefully next week, I will continue to chop, cut, dig and rake and fill the cans again and the same the following week over and over until either the yard looks better again or the rainy season is over, whichever comes first. Of course, in the same way that a bathroom is only clean until one person uses it, the yard work is only caught up until it rains again and then things grow again. The very things I chopped down will sprout anew! ARGH! It's frustrating sometimes and perhaps that is another reason why I put it off?? Perhaps a significant truth to why this chore has been postponed is that, quite honestly, I am kind of lazy. I'll admit it. I would rather read than rake. I'd rather cut out cookies or biscuits than cut errant branches. I prefer chopping vegetables to chopping foliage. Still it needs to be done and now that I've properly kicked myself in the butt to get myself started, hopefully, next week, I will get out there and tackle it again. And then Again. And Again. It's either that or we learn to live like Tarzan and Jane. |
AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
November 2024
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