Day #31 – Blog Goes Live

Sarasota FL

The very first time we came to Sarasota – I think it was in December 2003 – our friend Maureen took us to the Farmers’ Market.  It’s held every Saturday morning, in the downtown area.  It’s two or three blocks of local (some organic) produce, herbs, jams and jellies, cheese, snacks, and baked goods, along with music, art, handcrafted furniture, and crafts.  This week, Kelly took her mother.  I thought they needed some time alone together.  Plus, Pat had eaten most of the produce we’d bought the previous week, so I thought maybe she’d buy some for herself.

While they were off doing the mom/daughter thing, I managed Kelly’s and my farms in FarmVille.  I also sent out notices for our blog, letting you all know that it was finally live.  Now for you science fiction fans out there, you’ll notice that time has bent back on itself.  Yes, we’ve been writing in past tense.  We’re still playing catch-up.

It's important to remember that we don't always have Internet access.  And, sometimes there's something more fun to do than blog (who knew?!?).  So, from time to time, you'll see us post in chunks of days all at once.

Every now and then, I manage to convince Kelly that we should take a nice walk along a beach at sunset.  Staying this close to water, it just doesn’t make sense to miss these opportunities.  She has an innate ability to get us to beaches that are facing east.  Since the Gulf Coast is known for its westward-facing sunsets, this puts us at a disadvantage.  Today was no different, except that today, Kelly won her race with the sun, getting us to Turtle Beach in plenty of time to see a beautiful sunset.  It was very cold and rain seemed imminent.  Yesterday’s storm had thrown a lot of shells onto the beach.  She picked up a nice assortment, all too heavy for the trailer.  Every time she threw one back, she was swarmed by gulls.  They were probably accustomed to people throwing bait or fish guts in a similar manner. Poor guys just didn’t get it.

We met up with some friends for dinner.  Kelly discovered most of them were cow eaters, so many enjoyed steak done right.  I wrapped my taste buds around some wonderful pasta.  One of the bakers in our little group, Sue,  gave us a plate of home-made Christmas cookies.  Yum.  After dinner, we went to Barb and Brenda’s for more visiting.  Their dog, Freddie (Frederika), enjoyed endless ear-rubs from Kelly and me.  We both miss being around pets and are shameless about it whenever possible.

Day #30 – Christmas Day

Sarasota, FL

Today we crawled out of bed, feeling our age. We are incredibly sore from all those steps we climbed at Myakka State Park! We are both surprised to be feeling this way, because in we did a lot of walking and bicycling at Disney recently. Apparently we used an entirely different set of muscles yesterday. Ouch!

Okay, it is Christmas Day and I’m supposed to be talking about trees and lights and family and all that. That’s just not my family. I’m visiting Mom and it is just another crazy day. We don’t really do anything special for Christmas. Suzie and I do. But Mom really doesn’t. So it is a bit strange for us to not be in our own space right now and having our celebrations. It has been a pleasant morning and we all exchanged a few gifts. I gave Mom a digital picture frame filled with old photos of her mom, dad, and siblings as well as our family too. She seemed to really like it, so I was pleased with that.

Suzie and I do have one Florida Christmas tradition: we go to St. Armands Circle and walk around looking at all the stores which are gussied up for the holidays. We always eat an excellent meal at the China Pavilion. This year it was especially heartwarming because a family with young children had lost their dog. The owner of the restaurant had found the dog and tied it up out front. It was a very moving Christmas moment when the kids discovered their pet was safe, sound and coming home.

Day #29 – Myakka State Park

Sarasota FL

This morning, we left the house early to meet our friend Gary.  Our plan was to hike in Myakka State Park (http://www.floridastateparks.org/MyakkaRiver/).  In particular, Kelly wanted to explore their Canopy Walk.  We expected to find a boardwalk high in the trees.  We should have been a bit more realistic.  We found several flights of steps that went up to a boardwalk, but it extended only about ½ block before ending at another flight of steps.  The boardwalk was high and a bit springy.  The steps at the far end went up many many flights to a small platform.  From there, we really were far above the canopy.  We could see for miles!

While in the park, we saw wild boars (pigs?), a pair of osprey, a couple alligators, and a Roseate Spoonbill.  I’m sure a lot more wildlife saw us, but we were too busy yakking to really keep an eye open for more.  We also managed to BOTH forget cameras, so no pictures.  We’ve agreed to return for pictures, but no promises.

Gary shared a funky little restaurant with us.  Millie’s Restaurant (http://millies-restaurant.com/).  It was in a cold office complex, but it was decorated floor to ceiling in country kitsch.  There were some Greek items on the menu – I had spanakopita; Kelly and Gary had reubens.  It was really good food.

Later, Kelly and I cooked a Christmas Eve dinner for Pat and her roommate Anthony.  Roasted turkey breast, roasted beets and sweet potatoes, home-made stuffing from my dad’s recipe, and salad.  It turned out nicely and I think everyone enjoyed it. 

Kelly joined FaceBook and now she is addicted to FarmVille.

Day #28 – Out and About in Sarasota

Sarasota FL

Today, we got up very early and left the house before Kelly’s mom went into crisis mode about being late for her morning events.  It’s easy to get sucked into Pat’s efforts to find lost keys, mend a skirt, find matching accessories, and so forth.  Leaving the house seems to be the best way to start our day with fresh hope.

We went to Lido beach, one of many very different beaches in Sarasota.  They say the sand on Lido beach is like powdered sugar, but I think it’s more like shortbread dough.  At the top of the beach, where it’s pretty dry, I think about fine flour, just waiting for butter and sugar.  Halfway down the beach, I start wondering what it would be like to mix up dough with my toes.  By the time I get near the water, the dough is perfect and ready to form up into cookies for the oven.

We took a nice long walk along the beach and blew all the cobwebs out of our heads.  We also started wishing we’d packed a bit of breakfast!

Since it was still too early to return to the house, we looked around for a bite to eat.  Instead, we found a kayak outfitter who was open early.  We walked up and down his aisles of kayaks, drooling over our favorites, breakfast forgotten.  I found a Perception sit-on-top with bulkheads for storage and flotation.  It was just the boat for Kelly to have for surfing.  Of course, we couldn’t afford it, but it was fun to daydream for a while.  I’ll be ready for a new, higher end kayak when we finish our trip, but we both agree we have the perfect boats for our current adventure.  Inside the shop, I found a product I’d never seen before – a cooling towel.  Even dry, it felt cool to the touch.  Wet, it would be downright cold.  The clerk told us it was for summer use.  Clearly, this man never had a hot flash.  Cooling towel in hand, we went on with our day.

We ended up at Borders because their café has free WiFi.  We set up “dueling laptops” and went to work on various online tasks, like getting this blog up to date.

After doing quite a bit of research, and talking with friends, I joined FaceBook.  I think it will be a dandy way to make short quick posts of our plans for a particular day, assuming we have Internet service.  Truth is, I joined because I wanted to play FarmVille.  It’s a simulation game wherein you build, plant, and manage a farm.  It permits quite a bit of interaction with other players and is scary addictive.

Day #26 - Visiting Our Trailer

Sarasota FL

Today, the folks at the RV shop called to say they didn’t really understand what more needed to be done to our trailer.  We saw this as an opportunity to meet the technician who was working on the trailer, plus a chance to learn more about our little box on wheels.  So, off to Port Charlotte we went!

The technician had already done quite a bit of work.  First, he replaced the fuse on the radio.  Because the fuse is buried behind the fridge, we didn’t know the radio had one.  The radio now works fine.  He told us they tend to blow with uneven power, so we're expecting to make friends with that fix. 

The non-working tail light was due to faulty wiring in the OTHER tail light - who knew they were connected!?! 

He confirmed Kelly had wired the battery correctly and it was fine. 

He told us many trailer thermostats tend to show high temps - don't know why - but it doesn't affect the proper working of the furnace.  Since it was nippy, he'd been running the furnace while working on the trailer.  So, we don't need a new thermostat, but we probably do need to fill the propane tank. 

He had an idea on how to fix ALL the clamps that hold the trailer in the closed position.  I kinda followed it, but I'll have to see what he did before I can explain it.  Apparently our tales of fixing gained us some respect with these guys and they were really helpful with telling us how to repair and maintain on our own in the future.  There will probably be lots more "who knew?!?" moments in our future, but at some point, a problem will get a "Oh, that again" response.

One thing we saw in our trailer that really bothered us was a very large clump of big black Pennsylvania ants.  They were dead.  They had come up into the trailer, under the dining room window.  The technician could not enlighten us on this, but we’re thinking the worst – carpenter ants eating away at the wooden infrastructure.  I’m sure we’ll have more stories to tell about this, but for now, let’s all be glad they’re dead.  Not that we’re happy for anything to be dead, but the little buggers were on our turf.

He still has more wiring work to do, and the parts guy, Bo, has taken up the challenge of finding us a new air conditioner.  Since we’ve searched high and low, I’ll be surprised if he is successful.  If he is unable to find one, the issue of cool air, along with the Rube Goldberg solutions we’ve dreamed up, will be the subject of its own blog entry.

As an aside, we had to walk through the repair bay to get to our rig.  One of the other techs caught me looking at a very big, very shiny bus-type RV.  He told me it was a rehab of the bus originally owned by Jefferson Starship, formerly known as The Jefferson Airplane.  So, I gently touched it with one index finger and said, "Wow.  Grace Slick slept here.  I'll never wash this finger again."  The tech was pleased with this reverent response and went on to tell me it had recently been purchased for $1.5 million.  Maybe I should have touched it with my whole hand.

Day #25 – Girly Get Together

Sarasota, FL

Today we met with our girlfriends at a new little restaurant in Sarasota called The Station (website: http://www.sierrastation.com). It is a 150 year old train station from Kneeland, Indiana that was painstakingly taken apart and reassembled here. It is a cute, quaint, and fun looking kind of place.

It has been several months since I last saw the girls (Brenda, Barb, Mary and Sue). I was working on the house over the summer and they all provided me mental and physical support. I missed them. It was great to get together and catch up.

On a larger scale, it is comforting to know that although we have sold our house, left our home state, miss our friends back home, and are ready to embark into unknown territory, we still have familiar supportive faces to visit across the country.