Nice day

Today has been an exceptionally nice day.  We got up at 7:00 and went walking.  I mean even before coffee, people!  We hit the trail for an hour.  The folks next to us walk every morning too.  Usually, we wave as we pass them but for the past two days, we have all been going the same direction so we just walk together. 

Then we come in, make coffee, and usually have a protein bar or drink.  Today, I actually cooked us an egg, bacon and cheese Mcmuffin. 

Yesterday, we went shopping all day, hitting all the little consignment places.  Mike found an entertainment center (small one) for $5.00.  Then he took it apart and made us some shelves in our bedroom closet.  It worked out great!  He's so smart. 

After all the work, we did this morning, we went to the pool for the afternoon.  That was fun.  It was hot, but fun.  Then about dinner time, we came home and ate a huge salad. 

It's been a very nice day--a little work, a little fun.  A new couple pulled in across the street from us yesterday and they also have a Harley.  They are Albert and Thelma from Canada.  Very nice people.  We spent some time with them at the pool. 

Now we are all showered, our bellies are full and, you know it, we're

Thanksgiving Day 2015

We sincerely hope all of you have had a wonderful day today no matter what you were doing.  We didn't do a whole lot.  But we enjoyed our day.  We went out to breakfast in Ft. Myers then returned home and sat outside and read our books most of the day.  The wind was so strong that it finally caused us to come in for the day and we watched a movie we had checked out at the club house here.  It was called "Joyful Noise".  It was a good movie.  Then we decided to go out to dinner and we both got salads.  So see, we didn't have your typical Thanksgiving Day.  This RV Park had a pot luck dinner today for those who wanted to sign up but we chose not to participate.  (We can be rebels sometime.)  We like to do things a little different. 

Now, I want to mention a few things we are Thankful for:

We are Thankful for Jesus coming to earth and making a way for all people to be saved and have eternal life in Heaven with Him.
We are Thankful for each other, for being each other's best friend, for being great business partners, and for our love for each other.
We are Thankful for our children, our sons-in-law, and our grandchildren which I will now mention by name:

Jesse, Joey, Danielle, Zoie and now Danielle's boyfriend Reed
Mary Beth, Jacob and Chris
Cari, David, Ryan, Leighanne, Dalton, and Kylie
Lindi and Jeffrey
Malorie, Ben and Ethan

We are Thankful for our families.

We are Thankful for ALL our wonderful friends.

We are Thankful for our good health and ability to get around without problems.  We see a lot of people here in wheelchairs and walkers and canes. 

We are Thankful for being able to travel together and live in close quarters without getting on each other's nerves.  We joke and cut up and laugh a lot.  We tease each other and we absolutely have a wonderful time in each other's presence.

We are Thankful for ALL the years we worked at good jobs that are now paying for our retirement and making it possible for us to live as we do. 

We are Thankful for this life of getting up without a clock, walking, reading, walking, bicycle riding, reading, walking, reading, did I say reading?

We are Thankful for books.  We don't have cable or satellite but we have books.  We have basic t.v. but we don't watch that much. 

We are Thankful for everything the Lord has blessed us with over the years.  We are truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Prayers going up for Dalton.

This is our grandson Dalton.  Today, he is having a little surgery on his lip to have a cyst removed.  Please pray for speedy recovery for him and rest for his parents.  He has a brother and two sisters. 

This is Dalton's little sister Kylie trying to beat the crap (I mean) sickness out of Dalton.  Yeah right!  So yeah, their parents need all the prayers you can send up.  They are a great little family. 

The temperature is coming up each day here.  We've been getting up each morning and donning our sweatshirts and hitting the trail.  Today, we didn't need the sweatshirt.  Although, if you're just sitting outside and not really moving, the wind gets a little cool.  All in all, it's beautiful weather here.  Yesterday, we got out with some friends and returned to Redbones to eat.  They loved it too.  They all had fish tacos and I had crab cakes.  As before, it was really good.  The atmosphere there is fun. 

Just some of the interesting things inside/outside. 

Today, we've just been chilling at home--some inside and some outside.  Our friends have gone to the pool today.  We may join them later. 

  See you later!

OOh Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Yes, that's right.  Even here in southern Florida, it gets a little cool.  This morning we awoke to 54 degrees.  BRRRR!  I didn't want to get out of bed without socks on.  Our camper temperature was about 64.  We actually turned on a heater to make it comfortable.  I realize that's nothing compared to what some of you are experiencing weather-wise and I apologize for whining.

We are still sitting in water.  Hopefully, with the winds this week and the weather which will be warming up to 80's by Thanksgiving Day, it will start to go away. 

 

We did dress a little warmer (okay, I did) and go for a walk this morning.  Then we got on the Harley and found a place to get my hair cut.  The girl did a great job.  I loved it.  Then we found this little diner called Jax Diner for lunch.  It looked and sounded like a 50's diner.  We sat at the counter and ate beside a man who said he was 87 years old.  He was a very nice man whose company we really enjoyed.  He was a 20 year military veteran.  He had been to 50 states and, I believe he said, 37 countries.  Pretty interesting guy.  He said to call him Scoop.  He had earned that name during a jury trial he was a part of in Rhode Island that lasted 355 days.  A nightclub had caught fire during the band's performance when they set off fireworks inside the club.  Over 100 people died. 

Anyway, he seemed like a lonely man because he had lost his wife in 2007 after 50 plus years of marriage.  He missed her so much.  I just wanted to go home with him and visit for the rest of the day.  So we will probably go back to the diner again and hope to see him there at the counter eating again.  Then we rode around a little and came back home and rode our bicycles a while.  Today was a blue jeans day, for me anyway.  I was surprised to actually see people at the pool when we returned.  Brrrrr! 

I hope so.  Anyway, right now, we're just chillin', literally.

 

 

Amazing !

Last night, we went to sleep in our camper and awoke in a houseboat. 

 

This is the back of our camper.

See our new grill?  It's sitting in water. 

 

 

This is the road under water in front. 

 

We are surrounded by water.  The ground, as you can see here, is saturated.  Mike stepped out on our rug and water just seeped up through it soaking his feet.  Some people farther down the street could have water up to the bottom of their camper.  We haven't been able to get out to see.  But that is why we didn't reserve a lot farther down the street.  We didn't want to take that chance of getting flooded inside our camper.  The rain should stop sometime this afternoon but is still coming down off and on.

 

Mike and I had a fun and interesting night.  We went to bed and read for a while.  Then we both decided we still weren't sleepy and got back up.  We finally went back to bed after midnight.  We did get some sleep off and on. 

 

Believe it or not, the DJ's never slowed down all night.  They were still going this morning at 7:00.  Fortunately for us, I brought ear plugs.  You may make fun of me all you want about how much I pack to take with me and in our case, I did even bring the kitchen sink.  But, lo and behold, we needed those earplugs.  We actually used them last night when we went to bed.  Then in the early morning hours, Mike got up and when he came back to bed, I was asking, "why are you trying to take all my covers?"  He started laughing and turned on the light.  He said, "You have to see this."  I was hogging all the covers.  I had them doubled up over me.  So we both sat there and had a good laugh in the early morning hours. 

 

We had planned to go to church this morning, but can't get out without sinking up in the wet ground.  It's still raining and the water is still rising.  It is under our camper and our leveling legs are now sitting in water.  I don't know how this will affect the level of our camper before it's all said and done.  The ground is rotten.  Mike just walked out to the road in his flip flops and said down the street past us is all underwater.  The street in front of us is under water.  Lots of the campers in here are totally surrounded by water.  If they step out their door, they're going under water up to their mid calf and maybe knees. 

 

 

Out our back door.

 

Our neighbor texted us if we wanted to go swimming in our back yard pool.  Mike responded "No, thanks, we're just chillin in our houseboat this morning." 

 

Wait, weren't we thanking God for the rain because we thought it would shut down the music noise.  I believe a lot of the seniors in this park were praying for rain for that very reason.  OOPS!  We got it.  But the music went on and on and on and on. 

Well, today, we're just sitting inside with our books and staying dry and hoping we don't float away.  Next time, we will be careful what we wish for. 

Hope you all have a great Sunday.  We will enjoy being inside today. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Age/Disco Hell

 

This is what's going on on the other side of the trees from our rv park.  It's called Dropitcanya music festival.  What it is, is like 20-30 dj's playing music really, really, really loud for some young people to dance to.  It lasts 3 days and nights and by nights, I mean from 10:00 am today until 4:00 am the next morning.  Yes, it goes on all day and all night.  You want to know what it sounds like?  Think about every car that ever pulled up beside you on the highway with their speakers blaring with a loud bass sound.  That's it exactly.  Only it never ends.  It has been going on for two days and this makes the second night.  Oh no!  What am I hearing now?  Yes, thank you Lord.  It's pouring down rain!  I'm sorry for the young people next door who are all outside in the elements because it's just an open field they're in, but tonight, we old folks sleep.

Seriously, it was so loud with just that same "boom boom boom boom boom" beat that we considered getting a hotel room for tonight and tomorrow.  But we knew the rain was supposed to come so we were just trying to wait it out.  It may not shut them down, but the rain will drown out their loudness from bothering us, I hope.  Oh yeah, that rain sound is so welcoming.  Also, I have ear plugs for tonight if we need them. 

It's been a few days since I last posted.  What have we been doing?  Mostly, just walking, riding our bicycles and working around our camp-site.  We did go shopping for shorts yesterday and today, Mike found us a grill on Craigs list over in Ft. Myers and we bought it and brought it back.  It's a nice gas grill hardly used.  We didn't want to bring one and we didn't want to buy one new.  It worked out great.  When we leave here, we will probably donate it to someone else. 

 

 

Okay, I guess that's enough loud music cartoons.  The rain has eased up and we can hear them loud and clear.  Sounds just like a loud car stereo with the bass booming over and over and over.  These cartoons represent some of the things we have thought about doing today.  Their quiet time is from 4:00 am until 10:00 am when they start up again.  Can you believe it?  It's like we're in disco hell. 

 

  New Age music Hell !

 

You have to love Gary Larson. 

Mike and Melanna saying Good Night.  If you can't beat them, join them.  Hope you get some sleep.  It is doubtful here.

 

Just some pictures

 

Bridges here are awesome

Lighthouse in Apalachicola

 

Believe it or not, we actually had breakfast at El Jalisco Restaurant in Apalachicola.  It was the best omelette I have ever had. 

 

Ethan riding in his clothes basket car.

 

 

Sunset over the gulf.

 

 

Toucan's restaurant where we had "linner" one day.

 

On the way back to Punta Gorda, we travelled the coast road.  We drove through Port St. Joe (nice town with large beautiful homes).  We returned through Apalachicola, Eastpoint, Carrabelle, Homosassa Springs (which we loved), Crystal River, and Weeki Wachee which has a huge mermaid show there. 

This is the police station in Carrabelle, Florida.  It is the world's smallest police station.  Funny, huh!

Now for some wisdom from one of my absolute favorite writers:

"Consider the daffodil.  And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff."
 - Jack Handy

 

Now, where was I . . .

Oh yeah!  WE'RE BACK HOME!!!!  Man, it felt good to get back to our "winter" home.  I told Mike this morning after we returned the rental car that I was looking forward to getting our house back in order.  We unloaded the car and left things sitting around because it was late and we were tired.  We drove all day yesterday.  We did make a pit stop at Malorie and Ben and Ethan's and had dinner on the way home.  Nice pit stop.

So this morning, we returned the car, stopped at I-Hop for a 55+ breakfast and drove through some neighborhoods to sight see.  Nice homes here in Punta Gorda.  Then we returned home and, as you can see, I immediately got online and Mike immediately got on the Harley for a cruise around the block or two or three.  Yep, we are eager to get to work!  Well, you know, we're retired and we do what we want when we feel like it.  That's the way this retirement works.  Oh, we'll get our work done but it's still morning and we have all day.  (Plus, we live in a small home.)  If you young people knew what Mike and I have discovered, you would realize that "having stuff" is not all it's cracked up to be.  We are most happy when we are in our little two (three if you count the garage/walk in closet area) room house.  If only we had known this before we built a 2000 square foot house.  Two thousand square feet house is not that big, by most standards, but it's still more space than is necessary to be happy and survive and live comfortably.  Our "summer" home is smaller than most.  It's just a two bed/two bath house with a large open area divided into corners.  What? you ask.  Well, we have our music corner, our living area corner, our office corner and our kitchen corner.  I bet you have rooms for these different aspects of your home.  Nope, we have corners.  We like to be different, you see. 

 

Living/music corners

 

Office/Kitchen corners

 

Oh yeah, the green room for get-togethers

 

That's it, but it doesn't take even this much for us to be happy.  We are not "high maintenance" people.  We enjoy just a simple way of life.  (And that, my friends, is how we are able to retire at an early age.)  We keep it simple.  We are not extravagant.  We try never to waste money on things we don't need.  Yes, we have our toys, but that's part of our retirement.  Our wardrobe consists of shorts, jeans, tee-shirts, tennis shoes and flip flops.  We shop good will and consignment shops.  Most people work so hard to have the biggest, and the best and the most of whatever.  Yeah, we like nice things, but we have discovered that it doesn't have to take everything you have in the bank plus some to be happy.  So remember that kids.  Don't allow yourselves to be stressed all the time over going in debt for "stuff".  Be happy.  Enjoy life.  We don't have to be on the go all the time to be happy.  We can be happy just walking around the neighborhood or riding our bicycles around the neighborhood.  We can be happy eating a bologna sandwich instead of always eating out and drinking water instead of colas.  Next winter, we have decided to stay in Zephyr Hills where everything we want to do is within walking distance.  Think what we will save on gas. 

 

Sorry, don't know how I got off on this subject but someone must have needed to hear it.  So I'm leaving it as is.  I'll try not to be so serious next time.  Now, as one of our favorite bands, the Trailer Park Troubadours so elegantly put it :

 

There's a lot to be said about contentment.  Some folks can never get enough.

Let me ask you, honey, which is better--a mansion full of money or a trailer full of love.

There's a lot to be said about acceptance.  Liking who you are and having peace of mind.

The secret to being happy with your life now, Baby.  I'm pretty happy here in lot number 9.

Living in aluminum.  Living in aluminum.

I don't have a house of vinyl.  I don't have a house of wood.

There ain't no better way to test your metal than a semi-precious metal neighborhood.

 

There you have it.  Words of wisdom.

 

 

 

 

And Again . . . .

On the Road.  We headed back to Florida around 3 or 3:30 PM Friday.  Terry had a very nice funeral.  He would have been proud of it if he could see it.  Brother Terry Houser gave a wonderful message. 

We drove as far as Montgomery, Alabama and stopped for the night at a Comfort Inn and Suites.  It was very nice and clean and we slept well.  We got up early, had breakfast and were on the road by 7:00 AM.  We decided to drive 31W all the way to the coast.  We drove through some very pretty towns on the way--Luverne, Opp,  and Florala in Alabama to name a few.

  Small grain bin house on Hwy 31 in Alabama  (This isn't exactly the one I saw because I didn't have time to get a pic but it looked like this.  Pretty neat.)

These were just some neat things I wanted to take pictures of on the way down.

Then we came to Lakewood which had a sign that it was Florida's highest point.  (I think they need to stoke up their "stuff" a little more because, we didn't even cop a buzz driving through.)

Anyway, we drove over to Destin, Florida since we had never been there and then came up Hwy 98 along the coast for a while.  We stopped for dinner in Mexico Beach at Toucan's.  I had sweet and spice shrimp (oh my gosh, they were the absolutely best flavor) and Mike had a fish wrap.  I had so much, he had to help me eat them. 

Then we decided to spend the night in this town.  It's a nice quiet place and we are staying in a hotel where our back door actually opens up right on the beach.  We had to pay a little extra for the beach front room but so what.

 Mike at the back. the front

 

We are staying at El Governor in Mexico Beach, Florida right on the beach.  We can actually sit in our room and watch the sun set on the west gulf coast.  We took chairs out to the beach for a while but Baby, it's cold outside.  BRRRRRR!  So we came in.  

 

Our room here is very nice.  It even has a kitchenette. (Actually, I could spend quite a bit of time here if we didn't already have a camper in Punta Gorda waiting for our return.)  This beach is LOOOOOONG and you would literally walk for miles and be walking in the water.  One cool thing about Florida weather reports is they always give the condition of the ocean and how choppy the water is.   

 

 

Our sunset tonight.  Good night all.

 

Mexico Beach sunset
Going down in the west
All the colors in the sky
Kiss another day goodbye.

 

(Only Neil Young said California instead of Mexico Beach.

Back Home

We rented a car Monday and took our time coming home for the funeral.  We just locked up the camper, left the Harley and the truck there and gave all the keys to our friends next door, just in case.  It's nice to have friends you can count on in a pinch.  We are blessed with really good friends.

We got in yesterday afternoon.  Our kids had turned on the heat for us so it was nice and cozy.  Thank you Joey and Jesse.  So we are living at home as we would in a hotel.  I don't want to mess up any more than we have to.  I did bring our laundry so I could use our washer and dryer without having to pay to do it.  I miss our washer and dryer while on the road.  But there is a nice laundry room where we're staying.  I just prefer to use my own.  That's just me.

Today Mike is out getting all the leaves off the yard.  Whew!  What a job! 

This is how I prefer to do it.  I've been out in the shop vacuuming up lady bugs.  Yuck!

Anyway, today we work.  Tomorrow we have lunch with our business partner then we visit the funeral home.   Friday, we pack the car back up, go to the funeral and then head back to Florida.  I wish we could take Joey and Jesse and Zoie back with us for a much needed rest after all they will have been through by Friday night.   

We won't be doing any exciting things for the next couple days, no sight-seeing, no bike riding, no alligator watching.  So I may not post anything until the weekend after today. 

Later.

A New Adventure for Terry Fisher

Our son-in-law's dad, Terry, went to be with the Lord Sunday night.   Like I said before, we will miss Terry and his nice smiles, his ability to make you laugh and just how happy he made you feel in general.  I always enjoyed talking and laughing with him. 

You know, I'm not sure I ever told him that.  I'm sure I told Joey that about his dad but I don't know if I ever told Terry that to his face.  Don't wait until it's too late to tell someone how much you appreciate them or the things you like about them, the things that make you smile about them.  Don't wait until it's too late to tell your family how much you love them and how proud of them you are. 

Let's celebrate Terry's new life in Heaven.   Don't you know this will be a glorious adventure!

 

 



His family will be sad because he's gone on ahead of them.  But they have Hope because they will see him again one day.  

 

"Life is short.  Heaven is Forever." I John 2:16-17 

 

Billy Graham said, "My home is in Heaven.  I'm just travelling through this world."

 

May God Bless those left behind and, because of Terry, may those in his family who don't know Christ, fall in love with him before it's everlasting too late.

 

 

 

On the Sabbath, we rested.

Today, Mike found us a church to attend while we're here.  It's called Deep Creek Community Church and it is so much like our church at home.  We were greeted in the parking lot and as we came into the church.  The sermon was on "Thanks-Giving".   The rest of the day, we rested.

Now, let's get serious.