12 Oakdale

Our trip to the Keys was marvelous, but hard on my bracelets. First, I realized my sweet little beaded one I’d bought the last time we were down disappeared from my arm. All I can figure is that I accidentally pulled it off when I tucked my hands inside my long sleeved sun shirt. Surely if the elastic had broken, I’d have had beads in my shirt. As soon as I noticed it was missing , I retraced my steps at the gas station and the bait shop, but didn’t find it. I’d restrung the original on elastic bead string, adding the glow-in-the-dark bead I’d found at our campsite. Ah, well, I hope someone else is enjoying now. When we got back to our house, I realized the one made for me by Rani, mom of our old congregation’s pianist Brenda, was coming unstrung. Fortunately, I have all the beads, including the one I stepped on in our dining room, which was amazingly not sucked up by our Roomba. In between jewelry loses, it was a good trip. We were supposed to be in the cabin Saturday, but that was ov...

Another 5K, another day of rain. It poured all day Saturday, so packet pickup was a drive through at Magnolia Park.  Our morning birding trip to Circle B Bar with Orange Audubon was cancelled, and the Bloom and Grow Garden Society’s Diamond and Denim dinner was hastily moved inside to the Oakland Park Community Center. A miserable, soggy day. Rain all night, and when I got up this morning. This time, though, I was determined to run, even in the rain.  59°: tights, shorts, 2 long sleeved shirts, cap, gloves, and poncho should be fine. By the time the race started, the rain was down to a slight drizzle. I’d overdressed.  The path was pretty muddy, so I was worried about slipping. Especially because the birds were starting wake up. I’ve had bad luck birding while walking. Jogging while birding would be worse.  I forced myself to keep my eyes on the trail, with only a few lapses. I’m pretty sure I saw a blue-gray gnatcatcher fly across and land in a low bush, but I kept ...

Another time through the Couch to 5K from Zen Labs. This time to be ready for the Lake Apopka Scenic Trail Run 5K on February 18th. Frolics amid the gators. Every run starts and ends with a 5 minute warm up/cool down. Pace includes those 10 minutes. Wk      Date     Mileage            Run/Jog                                  Pace          Place 1      12/20        1.92              60 sec jog/ 90 sec  walk         15:17        Home 1        12/22       2:13             60 sec jog/ 90 sec  walk         16:10       Home 1       12/24     2.17     ...

About all I can say for my jog this morning is that I did it, and it was 10 second pace faster than the 7th-week jog last time. Certainly, noting to get excited about, but I was out there, after taking 4 days off. The two red shouldered hawks huddled together on the power line didn’t look like they had much energy either. 51° makes birds fluffy.  Yesterday, crows and hawks were mobbing the great horned owl that was sitting in Nancy’s pine tree. I’ve been hearing a pair call for the past week. I still can’t figure where their nest could be. This week, I’ve had trouble getting motivated to do much of anything. I started by getting out a box of photographs to look for pictures of Sean. These were ones I paid to have scanned onto a cd years ago and never even unsealed the box when they were returned. Even though the pictures were grouped with labels, I became overwhelmed. Every time I’d start to look at them, I just couldn’t decide what to do. Then I got the insurance policy renewal fo...

Well, that wasn’t what I expected. I noticed I am not seeing as well out of my right eye as my left. I’m already annoyed that my astigmatism has reappeared. Now what? The only three reasons I could think of for my mismatched vision was a poorly ground lens, a misdiagnosis of my prescription, or more deterioration of my eye. I spoke to Loren at my optometrists and made an appointment to figure out which. Macular degeneration and an irritated cornea were not on my list, but that is what the doctor said. Hmm, old age is once again a factor. I did get points for not smoking and for eating my leafy green vegetables. Now I putting drops in my eye for 2 weeks to calm down the cornea irritated and taking vitamins to perhaps slow down any more deteriorating. I guess it’s patch, patch, patch until the end. I made an appointment to return in 3 months and hurried home to pick up Grant for his doctor appointment over in Winter Park. Routine evaluation so he can get new prescriptions for all his fat...

After comparing our schedules, we found one 3-day stretch that both our Bonita Springs friends and we had open to bird at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel before they return to Pennsylvania in April. How can retired people be so busy? And then we got the weather forecast: thunderstorms the day we planned to go there. What the hey, we’d drive down anyway, bringing games, cards, and books for entertainment if we couldn’t go outside. On the way down, we lunched, as usual, at Woody’s River Roo on the Manatee River, in Ellenton. The weather was lovely, so the restaurant was packed. At first, Grant found a table near the stage with a guy doing 80’s covers. But I watched, and as soon as I saw a table farther away, and even better, in the sun, we moved. We shared a grilled mahi-mahi Ruben on marbled rye and an order of sweet potatoes. That afternoon, we visited Marsh Trail, east of Naples, off US 41. Not many birds until they all began flying in to roost. Hundreds of white ibis...

I now understand why people wear pajamas: getting into a bed with cold sheets is not fun with bare legs. At home, we turn on the electric mattress pad. Here, at Silver Springs State Park near Ocala and when we were in Utah, it was pjs for me. Even with the heat on at a comfortable 66°, the sheets were chilly and took a while with body heat to warm up. One more thing I never knew in South Florida. We spent 4 days with our cabin camping crew. This is our first time at this park. The 2-bedroom cabins have huge rooms and wraparound screen porches, which would be lovely in warmer weather. Their shaded seating wasn’t for us this trip. The mornings were in the high 30’s; the days were sunny 60’s.  We took the hour and a half glass bottomed boat ride and saw 17 species of birds and some of the macaque monkeys that are descendants from a group released over a hundred years ago. A few years ago, the state tried to remove them all since they are nonnative and do much harm, but the brouhaha th...