12 Oakdale

October 28: 172.5#   For my birthday and Christmas, I’ve decided to lose 1 pound per week until December 31. There will be one week while we are on our river cruise that might set me back, but 9 pounds lost between now and 2025 should be easily doable. I’m planning the eat-less/exercise-more approach.  I will keep track with this page.  November 4: 168#  So far, so good. My mantra has been, “It’s okay to feel a little hungry.”  That’s all I’ve been: a little hungry. November 11: 169.5# Mantra this week is, “Concentrate on the big picture, not any one day. The trend is down.” But still… November 18: 171.5# Well, not surprisingly, since I over-indulged at Nehrling Garden’s Owl Prowl, with wine, Prosecco, turkey biscuits, and cookies from local bakeries. Back on track. This will happen. November 25: 168.5# Keeping on eating less. Still can’t quite add exercise more. We did walk over tomTown Hall for Light Up Windermere on Friday night, however the beer at the brewe...

After a 5 year hiatus, I’m in Atlanta at a reunion with my high school girlfriends. We meet at Kathy’s house north of Atlanta. Sitting and talking is the agenda for the weekend, with 1 dinner out. In previous years, we who flew in, took Marta to the Avondale station to meet our friends. Next stop was the Dekalb Farmers Market, actually a big warehouse-sized grocery store. Many unusual vegetables, lovely fish and meat, plus a great bakery. A whole wall of spices in large quantities. We would start with lunch in the cafeteria, then bought food for the weekend.  Now the cafeteria is closed, a causality of COVID, so we stopped at Chat Patti, a favorite Indian restaurant of Mickie. I knew none of the dishes, so looking at the pictures on the wall, I ordered Behl Puri. According to the menu (which I read after I ordered), it is an appetizer made of puffed rice, crumbled crunchy puri, onions, cilantro, and chutney tossed together with pomegranate seeds, served cold. An odd dish but intere...

Saturday, Remi opened my door at 6:30 AM and said it was time to get ready for Brick or Treat at Lego Land. Yes, we were going; no, not that early. Thankfully the rest of the turtles moved slowly, and we arrived there about 10:30. The regular parking lot still had spaces in the first row, reinforcing Mary’s decision not to pay more for the preferred spaces. I had been there 25 years ago for Patten’s 10th birthday, the year this theme park opened. Our whole California vacation of renting an RV was arranged around his spending his birthday at Lego Land. We’d flown into Reno, spent a week in Lassen National Forest with the rangers on an archaeological project, driven through Camp Pendleton, camped backed up to the ocean at Carlsbad State Park, and investigated tide pools. What we hadn’t planned on was his coming down with chicken pox. A phone call to our pediatrician confirmed my diagnosis.  We decided to stick to our plans. Just breaking out and probably at his most contagious, Patte...

Friday we planted the 6 plants I’d bought at Green Isle Nursery to create a hedge between us and our neighbors to the south. Two wax myrtles ( Morella cerifera ), 1 shiny leafed coffee ( Psychotria nervosa ), 1 yellow star anise ( Illicium parviflorum ), 1 Simpson's stopper ( Myrcianthes fragrans ), 1 Florida privet ( Froesteriam segregata ), and 1 mountain mint ( Pycnanthemum sp). Alan said they would all do well under the oak tree, except the mint, which needs more sun. Crossing my fingers. We finished and cleaned up so we could have lunch with our MEG group at the Wandel’s in Kissimmee, then lead the session, recycling the Joy worksheet we’d used with our Zoom group. If we hadn’t had a play at Orlando Shakes that evening, we would have packed for south Florida and saved ourselves the 45 minute trip back and forth. But we did have theater tickets to What the Constitution Means to Me  since our Thursday night performance had been canceled. I was slightly dreading the show, assumin...

It was cloudy and rainy here most of Wednesday. Our red shouldered hawk was stoic. Hurricane Milton came ashore 8:30 at Siesta Key as a category 3 with winds of 120 mph, then crossed the state below Orlando, exiting into the Atlantic early Thursday morning with winds down to 85 mph. Still a hurricane, but the tornadoes on its front edge seem to have particularly deadly. For us, it meant we got winds from the southeast that pushed rain under our garage door. We mopped and put down towels for a while. I realized we could run them through the washer’s spin cycle to get them ready to sop up more water. Much easier than trying to wring by hand. After doing it for a couple hours, and the water not getting more than about 3’ into the garage, I’d had enough. We made sure everything was up on shelves and called it a night. I read until about 1:30 AM; Grant played his computer game until 2:30. I prefer hurricanes that come during the day like Irma, so I can watch what is happening. I tried using...

We missed almost all the buildup for Hurricane Helene, which devastated Florida’s panhandle and North Carolina, still no phone service and electricity in many areas. And lies promulgated about FEMA, which slows down the search and rescue. Now it’s our turn. Hurricane Milton is churning across the Gulf of Mexico, predicted to land as a Class 5 somewhere near Tampa Thursday, then head across the state. We’ve brought in the porch chairs, picked up the few things in our yard, turned pots over, and dismantled Grant’s big plant tower, laying the levels on the porch. There isn’t a lot to do, and I will be thinking about what I can move on after the storm and what makes the list to be kept. Less is less. For water, Grant filled 2 of our food safe 5 gallon buckets. If we need more than that, we will fill our water bottles and head to either Patten’s or Sally’s, depending on which is in better shape after the storm. It is so unnerving not having any shutters. But I still claim Central Florida is...

Up early for my second Run Among the Lakes 5K. Since I hadn’t trained, I planned to walk at a brisk pace and enjoy myself. 75° when we started, so a little warm, especially since I’d acclimated to the New Zealand and Sydney weather. But still pleasant enough. Clear skies.  The local Baptist pastor prayed over us, he led a very few of us in singing the national anthem, and we were off. I always start at the back so I don’t get trampled by the fast runners and those who think they are. There is always a few that have to bull their way through to the front. Your time doesn’t start until you cross the start line, so I don’t understand this need. The route had changed from last year, staying more in central Windermere rather than heading south to 13th Avenue. As usual, I hadn’t bothered to learn it, figuring I’d follow the herd. I figured right. I kept up my steady pace, focusing on a person in front of me to catch up with. I learned this technique from Coach Howard when I first started...

The house is infested with miniature flamingos, peeking out hither and yon. I am still finding them: in the freezer, among my potted plants, on the workbench. It makes me so happy when I see one. Thank you, flamingo fairies, who I assume are Clara and Stephanie. Our flights from Sydney to Orlando via Las Angela’s were easy, and the app I followed to avoid jet lag seems to have worked. But I am tired, tired, tired. No matter. I had signed up for the Nation Garden Clubs’ Garden School 1, so I was up at 5:00 AM Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to be ready for class via Zoom at 8:00.  Lectures on basic botany, planting with annuals and perennials, and soil composition; a workshop on propagation; and what not to do in your garden (20 rules). All taught by professors or professionals. Starting on time, and ending with a test each day at noon. I passed.  I did fall asleep during the Tuesday session, but only brief nodding off. We had to keep our videos on the whole time so they knew we...