12 Oakdale

Our trip has not gotten off to the best start. While showering the first evening, Grant slipped. Fortunately, he was not hurt, however he was stuck in the bottom of the bathtub. After a few minutes, he was able to swing his legs over the side, then scoot his bottom up on the edge. And there he was, lying on the edge of the tub. I grabbed him by the waist, and between the 2 of us, he was able to get to a sitting position, then stand. That evening, my left shoulder hurt and my hamstring twinged, but my back seems fine. My last nerve is shot. Next up was my losing my glasses. We’d swum on the bayside, showered, then walked a short distance along the ocean beach. I was wearing my sunglasses and had tucked my others in my bra top. They were gone when we got back to the car. We have searched and searched the beach, the shower area, the car. Gone. All I can figure is someone picked them up, and I hope will turn them into the rangers. So far, they have not. On the positive, we watched a yellow...

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...

Saturday, we drove the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive after our stint as ambassadors there, in hopes of seeing an American flamingo, one of the many that were driven north in front of Hurricane Idalia back in August. Some made it as far as Wisconsin. We didn’t see the reported flamingo, but spotted 3 purple swamp hens, lots of galinules, blue wing teals, a black crown night heron, and great egrets.  Camping at Bahia Honda this week, it dawned on me that perhaps flamingos had been seen in the Keys. Yes, down Indies Road on Summerland Key. We decided to look on our way to Key West. As we slowly drove down the gravel/shell road with houses on our left and mudflats on our right, we begged any white bird off in the distance to have a tinge of pink. We looked and looked, creeping along. Then, I realized there were 3 flamingos were right next to the road. Duh. After taking some pictures, I did a little flamingo happy dance. They were not impressed. We enjoyed them for a while, then travelled ...

While we aren’t big time Parrotheads, we were always Jimmy Buffet fans. When he died September 1st, it seemed a part of me has slipped away. Not part of my distant youth, but something from my adult life. The first time we saw him play was at his last outdoor concert in Key West, at the local baseball fields. I remember it was free. We just walked in and sat down. For the life of me, I can’t figure out when it was. Likely the early 1980’s before Mary was born. And I can’t remember why we were in Key West. Probably camping at Long Key, heard about the concert, and drove down for the day. Grant forgets the details too. Proust, with his cup of tea, we are not. The second concert we went to was at the Knight’s Center in Miami. A few days before, we were at the Peaches Record Store (now a Hustler Hollywood Store) on Sunrise Boulevard. Grant was buying whatever we’d come in for, and I was perusing the bulletin board. Wow, do my children or grandchildren know what records or bulletin boards a...

Six days of tent camping at Bahia Honda. The weather was lovely, with nice breezes which meant mostly no bugs. One little bit of rain. Unfortunately, even though we know better, we didn’t zip our tent windows when we were away, so our sheets got a little wet. But we were able to dry them out on the wooden railing around our campsite.  Because the onshore wind kicked up the waves and moved the sargassum towards shore, we snorkeled on the bayside next to the rocks. Lots of minnows and quite a few reef fish whose names I have forgotten. Thursday we drove up to Marathon to eat a lobster Ruben and a conch po’ boy at Keys Fisheries. They did not have the $1 stone crabs I’d enjoyed in years past. I was too cheap to have even the $36/pound selects. We’d stopped at Robert Is Here for milkshakes on the way down the day before. Friday we got up early to get a parking space at the old 7 Mile Bridge. Before we rode our bikes out to Pigeon Key, we had breakfast at the 7 Mile Grill. Our coffee ha...

The road sign on the road out of Key West said, “Drive Carefully. So Far, 14 People Have Lost Their Lives in Traffic Accidents”. Since it was only January 14th, we assumed that was left over from last year. I changed my mind the second time I had to slam on my brakes and pull off the road for a jerk passing in the other direction and almost hitting me. Our stay at Bahia Honda confirmed I prefer warmer weather to go to the beach. The water is just too cool for me to enjoy a swim. I’m going to make reservations or go back to Venice Beach in late spring. Because all the days blur together: Thursday: Drove down, lunch at Chicken Chop Chop at Fort Pierce Plaza on the Turnpike; saw invasive African rainbow lizards in the palms there; arrived at Bahia Honda State Park, Cabin 2, handicapped accessible; dinner of barley and mushrooms; exercised. Really windy but clear. Friday: Windy and clear, 70’s. Breakfast in cabin; morning walk along Atlantic-side beach while Grant sat; lunch of leftovers; ...

I’d showed Stephanie how to water the crabapple and other new trees we’d planted, but it poured all night, and our lawn was absolutely squishy with standing water when I went to pick lettuce in this morning. Not a problem. We were going cabin camping in the Keys. All would be well. We left the house at 9:00 AM, stopped for a pretty good bagel, and cruised on down the turnpike, looking forward to our late lunch at Island Fisheries. Maybe even a beer and stone crab claws in the upstairs bar. I looked forward to the Keys relaxing chill. Nine hours of driving later, which should have been six, we wolfed down our takeout lobster reuben and coconut shrimp on the porch of our cabin at Bahia Honda, exhausted. Not the waterfront lunch I’d imagined. Two miles north of Homestead, traffic had stopped. From there, we crept along, knowing there must have been a terrible crash up ahead. Made it to the RaceTrac for gas, and got back in line. Good grief, how bad was the accident? Finally, we saw a smal...