12 Oakdale

Saturday was supposed to be the culmination of my 9 weeks of training for a 5K. However, the weather didn’t cooperate. All week, we were warned of big storms over the weekend. Bad winds and rains were coming into Central Florida from the Gulf of Mexico then heading south. I got emails from the Santa Twilight 5K that they were watching the weather and would make a decision about cancelling.  As the week progressed, the weather looked milder, but not good. Saturday, we woke to 20 knot winds and rain sprinkles, then bands of rain. Our first stop was at a gated community for an estate sale which was touted as having good plants and great pots. All I saw was the sad detritus of people gone. We moved on to Gideon's Bakehouse to pick up my order of Kris Kringle (white chocolate) and Von Krampus (dark chocolate with Andes mints) cookies, half for us and half to take to Utah. I also bought 5 kinds of cookie bites, all for us, no sharing, unless the Christmas spirit hits me. In Winter Park, ...

It wasn’t raining when I left the house, however 3/4 of the way through my 20 minute jog, it began to pour. Since there was no lightening, I decided just to slog along even when I got to the 5 minutes of cool down. I was already soaked, so there wasn’t any need to rush. I’m certainly not going to get hypothermia this time of year. In fact, I was a little warm in my long sleeved Goofy race shirt. It has been raining for the past two days. We got 1 1/4” Wednesday and 3” yesterday. Today is supposed to be clear, which the Town of Windermere is certainly hoping. Tonight is Light Up Windermere when they ceremoniously turn on the “seasonal” lights. Not to be outdone, several families in town have already put up and lit their Christmas decorations. What happened to Thanksgiving?  I am quite pleased with my progress with my Couch to 5K app program. Five weeks down, 3 to go, then I plan to run the Santa Twilight 5K in downtown Clermont, December 13th, amid the twinkling lights. Today was th...

I’m ahead of where I normally am at this stage of the game when I’m organizing for a party. There are still 3 days to go, and the food is ordered, the desserts, except an orange cake, are made. The yard is in great shape thanks to CC and my working like dogs. She did get overzealous in one area and began clearing out the Spanish needles (Bidens alba) , a native weed that normally I rip out continuously. I got her stopped with enough left for all the little wildflower arrangements I want to make for the party. We’ll get the rest pulled up the next time she comes. Grant and I’ve made the list for the crudités, broccoli salad, beans, and rice he’s making. He will shop today. Steph is making decorations and labels for the little honey bear party favors. The porch is cleaned, and we’ve picked up the tables. We’ll borrow 8 chairs from our neighbor’s daughter tomorrow. Today, I want to get the rest of the house neatened and find the photos of Spaulding as a baby. Since he swears we have none ...

Wednesday morning, Hurricane Idalia (e-DAH-li-ə) came ashore and devastated Cedar Key, but only provided slight winds and 1 1/2” of rain at our house. The impact for me was that my yard lady CC could not come for our morning session of yard work. I had planned for her to move a wooden edging and mist system in the front yard to create a bed along the front of the house.  Ah well, the rains would give us an excuse to work in the garage. First, we moved the bikes from the north wall to the center of the garage. Then we hung a shelf for the rechargeable drill, their batteries and the drill bits. The rechargeable circular saw hangs on one side of it. Last, we put a screw on the wall where we can hang the chainsaw. Now we can get to the drawer and cabinets without having to lean in over all those tools on the floor. I’m quite pleased with our efforts. Sometimes it takes an ill wind to motivate us.  After that, Grant took to his bed with a nasty cold. He had rallied by Saturday, so ...

We are in Gainesville for Barton and Jen’s wedding. Spaulding and Molly flew in Thursday and rode up with us. Dinner at Satchell’s Pizza, then a visit to the UF bat houses for the bats’ nightly exodus. Right on time, with a beautiful sunset and no mosquitoes. I guess the latter due to the thousands of bats, duh. This morning, Molly is doing a 15+ mile run on the Hawthorn Trail; Spaulding is running for about an hour from the house. Grant and I are lazing and drinking coffee, before our Zoom covenant meeting. The luxury of being old. Although we are continuing the fight against aging. We’ve committed to a bike ride every Wednesday, I’ve graduated to 3# weights for my shoulder exercises, and Tuesdays, Denny comes and pushes us to more core strength. I’ve been really good about doing those exercises at least 2 other times a week. I’m starting to notice the difference that makes. I’m also gardening 2-3 hours every morning, weeding the front beds for an hour, then working on our vegetable p...

The delightful palm warblers have returned. Groups of 10 or so flit through the yard, eating bugs from the shrubs and trees. The phoebes have also come, sitting on the telephone wires and singing their names, so they are easy to identify. With them came wind, cooler weather, and lots of rain. Our south side yard was flooded. When we have the roof redone and new gutters hung, I’m investigating adding a rain barrel. I also want a rain gauge. With two days of rain, I abandoned weeding and yard work. We went to Lowe’s and bought a closet system to install in the guest bedroom. We put double rods on the right with a tower of shelves and drawers in the middle. On the left, we have a narrow slot, with a single high rod. I hung my long dresses and coat on that rod and realized its left end was about an inch lower than the right. Too bad; it’s not being reinstalled. As Grant said, were we to go into the closet biz, we’d have to bid by time not by the job. We are both slow, yet incompetent. Stil...

  As if we needed more rain, tropical storm Elsa went over Windermere during the early morning. Rain is supposed to fall all day. The Cuban tree frogs are croaking away. I had planned to buy bagels from Jeff’s Bagel Run, a new shop a couple of miles away in Ocoee. From a home business started from their kitchen in August, 2019, the owners have set up a brick and mortar shop which claims to have New York style bagels. They sell out by 9:00 each morning which either means the bagels are good, or locals don’t know any better. The only good bagels we’ve had south of NYC is at Sage Deli in Hallandale, which brought their oven, brick by brick, from their northern location. Unless the rain let’s up in the next hour, I’ll put off our test to another day. Grant ending up spending 36 hours in ER while cat scans were done and teams of trauma, neuro, and cardio doctors conferred. A second scan showed his subdural hematoma had not grown, but all agreed he should be admitted as soon as a bed wer...