12 Oakdale

As soon as the pounding started, Annie went to ground under the guest bed and hasn’t been seen since. Gracie (yes, the new kitten now has a name) roamed around, finally going to sleep under one of the rattan swivel chairs I retrieved when my stepmom Marcella died. They were Mom’s, and Betsy would like to have them. Since it’s extremely unlikely anyone is going to ship them to her in New Zealand, they are my living room chairs.  Our roofer had warned us all the scrapping and hammering would be loud, but I didn’t understand it would be relentless until the workers finished. I escaped to a Tree Board meeting, where we voted to buy the services of a company who will use LiDAR (3-D laser scanning) to inventory every tree in the Town of Windermere. I had suggested we do this, but previous inventories had been on foot and extremely expensive. Tonya, head of town maintenance, found a European company that wants to get a toehold in the US market and would give us such a deal. Well done! We ...

Except for one clue, I finished this cryptic puzzle from the Wall Street Journal. My first ever! I started trying cryptics about a year ago, and usually figured the answers to 3 or 4 clues. The rest were mysterious. At first, even when I had the answers and tried matching them to their clues, I couldn’t understand how cryptics work. This was galling. I do the New York Times crossword puzzle and Spelling Bee every day and always finish. I play Wordl, the new word game of 6-chances to figure out the day’s 5-letter word, and usually get it in 3 to 4 tries. Cryptics just stumped me.  Perhaps this one was particularly easy, but I’d like to think my brain now understands the approach I need to take for this kind of game. Since the WSJ rotates the type of Saturday word puzzle, it will be a few weeks before I get another one to try. 

  I’ve always said I can’t afford a free cat, or even a free dog, for that matter. But what were we to do when we got home from camping, and a young cat began entwining itself around our legs as we tried to offload our truck? Purring, friendly, and almost tripping us, it scooted in the house every time we opened the door. Annie was not impressed. Plus, the temperature was predicted to drop to freezing that night. I took its picture and posted a “found” notice on NextDoor. We decided to let it sleep in the garage, with the door just barely open so it could leave and find its way home. Just in case it were hungry, I gave it a scoop of cat food and a bowl of water. The next morning, my NextDoor notice had several “likes” (?), but no one was missing a cat. This is not a feral kitty. It loves people and expects to be petted and picked up. Annie is still not impressed, even when the kitten hisses at her. We decided to buy flea medicine for both cats and move the wool cat bed which Annie ...

Once again, my sadness of being too late to reserve a waterfront campsite has turned to joy as the winds blow across the bay, and we are tucked into an interior site. The last time we were here, it blew so hard that some people parked their cars and trucks sideways at the water’s edge in futile attempts to block the wind. Others just packed up and left. We were fine. Of course, even though I knew better, I tried for waterfront. Fortunately, no sites available. We are here to test our new Coleman Instant Tent that pops up with just extending 4 corner poles. And it did. It was also easy to move when we realized one of the guy-lines was too close to the electric box to stake down easily. We are also testing the foldout cots Grant ordered. They opened easily, are a comfortable height, and support us well. If only our vintage sleep pads held air. Those will be repaired or replaced when we get home. All good. With the gentle rain now falling, we are also getting to test how waterproof the te...

After 22 boat-less months here on the canal and previously 40 years in Fort Lauderdale on New River, we now have 2 watercraft. The first is a Montgomery Ward Sea King 12’, probably built between 1965 and 1970, lovingly refurbished by our friend Lee, then given to us since it no longer fit his plans at his lakefront house. All we needed was an electric outboard, oars, and life jackets. Such a deal. Then, because the manufacturer is replacing his motor without requiring he return the one he bought less than 6 months ago, he’s giving it to us, after he sands and paints the corrosion he complained about. Plus he’s throwing in a couple of life jackets. We down to just needing a couple of batteries. And oars, although the lakes are so shallow, we could just walk home if the motor conked out. Our second vessel is a Hobie Mirage Pro Angler 12’ fishing kayak I bought from a RSMAS graduate who realized he wasn’t going to be solo fishing soon, since his wife recently had their second child. I hav...

February 18th. We were on the road bikes again, for the first time, 8 months after his accident. Grant has decided no more riding on roads for him, so I suggested we go to Orlando Wetland Park. He had never been there. From my one birding trip there, I remembered the roads being hard packed sand and shell. That must have been somewhere else, because we toughed out the four mile sandy loop around Lake Stacey and vowed never again. Besides, I can’t bike and bird at the same time. This is a place to walk or take the trams since they are running again. Ospreys, coots, blue winged teals, herons and egrets, roseate spoonbills, one Royal tern. I heard 2 barred owls calling, and Grant was strafed by a red shouldered hawk. Yellow-rumped warblers and catbirds near the entrance, a red bellied woodpecker heard but not seen. We will be back.  February 25th. Our second ride, from Green Springs to Gemini Springs was just a little over 9 miles round trip, but my legs and butt were sore the next da...

Cabin camping with our friends at Cabbage Key. The weather is cold, windy and rainy, but our cabin, the Cabbage Patch, is warm and too big to really be called cozy. Two bedrooms, two baths, wraparound porch, large living room/dining room/kitchen with picture windows. Lovely. The captain of the Island Girl gets fewer points for not dropping us off at our dock, but management was able to round up a golf cart to bring our stuff from the main dock, about a quarter mile away. Way too far to schlep our packs, chairs, and food by foot along the wet, sandy paths. Plus our cabin mate has a sprained ankle held stiffly in a huge boot. The small island is all mangrove grown over a huge shell mound made by the Calusa on an ancient sand dune, not a barrier island, as I erroneous assumed. This meant no beach. The first day was still too rainy for more than reading in the cabin, but the second was just cold, so we walked the short nature trail. The ospreys call continuously. One pair had just lost the...