12 Oakdale

I got up at 6:00, later than normal, since I’d stayed up to midnight watching the Florida vs FSU football game, where the teams traded scores back and forth, until the last seconds when UF couldn’t make their  touchdown to tie the game into overtime. Final score: FSU 45, UF 38.  Following my routine, I went pee, then used my headlamp on red to check the scale. 163 lbs, meh. Walking back to bed in the dark, I stepped on something cold and wet. I had done this several months ago, when Gracie had encouraged a Cuban tree frog into the bedroom. *  Both times, it was right under my arch, so no damage other than to my heart. I turned on my lamp, again to red, and tried to locate the dang thing. Gracie helped by playing with the light like laser tag. Not finding it, I turned the light to white, and there it lay, not moving. Because it was a piece of chicken skin. I threw it in the toilet. When he got up, Grant admitted he’d given the cats a treat, but he swore he put it in their...

As Stephanie quoted from the internet, I would like to cancel my subscription to the hurricane of the month club. This time is was Tropical Storm Nicole, which came ashore at Daytona Beach, headed across the state, and dumped 6” of rain at our house. The yard is all soggy again. We mostly just lost more palm fronds. The wild lime and yaupon holly which we’d staked up after Hurricane Ian are now leaning the other direction. I told them they are on their own now. Our biggest mess is the arch on the north side which collapsed. I had already decided to remove it when I trimmed back the skyblue clustervine ( Jacquemontia pentanthos)  after it finished bloom this fall. We’re just going to stand it up as best we can for the nonce While  resetting the trellis, I realized with our arch removed and my neighbor's yellow tababua gone (a loss to the previous storm), we could consider putting in a tree on the northwest corner of the yard. Perhaps even a good sized oak. It’s time to have our...

I have to learn the all words to the US armed forces hymns. It seems Central Florida is very patriotic, and at every musical event, a medley of the different military songs, including the Coast Guard’s, is played. I can sing the first line or two of all of them, except the Coast Guard’s, then I “humble”, Rev Amy’s word for humming and mumbling, which she rightfully claims most people do in church when they don’t have a hymnal. In any case, the military medley was played by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra at last night’s Music Among the Lakes, a free concert sponsored by Windermere Wine and Dine, with an opportunity to donate funds for Second Harvest Food Bank via a QR code. Very efficient. When the $10,000 goal was met, we all got to light up our free wrist bands to blue, (at half way, we turned them on to glow white). We’d already made our annual gift to Second Harvest, but decided to cough up $50, since we liked event and wanted it to happen again.  The show started with the O...

Sixteen days ago, I resolved to swim every day. Back and forth, back and forth, breaststroke over, backstroke return. Not fast, nothing fancy. My goal was to get the habit restarted. First for 5 minutes, then add a minute every day. I’m up to 22 minutes. It was fairly easy. Granted my right shoulder is really sore, and my left hamstring still aches, but I just stand on the second pool step, turn, and fall in backwards. Once wet, I swim until my timer goes off. All good until the temperature dropped three days ago. From the 70’s at night to the 50’s.  Even though the air was cool, the first day the water hadn’t cooled very much. I’d struggled into my wetsuit top a few weeks ago when the first fall days came, but I deemed that too much trouble for the little extra warmth it gave. Now, shoulder ache be damned, I would have to start wearing clothing as I swam. My first time was with just the top, next day top and my swim pants which aren’t thermal, but help a little. Yesterday I tried ...

Many months ago, our neighbors were having their septic tank pumped, which they seem to do regularly. I didn’t understand why. We only had that done a couple of time in our 40 years in Fort Lauderdale. True, they have 4 kids, but so did we, some of whom who took very long showers. Perhaps it’s because up here we have sump pumps to get the outflow to our drain fields. How do non-gravity fed septic tanks work? I toddled nextdoor and asked the worker to come see me when he was done pumping their tank. His take on our situation was that it all looked good, except that the water level alarm for the pump tank was shot, its electric box completely rusted away.  And so things stood. Occasionally I’d say we needed to get that looked into. Yep. But we didn’t. However, a few months ago, I decided this needed to be fixed. I didn’t want to come home from vacation or even the store, and find a house full of water or worse. My inclination was to install an alarm that would alert us on our phone. ...

I think I’ve recovered from my race driving school weekend. Jamey said I’d be tired after it, but I scoffed. He was right. The week started off stressful, because I was determined we would choose which Rocky Mountain train trip we are taking next year. We have been talking about it for months. Plus, we could get $825 off if we put out money down before September 30th. Originally, we decided on a 3-day train ride with 7 more days touring the Canadian Rockies, and that it would be at the Gold-leaf level, because this is the only time we are doing it. After inviting Peg, who was enthusiastic, and Betsy, who said it was too expensive, I reconsidered. Perhaps it would be just as fun on a shorter trip. Okay. I narrowed it down to 4, checked the dates of the new moon in May and June, tossed a mental coin whether to go from Calgary to Vancouver or vice versa (C > V won), made a spread sheet of prices. Then Peg said she’d read that we could have Silver-leaf level hotels and get the Gold-lea...

We’d gone to Fort Lauderdale to celebrate Patten’s birthday, bringing the watermelon cake he’d requested. He said I’d made one for his birthday many years ago. That recipe was long gone with all the cook books I’d tossed when I sold 14th Court. Onto the internet for a recipe where I found one using watermelon-flavored Jello. None at Publix, but three brands at Wal-Mart: Jell-O, Sonic, and Starburst. Do those customers do a lot of Jello shots? I opted for the Sonic, which claimed it tastes just like their slushee. Could be. Because the frosting was buttercream, I’d had Grant put our camping fridge in the truck to keep the cake cold on the trip down. It thawed while we watched the Miami Dolphins beat the Baltimore Ravens 42-38. Actually, I watched while Patten, Ryann, and Grant went to the grocery store. They’d left at the beginning of the 4th quarter, Ravens leading 35 to 7, with the Dolphins not looking good. Fortunately, Patten keeps his phone on so they saw the comeback while they sh...