Another cool day in Fla, but we're not complaining

Remember our neighbor, Charles Manson, well turns out, when he is sober and not stoned out of his gourd, he's actually a very nice guy. He came over to apologize for the first night, said he had just been laid off from his job and was understandably depressed. (Not really a good time to decide to meet the neighbors, but we all have lapses in judgement.) Because he is home during the day, we asked him if he could dog sit so we could go to the Edison Museum in Fort Meyers. He agreed to do it for a case of beer. Randy thought this was a pretty good deal... who wouldn't want to be paid in beer. Edison was an extrordinary man... I knew about the light bulb and the phonograph, but the list of his inventions was incredible. He was such a forward thinker. He realized that we would become too reliant on foreign oil and thought we should be looking at the sun to meet some of our energy needs. At the end of his life, he was trying to find a way to grow and harvest a plant on American soil that would provide a source for domestic rubber. He tried many different plants and trees, including the amazing Banyan Tree. His original sapling is now a tree which has spread over an acre. That is the Banyan tree behind his statue. Eventually, he developed a hybrid of the lowly Goldenrod which stood 12 feet tall and could provide many pounds of latex. Sadly, he was already 84 and died before he could bring his final dream to fruition.

Now that we have an on site dog sitter who we can pay in beer, we may try to go to Sarasota and the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Musuem. Randy does not know about the fabulous art collection and I think it best to let him find out after we have driven the fifty miles to Sarasota. Now if I could just figure out a way to trick (I didn't say that) him into seeing a professional production of West Side Story, playing in Naples, my trip to the Gulf Coast would be complete. Maybe dog sitting neighbor Dominic would go with me for a case of beer. You never know...

Bonita Springs and exotic birds

Randy and I spent the day with my friend Karin's daughter Debbie and her husband John in Bonita Springs. Deb and John have exotic birds at their Florida home and Randy and I were introduced to them. One of the birds had an amazing vocabulary, it even sounded human when it was mumbling to itself. Deb insisted that I get into the large cage with it after telling me "Ruby" could be unpredictable. Against my better judgement, I stepped into the cage to get some photos and while clicking away, I swear I heard this bird say: mumble, mumble, bite it's arm, mumble, grumble, mumble, snatch out it's eyes, mumble, grumble, grumble, steal it's camera. As I was quickly exiting the cage, I know it said: mumble, mumble, missed my chance. The bird Debbie was holding was friendlier and she thought maybe I would like to have it walk all over my body. I saw those scars on Deb's arms and thought to myself, I know the chemo I am on only lowers your white count slightly, but I am NOT risking some exotic birdy disease for the chance to have this thing perch on my arm.

We had a great visit with Deb and John. I hadn't seen Debbie in years and really enjoyed catching up with her and meeting John. We got back to Casa Airstream a little late because we overshot our exit on I 75 by about 40 miles. (Randy was really happy about that) It was nice to find my cozy little bed waiting and that is why I am writing the post on Thursday morning.

Kindle meltdown, RV Park Barbecue, and Tornado Warnings

Finally a lovely warm day, I went for a swim, overused my shoulder and came home in pain. I took some happy pills, settled in a lawn chair with an ice tea and my Kindle, turned it on and zap, screen meltdown. I called Amazon and the great news is I am getting a replacement via UPS tomorrow. And believe me, without my Kindle, the Stunned and Dismayed RV Park would be barely bearable.

However, feeling that we hadn't given the park and the people a fair chance, we decided to go to Tuesday Barbecue night at the "clubhouse". I insisted that we make a concerted effort to socialize and maybe even get a good meal. The sign said to bring your own drinks, so Randy packed up his beer and a soda for me and off we went. Dinner was a tiny hamburg and an even tinier bag of chips, but Randy took solace in the fact that he could at least have a beer. He took a beer out of the cooler and 20 people pointed to the No Alcohol Sign. At least we got noticed. It was time to go anyway, because someone was firing up the old Kareoke Machine and such hootin' and hollerin' you have never heard.

We returned to the trailer just before a huge Florida sized wind, rain and thunderstorm blew in from the Gulf. Randy turned on the TV and saw the warning sign scrolling along the bottom telling people to seek shelter in the sturdiest part of their homes and that trailers and RVs were not safe. (We already knew this, but there was no mention of what to do if your only shelter was an RV.) I have to admit it is a little scary imagining yourself flying through the sky like Dorothy in your tiny airborne silver bullet. We kept watching the news hoping they would announce shelters for RVers, but just the warning..."trailers and RVs are unsafe in a Tornado". Finally, just before the power went off, they removed the Tornado Warning for this county and I am happily writing this blog, secure in the knowledge that I won't be visiting OZ tonight.

Randy and I find a nice beach... dog gets us into trouble

Today was sunny and 65, a good day to explore Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. We found beach themed gift shops, clothing stores with Hawaiian shirts and fancy flip flops, one cute gallery with some neat fish prints, (literally, the actual fish is inked and a rice paper print is made from the fish) and Randy's favorite, The Salty Paws. He bought a ball cap with a German Shepherd on it. Keeping with the fish theme, the only thing I wanted was a giant fish cookie from a tiny bakery next to the Salty Paws. I resisted, always mindful of those Weight Watcher Points. Randy suggested I buy a ball cap or a Tee shirt with cookies on it. What a pair we would make... the skinny man loves his German Shepherd and roly poly woman loves food.

We left Punta Gorda and drove northwest to Gasperilla Island. This small island is dotted with very fancy condos and houses, but does have a beautiful public beach. The rules were posted on a post in the parking lot and we actually thought pets were allowed... it was a bit ambiguous to be sure, but there weren't many people, so we leashed up the girl and off we went. It didn't take long for us to realize that people were staring at us with there cell phones to their ears. Randy took the dog and made a beeline to the truck just ahead of the local Sheriff of Snootsville. I was walking with my cane and exaggerated my limp to illicit sympathy, but I don't think it would have mattered to this bunch. We climbed into our "good ol' boy truck" and waved to the sheriff and the well healed looking couple who had done their civic duty. I know rules are rules, but they really weren't all that clear. The very coolest thing on this island, besides the dog unfriendly beach, was a giant Banyan tree... and the fact that no one told us to move on when we stopped to photograph it.

Home to The Sun and Shade and our very modest little trailer... which suits me just fine.

Pizza fire, Pizza fire and none to soon... it's cold down here

It's cold in South Florida! Not as cold as Saranac Lake, but cold. Randy and I decided to find a dog friendly beach, which we did, the very nice Fort Meyers Beach. We even found a handicapped spot that allowed for free parking... well that would have been very nice if the handicapped person had brought her handicapped hang tag. Oh well, we plugged the meter, fifty cents for 15 minutes, which was about all we could handle in the cold. We'll be back when the weather improves.

We returned home, closed the windows and turned on our space heater, (Thanks, mom, that was a great Christmas gift.) Randy had bought a frozen pizza for dinner and fired up the Magic Chef. He popped in the pizza and went back outside, I had closed the door between the bedroom and living/ kitchen room and didn't notice the smoke pouring out of the oven. We opened the roof vents and all the windows. It looked like the trailer was on fire. I was waiting for someone to call 911, but it was after 6:00, everyone had turned in for the night. Even our neighbor, Ziggy Pop, was too stoned to notice. I guess it was for the best, we certainly would not have endeared ourselves to the park inhabitants if noisy fire trucks had been called. Actually, I suspect nobody called, because compared to the fancy trailers in this park, we look like aging hippies in their gypsy wagon.

Praying for warm weather here in South Florida, but glad we're not in Saranac Lake. (Sorry, Kath, I know you love it up there... but you made it on the local news... right here in Punta Gorda.

Just another warm south Florida day

We decided it was time to explore the surrounding environs. We headed south to Ft. Meyers, found the historic downtown, but did not stop to walk the street, just drove through. I love the colors of south Florida and Ft. Meyers did not disappoint. Each store was a lovely pastel color. We saw a bit of the older residential area; lovely clapboard houses in those pastel colors with neat architectural additions. It is such a contrast to the surrounding countryside where every thing is flat and featureless for miles and then a brief oasis of manicured lawns, trees and shrubs... either a golf course or a subdivision or both. I can't help but wonder what it looked like before the Spanish, English, carpetbaggers, land developers, snow birds discovered it.

We returned to the park hoping that our next door neighbor hadn't slashed the tires of our little silver home on wheels. He hadn't. I think he realized we were not his kind of people, (thank God) and wasn't going to waste anymore time on us. Feeling the need to move around, we decided to investigate the park's "nature" trail. As you can see, not too much nature, but a good reason to hobble about with my cane and get some exercise.

I will close tonight with what I consider a funny story on the Six o'clock news. It seems that 4 men were arrested together in one of the local parks exposing themselves to passersby. They ranged in age from 60 to 75, which prompted Randy to quip, "what happened, did the horseshoe game get rained out." Randy has been fairly amazed at the advanced age of most of the inhabitants of the Gulf Coast. (Of course, we are not exactly spring chickens, ourselves, so I will have to keep track of that Randy, lest he join a group of "over the hill" exhibitionists.)

We are here... The Sun and Shade RV Park

Well, what can I say about this park... it was probably quite nice in the seventies. As you can see from the first photo, Randy was wrong, the drainage ditch is not the pool and there is even a sign reminding you of this fact. It may also be, given the average age of the residents of this park, that the signs are necessary in case of rapid onset Alzheimers and the inability to distinguish a drainage ditch from a man made pool. Actually, the pool is more than adequate and I seem to be one of the few who use it. I think I should buy some flip flops to wear in the shower, however.

The only down side to our site, which backs up to some sort of giant wild horse tail weeds, (The manager said they would cut them down, but it makes for a great privacy screen, so he didn't really see any need.) is that we may be living next to Charlie Manson. His name is Dominick (or so he says) he was pretty high when he wandered over to introduce himself. He seems a bit crazy and certainly did not endear himself to me when he was describing the woman across the street as heavyset and than added "just like you miss Jackie". WTH, the man is either crazy, stoned or just plain stupid. What man in this day and age doesn't know not to comment on a woman's weight. I made a beeline for the trailer leaving Randy to contend with "Charles" and his ramblings about "coloreds", gays, Hispanics... Lord help us. I think we will be doing a lot of sightseeing.

I am sure we can keep him at bay once we plaster the airstream with Obama, gay pride,and peace stickers... oh, and large photos of Keith Oberman and Rachel Maddow just in case he is a Glenn Beck fan.

Randy has his BB gun in his sleeping bag.

Dr. says the chemo is working and we are off to Florida

Randy and I have fired up the old Airstream and we are on the road again... this time to the Gulf Coast of Florida; a town called Punta Gorda. We spent the first night in south Georgia in an RV park next to a Waffle House. Having recently joined Weight Watchers, (for the 250th time) I was excited to see that the Waffle House had a "light menu". I asked for the "light ham biscuit". It was made with Canadian Bacon, a good Weight Watcher choice. However... biscuits are never a good choice and this one was slathered with butter and put on the grill...yum! Well, there will be plenty of time to count those points. When I returned, Randy had the trailer ready to roll. I jumped into the cab, a light ham biscuit in each hand, (just in case Randy wanted one) and we were on our way to Florida. We got the thumbs up from an Easy Rider on a Harley when he saw our vintage Airstream with its very cool solar panels... this even got a smile out of Randy. The good feeling didn't last long, however, as the trailer started some gentle (my word) bucking because the vintage trailer brakes were acting up... my handy Randy man pulled off the highway and worked his magic (with just a few disparaging remarks about my baby) and we were rolling again. Just a few more hours and we will be the newest and possibly the youngest campers at the Sun and Shade RV Park. I found this park online... a real bargain at $17.00 dollars a day. It even has a heated pool. (Randy says for that price it is probably a sink hole with 'gators in it.) I think it will be great and if it isn't, more fodder for the Blog.