Blinds, Beaches, and Boats

The weather forecaster tonight said that Tampa reached a new high temperature of 84 degrees today -- a full 10 degrees above the average 74 normal temp.  We watched the weather in Green Bay climb from 3 degrees this morning up to a balmy 10 above by noon.  I literally shiver to think of what the wind chill factor was today!  For all that this area does NOT put me in a Christmas spirit (palm trees strung with lights and poinsettias blooming in front yard gardens is still strange...), I assure you that the weather in the 80's is not hard to take.  I ache much less and we actually can walk around outside.

We ventured out this morning with the intension of dropping paperwork off at my new rheumatologist's office, only to get there to find the door tightly locked.  Duh!  That's right.  At that point I remembered that the office is only open Monday through Thursday.  At least I had a chance to learn how to get there; from the outside, at least, it seems to be a nice place.  I will finally meet the doctor in January when we return to Florida.

Clean, simple blinds add to our "beach" motif. 

From there, we ventured to Lowe's, and after two trips, we ordered blinds for the rest of the house.  We took advantage of both a sale and a Lowe's coupon to get 30% off of Bali 2" faux wood blinds for the kitchen, guest bedroom, main bathroom, and Florida room.  As the picture of our bedroom windows shows, they are nothing fancy, but they do have the beach theme that we want throughout the house.  With the sales and coupon, we actually can complete every window in the house for less than Budget Blinds wanted to sell us two shades for the front doors!  We'll have lots of blinds to hang once we return in January.

When we were watching the news at lunch time today, I had to smile.  The TV is full of Christmas events including entertainment in the Tampa arena.  How that entertainment reflects that this area is full of octogenarians!  The big draws: an evening with Yanni (be still my beating heart...) and a one-night-only performance by Barry Manilow (oh, puh-leeze!)  Maybe that's why I love Florida; I feel SO young in comparison.

Shorts and shades to go along with the
sand on Sand Key Beach. 

We went to Sand Key Beach this afternoon since the weather was so nice.  We had to get in a short beach walk before we returned to ice and snow, and we certainly wanted to avoid the beach crowds this weekend.  Although it was windy, the people swimming and sunbathing in bikinis were not uncomfortable.  Remember, though, that the temps are unusually warm.  Had they been at the normal mid-70's, I think that swimmers would have to be very brave, and sunbathers may have been wearing a bit more.  Since I am ultra-sensitive to the sun, we did not stay too long, and I made sure I wore a hat (even though I HATE hats!)  Being on the beach in December was fun, though.

Dinner this evening was provided by Eli's, the best BBQ smokehouse in Dunedin.  Our beef brisket sandwiches were melt-in-our-mouths good. We bought them mid-afternoon because Eli's many times runs out of meat before closing time, but they were delicious reheated in the microwave.  And no, Bonnie, I did not buy a little sweet potato pie although they were available.  I did, however, think of you when I saw them.

After dinner we drove down to the Marina.  They are setting up for a Marina tradition that takes place tomorrow.  Each holiday season, boaters at the Marina decorate their boats and have a holiday lighted-boat parade out into St. Joseph sound, under the Dunedin Causeway, and back to the Marina.  Then the crowds that are gathered watch as the official Dunedin Christmas tree is illuminated in the city park.  We will avoid the park and crowds tomorrow, but we do intend to see the whole aquatic parade.  Our hairdresser, Vicki, told us to park on the Causeway to watch the boats from there.  She said we can even stay in the car if we want to avoid all people.  We'll go early for a good parking space and see how crowded it gets.

Simple but elegant wreath and lights.

This guy turned his boat into a floating,
fairy-tale castle.  He has been working on
this one for days.

Another view of the floating castle.

Even an open float-boat is decked out for the holidays.

Tonight we took a preview walk around the Marina since very few people were out.  The attached pictures show just some of the efforts that boat owners were taking to be a part of the parade.  OK, so they are trying.  People do not seem to decorate their homes here with as many lights as we do in the North, but they do have their own unique way of celebrating the holidays.