Showers, Skins, Shrubs, Street Signs, and Santa

Too much work too quickly, dehydration, and possibly Boar's Head all-beef hot dogs lead to a miserable evening for Rick.  He finally got up at 4:00 a.m. and moved to the guest room so I could sleep.  I did not figure he would do anything today, but once again his stubborn insistence to keep working motivated him forward.

A walk around the block this morning in ideal 76 degree temperatures gave us a chance to remember why we come to Florida in the winter time.  The neighborhood has changed positively.  Someone actually trimmed some of the bushes in the vacant house behind us, but the two properties kitty corner from us in the back are still vacant.  One is for rent, and the other one, thankfully, has just been cleaned up a bit.  Foreclosures in Florida are still high, but we are seeing signs of recovery.  The vacant house at the end of the block finally sold after five years after the bank spent some money to renovate it.  Another in the same area now has an offer on it.

The news this morning said that we were going in to a "cold spell" with highs only in the low 80s during the day while dipping down to the 50s at night.  Ha!  Cold front?  I think we can tolerate this.

As we came back into the house, I happened to glance at the artificial plant that I had sitting on the porch.  To my credit, I did not scream when I saw the sloughed off skin of a snake firmly entwined among the branches and leaves.  CREEEEEPY!   No snake was in sight, but that did not stop me from getting the willies. Although I paid good cash for that flower, we have had it for years and it was really faded in the Florida sun.  The neighbors probably thought I was nuts as I pulled out a garden rake, hooked the plant in the tines, and carried it to our garbage dumpster in the back yard. I still shutter when I thing about it.

By that time Rick had retreated into the house where he started again on the shower walls, confident this time that taking them down would not require a trip to the store and the purchase of more tools.  Steve offered us his sledge hammer, but Rick was afraid that too much weight could allow too much power that would actually break out Gladys' outer foundation wall.  We both agreed that taking the walls down carefully and slowly would be in our best interest.

Thankfully, the top part of the wall above the
tile came down a little easier than the walls
behind the tiles.

The shower head is now exposed; however, since it has no
shut-off valves, we have to be careful.  To remove the
plumbing, we will have to turn off the water to the whole house
so we can cap off these pipes.

Since I could do nothing while he was in the demolition mode, I went outside to tackle the overgrown bush to the south side of the house.  Our lawn care service is supposed to keep the weeds trimmed out of it, but I could tell by the over five-foot weeds that no one had touched it since I trimmed it the first week in September. We had driven to Dunedin for a week at that time to bring our new car down.

After I pulled weeds and gave the bush a good trimming, the only bush on our property now looks presentable again.  Speaking of presentable, we are both pleased that the soffits and fascia boards look great, and Gladys sparkles in her new coat of paint and freshly painted shutters.  She is starting to look like a classy old  doll!

Anyone who has ever done house construction knows that plaster dust is insidious. It will find its way into closed cupboards, coat windowsills across the room, and enclose even the back side of blinds two rooms away.  Once the clean-up for the current round of demolition was complete for the day, we decided to get some of the dust-fog out of the air by opening the windows and airing out the house.  The temperatures by that time were in the high 70s, and it just felt and smelled SO GOOD to get the mustiness and gritty air out of the house.

This close-up shows that we still have a lot of tile, plaster,
wire, and cement to remove.  More dust to come!

We decided after lunch to do some necessary shopping at WalMart and to check on Steve and Chris' house.  Roadside signs once again reminded us that San Christopher, the major street out of our neighborhood, will be closed as of next Monday for major street repairs.  We are going to have to take the "back way" out of the neighborhood for God-only-knows how long.  We are both so tired of construction that we could cry; however, in all fairness, the street really is in pretty bad shape.  As long as I do not have to pay for the repairs, I guess I should just shut up and wait for a better roadway.

While most of the shrubs and flowers at this time of year are starting to wind down a bit, when we got to Steve and Chris' house, we did find a survivor.  In one of their giant trees in the back is a tree-hugging plant (whose name I do not know) that was showing off for our visit.  Since it may be gone by next week, I thought I would preserve it here.

One last flower of the season, about to open.

Oh, and one last picture.  While we were at Lowe's yesterday, I took a picture of the blow-up they have next to their garden department.  First, Halloween has not even happened yet.  Secondly, seeing Santa and a giant blow-up Nutcracker soldier next to him under a palm tree while the temperatures are in the 80s is very disturbing. I'm from the frozen north, and those figures right now are wrong... just wrong!