Loose Ends

We have been spending time tying up some loose ends.  Rick has worked hard to make sure that all of the mail is in order for transfer back up north, and he has taken care of routes, hotels, insurance, water on and water off, and the thousands of other little details that go along with closing one house and opening up another.

Last night we took a walk down by the Marina after dinner, and Rick stopped for an ice cream cone.  We sat on the patio of the ice cream shop while he ate the cone, and I had to take a picture of the under side of the umbrella under which we were sitting.  It made me smile.

The underside of the umbrella at the ice cream
shop shows blue skies and fluffy clouds.

We found a small picture in the consignment/ decorator's shop that we like downtown when we stopped in yesterday.  We went back today to buy it.  The frame was really old even though the watercolor is newly painted by a local artist.

The new picture in the old, dark frame.

The newly framed print in our hallway.

Rick did not like the frame, so we went to JoAnn Fabrics to buy a new frame.  We chose white to match the decor of the house.  Perhaps the darker frame brought out certain colors in the painting more, but the white works with our woodwork, too.

I finished the puzzle I was working on and will return it to Chris' house before we go back north.  Rick warped the loom and is trying his hand at it. So far the results are not positive.  He does not like the tension nor the mechanism on our small table loom, so a new loom may be in our future if we can sell this one.

We are ready to head north.  Storms continue to rage across the United States, so we are hoping that we will get back to Wisconsin safely.

Walk in the Wind

We got up to a cloudy, rainy-looking morning, but we decided to go for a walk anyway.  We no longer believe that we will get any rain in Dunedin!  We are tired of walking in our neighborhood, so we drove down to the Causeway for a brisk morning walk in the wind.  The temperatures were down to 73 this morning with a very aggressive wind, so we did not feel like we are going to melt.  

Storm clouds threaten to release their moisture,
but we never received any rain.

Choppy waters lap at both sides of the Causeway as we
return to our car.

The walk was fun; we enjoy seeing something new beyond the same vegetation in the same neighborhood.  The seas were choppy enough that no one was out in boats, on jet skis, or kite surfing (although the wind would have made for one wild ride).  The only people near the shoreline were a few brave fishermen who did not seem to have much luck in catching dinner.

On the way home, we DID notice something new in our neighborhood.  The house across the street from us on the corner had one side that was painted blue.  Until now, the house had been a soft yellow with cornflower blue shutters.  Now one side of the house was a lighter blue in contrast to the shutters.  When they painted that side of the house is a mystery to us.  They must have done it yesterday while we were at church and then at a weaving meeting in the afternoon.  Shows how much we notice!

A lone "brush" starts to bud on our
bottle brush tree.

We made a second discovery in our back yard today.  While the gardenia tree in the corner has valiantly been producing a little white flower here and there, today our struggling bottle brush tree started to grow one of the fuzzy-looking red plumes for which it is named.  We have been dumping gallons of water on the tree just to keep it alive, and that was our reward for all of that costly moisture.  We will have to see if it produces any more blooms.

We are starting to gather all of the things that we want to take home, and I am beginning to wonder if we have a big enough truck.  We'll pack later in the week so we can somewhat keep track of what we are taking with us.

Until then, we are trying to enjoy what little time we have left here in not-so-sunny-today Florida.

Countdown

We only have a little over a week to go before we close this house for the summer.

One of the main things we do each season is to try to "eat out" the freezer, refrigerator, and pantry.  Our progress on that front was marked by two events today.  First, I was able to move what remaining food I had stored in the large freezer in the garage into the smaller freezer in the refrigerator.  We probably have five or six meals left to make, but that should work well for us this week.

Defrosting the garage freezer was not as difficult as I imagined.  The ice melted quickly, and since we have not owned the freezer for the entire winter, the puddles in the bottom were easy to wick up with an old towel.  We actually went to the fabric store to see if we could buy some inexpensive material to drape over the top while we are gone.  We want to leave it open so air circulates through it, but we don't want the inside to be full of dirt when we come back in the fall.  Sadly, we learned that even "inexpensive" material is not that cheap.  I need about 2 yards, and the most suitable fabric would have cost me about $12.00.  Rick said, "Heck.  We can go to Wal-Mart and buy a cotton twin-sized sheet set for $8.00."  We were on our way to do just that when I remembered that we had some old bamboo sheets that had shrunk to the point of not fitting on a queen-sized mattress any more.  Those will work well; thus, home we came.

Our next task was to bundle up any non-perishable food that we did not want to eat now or to keep until next fall. One pudding mix hit the trash can when I discovered a "best by" date of April 11 of this year.  We did, however, have three bottles of juice and a small assortment of canned goods that were still good.

Earlier we had donated four cases of juice to Dunedin Cares, a local food pantry run by volunteers in our neighborhood at Faith Lutheran Church.  We took the bag of juices and canned goods to them this morning, and they were delighted to get our donation.  We noted that all of the juice we had donated earlier was gone. One of the volunteers told us that the juice went "real fast." I cringed at the grammar but was delighted that others wanted what we had donated.  

I learned later that food drop off  for Dunedin Cares was supposed to occur on Monday and Wednesday mornings rather than today, but no one else was there, and the volunteers were happy to take our food for their shelves.  We both hate to waste anything, so we felt good in being able to donate food for the benefit of those who need help.  We'll make sure that we do this each year before we leave for the summer.

Each day we try to pack a little more or to finish one more task on our "to do" list.  We saw yesterday that the morning temperature in Wisconsin was only 39, so I really have mixed feelings going back to those temperatures.  We hope now that the temperatures continue to rise, and that we do not have to drive through dangerous weather as we dive to our northern home.

Not Working Hard

As we wind down the season, we finally have time just to breathe and to enjoy ourselves a bit.  I have gotten into the mode of doing a little task each day, and then not feeling guilty if I take the rest of the day off to sew, to read, or to work on my family genealogy.  Isn't that what retirement is supposed to be?

At least the fence was in the shade when I washed it!

Yesterday, I finished washing the fence.  Having a white fence is wonderful, but Florida is dusty (especially since we are in the midst of a severe drought), so the fence gets dirty.  Also, spiders like to leave their "spots," and birds and squirrels who perch on the top also add to the mess.  I keep telling them that they do not have to fertilize my fence... it will not grow!

It's clean again!

I did not do a soap-and-water, get-off-every-spot type of wash.  I will leave that for when we return in the fall.  This was more of a "take a wet rag and wipe down the top, scrape off what I can, and hose the whole thing down" type of wash.  It still took both time and energy, though.  I did the first half two days ago, and I finished the last half yesterday.  The fence is not perfectly clean, but it certainly looks a lot better than it did before I started.  At this point in the season, that is good enough for me.

To reward myself, I made pie for dinner.  Yes, the whole dinner consisted of various types of pie.  We had left-over ham from Easter, so I decided to make a ham and swiss quiche. A quiche, however, only takes one crust.  (I cheat and buy the ready-made crust in a box.) So what to do with the other crust?

Well, I discovered that I can re-roll that second crust into two smaller crusts and make a six-inch pie.  When we went to the store yesterday for the quiche ingredients, we also bought some peach pie filling.  After all, what is more Southern that peach pie?

This peach pie taught me a lesson: never
used canned peach pie filling!

The peach pie baked beautifully.  Sadly, it probably looked better than it tasted.  I learned another valuable lesson: if I want to make a peach pie in the future, I will look for a recipe that uses fresh peaches.  The canned pie filling just tasted like someone added too much corn starch to thicken it.  Fresh or nothing next time.

That said, dinner in slices of pie was filling, and we have enough left over for a second meal.  We continue to "eat down" our freezer as we prepare to close down the house soon.  This has been a very productive season, but the heat and humidity are coming in, so it's almost time to drive north again.

Sugar Sand Festival

We decided this morning that since today would be the coolest day of the week (yes, we are to THAT time of year where heat dictates activity), we would drive over to Clearwater Beach for the 2017 Sugar Sand Festival.

Merchants set up a gigantic tent on the beach to house the
white sand sculptures for the festival.

Each year, merchants in Clearwater set up a HUGE tent and invite professional sand sculptors to carve over 1000 tons of the white sugar sand for which Clearwater Beach is known. The Festival, of course, is their way of attracting thousands of people to visit their beach... and the hundreds of tourist-trap shops that line the beach... and the restaurants and bars... and the expensive hotels...

Inside the tent, the nautical theme greets people at the door.

I am always amazed that some people actually are "professional" sand sculptors. Can you imagine going to your parents and saying, "Mom, Dad, I have decided to ditch college and to become a professional sand sculptor."  Wow!  That really would have gone over well at our house!  Truthfully, if I were that artistically inclined, I certainly would create something in a medium much more permanent than sand!

I think this sculptor spent too much time watching "Pirates
of the Caribbean."

Anyway, the tickets were only $8.00 for old geezers (55+), and Clearwater Beach just completed a new parking ramp a couple of blocks north of Pier 60, so we were able to park close by and in the shade.  Such a deal!

Some sculptures were massive, like this "Funky Fish" display...

... and parts of others were small, like this
two-foot-high mermaid.

The theme this year was "the sea."  Truthfully, although some sculptures were really well done, we did not think this year's show was as intricately carved nor as imaginative as last year's "music" themed show.  We still had fun, though, and I am glad that we took the time to go down and to see the works.

Even Spongebob Squarepants was part of the show. 

Today was a quiet day for the Festival.  Usually, they also have bands playing, sculpting events, and other activities in which people can partake.  Live music and some events will start later on today; actually, we are happy to leave that to others.  We arrived just as the show was opening at 10:00 a.m., and we were home before noon.

The mechanical fish was cute.

Some of the "amateur" sculptures were really good.

We passed a park going to and from the sand tent.  I have to admit that Clearwater Beach goes out of its way to give visitors of all ages fun activities to occupy their time.  Since Owen is really into space right now, I am sure that he would have loved these space-themed slides in the park.

Slide in the park, anyone?

On the way back to the parking ramp, we stopped off and did a little shopping.  After all, we have to take something back from Florida for Owen when we leave in a couple of weeks.

Easter Prep

It's a good thing we have holidays to motivate us to do those thousand little jobs that we have been putting off for weeks.

Rick almost killed himself today vacuuming the floors and then getting down on his hands and knees to scrub the whole house.  We had wanted to do that before we left for the summer, and since we are having company for Easter tomorrow, this was a perfect time to do that.

I straightened and dusted everything to make the rooms that much more tidy.

I spent most of the morning trying a new carrot cake cupcake recipe for dessert tomorrow.  While this is the most complicated procedure I have taken to make cupcakes, the results (I hope) will be tasty.  I keep telling myself that these are nutritious because they contain lots of carrots, raisins, and walnuts, but I also am cognizant of the amount of oil, sugar, and creme cheese that make up the entire mixture.  Homemade is always better, but a mix probably would have been healthier!

Happy Easter!

We both wish everyone a very relaxing, joyful, happy Easter!

This and That

Although we do not have any major projects to do at this time, that does not mean that we have been idly sitting around watching the grass grow.  Well, actually, that is not true.  Since we planted grass both in the front and the back yard, we ARE watching the grass grow to make sure that it fills in the lawn.

We now are into the "maintenance" mode of home ownership.  With major projects completed, we can turn our attention to the minor maintenance issues that are a part of any house.

A couple of days ago, we took advantage of the cooler morning air to wash every window in the house.  Rick took out the screens, and while he soaped and squeegeed the windows, I hosed down the screens and washed the window frames and sills.  Once I toweled off the screens, Rick reinstalled them.  What a difference!  The windows were filthy and the screens were full of dust and pollen.  Now the windows are clear, the screens have "disappeared" from sight, and we actually can notice more light streaming into the house.  Of course, that condition will not last, but for now we are enjoying the view.

We are starting to check off the items that we need to complete before we leave for the summer.  One big decision was what to do about the cable/ internet service.  We used to just put it into "seasonal" mode with Brighthouse, paying just a small fee each month to stay connected while the service was not in use.  Sadly, Spectrum has bought out Brighthouse, and we are reading nasty things that this new company is doing to people who try to use the "seasonal" feature.  They start charging fees for the time they are gone by starting the service early, and when people complain, the company just says, "Too bad.  You had the service, so you owe us the money."  Also, Spectrum will not let anyone cancel their service if they supposedly owe them money, so they keep getting charged until they pay up.  I foresee a class-action lawsuit in the not too distant future.  To avoid all of that, we will just cancel our service before we leave, and take all of their equipment back.  They cannot turn our service on early if we have no equipment and no contract with them while we are gone.  We will have to sign up with them in the fall when we return.  Too bad that a company cannot act fairly with their customers.

We continue to work a bit on the yard.  This morning I raked half of the back yard again because our neighbor's camphor trees are starting to drop leaves which blow onto our patio.  I bundled up one whole large garbage bag of leaves again that will have to go out to the curb for Monday pick-up.

Watering the grass and the palm trees has slowed somewhat, but we occasionally throw a little water on everything.  Since we did not hook up to the reclaimed water system, our front lawn especially (which gets more direct sun than the back) is really dried out.  Florida is in a horrible draught right now.  The state has declared an emergency once already due to the numerous wildfires that are engulfing acres of tinder-dry land.  At least no one has been killed yet due to the fires.  But we need rain, and none is predicted for the next week.

We have tried twice recently to spend a quiet afternoon at the beach, but both times we encountered brisk winds coming onshore across the cool water, so the air became uncomfortably cool.  We would have been fine had we been like most people lying in the sun courting skin cancer, but we tend to stay in the shade, so we felt the temperature difference.  In another couple of months, I am sure that the beaches will be a welcome refuge from the heat, but for now we will wait for more calm winds or a warmer day.

Rick also spent one morning recently washing both vehicles.  The pollen is terrible right now, so within a day the cars are covered with a fine, yellow dust.  They looked good for a little while, but I am sure that we will have to wash them down before we put the Honda in the garage and drive the truck north.

As noted above, the problem with maintenance is that it never ends.  The bathrooms need cleaning each week, the trees keep dropping more leaves on my freshly-cleared lawn, the pollen resettles on the cars, the windows will collect all matter of debris, and we keep dragging dirt into the house each time we enter.  Ah, well, at least now we have  the time to DO something about these little nagging tasks that never seem to end.

Keeping Busy

I have concluded that our generation does not know how to relax.  We have been trained since a young age that we have to be doing something every moment of the day to be "productive," and that if we do not do so, we should be ashamed for being "lazy."  That notion, of course, is ludicrous.  The world will not end if we spend time reading a book, watching television, or taking a nap in the hammock.  Isn't that what we "earned" by working hard and saving our money all of those years?

So we are slowing transitioning, for the first time since 2012, into actually being "retired" people.  Yes, we still have things like landscaping that we want to complete here at Gladys, but the only money we have left needs to grow a bit more before we can consider our next tasks.  That will not happen until next season.

For now, we are starting to rediscover things that we used to enjoy doing before our hectic lives took over our world.  We actually went to the beach for only the second time this whole winter.  We briefly visited once when Stephanie was here, and we returned to the beach earlier this week.  The problem? While the sun brightly shone in the sky, a very strong wind was blowing inland across the cooler water, and we darn near froze to death.  We only lasted a little over an hour, and we were ready to come home.

We have rediscovered reading.  I love my Kindle because it easily packs into my purse and allows me to carry lots of books with me.  The backlight is good for reading in the evening or during power outages -- as long as I have been diligent in charging the Kindle!  Currently I am reading the second book -- The Winter of the World -- in Ken Follett's Century trilogy.  I am learning SO much about the true causes of the world wars and what went on behind the scenes.  Reading is educational if one choses the correct books. Rick has been reading Dan Silva's works in the Gabriel Allon series which gives background information on the Middle East Israeli/ Palestinian crisis.  Great weather, a good book, and a hammock.  What could be better?

Walnut staves and handle will blend with the
walnut furnishings in Stephanie's house.

The round basket will find lots of uses at Gladys.

We also have been keeping our hands busy with weaving.  Rick finally finished the two Nantucket baskets that he has been working on for the past four years.  The taller one is for Stephanie, and the more round one is for Gladys.  After sitting in the drawer for four years, sadly, the handle on the round one is bent a bit out of shape, but the basket still is beautiful.  Rick just received a new book on weaving Nantucket baskets.  I am eager for him to start on the cracker basket that he wants to finish next.  Now that most of the remodeling is complete, maybe I will not have to wait four years to use it!

This large cork trivet will protect our glass dining table.

Another trivet and two coaters complete the set.

I took time away from the loom to do some hand weaving with other materials.  I bought some sheets of cork and made some trivets and coasters.  Working with the cork was frustrating and messy because the cork is very fragile and rips easily.  I am pleased with the results, but I probably will not work with that material again.

The potholder is labeled so we can talk about
it when we go to the next Weaver's meeting.

The utilitarian brown potholders are great
for the outdoor grill.

I also put some old yard on the loom to try some twill variations.  Since the yarn was scrap yarn more than true loom weaving yarn, it stretched more than I had hoped.  For fun, I just wove some potholders, and I finished the edges in different ways to see what I liked and what I would not do again.  I added two layers of quilt batting between the woven material to make them heat resistent.

I used up red and green yarn scraps for this
"Christmas" potholder.

I have three yellow and brown potholders
that I can use in Gladys' blue kitchen.

The result is that I have a variety of patterns and some functional pot holders for the grill and for the kitchen.  And if they get stained or burned (which sometimes happens...), I will not feel badly about throwing them out.

Exercise still is a key part of each day.  We either bike or walk, and keeping up with yard work and house work also keeps us from sitting around too much.

I have just spent too long at this computer, so now is the time for me to do something physical to keep going.  Retirement can  be fun.

Beat the Heat

What a day so far.  We awoke this morning to windy weather with temperatures steadily climbing.

To beat the heat, we took an early morning bike ride on the trail and were home again by 9:30. The trail was not overly crowded today, but we certainly knew which way the wind was blowing! Of course, we did not have to ride against the wind until we were on our way home... when we were tired.  Never fails.

After we arrived home, we did some quick tree-trimming before the garbage men come to pick up brush.  The neighbors have a heavily wooded back yard, and although they worked very hard this year to clean it up, they still have many trees (including a Brazilian pepper tree) that was growing both over our fence and into our overhead wires.  Rick got out the pole trimmers and made short work of the offending branches.  We hauled two huge bundles out to the curb.  We hope this trimming will be enough to keep the branches at bay for the summer.  I am sure we will have to trim again in the fall.

From there, I came in to work with the laundry while Rick dug out the hose to wash both the car and the truck.  The pollen has been heavy lately, so both vehicles needed a good scrubbing.  The windows in the house need washing too, but Rick said why do that when we are supposed to get rain on Thursday?  My question is, why wash the cars, then, when we are supposed to get rain on Thursday?  I guess the answer is all tied with perspective and priorities.

At any rate, the laundry is in the dryer, the vehicles are clean, and our "chores" for the day are completed, all before 11:00 a.m.  The temperatures already have reached 81 with a high of 90 predicted for this afternoon, so I suspect we will work on baskets, sewing, reading, and other indoor-because-it-is-air-conditioned activities for the rest of the day.

Spring has arrived in Florida.