Spic and Span

For the last few days, we have been entertaining my friend Bonnie who came to visit us from Wisconsin.  We went to Bok Gardens, relaxed in the back yard, made an ice cream run for dessert, and generally had a relaxing time.

Bonnie poses next to a downtown sculpture
after finishing her cup of ice cream.

After Bonnie returned to Wisconsin, we took a quick trip Wednesday to Lutz, Florida, to see the Outlet Mall that they have there.  Stephanie said that she wants to visit a Tumi store when she comes to Florida, so we checked out the store there instead of driving all the way to the Tumi Outlet Store in Orlando. Lutz is approximately half the distance that driving to Orlando would be.  We found a great route to drive there, avoiding Tampa traffic for the most part.  We discovered the Mall had everything that we need, including a very nice Tumi store.  We definitely will take a trip back there when Stephanie visits in a couple of weeks.

This morning was cold, so we waited until this afternoon to get into the chore we had planned for today.  We both knew that we needed to scrub our vinyl fence, and today was our chosen day to do so.  We started at approximately 1:00 p.m.

While I climbed the large step stool to scrub the pole tops and the upper rail of the fence, Rick followed behind with a scrub brush, a pail of soapy water, and the hose to scrub the rest of the fence.  Please note: we have a LONG fence, and it seemed to grow by several feet today as we washed it.

Rick uses the soft scrub brush to wash the panels
in a section of the fence.

The fence was really filthy in parts, so some sections really took effort.  As I worked my way down the back of the fence, I came upon a problem that we did not know we had.  Apparently, a large branch fell on the fence and broke one of the top rails.  The damage probably happened during Hurricane Irma this past summer, but since the break was on the back side of the top of the fence, we did not see it until now.

The sun peeks over my shoulder as I try to get a good
picture of the damage to our fence.

The damage looking down from the top of the fence.

We certainly will have to purchase a new fence package so we can get a top replacement rail.  The good news is that the problem happened in a middle panel in the fence rather than at a cemented-in corner post; the bad news is that replacing that section probably still will be a pain.

Our freshly washed fence gleams in the afternoon sun.

We pushed ourselves to finish the fence today, ending our task just before 5:00 p.m.  After we came into the house, Rick mentioned calling Steve to ask a question.  I said, "It's dinner time.  Can you wait until we are finished eating?"

He was shocked that the time was so late.  He actually was wearing his old, work watch, and he had forgotten to chance the time to Daylight Savings Time.  He said, "I thought it was only 4:00 o'clock.  I would have quit sooner if I had known it was so late!"  (Now he is REALLY tired...)

We both are happy to have the job finished, and I am sure that we both will sleep well tonight.