Laying the Floor

I had a wonderful day for my birthday yesterday.  The sun was shining, the temps were warm, and we did NOT spend all day laying tile.  In the evening, Rick took me out for dinner: New York style pizza and New York Raspberry Cheesecake for dessert.  Yum!

This past Monday, Steve came over and he and Rick spread the leveling compound on the laundry room floor.  Yesterday Rick checked for level and found that we still had a high spot near the north wall and a low gully down the center of the floor, so he and I (but mostly he) put two more bags full of leveling compound down. Then he quit so we could do some shopping in the afternoon for my birthday.

The "before" laundry room floor complete
with corner stains where the old water
heater used to rest.

Rick (out the back door) and Steve take care of
most of the uneven floor with leveling compound.

The floor after the second layer of leveling
compound.  Once this cures, we add tile!

Sadly, we ended up buying a single round placemat in bright orange for the center of the dining room table, but nothing else.  I actually told Rick I wanted some new pot holders for my birthday, but everything we found was too big, too stiff, or too thin.  Why can't anyone make a good, old-fashioned, well-cushioned pot holder anymore?  We also looked for a new rolling pin, and that, too, was elusive. Ah, well, the hunt continues...

Today we got into actually laying the tile on the floor.  Of course, I made it more difficult by wanting tile in a diagonal pattern, but I have to live with this for a long time, and tile on the diagonal makes a narrow room look more spacious.  Rick said that laying tile was the most difficult job he has ever done, and that is really saying something considering I have seen him install patio doors, re-roof our Wisconsin house, install full picture windows, move water heaters and re-plumb them, and completely build the afore-mentioned laundry room.  The pictures show the progress we have made so far.

The tile floor after the first day.  Tomorrow we need to make
all of the cuts and finish installing the floor.

I like the way the north wall turned out. Most
of the "cuts" will be under the washer and dryer
on the south wall when we are finished.

The floor will rest for tonight, and tomorrow we can tackle the cuts.  I imagine the measuring and the cutting will take the whole morning, but perhaps we can finish laying the rest of the tile by tomorrow evening.  That will leave the grout job for Friday, and I may be able to get my washer and dryer back into place by this weekend.

Tonight we are attending our last Art Center presentation. the painting under discussion will be Wood's "American Gothic."  We both are looking forward to an relaxing evening out.

Further Progress on the List

The floor men that we were waiting for on Friday never came, so Rick ended up scraping up the bleach by himself. We were a little irritated because once again we had to call them to get any answers.  What happened to the notion of customer service -- that is, doing whatever one can do for the good of the customer? We understand that contractors get busy, that our job was just a little job, and that sometimes the schedule does not work out as planned. (Rarely does our daily schedule meet Rick's expectations, and that drives him nuts.)  However, I do not believe that a little common courtesy is out of line.  When the floor men got delayed, a simple call to say they were not coming and could we scrape up the bleach so they could finish the job the following day I feel would not have been too much to ask.  Apparently, though, I am old and just expecting too much out of the following generation of workers.

When they finally did come on Saturday, we were pleased with the results.  Rob and another man came, and Rob looked at the bad patch job in the terrazzo in our master bathroom. He said he could do better than what was in there, so he chipped out the patches and redid them.  He also finished the work at the front door.  The match is so good in the master bathroom that we cannot even see where it is patched.  Unfortunately, he missed two spots, but neither are in the doorway, so from outside the bathroom, neither are visible.  Since this is the master bath, we are not going to worry about them; what we have now is much better than what we had before.  The patch job on the front door is a little light, but that, too, will darken with time.  We have to put in base shoe yet to complete that floor; then a new coat of paint on the sill will totally finish the job.  The paint job on the sill, however, has to wait until the weather is a bit warmer so I can leave the door open for a while.

More good news is that Rob looked at the 15 foot stain across the living room doorway that leads to the Florida Room. He said that they have a new process whereby they make a poultice that they lay down on bad stains and cover it with plastic.  They let it sit for two days to "draw out" the oils in the stains, and then come in to re-polish the floor. If we could get rid of the stain (visible to Rick's right in the picture below), that would greatly improve the look of the floor.  We plan on calling them back in to do that as soon as we finish laying down the laundry room floor this week.

Rick putting together his new office chair.  Hm-m-m. My birthday
is tomorrow, but HE is getting a new chair.  Something is wrong
here...

Yesterday we went into Tampa to go to the grand opening of the Container Store and to check to see if Ikea had the mirror we wanted for the bathroom.  The Container Store was fun, but it got crowded very quickly.  We found a blue bungee office chair for Rick, and a small wastebasket for the laundry room at the store.  The picture below shows Rick assembling the chair.  It works well for him because it is on casters, and it is higher than the old chair he was using.  Since the desk for his computer is raised a bit, the new chair fits him well.

Success!  The new chair which is really comfortable.

Rick is currently painting door casing to finish the doors in the laundry room.  We made some progress by adding baseboard to the kitchen and by adding a quarter-round piece to the pocket door to finish that off from the kitchen side.  The glory of a house is not in the large structures but rather in the details.  If you don't believe me, go visit any house that you consider gorgeous.  You will find you are attracted to that house because of the ornate molding, the carved staircase, or the little vase with the rose that adds just the perfect spot of color on a table.  The rest is good, but the details talk to the emotional senses.

Another item that we purchased yesterday was a new mirror for the bathroom.  We have been tolerating the original medicine cabinets with a glass mirror hung between them in the main bathroom since we bought this house.  The cabinets were old, rusty, and just plain gross, so I never used them.  The last time we visited Ikea, they offered a mirror that would fit the space if we removed all of the 1960 originals.  Yesterday Ikea had the mirror in stock, so home it came with us.  The pictures below show the progression of the remodel as we took the old out, added insulation to the wall, and hung the new mirror.  While the new sleek mirror makes the rest of the bathroom look even more dated, for now it will suffice.

The old mirrored medicine  cabinets with a mirror
mounted between them. 

Going....

going, gone!

The new, single mirror in the old main bathroom
is much cleaner and easier to keep clean!

Interestingly enough, we learned that the Magic Curb still works!  When we first moved into this house, my neighbor lady told us that if we did not want something, to put it out to the curb, and it will disappear like magic.  She was right.  We got rid of loads of stuff that we tore out of the house.  Last night I put out the old medicine cabinets, the metal braces that held the mirror in between them, and the middle mirror itself.  Within an hour, I looked out the kitchen window as a man in a pick-up truck was loading the medicine cabinets into the bed of the truck.  He took everything but the middle mirror, and that promptly found its way into the large garbage can as soon as he left. After garbage pick-up today, we no longer have to put up with the old bathroom mirrors or cabinets.

We have only a few hundred dollars left in our remodeling budget for this winter, and Rick commented today that running out of money may be a good thing.  That will allow us both to relax and start to enjoy Gladys.  We have enjoyed watching her transformation from a run-down, filthy, infested home into a very comfortable, clean, livable structure, but that has taken a lot of work.  On the path to relaxing, I actually took some time this weekend to count out a warp for the table loom that we brought down.  I want to weave some fabric to use as a pillow in our bedroom, so I have the warp (the yarn that a person puts on the loom) counted out.  From there, I will take the yarns and "dress" the loom with it.  Then I'll use the same pattern of colors in the same order for the weft (the yarns that go across the warp to weave a fabric).  The result will be an interesting little plaid material in the teal and white of our bedroom. Perhaps I can get to that sometime next week.

The warp on the warping board, ready to be transferred to
the loom.

Tomorrow is my birthday.  When I talked to my sister Sue today, she asked me what I had planned.  I had to honestly tell her that since Rick's brother Steve came over this morning to help him move the washer and dryer into the garage so we could lay down the leveling compound today, that tomorrow we probably would be laying tile.  Ah, well, activity keeps one young... so maybe this birthday I actually will grow younger!

Waiting for the Floormen

I'll start this blog by sharing a few more of our garden and Epcot pictures.  I would love to have the money to do some gardening and landscaping of Gladys (curb-appeal she does NOT have!), but that is in the budget for about...h-m-m... maybe 2016.  For now, plain is all that the neighbors get.  I just go out, see everyone else's garden, and dream.  With that said, perhaps that is why I do enjoyed the topiaries and the garden fun at Epcot.

"Flowers" made of flowers line the banks of a lagoon in Epcot.

This butterfly of flowers is visible from one of the bridges
in the World Showcase.

Captain Hook brought back childhood memories.

Peter Pan stands hight over the crowds on the top
of a building.

Lady looks disgusted by the attention and the flowers that
she received from The Tramp.

Our budget this year, however, is limited to a few small projects.  Rick and I sat down today and made a new list of what we have to complete both inside and outside the house.  To support my opening paragraph, the "outside" work we have listed involves things like patching the holes in the house, painting the house and windowsills, and repairing the fascia boards.  Landscaping did not even make an honorable mention on the list.

The bleach at the front door will make Gladys beautiful again.

We actually got a start on the new list.  Yesterday the flooring folks from the Finish Line Floors came in to grind down and to polish the floors where the old doors were removed.  The kitchen doorway is now fine, but the living room floor under the old door was badly stained, so they ended up grinding down part of the floor and then adding a thick layer of bleach over the surface.  That has sat overnight, and we are currently waiting for the workers to return today to remove the bleach and to patch the holes  by the doorway before they finish and polish it.  I have to admit that what they did yesterday really helped to clean up a messy-looking strip, so I am excited to have them return to finish the job.  Right now, the bubbled up bleach across the front of the door just looks silly; however, like all old dames, I suppose Gladys deserves a good peroxide rinse once in a while, too.

Rick adds cement to the old dryer vent hole
to make the garage wall secure.

While we are waiting for them to appear, Rick took care of cutting the moulding for around the door in the kitchen.  He also mixed up some cement to patch the two "holes" in the house.  The first hole was where the former owners of the house had drilled through the back of the house to vent the clothes dryer.  That vent was all fine and good except that it was highly illegal since it positioned the dryer right in front of the electrical box.  When we moved the dryer back from the garage onto the platform for the washer and dryer, we just stuffed tin foil into the hole and taped it shut until now.  (Yes, duct tape does work well for a myriad of problems!)  Rick  put up a temporary board on the outside of the house to hold in the cement that he used from the inside of the garage to fill the hole.  Once that dries, he will be able to add stucco to the outside of the house and mud over the inside of the garage where the hole used to be.

The other hole was the one the electrician drilled from the garage into the kitchen wall to put in an outlet box for the repositioned refrigerator.  As noted earlier in this blog, when we added cabinets to the kitchen, the outlet was both too low and too far to the left, so Rick had to cut a new hole and run a new line to the refrigerator. Now both walls are solid and will prevent the admission of any two, four, six, or eight-legged creatures from entering the garage or kitchen of Gladys.

We are happy with what we have accomplished so far.  We still have to complete the floor and the doorways in the laundry room.  Small projects that will fit within the budget still need our attention this year, but we are almost at a point where we can stop the hard work and can enjoy the sunshine and the downtime that await us here in Florida.

Impressions of Epcot

Since we have been official residents of Florida since last October, we finally decided to use our status to our advantage by purchasing resident-only weekday season-long Disney tickets.  I am almost 59 and Rick is 60, yet neither of us has ever been to Disney World.  We changed that fact yesterday.

We arose at 5:00 a.m. to make the drive through Tampa before the worst of the rush-hour traffic, and I have to admit that we had no trouble with highway congestion either going to Disney or coming home yesterday.  Disney World is about an hour and 40 minute straight drive from Dunedin on I-4 through Florida. While we were not speeding along at normal highway limits every second of the day, we also never came to a complete stop on the highways either.  Always moving is a good thing...

We arrived at Disney early, so we were able to park in the first non-handicapped reserved row of the lot.  Epcot was our park of choice for the day as it was supposed to have the least number of visitors on this particular Wednesday.  We exchanged our AAA plastic ticket vouchers for an official Disney season pass which, to our great disappointment, is a credit-card sized pass made of heavy paper.  The ticket agent assured us that we could get it replaced if we started to wear out the cardboard one she gave us.

Donald Duck with some lucky little girl.

After getting tickets, we entered our first line of the day.  We were second in line after a family of five, and we stood in that line FREEZING in the 52 degree windy conditions.  We both were in jeans and had fleece jackets.  I really felt sorry for the idiots who were in short-sleeved shirts, shorts, and flip-flops. Didn't they check the weather reports for the day?  It was predicted to only get to 72 yesterday, and sadly, the weathermen were incorrect.  I don't believe it ever got even that warm, and we won't talk about the wind-chill factor that accompanied the temperatures.  The good thing was that we had sunshine for most of the day, so that did help warm things up by late morning. (Yeah, I know.  I should not complain since everyone in Wisconsin is dealing with sub-40 temperatures and tons of snow.)

After we entered the park, we were able to get onto most rides with little problem.  The only truly long line we encountered was at Spaceship Earth which is the ride inside the iconic "golfball" geodesic dome of Epcot.  That line added to our temperature discomfort since we were outside again for quite a while. The ride was interesting, however, and in the end the pictures that the ride took of us as we started were added to a computer program to show us how our personal lives would be in the future.  That was a cute, fun addition to the ride.

Overall, I had a good time but Rick was disappointed.  He felt that many of the attractions were outdated, especially since Disney's premiere showcase in Epcot was Futureworld.  "Presentworld" might be a better name for it since much of the technology presented and many of the rides were definitely not cutting-edge presentations of the future.

The iconic image of Epcot, shot from within the park.

We did enjoy the topiaries of the park, and that is what the majority of our pictures concern.  The gardens, also, were spectacular.  Each evening, an army of gardeners must toil through the night to keep the gardens in full bloom and weed-free.

Winnie the Pooh, sneaking into a back door.
See, Lindsay, he is real!

Tigger follows Winnie, closely guarded by
Disney "cast members."

One disappointment was not being able to get a good picture of Winnie the Pooh.  Lindsay and Chris are decorating their nursery with Pooh, so we said that we would like to get a picture of the character.  We actually found him sneaking into the back door of one of the shops in the United Kingdom area, but the camera was being temperamental, so we only got the backside of Pooh and a side view of Tigger.  We'll have to try again when we visit the Magic Kingdom.  We were able to get some good shots of the Pooh and Friends topiaries, though. Unfortunately, shopping for Pooh baby items in the gift shops also was a disappointment.  Apparently, Disney only has limited rights to the Pooh merchandise, so next to nothing was available.  We did not make any purchases of Pooh onesies or other items.

The topiaries were great.  Here Winnie the
Pooh poses with his balloon.

Piglet takes a ride on Eeyore who enjoys
munching on the delicious flowers.

Following the advice of the Unofficial Disney Guide Book, we purposely ate early and had no trouble finding tables at which to sit.  We rejected many of the restaurants who were serving large, expensive, not-to-our-tastes meals.  We settled both for lunch and for dinner at the same restaurant, and while we were served plenty of food that actually tasted very good, it should have been good for the price!  Each meal cost us approximately $20.00, and that was without drinks of any kind.

The crowds were tolerable in my estimation, and since this was a weekday and we were at Epcot rather than the Magic Kingdom, we did not see a great many children. With the exception of one shop in the French area of the World Showcase, everyone was very polite.  We had trouble getting waited on in the French pastry shop where we stopped for a mid-afternoon snack, and that just further enhanced Rick's opinion that the French are rude.  That being said, when we finally did get our pastries, they tasted delicious.

Daisy Duck gets ready to serve the badminton
shuttle to Donald...

who poses ready for the return.

Rick was questioning if the decision to buy season passes was the right decision.  He actually ended up with a headache and not feeling well yesterday, so I think that may have soured his mood a bit.  I enjoyed myself.  The walk certainly was good for our health, and even with sore feet by the end of the day, I felt great getting out and seeing something new.

Our season passes are good for one year.  We can go to any of the four parks, and although we are blacked out of weekends, most of the summer, and during the traditional Spring Break days, that is fine with us.  We would not want to go during any of those times anyway as they are the peak attendance times of the year.

In April, we plan to go back to the parks for a couple of days, staying overnight in a nearby (not on the Disney grounds) hotel.  We want to take some wildlife shots at Animal Kingdom and have a good time at Disney's Hollywood Studio park.  Hopefully, the next time we go the weather will be a little warmer without being intolerably hot.  But this is Florida, and like Wisconsin, the weather changes on an hourly basis.

Beauty from God

Since this is Sunday, I will share some of God's wonderful creations that we found in the Botanical Gardens.  I hope that someday I can add some of the same beauty to Gladys' yard.

This one is a rare white bird of paradise!

Florida is home to gorgeous orchids.

I hope that you have enjoyed this view of what Florida has blooming in March.  We may blow up some of these pictures and use them to decorate the inside of Gladys until we have the money to spruce up the outside also.  Have a great week, everyone!

Tiles, Tinkerbell, Travels, and Tweets

The last couple of days have seen quite a transformation in Gladys.  Although we still have not heard from Barry concerning our floors, we have made progress in other areas.

Our tiles came in to ProSource, so we went to Largo on Friday to pick them up.  At the warehouse, the worker, Matt, stacked our nine boxes of tiles on a skid.  Two sets were bundled together in three-packs, but the last three boxes were loose from one another.  Matt picked up the skid on a forklift to bring to our truck; unfortunately, he had set one of the boxes on its side, and when he rounded a corner, that box when tumbling to the warehouse floor.  We heard what sounded like a china hutch tipping forward and spilling all the plates.  The medley of breaking tile seemed to go on for four or five seconds.  My heart sank.  Out of 11 tile in the box, eight of them shattered.  Matt sent us back to ProSource to see if they could get their hands on another box of tile from the same dye lot.  For those of you who have  never tiled before, be aware that tile, like cloth, needs to come from the same dye lot for it to coordinate.

Kevin, at ProSource, immediately called DalTile to see if they had any of our tile and dye lot in stock.  Thankfully, they did, so our next stop was to go to DalTile.  After a lot of running around, we came home with all of our ordered tile, the thin-set, and the bullnose to use as baseboard in that room.

We were going to pick up grout at the warehouse after we chose some to coordinate with the tile, and that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be.  We did not want to go too light, but we also did not want the grout to stand out and take the eye away from the tiles themselves.  Finally we agreed on a grout called Latte only to learn that the warehouse where we picked up the tile was out of Latte.  Are you getting the picture that the warehouse was not a good place to be on Friday?  We'll have to return to Largo next week, now, to pick up the grout.  Our plan is to not start this job until we have everything in the house.  We have to be without a washer and dryer while we are tiling the laundry room floor, so we want this job to go smoothly.  We'll start by laying down self-leveling compound on Friday, lay the tile on Saturday, and grout the tiles on Sunday.  If you know of any tile prayers, now would be a good time to say a few.

Another task that we completed while we were out was to go to AAA.  We learned that they sold Disney World tickets and that as members, we could get a discount.  Our week-day season passes were only discounted by $14, but that will pay for one day's parking at Disney, so why not?  Actually taking the paperwork in and getting the tickets at the park still will be a bit of a run-around, so we are going next week for just one day to get that taken care of.  Then we will return in April and stay overnight at least once to see the evening fireworks and after-dark performances. Tinkerbell, here we come.

I am excited that my friend Bonnie is coming for a visit.  We decided early on that our house would be our house, not an easy stop for everyone who knew us.  As such, we made a short list of relatives and friends who we would welcome to visit us at Gladys.  Bonnie is one of those friends. She has very patiently waited for us to get Gladys into "visiting" shape, and now we feel that we are ready to extend an invitation.  Bonnie is a friend and former office mate of mine.  When we met over 20 years ago, we learned that our birthdays are only two days apart.  My birthday is on March 19 and hers is March 21.  We decided that we should have a birthday dinner each year on March 20 to celebrate making it through another year.  Bonnie e-mailed me and said that she was sorry that we could not have our traditional birthday dinner this year, so I invited her down so we could celebrate together.  Although she cannot come for March 20, she is going to visit with us for a few days in early April.  She is a seasoned traveler, and I cannot wait to see her again.

The artwork in the new laundry room.

Part of our decorating scheme for Gladys is to fill her with pictures that we have taken, starting with some pictures from the Florida Botanical Gardens that we want to use on the laundry room walls.  We bought frames with wainscoting (which matches our new interior doors) for three pictures that we had printed, but the middle picture really should be horizontal instead of vertical.  In order to get some more pictures, Rick and I decided to revisit the Botanical Gardens while we were picking up the tile since the Gardens are in the same general area.

Rick actually dug out his tripod and good camera, and I used my trusty Panasonic point-and-shoot.  Unfortunately, I do not have any of the shots that Rick took, so you will just have to put up with my photography in the following pictures.

Florida's Botanical Gardens

One of the winter blooms at the Garden.

This bloom may be printed for the new center
picture in the laundry room.

One fact that we learned had to do with a strangely behaving black, fuzzy-headed bird. This bird was standing on a fallen tree branch over water in the Garden, holding his wings widespread while flaring his tail.  He looked like he was dreaming about flying without really doing so.  Was he hallucinating?

The anhinga, acting as he should to dry his wings.

When I got home, I looked him up in my trusty Birds of Florida book. (Thanks, Stephanie.)  I learned that the bird is an anhinga, also known as a water turkey or a snakebird, because he is an excellent swimmer who, when submerged up to his long neck, looks like a snake in the water.  He also is a graceful flyer, but is rather clumsy on land.  Oh, and he was not hallucinating.  When the anhinga swims and fishes for his diet of fish, frogs, water snakes, and leeches (yummy!), he naturally gets soaked.  After he feeds, according to the book, he "spends much time perched after swimming with wings and tail spread out to dry." Who knew?  I went to take pictures, and learned something new about a bird I have never seen before since his natural habitat is eastern Texas, Luisiana, Mississippi, and Florida.

Our tasks today were two-fold.  We took the unpainted closet doors out of the guest room and added them to the painting schedule.  We have glued and repainted the guest room hallway door, and today we attempted to seal the closet doors.  We know that both need to be replaced, but the money is just not available this year.

The guest room with the new ceiling fan.

The other task completed today was to replace the wobbly ceiling fan in the guest room.  Stephanie has been complaining about the fan for a year, so we bought one quite a while ago but have not had the time to replace it.  Bonnie's imminent visit has prompted us to do some of these "little tasks" that need to be completed anyway. So Bonnie and Steph, the ceiling fan is now new, non-wobbly, and terribly bright since the one bulb was replaced with four.  Bring sunglasses when you come to stay in Gladys' guest room!

I am happy that we have come to Florida, and I am excited to continue to learn and to grow with this new Southern culture. Gladys also continues to change, and that makes me happy, too.

Waiting

Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of new pictures because what we are doing now for Gladys is just the little stuff.  Today Rick put a second coat of paint on the trim pieces for the pocket door while I primed the ceiling around one of the can lights in the laundry room.  It seems that the rim on one of the cans did not quite cover the hole in the drywall  that --ahem -- was cut a bit too large. I promise that the identity of the person who did the measuring of that portion of the ceiling will go with me, someday, to my grave.  Let's just say that the ceiling is now patched, primed, and painted, so it looks much better.

We are trying to finish some of the small projects around the house while we are waiting for the tile to come in.  Kevin at ProSource, the tile shop, said it might make the delivery truck last Thursday, but we did not hear from him on Friday.  Today (Tuesday) is the other day that they get deliveries from the warehouse, but we are still waiting to hear from him today also. Maybe tomorrow...

I took some time this morning to go outside and to give one of my bushes a badly needed reshaping.  Sadly, I discovered that the hedge clippers I brought down last year (and stored in a supposedly watertight tub) was badly rusted to the point where I could barely open it. The saltwater in the air in Dunedin is highly corrosive to anything metal, which is why we store most of the tools in the air-conditioned, humidity-controlled house.  Rick sprayed the hedge clippers with some lubricant, but I need to find some kind of rust remover to make it functional again.  I was able to finish the trim job; however, with the way things grow down here, I worry about what it will look like when we return in the fall.  I will have to talk to Kenny and Shell, who cut our grass, to make sure that they trim it while we are gone.

We also called Barry of the Finish Line Floors to see how much we will have to pay to get the terrazzo polished where the put in the new front doors and where we took out the old kitchen door.  He promised a call back today, but that is another call for which we are waiting.

Our major point of discussion right now is whether we should take some time off and go to Epcot and Disney World.  Disney always has good discounts for Florida residents, and we could get tickets at an almost reasonable rate.  Those of you who have visited any major park -- Disney, Sea World, Universal Studios, Six Flags, etc. --know what I am talking about.  Admission prices are astronomical (to say nothing of what they get for food inside the parks), which is why I said that Florida residents can get tickets that are "almost" reasonable. The practical side of us says that with the money, we could put in a cabinet or two or some interior doors.  The child side of us says that we are tired of pouring every cent we have into this remodel, and that it is time to take a vacation and to enjoy some of the amenities that Florida offers us.

Disney World is only an hour and a half away from Dunedin, so that is an easy drive -- until we get to the traffic jams around Disney World, of course. We would probably only go for a couple of days right now, but if we bought the seasonal pass, we would have the option of going back multiple times in the next year. We are both tired of doing nothing but working on this house; I think its time for a break.  My 59th birthday is this month, so maybe I will go spend it with Mickey.  After all, he is older than I am!

Our walk this afternoon took us through the neighborhood and into Hammock Park.  Hammock Park is a huge city park that has been purposely left "natural" for many acres so people can walk the trails and enjoy Florida as it once was... minus the wild alligators and deadly snakes that the early settlers encountered.  We hiked one short trail and then branched off to another trail that was supposed to lead to a lake. Unfortunately, we learned that it dead-ended into a pile of debris and cut vegetation about 500 feet from the actual lake. Ah, well, we enjoyed a shaded, serene walk anyway.

We did cross one creek in the park and were entertained by a determined little ibis who was busily wading and fishing for bugs in the water.  I wish that I had had my camera along. For now, you'll just have to go online and look up pictures of ibises on your own.  Sorry about that!

We are not sorry that we spent the money to purchase Gladys, and we certainly are enjoying the weather and the break from the horribly cold, snowy winters that our daughters are enduring in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  We have worked really hard so far, so perhaps now we are to the point where we can slow down and enjoy other things that Florida has to offer.

Springtime in Dunedin

For the last few days, Rick and I have experienced the suggestion of springtime in Dunedin.

As is typical of springtime everywhere, we have the temperature fluctuations on a daily basis.  The mornings start out cool, and for the most part the temperatures climb a good 20 degrees during the day.  The key, of course, is at what temperature the day begins.  Yesterday was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 70s while today the best we can hope for is the low 60s. Tomorrow is supposed to be even cooler, but this still beats the teens and 20s that our loved ones are dealing with in Wisconsin.

Yesterday after working even more on the walls in the laundry room, I persuaded Rick to go for a bike ride with me.  A bike ride... on February 28.  To our Wisconsin minds, that is surreal.  The day, as mentioned before, was in the 70s, and the sun was shining.  After pumping up tires and getting on the shoes and helmets, we were off.  The neighborhood streets were almost deserted, so the ride to the trail .6 miles from our house went well.  We were surprised to see the number of people walking or biking on the trail, and since we headed south, we were further surprised with the number of people milling about the downtown area at 2:00 in the afternoon.  Oh, yeah, that's right.  We are not the only retired people in Dunedin.  We went as far south as the sign to the library, and we actually contemplated riding over a block and visiting it.  Unfortunately, we did not have any way of locking the bikes up while we went inside, and we were not about to leave the trikes unattended, so we turned around and headed for home. We now know that round-trip to the library is about 6 miles.  In the future, if that is our destination, we'll figure out how to take locks along.

We made one short stop at Weaver Park on the way home, perhaps staying a bit too long because we encountered school traffic by the time we arrived home.  However, the experience was worth it because it felt so good to ride again. The endorphins were flowing from the fresh air, the sunshine, and the exercise.  As the late John Denver would have said, "Faaaaar out!"

Another indication of springtime is the amount of tender vegetable plants and flowers available at places like Lowe's or Home Depot.  Apparently if one wants a garden in Florida, one visits the big box stores for most plants.  The few nurseries we have found carry bushes and trees, but most people just buy plants and flowers at a big box store.  (However, my sister-in-law Chris found a great little pineapple plant at the local Ace Hardware store.  Go figure!)

Although our yard is barren of most plants and trees (check back in about three years), we are treated to springtime each day by just looking next door.  Michelle has three five-foot azalea bushes on the north side of her house (facing us), and those bushes are in full bloom.  In the morning, through the frosted glass of our bathroom windows, I can see this explosion of pink.

One of three pink azaleas that greet our eyes each morning.

The azaleas are gorgeous, as is the bougainvillea this time of year.  Someday, I hope to have both in our backyard along with several hibiscus and other varieties of plants and flowers.  The tricky part is that to keep something alive down here, the plants have to be "established" and that generally takes a year of several-times-a-week watering.  That lack of having the ability to water when we are in Wisconsin is what prevented us from planting a tree in January.  Water inside the house is always a problem, but lack of water outside of the house also can become a headache.

A final indication of springtime, at least to our Wisconsin minds, is seeing rummage sales.  A couple of weeks ago, our neighbor across the street, Missy, had a sale.  This morning when we got up, we saw that Pat, our neighbor to the north, was setting up a sale.  I went over mid-morning and talked to her a bit.  I was hoping that she might have something that I could use as a table in the Florida room for when I eventually move the Ikea chairs there, but she did not have anything that would work.  I mentioned that I was trying to keep the house clutter free, and the only thing that I needed to get rid of was the black TV table that we originally bought two years ago.  She told me to bring it over and she would try to sell it.  Since we only paid $19.00 for it, I put a price tag of $10.00 on it.  An hour or so later, she was knocking on the door with two $5.00 bills in her hand.  Yippee!  One more thing out of the house, and a little extra money in the wallet.

We gave Pat of tour of the house.  She was amazed at the changes she saw, especially with how open, bright, and airy the house was.  I think we are going to have to have a party and invite all of the neighbors over.  They must think we still live in the dirty, cramped, heavily-draped dungeon that Gladys was when they last saw her at the estate sale.  She's bright and cheery now, and we are no longer embarrassed to show her off.

On a sad note, today the news headline is that a man was swallowed by the earth when a sinkhole formed under his bedroom.  He disappeared down a sinkhole that opened under his house, and it appears that he is buried somewhere in that 20 foot deep hole. The constantly shifting sand and ground water make sinkholes a possibility anywhere in Florida, and that is a reality that everyone who lives here must know.  Like tornadoes in Kansas or snow in Minnesota, certain areas are prone to certain dangers.  Our house seems safe and solid, but we know that Pinellas County is ranked #5 of the 10 counties in Florida most prone to sinkholes.  I think I'll go live with Steve and Chris.  Before they bought their house, it was endangered by a sinkhole, so the former owners pumped yards and yards of concrete under it.  At least I know that there house is on solid ground... or is that cement?

Before I conclude, I'll share with you what I put up with on a daily basis.  Rick and I were out shopping yesterday, and we passed a group of stores that shared a sign in front.  One of the stores sells specialty shoes, so the sign said "Diabetic shoes."

"Hmm. 'Diabetic shoes.'  Do you suppose they take insulin?" I joked.

"I don't know," Rick replied. "Maybe they use the pump."

"Could be..." I mused.

"Yeah," Rick said, "that's why they're called 'pumps'."

You can groan now at the terrible pun.  I know that I did.  See what I have to put up with?