Saturday, October 12, 2024

Saturday October 12, 2024

Good morning sunshine! 



After a busy Friday morning at Nancy’s followed by getting our house back together when power was restored it’s nice to relax with a 2nd cuppa coffee. 

Robbie’s happy to relax on dad’s lap (for 45 minutes.) He’s a wonderful ol’ boy, 2 months shy of 14. 🐾❤️



We finished up Nancy’s backyard cleanup of debris while she was at a meeting. We came home hot and tired. Popping Advil and a beer to wash it down we then went in the pool. Geez, we need an acronym for it. Spool means small pool, SwimSpa means a big spa to swim in … what to call it???  TURBO POOL 🤩 

Okay! That’s it. Turbo pool.  💦 

So today’s now Sunday and I’m just back from a visit to the K’s. Sue asked what time I wanted to come … so I asked what’s for lunch? 😉 Mark was busy with our backyard cleanup so he stayed home. Wayne was busy with a computer glitch. (We’ve all been in that situation!) Sue had donations for eBay and the humane society shop. Nice. 

That’s been it for today. No updates or any changes in Asheville we will check in with the family later.


Friday, October 11, 2024

Friday, October 11, 2024

Good afternoon! Well, Hurricane Milton was something we’ve never seen the likes of in Florida!. Although we didn’t have any here, this hurricane spawned long track tornadoes on the east coast of Florida. That’s the opposite side of the State the as hurricane made landfall on Siesta Key.  Some of those hurricanes were EF2 … not anything we were familiar with here. Palm Beach Gardens had extensive damage to homes and property from tornadoes. 

In our area, we had sustained winds of 35 to 40 mph with gusts to 69. I took a video and posted it on Facebook showing the wind driving the rainwater down our street. It looked as if waves were in the middle of the road. We heard the loud screeching of the wind and a few crash bang booms during the evening and knew tree branches had come down.  
Wednesday at 1 o’clock in the morning, our power went out. Mark was looking out the window and saw a blue flash from the powerlines outside our house. Although we have a generator, that was no time to go out to get it started. Ha ha.  So, we had a night of eerie noises from the wind and the rain as we tried to get some sleep. 

The next morning, we couldn’t believe the tree debris that was on our street. The wind from the north had taken several huge branches from our sweetgum tree and strewn them along the road. Our backyard looked like a bomb had gone off. Branches, Spanish moss, and  Leaf debris were all over. 

However, our fence remained intact, the boat was tied up, and no significant damage that we could spot early on. At this point, we still have not been on the roof of the boathouse nor the house to see if there’s any damage. 

Since the rain had quit, we took the dogs for a nice walk and checked out the mayhem. We noticed on the way back down our street that one of our tree branches was hanging on the powerlines in front of our neighbors house. From a distance, it looks like a Christmas tree sitting on top of the  power pole. 😂



That branch was 18 feet long and had come from our 75 to 80 foot tall sweet gum tree. That would be what had shut off our power and caused the blue flash that Mark saw from the house. 

So for the past two days, our house has been a maze of extension cords running to the kitchen and sunroom refrigerators and a portable air conditioner. So we have been camping inside the house. Mark had bought us headlamps and we look like a couple of miners walking around. 

This morning, we went over to repair a panel on Nancy‘s shed. One of the roof panels had blown off. After getting the panel screwed back on, It we discovered her entire ridge vent was gone from the shed. Fortunately, there is no rain forecast this week so we can pick up a vent for her and get it installed. So we spent a few hours helping her clean up the backyard. Some of the branches from her cypress trees were pretty huge and had to be cut up. We used the golf cart with a piece of plywood cinched down on top of the dogs cage to haul debris to the front yard. That saved a lot of steps and made the job somewhat easier. We will go back tomorrow and finish up the backyard for her. 

When we got back home for lunch our power had been restored! Yay!! 

Turning the news on we were shocked to see the extreme damage to our beautiful Sunshine State. It’ll be years before rebuilding is complete. Construction codes will be changed just as they were after 1992 Andrew wiped out Homestead. 

We’re thankful we have little damage in our spot. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Good afternoon. Mark is putting the steel reinforcements on our garage door, although I think we are (now) far enough away from the eyewall  that it is just precautionary. He did manage to pick up more bread and supplies at Publix on his way home from the doctor yesterday. We enjoyed a fresh Caesar salad today! 

Last night, Nancy came over and we played two games of Catan. It must’ve been hurricane nerves as we had a little more to drink than normal. It was a fun evening and the Rogers were the Catan winners. 

About 11 o’clock we had a walk with the dogs. I went for a real walk afterwards. It was just a light rain, rather lovely. 

This might be a way to stay in contact if the cell towers go down in the storm. 





I’ll post later … 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Good afternoon. It’s raining right now, but earlier it was a nice, sunny start to our day. We both puttered around getting our house prepped for hurricane Milton’s landfall sometime late Wednesday. 



🍁 😂

Mark checked in with Nancy to see if she had room to park Jimmy back in her garage. She did, so I drove it over and Mark picked me up in the Caddy. I told Nancy it was like owning a homing pigeon. 😂  The Kia will go into the RV port area and be blanketed for the storm. ⛈️ Right now, Mark is out at a doctor appointment and then picking up some keto bread on the way home. Our store was sold out two days ago. It’s silly, they bring in two or three loaves of the keto bread which disappears immediately. Bring in a whole case of it already. Apparently, it’s popular.  😉


Monday, October 7, 2024

Monday, October 7, 2024

Good morning from overcast Central Florida where we’re prepping for Hurricane Milton’s arrival. This is a big, powerful hurricane event bound to affect most of Florida. 

So, today, Mark took our new to us GMC,  hereinafter referred to as Jimmy, for an oil change. We have a couple of things to address in the near future but overall, it’s great. 




Plenty of great options and knobs 😂


Rear bucket seats


Third row seats 


We’re delighted to add Jimmy to our fleet. 

So today, Mark’s cooking a batch of turkey and veggies for the kids. We’ll have time to freeze it in glass containers before Wednesday. (Important as we may lose electricity and have to rely on our generator which is too small but never the right time to upgrade to a bigger one 😂)

At 1 oclock I have a bowling league meeting in Tavares. Mark’s going to be gathering flags and whatnots to be tucked away for Milton’s advent. 

Tonight we’re meeting Sue, Wayne & Diane for dinner! Busy day. 

Yesterday we visited Randy and Dawn. Randy enjoyed the cards from Lyn and Tony (UK) and read them aloud.  We had a drink 🥃 and I, er gently (😳) reminded Randy to call his doctor for results from last Monday’s test. Either he calls himself or I promised to personally visit his doctor. 🤭 Mark helped bring big potted plants into the porch for protection. Lots of outdoor plants at their home!

Last night was rainy when we needed to walk the kids. 


Cute, eh? 

That’s it for today. 🥰


Saturday, October 5, 2024

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Good evening y’all.

It was a very early start for us after a very late Friday night.  Both Belize and Robbie had ultrasound appointments with Dr. Bolfer in Eustis at 8 oclock this morning.  (Once a month, at Dr. Wilson’s office, a traveling cardiologist and his team fly in for appointments!) It’s a fantastic service … and Dr. Bolfer is so intelligent and caring. 

April was the technician handling both Scotties’ ultrasounds, Bee for her heart checkup and Robs for his enlarged liver. After the tests, and the good doctor reviewing them, both Scots had excellent reports! 🐾❤️ THAT made our day! 🥳🐾❤️

We had an update text from Paula in North Carolina. They visited a family friend in Charlotte, where they stocked up on supplies, had a wonderful shower, basically cleaned up and regrouped. It has been decided that the wedding itself will go on at the chapel, but we out of towners will travel at a later time to celebrate the marriage of Jeremy and Abby.  

It was a tough decision. Hotels are closed, many flights redirected and main roadways closed. From the three family homes in the area, one has electric, one has water, and one has Internet. No one has all three at this time  😳 It’s going to be a tough, long recovery for the Asheville area. 



So, today was a day of holding on the phone while I canceled Aallegiant air tickets, car rental, hotel and Uber. Sad. 

And, it appears we will have a hurricane Milton visit Florida the beginning of the week.




But that’s next week. Today, we went in the pool and had a relaxing evening. 

Friday, October 4, 2024

Well, that was a great concert in Mount Dora … a full house for tribute bands QUEEN 🇬🇧 and ELO. The show began at 7:30 and went well after 10 o’clock. 



But first, we had a noisy dinner at Whiskey Kitchen in Mount Dora. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great restaurant with very good food, just exceptionally noisy. This is going to be a great place when the weather is cooler and you can eat outside.

We had our dog sitter Laura come in for the kids at 7:30. She took them out for a potty break, played with them for a half hour and then took them out again for potty before she left. It was wonderful not to worry about their comfort. 



We were right up front at the stage! Good thing Mark and I brought ear plugs. 😂 (Old people get goofy!) 🤣 

Seriously, my iwatch showed 105 decibels a few times. Great evening! So much fun.