Wednesday November 30th, 2022

Good afternoon y'all. We’re home from impromptu bowling, just Mark and me. He’s fast asleep now with BeeZee keeping him company. 

What a cutie Mz BeeZee is. Best picture of her. ❤️

Our bowling was good … both bowled above our averages 

Monday, November 28, 2022

Good evening y’all … it’s been a busy bowling 🎳 and burgers kind of day. 

Nancy picked us up at 12 and we headed over to the lanes. Our teammate Gary is off with a medical issue for a few weeks, and Mark filled in for him today. We had a bit of a snafu went on the first frame of the first game. My ball got stuck. We had to ask for service to get my ball. Well, then we found out. Nancy’s ball was stuck too. And, between our two balls we had broken the belt in the ball return. 

It took about 20 minutes for the belt to be replaced, and our two balls to return. By this time, everyone had lost their momentum. Anyway, our first game wasn’t very good, but we made up for it on the next two. 

Lynn scored 192, 148, 128

Nancy 101, 113, 99

Me 125, 103, 130

BUT …

Mark bowled 146,135, 223

Our team won the 1st and 3rd games. Not bad eh. 

Are you kidding me? Fabulous. Mark had FIVE strikes in a row. 🤩🎳🥳🥂🍾

On the way home, we decided it was a good night to go to Applebee’s for the burgers. We went home, fed and walked the dogs and then went back. It was great, we had their new bourbon mushroom and Swiss burgers, all of us. Yum yum. 

Sue and Wayne met Diane and Kris at their Applebee’s for dinner tonight. I bet they all had burgers too! 

Coming back into the neighborhood tonight, a lot of homes have been decorated for Christmas. It looks so pretty. So that’s it for tonight. 

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Good evening It was a fun afternoon celebrating a neighbor’s 60th birthday. There were a dozen people we hadn’t met before. 

Tony didn’t get a duplicate of our gift 😂

Mark had prepped a palm pod that I painted with “Billy” the Buffalo Bill’s mascot. Tony really liked it and squirreled it away in the house immediately. 

Mark installed a wire hanger on the back of it. We’ll see where Tony decides to put it. 

At 4:30 we felt a couple drops of rain, said our goodbyes and got home with the golf cart before it poured. It was a really nice day! 

We’re worn out tonight. (Last night we had Nancy over for wine on the front porch.) I had all the Christmas lights turned on and it was super fun. 

Friday, November 25, 2022

ATTENTION TO ALL WHO NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA 🎅 

Son: "Dad, I think I'm old enough now. Is there a Santa Claus?." 

Dad: "Ok, I agree that your old enough. But before I tell you, I have a question for you. You see, the “truth” is a dangerous gift. Once you know something, you can't unknow it. Once you know the truth about Santa Claus, you will never again understand and relate to him as you do now. So my question is: Are you sure you want to know?" 

Brief pause...

Son: "Yes, I want to know"

Dad: "Ok, I'll tell you: Yes there is a Santa Claus" 

Son: "Really?" 

Dad: Yes, really, but he's not an old man with a beard in a red suit. That's just what we tell kids. You see, kids are too young to understand the true nature of Santa Claus, so we explain it to them in a way that they can understand. The truth about Santa Claus is that he's not a person at all; he's an idea. Think of all those presents Santa gave you over the years. I actually bought those myself. I watched you open them. And did it bother me that you didn't thank me? Of course not! In fact it gave me great pleasure. You see, Santa Claus is THE IDEA OF GIVING FOR THE SAKE OF GIVING, without thought of thanks or acknowledgement.

When I saw that woman collapse on the subway last week and called for help, I knew that she'd never know that it was me that summoned the ambulance. I was being Santa Claus when I did that." 

Son: "Oh."

Dad: "So now that you know, you're part of it. You have to be Santa Claus too now. That means you can never tell a young kid the secret, and you have to help us select Santa presents for them, and most important, you have to look for opportunities to help people. Got it?"

Help each other this Christmas🎄🎅 and...be kind ❤💕

🎄 🎅🏼 🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼🎄🎅🏼

So tonight, we picked up Kim and Bob and went to downtown Eustis for the Christmas tree lighting. It was beautiful, and there were many crafters there, showing their wares. I bought a pretty wreath to hang on our sunroom bar. Afterwards, we came home for our dogs, and then walked down to KimBob’s for drinks and to watch the football game on their porch. It was a beautiful evening.   

That snow coming out of the birdhouse in the tree! How cool is that? !

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Good afternoon. Happy Thanksgiving. Diane and Kris are hosting in their new house. Kris’s niece Cindy and her hubs Ed had helped around for a day or two. 

The dining room looks lovely! 

Looking to the living room. Very spacious. 

The back yard pineapple patch … Mark and Dine poking about. 

Ed wielded the pink selfie stick with ease. (Wayne missed the picture.)

We’re all here in this selfie. Good job Mark. 

Sue picked up Beau for a picture … the wee rascal squirmed and Sue was trying to hold him. 😂

Mark imitated Sue with Bella. 😂 

Sue wanted a retake … 🐾🥰

Kris looks like he’s nursing a headache after all the preparations. It was a super dinner!

It was a great time! Diane had their wedding pictures album from 22 years ago on the table. It was so much fun to leaf through and see the old pictures. Tomorrow is there 22nd wedding anniversary! Sue stated how everyone look so much younger. Well, yeah, that was 22 years ago.  🙄

Monday, November 21, 2022

Good afternoon. Well, it’s a bright beautiful sunshiny day with 74°F. Thank goodness. I could not have stood another day of that gloomy rain and overcast skies. Mark did the shopping this morning and has now gone to the woods, alone, to hunt.  

Nancy is picking me up and we are going bowling with our league. Since we practiced yesterday, I have high hopes for us. We want all three games last week, so we are looking to do the same again today. Who knows who we have to play against though. 🎳

Happy anniversary to our dear friend, Shay and Roddy.  I’ve lost count but it’s around 33 or 34 years for them. We will try and call them later today. 

We had a fun chat with ShayRod who celebrated yesterday. They’re hosting 7 for Thanksgiving this week. It’s so nice to catch up with them. 

I bowled well the first game … pretty good the second and totally fell apart on the third game. I just don’t have the stamina … gotta work on that. 141 - 113 - 85!!! 🥲

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Good morning. It’s a rather overcast and somewhat drizzly day. The cold front gave everyone else north of us snow, has arrived. it’s downright gloomy looking outside. 

Nancy Mark and I are going bowling this morning. He is going to video Nancy and I and see where we might improve. We are really enjoying our Monday bowling with the league and have become a little more competitive. Ha ha. I knew that would happen.  

Last night my special order ribbon arrived so later today I can finish decorating the third Christmas tree. it’s small, just 4 1/2 feet tall. It will stand on a table when it’s done. The decor is blue and gold … Go Blue Bombers! Todayis the Grey Cup being held in Regina Saskatchewan. 

Well bowling was fun! One side of us was an adult birthday party … a group from Royal Harbor. They were fun. After they finished another adult birthday party group came in. They also were fun! We all sucked the 1st game … did way better after a jug of beer. 😂🎳

Ready for our walk dad! (Too chilly for me.) 😂

Mark lit the fire and we watched Yellowstone and a renovation show In with the Old about Detroit, Michigan. Cool old homes!

Cozy evening! 

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Good morning. I see by the blink cameras Mark was up at 3 o’clock in the morning. He must have big buck brain. His buddy Wayne has been sending him pictures from the forest. There has been a big deer prancing, really prancing, in front of Mark’s stand. Yeah Mark is supposed to be resting up as he has had an intestinal virus since Monday. But, you can see doctors orders fell flat. 

Meanwhile, I am putting lights on a new, much smaller, Christmas tree. Our huge Martha Stewart one is gorgeous, but now too big for the two of us to wrestle out of the Christmas closet and into the living room. It takes Mark crawling along the floor pulling the base while I lean it back and push. 😂 It’s really hard to part with it though, I’ve had it since 2000! 

With Mark under the weather, we haven’t done much this week. Thursday night we had a quick dinner at the Olive Garden. 

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Good morning. I haven’t written for a couple of days, but it has been rather busy around here. Mark has been down with a case of, as mom used to call it, the trots. He must’ve made a miraculous recovery since last night, as he is off hunting this morning. 🙄

Our neighborhood is having a garage sale. I wasn’t going to personally do one, but Kim had a few things to put out. So I am taking a golf cart load down to Kim’s and we’ll set up with her for 8 o’clock. Sue is going to pop by with a few more things, so I imagine we will have a right good garage sale.  If nothing else, we will have some good laughs.

Yesterday we took a trip to Lowe’s between bathroom runs for Mark, and I picked up a couple of nice poinsettia and chrysanthemum planters for out front. With the big tree down, the yard is wide open.

My dear sycamore tree … In fairness to the tree, we’ve treated it both through the ground and with Spraying. We were unable to control the scale disease

Interesting to see the hole in the middle of the tree. What the heck was that all about. Anyway, I feel safer with the tree gone during wind storms.  

Sue arrived with a trunk load of sale items. Kim, a minimalist, is looking on in horror. 😂 We sold a few items and the rest we packed up for donations. 

Tonight, we went to the Olive Garden for a good dinner. We really enjoy their salads, and they make a really good chicken Parmesan. Mark had gnocchi soup, two bowls. It’s a little bit chilly tonight, I’m going down into the 40s by morning. Brrrrr 

Tuesday November 15, 2022

Good evening y’all. We’re waiting for the moon launch from the Cape. Meanwhile, 

The wild haired tree is our Sycamore. For 4 years we tried fixing it’s ailments. Hundreds of $ later, it’s time.  

There was something going on!

Heartbreaking in a way. 

Gone. 

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Good morning. Mark is off grocery shopping while I tidy the house! A Bark Box arrived … will let the kids have at it this afternoon! Our Robbie and BeeZee are so easy … a simple no stops any unwanted behavior in its tracks. But, apparently that isn’t just a Scottie thing … read on. 😈 🐾😂

From a Facebook Scottie owner …

I 

So this afternoon Mark took Robbie and Belize for a golf cart ride and then after dinner, we sat on the front porch while Mark had a cigar. It was a nice evening, in the 60s. 

BTW this is our newest neighbor …

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Good morning. I hope it’s a bright beautiful sunshiny day in your area, because it sure isn’t here. I woke up to an overnight rain and everything wet and foggy with a cold front. It is 64°F this morning. Mark, Wayne and Bob are all off in the Ocalla forest for the first day of gun season. They are going to be very very wet. 🥶 I can hear Rick M laughing. Yes, when you live in Florida and it’s in the 60s and damp it feels cold. Never mind, by noon it’ll be 84° and partly sunny. 😂

The sunshine state took a heavy blow from hurricane Nicole. It was only a category one when it landed in Vero Beach on Thursday morning. However, as the winds at 70 miles an hour pummeled the coast all the way up to Saint Augustine, into Georgia and the Carolinas, it created huge beach erosion.  things have been weakened by hurricane Ian which had hit the west coast of Florida five weeks previously. Nicole was 700 miles wide, and the Florida peninsula at 120 miles wide was no match. several condos on Daytona Shores are untenable at this time and likely to be condemned. 

At our home, 60 miles inland, we had enough wind to make a mess of the yard with leaves and Spanish moss. Mark took the trailer to Nancy’s yesterday and helped her clean up her lakefront yard. She had quite a few branches down from these cypress trees and a trailer load of Spanish moss. It was nice to get it cleaned up as her next-door neighbors got married yesterday and had a backyard wedding. 

Sue is having a garage sale today, along with a dozen of her neighbors. I am picking up Kim and we are going to poke around and see what’s for sale. No, we don’t need anything, but you know how that works. 😂 

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Good morning. We are having tropical storm winds and blowing rain this morning from hurricane Nicole which came in to Port St. Lucie at 3 AM. Unfortunately, it has been in the Atlantic sitting in place for such a long time that the waves have been pounding the east coast line. Beach erosion is bad. Oh well, it’s mother nature‘s handiwork. 

Yesterday, we took Robbie and Belize was along for the ride, for Robbie’s ultrasound appointment at the University of Florida in Gainesville. This is the third year of doing ultrasound to check on his liver. His AL P liver enzymes have been through the roof since 2016. A couple of months ago we discovered Dr. Ruth Roberts crockpot diet and began following it. His numbers came down from 3500 to 2688, a vast improvement but still about 2100 over what they should be. Anyway, his ultrasound showed no significant change to the liver, and they are just watching a 2 mm spot which we will recheck in one year. Robbie will be 12 on December 16, so we are very happy with this news. 

The information that we got from our personal consultation with Dr. Roberts on Tuesday will further help us tweak his diet with Chinese medicines to clear the gunk out of his gallbladder. This will apparently help his liver to heal. In addition, we were able to stop two medications that he has been on for a long time. More good news.  🐾🥰 

So today, while the wind and rain swirls around I am catching up on laundry and Mark is cooking a batch of pork and vegetables for the kids. The first time we cooked up a batch it seemed overwhelming, but you get into a routine and it’s quite easy. now we just need the power to stay on for eight hours while it cooks. Ha ha.

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Good afternoon. Today is the midterm elections in our country. There won’t be results tonight, too many mail in votes that need to be counted afterward. 

Yesterday was my big bowling day with the league. Nancy and I had fun, and bowled fairly well. I had a 142 for my first game and went down after that. Ha ha. Hey, but one really good game makes you feel fantastic. Nancy couldn’t get anything going with her bowling until she had had two beer. Now we’re laughing that she needs to have a beer before I pick her up to go! 🍻 

I got home (yesterday) about 3:30, and tidied up for our night out at Applebee’s. Well, we are certainly changing our time for going there. We met at 5:30 and the place was absolutely packed. We got one of two high top tables. People kept pouring in the front door and the poor waitresses were runoff their feet. We were patient, and out of there by 7:30. It was a fun evening. LaDonna and Wayno met us and we had picked up KimBob. It’s always a fun time. 

This morning, with the advent of Hurricane Nicole bearing down on Florida, we canceled our RV trip to Sarasota. We may not get a direct dousing in our area, but who wants to be on the road hauling the RV on Thursday as the storm arrives. It’s a real shame as this is the annual rally which we always enjoy so much.

We were a bit bummed out so decided to go bowling this afternoon and drink a couple of beer. Mark had his best game in a long long time at 180 … OMG, he was doing great.  The next two games fell apart, but that’s how we roll. 

Sue has been helping Diane and Kris unpack and picked up some more items for me to put on eBay to benefit Shih Tsu rescue. That’s fantastic, I will have to get over there and pick up the stuff in the next few days.

This morning we had our consultation with Dr. Ruth Robertson, of the crockpet diet fame. Oh my goodness, it was absolutely worth every penny for her to go over the bloodwork of the dogs and give us advice on supplements, tests and things that we have been doing that we can now stop.

We fueled up on the way home as tomorrow we are taking Robbie for his annual liver ultrasound at the University of Florida Small animal Hospital in Gainesville. It’s nearly 2 hours drive for us, but well worth it as they have done this test for the past two or three years. Sticking to the same place makes sense to me.

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Good afternoon. It’s been a couple of days of Christmas decorating around here. It had to be done earlier than usual for my December 1st Yaya‘s party! 

This afternoon we took the dogs for a nice boat ride down Haines Creek. As we were leaving our canal we saw Kim and Bob just getting home from fishing. They grabbed a drink and came along with us for the ride. 

There was a college fishing tournament on today and we saw a lot of boat traffic. 

Glorious day! Robbie likes Kim! 

Lake Eustis … choppy today! 

Our pretty canal … the doggies enjoyed it all. 

Sue spent four hours helping Diane with unpacking today. She hired some help yesterday that got some of the larger items moved. Apparently the kitchen still needs to be packed and a lot of the pictures are still on the wall. Bit by bit they are getting there. We wonder if they even know the time changed, as they do not have a TV nor internet working yet. 😂

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Good afternoon. Well, Tuesday was Sue’s birthday and apparently I forgot to post it. So, happy birthday Sue! She and Wayne were in South Florida for a few days! 

Mark and I helped Diane and Kris by moving a few bulky boxes and dressers for them. They guys were able to move the three curio cabinets without any damage! That’s quite a miracle in itself, as the backing is mirrors. It was a slow process; everything had to be done very carefully. Anyway, we did what we could and they have plenty more to move. I suggested they get some young help! 

Mark and Kris with one of the three cutio pieces.  

The house is quite lovely, and will be beautiful when they get it organized and decorated. I sure hope it’s in time for them hosting Thanksgiving. Ha ha ha. 

Yesterday, Mark went to the shooting range with Wayno to get his new rifle sighted in. I had tons of paperwork to do as well as doing a deep cleaning in the living room. When Mark got home, he help me haul the two big Christmas trees out of the closet. They are at least standing where they can be fluffed and decorated over the next few days.  I am hosting Christmas Yaya‘s on December 1 this year so better get a move on with my decorating!!!

It seems the home repair list is never ending! Now the water softener is freaking out!!! Ca-ching. 😅

This afternoon we went to the bowling alley. When we got there, they were upgrading their computer system and let us pull for free. There was no scorekeeping so we had to resort to the old pencil and paper style. We ordered lunch there so we weren’t just free loaders.  😂 

This evening is Yaya‘s at Nancy Strama’s lake house. The fun never ends in this ‘hood. 🥳