Friday, June 11, 2021

Good afternoon. We were up and out by 10 o’clock to drive around Sarasota, St. Armands Key, Lido Key and Longboat. It was a beautiful drive, Wayne and LaDonna came with us plus we brought Robbie and BeeZee It would’ve been too long away from the RV to leave them alone on a hot summer day.

No puppers allowed, but a nice park for fishing. 

LaDonna sat in the truck with the dogs while we ran into Publix for a couple of lunch items. Apparently we were missed.  🐾💕

This afternoon will take the kids for a golf cart ride and then at 5 o’clock I go for drinks and hors d’oeuvres with the group at the camp out.

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Good morning. It’s 1122 and we are sitting at a rest area just outside of Sarasota Florida. We cannot arrive at sun and fun resort until noon or there is a $25 charge. So, we are burning fuel and sitting in the cab passing a few minutes. The traffic has been light, and good roads. When we left home it was 83° and sunny … it’s now 87° and cloudy. Wayne and LaDonna are about half an hour behind us. 

Sun ‘n Fun is a great resort. The L’s have rented a golf cart for getting around as it’s huge! Most VIPers arrive Friday as many still work. We’ll go exploring as it cools down a bit. Fortunately, there is still low humidity.

Tonight we are doing pizza at our rig, tomorrow night Giant puts on a load of appetizers and drinks … then Saturday night a dinner … Sunday is coffee and pastries for breakfast (which I will avoid.) Blah. 

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Good afternoon. Today is ‘load the RV’ for our five nights in Sarasota. It’s a Giant Recreation World VIP camp out, the first we have been to in 16 months. We are looking forward to it. At home here it is 90° according to the weather station and 87 according to ours. However, it’s hot and it is buggy as we have an outbreak of blind mosquitoes. I phoned the county this morning and we are on the list to be sprayed. They’ve been pretty good about it, but with the recent rain the darn things hatch again. No, they don’t bite but they are annoying! 

eBay sales slowed down yesterday and today, so far. The packages have all gone in the mail and we are going to have a few days away from it. Of course I will be taking my paints with me as I know LaDonna will. 🎨 I sold a few more paintings on eBay, so that helps with the motivation.

Diane sent me a link to our old old family home in the West End of Winnipeg which is now on the market for 299,000. I am guessing that it is not a great area now with that particular price tag. However, it looks darn nice in the pictures for a 1916 home. Diane remembers living there until the last quarter of grade 3. It must’ve been a traumatic move for her and for Linda who would’ve been a teenager at that time.

508 Sherburn Street … the Andruskos lived next door; Ronnie and Linda? 

I loved the smell of the veranda screens in summer!

The wall to your left held a coat tree and a grandfather clock that ticked loudly and chimed. I can’t see the old newell post and stair curve at the bottom. 🤨 Modernization occured. 

It was grass out back in our family’s time. 

I remember the picture that hung on the wall by the kitchen door … and the livingroom looks familiar. But where’s the fireplace? 

It was in this living room I was zapped by the old Electrolux vacuum at age 6 months. ⚡️ It was an oldie with a female plug into the actual vacuum. I was crawling a bit, grabbed the cord after it pulled out of the vacuum and put it in my mouth!!! Older sister Linda recalled my hair standing on end! A few years later I was sent to elocution lessons at Mrs. Dill’s house on Hazeldell. I thought mum said “electrocution “ and started hollering. 🤪



I remember the dining room as small so we must have had the huge dining set we took to Kildonan Drive on move to the river. 

Only the kitchen layout is familar. I want MULK! 😂

The claw foot tub is long gone. Diane hollered for mom to get out of the tub after I pooped in it. Heeheehee … I was a baby. 🤷‍♀️ 

Mom n Dad’s room

Grandpa Tawns had the top floor 

I remember looking down to the street when the black limousine took us to grandpa’s funeral from that window dormer. I was 3 when we moved away. 

Wasn’t that fun walking down memory lane with a 3 year old’s perspective. 

That’s it while we load the RV 

Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Good evening. Yes, I’ve been slacking. Jim G emailed me to check why there was no blog yesterday. Actually, it’s been very busy around here with eBay sales. Anyway, yesterday we did manage a two hour boat ride with the dogs around Lake Eustis.

Robs and me … it was beautiful, cloudy with a good breeze. Later in the day it got into the high 80’s. 

Mz BeeZee had a seat to herself. 

Between all the eBay wrapping and shipping, Mark has been trimming the queen palm trees for hurricane season. Last week he did the IV in the front yard and this week four in the backyard. Two of the trees have gotten absolutely huge; the ones we started from seed at our home in Boca Raton 20 years ago. 

As you can see from his gesture, it’s not Mark’s favorite job. 😂

No complaints here on our weather but OMG the weather map for the US is very active. California has the summertime fire risks.

Yikes, eh? Sue has let us know that there have been fires up around the lake area and that it has been pretty hot and dry. Of course they are still in quarantine but able to sit on the dock on their own property tonight.

Shorty Hotpants and Cheeky Monkey are lucky pups! The weather looks great. 

This afternoon while Mark was at the post office, UPS returning an item and fueling up I was at game day with a dozen of the local girls. It was a fun afternoon at Trina’s … Pat, Sharon, Patricia, Anita and I played Phase 10, a card game like Crazy Rummy. It was a few hands before we got everyone onto the rules again. Cheri opened champagne and we toasted being able to get together again! Fun times. 

So that’s it for today. At the moment it’s still 90° and we are waiting for it to cool down before going for a walk with the kids. (It was beautiful for our walk.) 

Sunday, June 6, 2021

Good morning. We’re up and getting ready to take Mrs. R. B. cruising to the state theater. Lani, Markymark, Kim and Bob are coming with us. There is an open house at 2 to 4 at the theater with refreshments to follow. We are going to take leave and go for dinner before cruising back home. It’s going to be 90 … we know to dress cool.

Speaking of cool, here is cousin Miles Tawns dancing at the RAD Festival of Dance in Perth Australia. 

Miles & Ella

Melanie and Alastair have certainly raised an artistic family! 

The event at the state theater was very nice. There were hors d’oeuvres and champagne for all. At 2:30 a presentation was held revealing the plays for this year. Raffles tickets were drawn … Markymark and Lani won tickets to the play Mamma Mia. Afterwords we went to Mexico Del Sol for delicious Fajitas. It was a fun afternoon with lots of laughs. Back home, we got the dogs fed and worked on eBay packages. 👍🏻

Friday, June 4, 2021

Good afternoon y’all. It’s been a couple of fun days around here! I painted awhile yesterday ... then golf cart rides with the kids ... then we met the L’s at Crazy Gator for dinner. They came over to see the kids and a PARTAY happened. 🥳

Clean up time about 11:30ish. 

The B’s walked over about 9 o’clock and shared some fun stories. 

So a  few days ago Markymark walked into his side yard and heard a thud by his feet! It scared the crap out of him. 😂  A squirrel had fallen out of a palm tree! Before he could really react the squirrel had recovered and scooted up the palm tree again. He went in the house and told Lani it had scared him to death. The very next day MM was out in the yard when he got hit on the head, Yep you guessed it, by the same darn squirrel. He said it nearly knocked him out. The squirrel ran up the tree again. He wobbled into the house to tell Lani that he had been hit on the head and was a bit dizzy from the squirrel attack. Lani had a good laugh! WTF? An attack squirrel? The two walked went down to the boat at their other house where MM was bitten on the ankle ... but by what???  His ankle swelled and he had to hobble to the other house for an ice pack! We all had great laughs over his misery. He actually went home a little bit early because he had a buyer coming for Lani‘s dad‘s bass boat today. Yes, that’s the one that was old smoky in the pictures a few days ago. There will be stories!!! 😬

The boat buyer took the ol’ Ranger for a test ride on the lake and Mark he thought they were going to be swamped!!!  Anyway, the fella bought it so over to the boat ramp MM went, alone. The buyer drove the trailer to the boat ramp. That’s the end of the story on the Ranger boat until our next happy hour. 

Tonight we met Karen & Pete at Oakwood Smokehouse for ribs. We hadn’t seen them for about a month and had a lot of stories to catch up on. They are planning a trip to Canada next year with an RV group and then the following year a big trip out west. They are certainly enjoying their camping.

The son who married last November is going to make them grandparents! Nice. 

Sue and Wayne are on quarantine at the cottage but not alone. This morning they had a fox in their yard and then about breakfast time they had baby bear at one window and mama bear at the kitchen window. I asked Sue if she had taken any pictures, but she said she was too shocked to even think about it. Ha ha. I guess!!! It’s very HOT 🥵 up north right now ... at Emerson it was 104. WTH? 

Wednesday, June 2, 2021

Good afternoon. Mark and Bob went to the woods early this morning just set up some cameras to check on the wildlife. It was a nice morning in the 60s but they were home about 11 o’clock before it got too warm. We still have low humidity and our temperature staying in the 80s. Not too shabby for June 2.

eBay sales have been relatively brisk and keeping us motivated. Mark wrapped up some packages while I worked on the listings today. Soon we will have to pony up to Markymark and to Lynn has quite a few of their things have sold.

This afternoon we went bowling, Wednesday is dollar day. So we bowled two games and had some boneless wings and a couple of beer, making our contribution towards the bowling alley. Mark‘s first game wasn’t his best but he picked it up for the second his scores were 148 and 188. I had fairly good games considering it’s me. Ha ha. My first one was 126 and my second one was 131 I think maybe it was way more than that but that’s what I think.. 😂 It’s  503 and we are on the way home to feed the dogs. Robbie will be quite annoyed as he likes to eat at 5o’clock on the dot. 

Mid Century Modern hand mixer ... blah blah blah ... I worked 8 hours tweaking listings today.