Sunday, November 15, 2020

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 15, 2020

Hey y’all ... it’s mid-November already! There’s just 46 days til we’re out of 2020! πŸ₯³ I’m optimistic 2021 will be a year of healing in so many ways. 🀞 


πŸ‘πŸ»❤️✅

Certainly the alcohol sales have boomed in 2020 ...



🀣 

So, Mark brought the barge back home after working at the canal mouth removing two downed trees on Friday. He mostly took it easy after having gone hunting this morning. Wayno saw two doe, Bob and Mark, saw nothing but squirrels. They all enjoy getting out in the woods! It’s good exercise too. 

Me? I took the Scotties for a long ride on The Caddy then tidied up the house after yesterday’s dinner party fun! The L’s sure enjoyed themselves! They are a great couple! Tonight Mark and I finished off the Bubble Bread for dinner along with a Caesar salad. 

Well, we sat on the front porch and drank a glass of wine and watched the rocket launch. Well of course we can’t see the initial launch ... 



 until it’s a couple of minutes into lift off and then we see it.
Despite the clouds, there it is! 

Our Christmas lights are happily twinkling ✨ ... the only on es! “Party of One!” πŸ€£πŸŽ„ 





Saturday, November 14, 2020

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Good afternoon sunshine! Mark was up and out early for first day of deer season. Bob and Wayno went him plus they met Benn there. Lots of deer roaming around. There was heavy dew dripping from the trees that kept the guys on their toes! No napping in the woods today. They had a great time and were back home by 11:30. 

Me? It was housekeeping morning plus I started reading an interesting book by James Rollins, The Devil Colony.  It was tough to get into but I’m hooked now. 



Tonight we are cooking dinner for LaDonna and Wayne. I am making bubble bread, and Mark is doing his delish stuffed chicken breasts with a side of mushrooms. For those of you who don’t know, bubble bread is world-famous and only to be found at the Bubble Room on Captiva Island in Florida. It is a truly unique place, full of memorabilia and good food. When Wayne and LaDonna went there earlier this year, they could only make it for lunch and the bread is not served at lunchtime, only dinner time. So, I am making some for them. 

Well, it’s now after 10 o’clock and we had a fun time with Wayne and LaDonna. Dinner turned out great, my bubble bread was exceptional, Mark nailed it on the stuffed chicken and the mushrooms were awesome. LaDonna brought a Boston cream pie for dessert. We had so much fun, lots of laughs. We are so lucky to have friends to enjoy.

That’s it for tonight. Tata.

Friday, November 13, 2020

Friday, November 13, 2020

Good afternoon. Well, as if 2020 isn’t crazy enough, today is Friday the 13th. πŸ€ͺ

Yesterday, two trees fell at the entrance to our canal system. Today, Mark and Bob took the work barge and cut up the trees and hold them off to the side of the canal so at least boat traffic can get through. 

They don’t look very large here, but they were about 18 inches in diameter and, crisscrossed. The neighbors are happy with Mark and Bob. There will be a new hiding spot  for the big bass. 

Our air conditioner man was here again today and put more Freon in just to get us through till next week. We are on the docket for a new system. We don’t have prices yet but Rory promised he would work up a couple of options for us tomorrow. Yes, there are other companies around, and we have had experience with some of them. We will wait and see what Rory suggests. Anytime we can deal with a mom and pop company, we do.

Today I took a drawing lesson, three hours long, with a lady from Denmark. I had to giggle a few times to myself at her accent on the wrong part of the word. It made me look up at the screen a few times to see what she was saying. A “bro” is a brow. I was looking for da bro! πŸ˜‚ 

Here’s my bro! Robbie jumped up to help! Fortunately I had just tidied up! πŸ˜‚

Today’s drawing lesson with Ms Anderson from Denmark. 

Well ... 30th named storm ... Iota!!! WTF?  It’s NOT headed our way but ... we feel the anxiety it causes elsewhere. So much has happened since new year’s eve and welcoming in 2020. We will be pleased to usher 2020 out!!! 


Wayno dropped over to fish ... and the Scotties loved it!!! (Mark and I are boring! They like him!) Granddaughter Henley wrote a not to me ... so sweet ... 

Yes, I’m aka Mermaid 🧜‍♀️. Hahaha. Henley will be 4 in a few weeks. 

Tonight Mark put a pizza on the Pizzazz for dinner ... we use this appliance often! Earlier in the week we did garlic rolls on it. πŸ˜‹  That was our evening. Sweet. 













Thursday, November 12, 2020

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Good early morning. It’s 3:45 and I got up to check the progress of the storm. At this point, there isn’t much going on, no wind, just a light rain. It looks as if by 9 o’clock this morning it will be all passed us. We shall see. 

On the storm front, we had rain, winds enough to pull down some Spanish moss from the trees and not much else. It’s a bright, beautiful 74F afternoon now. Happy hour on the front porch in 20 minutes. 

This morning, because our family doctor’s office goofed, Mark had to go for bloodwork.  I tagged along and we went onto Walmart. There, I found an affordable HP Laptop perfect for my online art course! It’s been 13 years since I’ve used a laptop so the learning curve was about 3 hours. My wireless printer is working with it, just have to figure out how to print actual documents and not pdf from Word. 🀷‍♀️

Jim G called to check in after our stormy night. It was snowing at the lake and sounded relaxing to me. (Great stuff unless you have to go outside!) πŸ˜‚ We caught up on some news and had a good chat. 😍 

Mark finished removing and cutting up the old boathouse pillars. He used them as filler along the seawall. (Great idea!) They will be covered with dirt and grass anyway, soon. 

Here’s the Christmas decor now finished ...


Secret Santa ...



Trusty reindeer ... 



And frosted garland on the mantel. (It’s still too warm to open the fireplace, but soon.) πŸ˜‰

863,519 COVID19 cases currently in Florida! Guess we’re not going anywhere soon. 


🀨



Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

Good morning! We were up and off to our doctor’s office for 10:30 ... and surprise! ... it was supposed to be a video visit. 🀷‍♀️ Our doctors office has made a lot of paper mistakes lately. First, they didn’t send marks bloodwork request over to the lab. So, he has to go back tomorrow and get the blood work done and have a follow up appointment in one month. We really need to make a change!  Our medications were renewed and reordered. Well, that was good. All my bloodwork was stable ... good BP 124/70 and pulse of 59. 




Back at home, I painted, finishing 2 paintings Santa and a decorated Reindeer. Pictures tomorrow once they’re hung by the fireplace. Really! THAT will be the last of my decorating. πŸ€ͺ 





LEST WE FORGET ... 11th hour, 11th day




As school children, In Flander’s Fields was drilled into our hearts, recited, written and performed. Indeed. Lest we Forget. 😒

Tropical storm Eta is supposed to visit our Central Florida region tonight. We still have had no rain and it is going on 7 o’clock. The Tampa Bay area is getting hit with it now and perhaps by midnight we should get some rain and wind. Guess we should put the Tiki umbrella down. 


Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Good afternoon sunshine! It’s a bright, beautiful one here in Central Florida. The crazy tropical storm went south to Cuba. 🀷‍♀️

It’s Matt’s 33nd birthday! He started a job working for Publix doing multiple store maintenance November 1st. ⭐️  Good luck πŸ€ Matt! Publix is a great place to work! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT πŸ₯‚πŸΎπŸ’‹πŸ˜

Today, Mark worked on the boathouse tying down the roof with new hardware, and I worked on painting a reindeer with Christmas lights. Ha ha. Tonight, we were invited to Randy and Dawn‘s for steak dinner. We had a fun time and saw the kids arrive, everyone wearing a mask, for an overnight stay. We had not seen them in months. Charlotte is so charming now! 😍

Randy and Dawn had the front of the house done with slate rock and after a week of looking at it, re-painted the house. It looks fantastic ... called ink jet blue. (Lousy pic!) 🀨

The stonework looks great. We love it!!!

BeeZee and Robbie mooched salad! 🐾😍

We had a fun time, sat outside at the bar while Mark smoked a cigar and we drank wine. It was a nice break from everyday life in these Covid times. 

Well ... I was staying away from politics, but this story was just too strange to pass on! Ya can’t make this shit up. 































Ta ta for tonight. πŸ₯°



Monday, November 9, 2020

Monday, November 9, 2020

Good afternoon. Well, we had a busy morning here. Since our air conditioner is out I had to make a few calls to our Budget man Rory. Then I went with Mark on his shopping run. Dollar General sells the anchor hocking rectangular shaped storage dishes that fit our refrigerator very well. So we stopped in there and bought three more. Next, we were off to Lowe’s for parts for the boat house tiedowns. Originally, it was tied down to the pillars that we assumed were anchored. Ha ha Ha, you know what they say about assume, makes an ‘ass out of you and me.’  πŸ˜‚ While we were there I was able to pick up a very pretty 18’ garland for around the front door. And, I just happened to have the right length of white lights to put on it. So now, the living room is covered in silk needles and needs a thorough vacuuming. 😬Never mind, it’s the perfect day to do it as I have to be home for the AC man anyway and it’s pouring rain outside. I put the Christmas music on and it’s a jolly fun time. πŸŽ„ 

Not to continue to harp on things, but the goofballs who attended Trump’s rallies and now his White House get together on election night, are coming down with COVID-19 and 1000 cases traceable to the rallies have already died. It’s real people! Put your damn mask on and social distance!!!





Meanwhile, Sue sent me a text about a veteran living in a hotel in Leesburg with a 15-year-old Shih Tzu dog that had been his mothers. His mother had recently passed away and he was trying to look after Sassy. He is disabled and was unable to care for the dog nor afford it. He apparently has a service dog. Long story short, Randy and Dawn are picking up the dog and driving to meet Wayne along the highway. The poor old dog he is going to the Shih Tzu rescue shelter. So sad, very very sad. 
Sassy needs some TLC and a soft place to land after losing her human. 


Back to our USA jubilation ...

A kind Biden supporter from The Villages posted this on FB ...  I know that there are over 70 million people who wanted  our current president to retain the office.   I know many of them are decent people and are hurting right now.  I’d like to reach out to them.  But I am afraid to open myself up to them, even for their comfort.  Why?  I am a pretty open person andI am also compassionate.  However, the last  3 1/2 years have brought forth such an anger and vitriol, that I have lived in an increasingly fearful state of mind.  I have wondered what happened to the America where people were encouraged to make the most of themselves, no matter what race or creed.  I have wondered where the Christian values were that tell us to help the stranger, the less fortunate, feed the hungry, offer  comfort to those in need.  I have wondered  how we have let the color of skin become the deciding factor of  who is deserving of life and the pursuit of happiness.  I don’t understand why anyone would hate someone because they are of a different skin tone, a different nationality, or they may love someone of their own gender.  To me, we have all been given the gift of this life, no matter where we are in the range of skin tone, gender, faith.  God made us all, no matter how we practice faith.                                                                                                     A person I grew up with posted on her  FB page that she was frightened now. What frightens me is that more than half the country seems to think like the current president.  Hate, revenge, deceit, fear  are qualities they are applying to me, to Democrats, to this compassionate strong person whom I’ve voted for. How can we look at the same person and see such a different view?  For the first time I my life in the past 3 1/2 years, I feared we would lose our Democracy. I feared  for my family and for our way of life.  It’s amazing how we have such a separate view of life.
I hope we can heal.  I am praying we can.  I prayed for this President. I will pray for The President-elect.    
 I will participate more in this Democracy.  I will stand more strongly for my country.  I will continue to be kind and compassionate.  I will work on my growth, too.     I will work on being the change I want to see in others.  And I hope that we can come together as a country, as Americans, not like we were, but as a new, stronger, more enlightened nation.

WELL I beg to differ and replied....
In 2016, maybe some people just didn’t know Trump is a crook and a con man and what he was truly capable of  ruining. The Republicans had a chance to reign him in two years ago with impeachment, but they let him slide. Now it’s on them. And to the folks who voted for Trump a second time, shame on you. Trump won’t concede because he knows there are lawsuits waiting. Bring it on. No one is above the law. Trump makes Nixon look like a choirboy. 

Finished! My Christmas decorating! 


Cheery mantel ... it’s still too warm to open the fireplace! Another 10 days and it’ll be cooler.