Sharon's Blog

Yesterday the weather was very nice with a high about 74. I had arrived at the pool before 10:30 to get a lounge chair in my favorite area. By noon all of the prime seats were occupied. We stayed until about 4:00. The breeze was a little chilly in the late afternoon, but it was a good day!

I want to spend the day the same way today which means that I won’t be going to church. I wouldn’t get home until about 12:15 and there’s no way I could find a lounger that late.

The way I look at is that God made this beautiful day for me to enjoy. I’ll thank him by acknowledging his wonderful creation.

John’s already playing pickleball (it’s 9:30), but he’ll join me at the pool.

I’m going to go get ready now. It’s a tad cool (60 degrees) but by within an hour I’m sure it’ll be comfortable in the sun.

This afternoon there’ll be a chili cook-off at the clubhouse. I plan to walk back and forth so I’ll get some exercise.

I was just thinking of the special friend performed the service when John and I were married. His name was Richard (Dick) McCool. What a wonderful, inspirational man!! He’d broken his neck as a teenager and as a result was a quadriplegic.

After his accident, he continued his education, and eventually became a minister. At St. Mary’s Medical Center (where I also worked), he was a protestant chaplain and it was a role he filled perfectly. I got to know Dick when I was facing major brain surgery in 1981. He was totally supportive and always had time to talk though my fears.

I watched him struggle with his disability, but he never felt sorry for himself. He always used his own situation to show that life could continue to be great, no matter what difficulties you face.

John and I enjoyed a special friendship with him. When we wanted to get married in 1985, we asked him to perform the service. (He always said we were one of his “few” true successes.) Our wedding was even more special with him officiating over our ceremony. (We had to plan the wedding around his limitations. We couldn’t have the outdoor ceremony in our backyard as we’d planned because we had to make sure he could make it with his motorized wheelchair but I was worth it for him to officiate.

Here’s an example of Dick’s philosophy: He tried to be totally independent. He used a van with a lift to drive himself back and forth to work. One cold winter evening, when I was leaving work (well after dark), I found him in the hospital parking lot on his back. His chair had somehow rolled backward as it was lifting him into his van and it had tipped him backward. He was a good sized guy and there was no way I could get him up-right. He was laying on his back so I shoved my purse under his head to keep it from laying on the cold cement as I hurried to get help. His comment to me, as I ran off to summon security was, “Don’t hurry. I don’t get to see things from this perspective often.”

People like Dick McCool deserve to be remembered. So I ask you to remember this remarkable man. He died in 1997 at the age of 59.

We’re been busy lately.. busy but having fun.

We’ve spent time at the pool, gone dancing numerous times, John’s exercised or played pickleball every day, I’ve walked lots.

Unfortunately the pool time is not as attractive now because we’re in a cool spell. For the next few days, we’ll miss out on those outdoor activities. (50′s tomorrow.)

A couple from Michigan, Cindy and Mike Baker, arrived here a couple days after Christmas. We’ve had fun introducing them, and “trying to keep up with them.” Cindy is really active.

Tomorrow (Saturday) Cindy and Mike are leaving from Tampa on a five-day cruise. A big bunch of our friends, the Brooks and Coopers, Bill and Donna and others are also sailing out on a seven-day cruise, leaving Sunday. It’ll be empty around here for a week. We’ll miss them!! But maybe I can catch up on some of my chores: laundry, cleaning, organizing, paying bills, etc.

My vision has been pretty bad for years. I wore corrective lenses (bifocal contacts), but even with them, I missed some things.

Now, after having my cataracts removed and Crystalens interocular lenses implanted, my vision has improved considerably.

I can see at a distance better than I have since I was a child. (My close-up vision still has a way to go, but it’s also improving.) And I’m discovering something I didn’t realize. There are STARS in the sky. I knew they existed because when I was young I could see them, but I thought that, because of pollution and light infringement, stars were no longer visible. I couldn’t see them, and I assumed no one else could either.

But now I see stars. Millions of beautiful white heavenly stars.

I’m in awe.

We talked with several friends over this New Years weekend. One universal feeling is that we are “living the good life.” We worked hard when we were “employed” but now as retirees, we are enjoy a life-style that we never dreamed would be so comfortable.

John and I are typical of our friends. We are relatively health, have lovely residences, vehicles and toys, and we are debt-free. Life is good!

I realize a lot of younger folks are currently struggling. It’s our hope that the economy will improve and when their generation reaches our age, they will be rewarded.

Here are lots of photos I’ve taken since we arrived in Florida, October 2011. Several appear to be duplicates, but I often take multiple images of the same view to see if a subtle difference will improve the shot. (I’ll keep adding photos through April 2012 and you’ll be able to access them from the rightmost menu here on Sharons-blog.com.)

If you’d like to stop the slideshow, click picture, and use the arrows to back up or scroll through the photos without the auto feature.

Most of the sunsets were taken right out my back door, although we did go to Little Harbor Marina and viewed a wonderful sunset across Tampa Bay.

On December 29th, we spent the day at Busch Gardens where we enjoyed the holiday shows. My photos include several of the animals at the Gardens.

Enjoy!!

According to the forecasts, today will be the last of our 80+ degree days for awhile. In fact, over the next 10 days, the prediction is that we’ll experience at least six days when it will be 55-65 degrees. That’s quite a change from what we’ve been enjoying.

We’re here at the South Club pool. It’s the day after Christmas. After hosting our Christmas Eve party, we feel that our place is presentable so we can relax today. We’ll be inviting other folks to come over the next week or two so we’ll need to do some additional spiffying but nothing major.

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The cool air moved in about 3:00 p.m. We left for home about 4:00.

Tonight we’re hosting a compatible bunch of friends for a Christmas Eve / Happy Chanukah gathering.

The invitation we extended said: “It’ll be an informal evening. We’ll whip up some hors d’oeuvres for your enjoyment, haul out some of John’s 2011 vintage homemade wine for a wine tasting plus soft drinks, and four of us will play about 30-minutes of fun holiday music.”

I planned a simple menu so it wouldn’t be a lot of work: sloppy joes on small buns, baked beans, fruit tray with dip, cheese spread with crackers, a relish tray with veggie dip, Koegel’s hotdogs in a red sauce, cranberry Jello sauce, Bacardi Rum Cake and a pumpkin pie. Several have asked what they can bring and I know we’ll have two salads and tray of cheese and sausage.

We have six bottles of wine chilling.

We’ll start with a little wine tasting and the cheeses, relishes, etc. Then we’ll serve the sloppy joes, beans, salads, and hotdogs. Desserts will be a little later while we’re playing a little holiday music.

The condo looks lovely. The decorations are simple (poinsetteas, a Christmas Tree, table decorations in both the living room and dining room, candles everywhere.)

We’ll have a video of a fireplace running on the TV and holiday music playing.

I still need to get dressed and make the sloppy joes. (Don’t want them to be ready too far in advance.)

Unfortunately the sun will have set when the party starts so no one will get to see the view and most of the crowd hasn’t been here before.

We wanted to include several other couples, but this bunch has been hanging out together so we figure we’ll invite other friends over between Christmas and New Years. One evening I think we’ll have six couples over, another night two couples, and probably others before we take the tree down. I’m sure we’ll have lots of food we’ll be able to serve again, and in fact, I’m setting some aside for those evenings.

So glad we’re finally going to “show-off” our place!!

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It was a pleasant evening. We had 16 guests. That included nine couples counting John and me. It was a nice way to celebrate the holiday. We ate a lot (had lots left). Fun conversations, and played a little music. Everyone left by 9:00. It took us about an hour to get the food put away and the place back in order.

Glad we opened our home. We’ll do it again very soon. This was one group we enjoy, but we also enjoy other circles of friends and neighbors. This was a large group that have been getting together with a lot this year, but we’d also enjoy inviting others to enjoy our hospitality. Old friends, new friends, we love ‘em all!!!

Tonight I did an on-line search and discovered a lot I didn’t know about John’s aunt and uncle (his mother’s sister), Robert and Jennie Mahoney. This year this remarkable couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.

Robert was the first blind man ever elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. Robert Mahoney stayed in the Michigan Legislature for eighteen years and is best known for introducing the bill that requires hunter safety classes for young people. To prove that anyone could buy a hunting license, the blind legislator went out and bought one himself. The bill passed the following year.

Together they raised 10 children, yet they are both totally blind.

In 1956 the Mahoneys established a mail-order business, Michigan Notary Service, which sold seals, bonds, rubber stamps, and other notary needs. Jennie Mahoney took care of the business, basically run out of the couple’s bathroom, while her husband served in Lansing. This very successful business is still on-going and is currently owned and run by one of their daughters.

In 2006, Jeannie wrote: “We have twenty-four grandchildren and three have earned their Ph.Ds and two have their Master’s Degrees. The rest are still pretty young, so we will have to wait to see what they will produce.”

What an inspirational couple!

Here in Sun City Center, FL, many folks travel everywhere by golfcart. We were on our golfcart when we headed out this afternoon to shop at Walmart. It took much longer to make our purchases than we’d planned and when we came out to get on our golfcart (four or five miles from our condo), we realized we only had about 10 minutes until the sun would set (and at this latitude, when it sets, it gets dark immediately).

Our golfcart is fully equipped with headlights, “So what’s the big deal?” you ask.

In Sun City Center, golf carts are not allowed on the streets after sunset (no exceptions) and if you’re caught there’s a ticket and sizable fine.

We live in Kings Point, which is a large, gated, separately-managed area, within the city limits of Sun City Center. It’s a totally separate community. In Kings Point, golf cart restrictions are much less restrictive. If you have headlights, they look the other way and let us drive on the streets within the gates after the sun has set, but as a protection to the residents, the Kings Point guards do chain lock the golf cart gate INTO the community at dark. We don’t know of anyone who has tried to come in after dark. We figure there’d be hell to pay.

We didn’t want to get caught outside the gates. (It happened to us several years ago, when we were visiting my mother’s nursing home for a holiday party and over-stayed. That time, we managed to circumvent the Kings Point guard by edging behind their post. Quietly we manage to drive half in a ditch through a narrow opening but it was a challenge. The gate area has just been revamped, so I’m sure that access point has been plugged.)

Tonight we weren’t the only ones dashing for the security of our Kings Point gated area. There were at least three other carts rushing down the golf cart path ahead of us as the sun was setting.

With our headlights on, we made it home! (But it was fun and reminded me of beating curfews when I was in high school.)

This year we limited the mailing of our cards to immediate family (just our siblings). Looks like others are also limiting what they send because, from friends, we are receiving primarily email greetings.

As we receive mailed cards, I’m surprised by who is sending those cards.

We have received cards from our newspaper delivery person, a favorite restaurant, our investment company, our insurance agent, our tile contractor, one of our dentists, my beautician, and a few other business services. I know the attempt is to thank us for our business, but I almost feel that we’re being spammed.

With both of my eyes now seeing at a distance, I’m doing very well. I’m finding that it’s frustrating not to be able to see close-up, but not so difficult that I can evoke a sympathetic response from friends. John is feeling a little “used” and he’s right. I’ve taken advantage of my “handicap” for as long as I can. Time to get busy and accomplish something… anything.

At night, before I go to sleep, I always resolve to get busy, but when morning comes, I’m back to feeling lazy.

At least now the Christmas performance is history. We played yesterday and it went very nicely. The audience was very receptive.

Next week (Christmas Eve), we’ll be hosting a party here. Between now and then I need to get the house prepped. There’ll be food to fix for about 20 guests.

But right now I need to get our Christmas cards mailed to our family. (I no longer send cards to friends, but instead try to do an email version which doesn’t require addressing and stamps.)

This a.m. I had the cataract on my left eye removed. Now both of my eyes can see beautifully.

After my eye heals, my vision will improve, but already I can see better that I can ever remember and I don’t need glasses or contacts!! (I got my first pair of glasses in second grade.) It’s a whole new world.

I’m slightly uncomfortable and exhausted, but I know tomorrow I’ll be better and it is certainly worth a little discomfort.

Already I can read all of the small print on television, and distant vistas are sharp and clear. My close-up vision isn’t working yet, but in a couple weeks, I can start eye exercises which will eventually allow me to focus on fine print.

I’m sure my friends are tired of my whining. Soon I won’t have anything to complain about. (I will have a couple weeks when my doctor will have me on physical restriction.)

I was forewarned, that when my vision improves, every dirt spot will become evident to me. Already I’m walking around with a damp cloth removing finger prints I didn’t know existed.

Today the weather had warmed up to about 80 so I spent the afternoon at the pool.

Looking at the long-range forecast, they’re saying that we may have a Christmas that is in the high 70′s. Wow!!

It seemed unseasonably hot today, but if it continues to the New Year, that would be grand. They’re already saying that maybe we’ve already experienced our “Florida winter.” I just hope there are no “heavy freezes” like we’ve experienced both last season and the year before. We lost so many pretty plants (a 7′ orange and and a similar sized rose-colored bougainvillea, a poinsettia, and a bird of paradise.) I hope this year our plantings will survive.

Today we awoke to chilly temperatures (the coolest this season). It’s about 43 and won’t get out of the mid-60′s. The wind is fierce. But it’ll be warming up tomorrow and into next week with nicer 70′s.

Monday I will have my left eye cataract surgery. I’m looking forward to having the interruption behind me. My right eye sees quite well, but it’s tough to optimize that improvement when the left eye is so blurry.

Folks have told me that I’ll spot every dust particle and finger print. Hope so because we’re planning a party on the 24th and right now I can’t see well enough to get the house party-ready.

We attended a nice holiday affair last weekend, and there are more to come.

Thank heavens this limbo waiting time will be resolved in nine days. I’ll have my left eye cataract removed and hopefully my vision will gradually improve. It won’t happen immediately, but I’m sure that when both eyes are “equal,” it’ll be a lot easier to enjoy the world around me. Right now my vision is very good with my right eye alone, but when I open my left eye, the blur distorts everything. It’s much more difficult that I’d thought. I can’t clean because I can’t see the dust well enough to eliminate it. TV viewing isn’t very much fun since I’m looking through one eye.

The muscle in my eye has been intentionally paralyzed so I can’t focus, allowing the eye muscle to heal around the Crystalens extensions. I was told that when reading or using the computer, I must use “reading glasses” which blur more than they help.

Also I can’t do anything which raises my heartbeat more than about 10 bpm.

I feel helpless because there seem to be so many things that don’t work as I wish they did. But, although it sounds like I’m whining, I have no reason to complain. I’m blessed that I only have to endure this for a few more weeks, and after the 12th, it’ll be easier. Yeah!!!!

Yesterday morning I had my right eye cataract removed. Today I found out that on the 12th (in less than two weeks), I’ll have the left one done.

I got back home yesterday and felt a little disoriented and uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Today I feel and can see better, but now I’m faced with one eye that can see and one that can’t. That situation is uncomfortable and makes me queasy but I’m sure that once I have the second eye done, I’ll be able to quickly adjust to good vision which is equal in both eyes.

As my right eye vision has cleared, I’m amazed at how bright the world is. I see “white” as much much brighter than white was before the surgery. And the color blue just pops!

I didn’t know what I was missing, but now when I look at the world from my right eye only (covering my left), everything in the “new view” seems to sparkle. The view from my left eye (covering my right) has a muddy yellow tinge, there is no pure white by comparison, and it’s of course less sharp.

The photos below show my impression of the way the view has changed. (The left is now. On the right before the surgery.)

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The right side is actually a little brighter than it should be to accurately depict my view, but the yellow cast and lack of definition is similar.

Today I kept pushing dust around. I polished the floor tiles on my hands and knees, and they are looking better. But the dust everywhere is discouraging. I tried collecting it but all I succeeded in doing was batting it into the air so it came down on things again. I have dusted some furniture pieces a dozen times and they still look neglected.

The new shower needs a curtain or glass door but so far we haven’t been successful finding anything we like. Finally we “borrowed” the clear liner from the other bathroom and it looks nicer than the colored curtains we tried.

Our very good friends Linda and Ron Ringenback stopped in and I was ashamed that everything was still so dirty but she seemed to understand and had some nice things to say about our place (first time she’d seen it). Hopefully the next time she’s here, it’ll be polished up and glowing with holiday decorations.

Hopefully within the next couple of days, I’ll feel that everything is back to “normal”. Right now most all the cleaning has been complete, but the dining room and the guest/music room still need my attention. I’ll work on that over the weekend.

Someone said that tiling is like moving. I think it’s much harder to cope with. When you move, it’s clean and new. With tile, it is disappointing because it seems so overwhelmingly dirty/dusty.

Yesterday we started the day serving a Thanksgiving dinner at our church. It was free to anyone who came. The crowd wasn’t huge, but it was rewarding. What food was left was put in carry out-containers and taken to the nearby disadvantaged community of Wimauma. I was in charge of dishing out the stuffing. (I developed a great two-handed two-spoon technique to serve the sticky stuffing to each individual in fairly equal portions.)

We were back home about 2:30. After resting for a couple hours, we went to Richard and Shelly Brooks’ for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

There were about eighteen of us. (I didn’t count.) Everyone brought a dish and Richard and Shelly did a great job on the turkey. It was a fun evening in their beautiful condo.

The conversations were interesting and lively. Stephen Cooper (ret’d Judge Cooper) has stories galore. We got to know these friends better and liked what we discovered about each person.

What a great day!

My right eye cataract surgery is scheduled for Monday the 28th.

I was provided with a whole packet of instructions including three prescriptions which must be administered from now until February 4th. That’s just for the first eye. The left eye will be on a similar schedule so it’ll probably be late February before I’ll be finished with the drops in my eyes.

Two of the prescriptions, were moderately expensive after insurance coverage, but the third (Acuvail), wasn’t covered by our policy at all and cost more than $145 for a 15-day supply. That means it would cost about $800 for that one medication during the required two-month period. That prescription is totally “packaged” in individual sealed vials. My doctor had given me one sample box of five vials. After trying to find a way to avoid the huge expense, I was able to get two (still sealed) full boxes of the vials that another patient couldn’t use. That will reduce my cost significantly and in fact may be enough to get me through.

I have to be at the surgical center Monday at 7:15 a.m. (No coffee, or anything at all by mouth after midnight.) I should be back home before 11:00 but for day or so, I’ll have to wear an “eye covering” and for a while I won’t be able to read with my right eye. It’ll be worth it!!

Our tile project was completed yesterday. We still have a lot of cleaning to do to get things back in place. Things are dusty and dirty. Windows and screens need to be washed. Floors polished to get rid of any grout and dust that got on the tile.

Starting as soon as the crud has totally settled, I want to get our Christmas decorations out.

The tile folks are ahead of schedule. It was supposed to take until the first week of December, but I know they will be starting a huge project after Thanksgiving, so they are anxioous to finish us up.

At least part of the crew (Billy) will work all weekend (continuously) to finish things up. We are happy thus far. The main body of the condo looks really nice. The lanai tile has been laid and looks better than we expected (but also busier). It’ll take some getting used to the bold tiles. The master shower stall has been stripped bare in preparation for tile. Hopefully it’ll all be done soon.

Tomorrow (Saturday) the plumbing contractor arrives to make the construction of the shower stall possible by doing the piping and stuff assigned to the plumber. It looks like Tuesday or Wednesday, they’ll finish everything.

The crew has spent long hours so they have earned the “sooner than expected” completion.

I’ll soon post the before/after photos. We’re satisfied.

Folks here in Sun City Center, FL, are sometimes too nice. I do appreciate their courtesies and good manners, but sometimes it’s time-consuming.

You approach a four-way stop corner and the rule says the car on the right has the right of way, but not here. If you’re a woman, you get to go first, at least that’s how the guys feel. So we all sit there waiting to cross the intersection. Everyone waits. Maybe we should get out and compare i.d.’s to see who is the oldest, who is female and who is male. And what do we do when encountering a 90-year-old male driver, if you’re a female in your 60′s? If age earns respect, do you give him the respect he deserves, or do you let him feel gallant and manly.

Same for doors… Men open them for women here – ALWAYS! That’s fine; but if you’re a woman, and you’re ahead of an older woman, I was taught you should open the door for her. Down here, often the opener is confronted by an openee who feels that it’s somehow demeaning and you’re treating them as infirmed. And as mentioned above, no matter how old a man is, he wants to show his respect for a woman, while I have been taught to defer to those who are older.

Grocery store carts are a problem at the corners in the store, sort of like four-way stops. But somehow it’s even worse. You all stand there waiting for someone to go ahead. Few collisions but sometimes it’s difficult to stay sane.

In Florida, marked pedestrian crossings have the right of way, but what if you’re sorta close to the curb’s edge and there’s no cross walk. It’s not unusual to have a driver stop mid-block and wait for you to cross, even if crossing the street at that time wasn’t your intent.

Sometimes the courtesies slow down the already leisure pace of life. Of course, is refreshing, but a bit of a challenge in our adjustment to Florida life-style.

Our tiling project is coming right along. Today is the fourth day of our humungus mess, but the main part of the condo should be back in order tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, Friday, after the main part is complete, the second phase of the project will begin. They will rip up the carpet toward our master bathroom, our closet carpet, the vinyl in that bathroom, and pull out the fiberglass shower stall.

The crew is working on Saturday and on that day they will install the floor tile in the bedroom hall, master closet, and master bath. The renovated master shower will be started. For 24 hours, we will be unable to get into the master bedroom so we’ll move to the guest room.

Monday the plumber will come to take care of the installation of the shower.

The hope is that they’ll finish our whole project (the living area of our condo) and our friends’, Richard and Shelly’s lanai before Thanksgiving (next Thursday). Friday and Saturday after the holiday, they’d come back to do our lanai with a slate-like porcelain.

Everything should be finished by the 26th.

We are anxious for life to get back to normal.

Obviously as things are put back in place, it’ll be a good time to really clean and soon after that, I’ll want to start our Christmas decorating.

We will still need to revamp our master bath vanity and the shower curtain problem hasn’t been solved, but it will all come together. I’m sure!!

What a mess we’re in right now.

The tile contractor arrived about 9:00 and started ripping up vinyl and carpet. Mold and uneven floors were revealed. We were pleased to see that the contractor took it all in stride.

But the whole project required moving our furnishings out of the way. All furniture is piled into rooms which aren’t currently being worked on. The master bath is fine, the master bedroom overcrowded with extra furniture, great room is totally bare because the tile is being laid so it’s totally unusable, dining room is filled with furniture, guest bedroom room filled with extra furnishings so that it’s even tough to enter the room, master bath has a bare floor but working facilities, the office is untouched, garage is being utilized for tile cutting and the lanai is overcrowded with extra furniture which wouldn’t fit elsewhere. It’s all a mess.

The work crew didn’t realized that I needed access to the dresser and closet in the guest room where I keep my clothes. But after a minor struggle, I got into drawers and my closet so I’m fine.

Surprisingly, I feel everything is ok.

We’re pleased with the floor as it’s being laid. We are slightly uncomfortable tonight, but so what??!! We have a hooked up television, we’re comfortable on lawn furniture, but who are we to complain? Tomorrow it’ll be better and by Thursday or Friday we’ll have everything back to normal.

We have A/C, comfy chairs, television, access to two bathrooms with showers, access to a full featured kitchen, three vehicles, and everything else we need. We are putting up with what we consider an “uncomfortable” setting but it’s more than what 3/4′s of the world would consider “ultimate luxury.” What snobs we must seem to be.

Life is good.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, were spent at the pool. Evenings were busy: Tuesday night was karaoke night at the clubhouse. Wednesday evening we had our Country Dance Class and then headed to the Ruskin Elks for spaghetti. Thursday I didn’t get to the pool but the evening was fun with a typical noisy, crowded gathering at the clubhouse. Friday we had fun at an 11/11/11 11:11:11 party at Wayne and Linda Conklin’s condo. After a potluck, we enjoyed about an hour of jammin’ with some new musicians and our group of four. Today at noon our four-some performed as Kings Strings for a radio club(s) picnic.

Yesteray was cooler day (about 70). Today a nice warm-up and by Sunday it’ll be back about 80. Can’t complain. We’ve been here over a month. Time is flying by. We’re enjoying life to the max. Wish everyone could be so fortunate.

We had a wonderful day today. This a.m. we got on our golf cart and went to our church service at the United Methodist Church, Sun City Center, followed by a luncheon in the adjacent hall. (Those church ladies know how to fix wonderful food.)

At about 1:30, we got together with our good Michigan friends, Wayne and Linda Conklin. We play music here in Florida as a foursome called “Kings Strings.” We needed to practice for a performance this coming Saturday.

It’ll be an easy play so our practice was relaxed and informal.

After our music practice, we enjoyed a few glasses of John’s 2011 vintage wine. (I think it was a tad stronger than we realized.)

The four of us relaxed at our bar on our new barstools while enjoying a breeze coming in all of the open windows and the door. It was a glorious afternoon. The conversation was fun. The temperatures were lovely. Lots of laughing and sharing. Couldn’t ask for anything better.

A perfect day!

Sunsets in Florida are almost always awesome.

Wednesday evening we went to Little Harbor, Ruskin. We enjoyed the company of 11 friends and excellent half-price burgers.

Here was the view:

We went to Tampa twice this week. Wednesday we made the trip to look at used vehicles and ended up getting a replacement for our 1992 Toyota. It’s definitely a step or two up.

On Wednesday, we also bought/ordered three bar stools.

Several days we looked at tile and met with tile representatives who gave us prices. In the end, I’d say we are just more confused.

Yesterday we picked up the bar stools. When we got home, we put them together and were extremely pleased with our purchase. They were very reasonably priced and really match our decor.

We haven’t settled on a tile contractor yet. The differences in the bids for the job are fairly broad. The business we like best had the highest price and didn’t include the price of the tiles. Their labor costs are higher than the complete job from the lowest priced contractor. I would rather go with the highest priced place because they are “locals” but they so much more expensive. We also had a company from North Tampa give us an estimate, but they’re quite a trip away, and sort of a “big business.” We didn’t care for the tiles that the sales guy brought and somehow giving the job to a business with three show rooms isn’t as appealing as giving the work to a small business.

So we’re undecided.

Our week was busy: Sunday after church, we went to a Shriner pancake breakfast; Tuesday, we attended the Michigan Club wine and cheese party followed by a karaoke gathering at the clubhouse; Wednesday was our Tampa shopping trip when we bought our new-to-us car and the bar stools; Thursday, an association meeting plus doctor appointment and an evening Halloween party at the Clubhouse; Friday our second trip to Tampa (returned some sample tiles and picked up the stools); today we are planning to practice music with the Conklins.

We have been having fun fun fun!

This week on Tuesday we went to a meeting of the Michigan Club, Thursday we had a fun evening at the clubhouse with two couples (Richard & Shelly and Linda & Ron). Last night we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Ron & Linda’s house, and today after church we joined the Conklins and the Brooks for Shriner Club pancake breakfast.

Today was beautiful weather. The pool was crowded. We enjoyed visiting with several good friends and stayed nearly all day.

When we weren’t having fun, we were shopping for tile for our condo. It’ll be a big project, and we want to get it right.

I still have a little over a week to go before I return to my eye doctor to see when I can have my cataract operation. I hope it can been scheduled for November 7th but there’s a good chance I’ll have to wait three additional weeks. I’ve been good. Haven’t put my contacts in at all. It’s tough not to see, but I want the surgery results to be the best so I don’t want to mess things up by cheating so the lenses aren’t accurately tailored to my eyes.

Sure is nice here!

Most of this posting was written in 2010, but I’m adding to it with some new insights.

In 2010, I explained that I had believed it would be wise to have items at both our Michigan and our Florida homes, but we’re finding that we aren’t using things fast enough. Stuff “expires.”

This is quoted from my 2010 post:

We have purchased batteries of different sizes for both locations. Seems that most of the time, the unused batteries die before we use them for the purpose intended.

The other day John wanted some baking soda and baking power. They were “dead.”

Even items like suntan lotion sprays get old before we use up our supply.

My shampoo and cream rinse were “thicker” in the bottom of the bottle and hard to get out when we arrived from Michigan (we leave the A/C down here set at 80 over the summer).

Vitamins and even ink cartridges for my computer’s printer have expiration dates.

We freeze lots of food for our return, but much of it ultimately “goes down the disposal.” (John’s grinding up some frozen bacon right now.)

We don’t have a solution for our problem. We can’t haul everything back and forth and with only two of us, we wouldn’t go through items very quickly even if we stayed put. We usually buy large (more economic) sizes to save on cost by the ounce, but it often ends up being wasted.

I opened a “packaged” inkjet cartridge when we got down here, one which I’d purchased last spring and left here. It wouldn’t work. I called Lexmark and they sent me another, but I was informed that the normal warranty is six months from the purchase date. Tough. I am not going to haul that printer back to Michigan just so I can use up my supply of cartridges faster.

Expiration dates are hard on snowbirds.

End of 2010 Post===

2011 addition: I should explain that we no longer set our thermostat at 80. Instead we have a humidistat and it keeps our humidity at an acceptable level, but the temperatures are higher. Nevertheless, our place was in good shape when we arrived.

But this year I found a few more things that are problematic when I leave them here in our condo:

Perfume: I love my regular scent and I buy a bottle or two of it every year. Last year I left two partially used spray bottles (about 1/4 full) only to find that, when we returned a couple of weeks ago, the color of them had deepened and the scent had changed. (Now it stinks.)

Detergent (both granular and liquid) changes when the temperatures are high. I wanted to use our dishwasher detergent but it was a solid block instead of a granular. Our clothes washing detergent was so thick I had a hard time getting it out of the container. Our scouring powder aka cleanser had solidified. My deodorant was all dried up. Six months here is not the same as six months in the north where it’s cooler. Here the summer heat really takes a toll.

When we arrived this year, we’d lost some plants that we loved: Our huge three year old poinsettia had died (it was hit last December by the freeze we experienced so that may have weakened it). Our newly planted bird of paradise didn’t make it, but out green and yellow foundation plantings had grown, and in fact they’d spread out unattractively. We have a three-year-old palm which we’ve watched and moved repeatedly depending on the season, but this past summer was hard on it. We won’t move it again until it is healthier.

The lawns look nice, the trees are healthy. Our split leaf philadendron had overtaken the sidewalk.

Some plants and items do well without us. Others need our gentle touch.

Perfume apparently needs more attention.

Last night’s sunset out the back door of our condo was exceptional even by Kings Point standards:

John and I looked at three promising condos yesterday.

We’ve been in the position of wondering if we should find a larger condo with everything as we want it, or fix up the one we have. So yesterday we spent the afternoon with our realtor who took us to see the three.

The first was a lovely unit on a quiet up-scale court (culdesac). It had a lovely tranquil pond view but it faced south which is bad here in Florida. You’d never get to enjoy the lanai (screened porch). Also the color scheme was all green and I don’t like green. The kitchen had low-end appliances.

The second condo was in the same neighborhood with a slightly more cluttered view of a pond but it had a stainless kitchen and the color scheme was better. There were tons of built-ins in the closets. In fact the closets were almost too out-fitted. The price was more than $30,000 less than the first.

The third unit had the nicest view of all, but it was an old unit and needed up-dating. The price was a steal, but the bedroom had cheap flooring, the kitchen was totally dated. The living room was small. It was a lot cheaper, but you could easily spend $30,000-$40,000 bringing it up-to-date.

We went home thinking the second unit was the best deal, but when we got home we did some computing, we changed our minds. We can fix up our current place over the next five years and make it perfect for about $40,000. Even if we spend that much, we’ll still save a lot. No realtor fees. No closing costs. (Those expenses for the new and our current condo would come to over $16,000!!!) We wouldn’t need to tap into our investments. Then there’d be the on-going increase in taxes, homeowners association dues, and insurance which would continue indefinitely.

So I think we’ve decided to stay put. We’ll have tile installed throughout our place this year. It’ll be a sizable expense, but a lot less than moving. And maybe this year we’ll buy some new furniture in the guest room so it becomes a multi-purpose room. Next year, maybe the lanai extension and living room window. The bathroom is still a question mark because we don’t have a plan.

I’m very, very near-sighted. Most folks don’t realize how bad my vision is because I’ve worn glasses since second grade and contacts since I was 15. (Yup, I was one of the first people to get contacts in Midland, MI. I went to the only doctor offering them and I was his third patient.)

Over the years, my eyes went through the normal aging process. Back about 2000, it became necessary for me to wear reading glasses in addition to my contacts in order to clearly see my computer screen at work. It was a bother and I wasn’t satisfied. I found a solution, bi-focal contacts, giving me 20/20 vision whenever I wear my contacts. It has worked.

Several years ago, my Saginaw eye doctor said I have cataracts. My vision was last checked a year and a half ago. At that time, he said he didn’t feel the progression of the cataracts was severe enough for surgery. But recently I’ve felt that my vision has gotten considerably worse. I no longer drive at night, and when I have to get up in the night, my vision is so bad that I have a rough time not running into things (like walls). I made an appointment with the most experienced cataract eye surgeon I could find (and he’s in Sun City Center). I went to see him yesterday and he feels the cataracts are large and there’s no reason to wait.

There is a problem. I’ve worn contacts for so long and now my eyes need to adjust to a state which won’t change once I stop wearing them. If my eyes were to reshape, the inserted lenses wouldn’t work as intended. Will my eyes re-shape?

Only going without them for a period will tell the surgeon if I can have the surgery or must wait until they have stabilized. During the appointment I had my eyes scanned so for the next three weeks, I can’t wear my contacts at all which means I can’t see very well. I’m getting by, but it’s tough. My glasses are ugly and uncomfortable. It’s only three weeks… or maybe six. I don’t have my hopes up that the earlier deadline will work, but there’s a chance. If my eye measurements don’t change, I’ll have the surgery on the 7th of November. The second eye will then be done a couple of weeks later (about the 21st or 28th). But if they aren’t stable when I go back to his office on November 1st, it’s very possible that the whole schedule be at least three weeks later making the second eye surgery in mid-December (or it’s possible that it’ll take even longer). The earlier the better!!!

The lenses I’m going to have inserted are called a Crystalens. They’re the most advanced and expensive, but they are my eyes and it’s important that I see!! They should last my lifetime.

How Crystalens Works

The Crystalens® is attached to the ciliary muscle, a circular muscle that surrounds the lens in the eye. When the ciliary muscle contracts it bulges backwards and increases pressure behind the lens, thus forcing the optic forward. Relaxation of the muscle increases the pressure in front of the lens to move the optic backwards, thus enabling the lens to focus naturally at all distances.

In general, patients who choose to have monofocal lens implants will be dependent on glasses either some or most of the time in about 95% of cases. The best results are with the Crystalens. They are multifocal and their unique system of using the muscle, allows eyes to act like normal eyes. Most people don’t need extra glasses. That’s what I want!

So I’m hoping that I can have the surgery on the first eye on November 7th. What will it be like to be able to wake up in the middle of the night and see to walk through the house. And I haven’t viewed stars for years and years. I am eager!

Since arriving Thursday we have been moving in but we’ve also had time to play. Sunday evening was an Oldies but Goodies Dance. Lots of fun!!!

Monday and Tuesday we spent a good share of the day at the pool. Yesterday the water was flawless. A perfect temperature and not many folks crowding the pool deck. Couldn’t have asked for more.

Last night we attended the Kings Point Ballroom Dance. John always complains because it’s a dress up (with tie and jacket) evening, but it was very nice and I enjoyed seeing folks look their best.

In about two hours, we’re going to a Nantucket V association luncheon at an Apollo Beach restaurant.

This afternoon I plan to head back to the pool, and this evening John wants to attend a Master Gardner class in Ruskin.

The weather is now just what we want: mid to high 80′s with big puffy clouds. Love it!

Friday was our first full day here in Florida. It rained, not heavily but enough to stay inside.

Saturday (yesterday) it was so windy that being outside was difficult and there was damage to trees. Rain started in the afternoon. The winds continued. Some nearby communities got eight inches but we lucked out with only about an inch. Today we’ve already had about two inches and it’s still coming down.

While we’re putting up with lousy weather, in Michigan everyone says it’s glorious. About 80 degrees and sunny.

Their extended forecasts show that by mid-week, their temps will crash into the 50′s. By mid-week here, we’ll have glorious sunshine.

Long-range the National Weather Service is saying that the Great Lakes Area will have a severe winter. Florida will have a mild one.

Yesterday we decided that we wouldn’t stop as we had planned at the motel in Tifton, GA. We kept going and pulled into our condo at about 9:15 p.m. Both of us were glad that we’d pushed on. It felt so good to stretch out on our comfortable bed and feel our sheets. So much nicer than any motel.

We did only what was necessary for the night and then went to bed where we watched the Tigers WIN their division in the playoffs.

Today we “moved in”. There’s still lots more to unpack, but no rush.

One minor inconvenience: our range/oven decided to act up. When John turned on the circuit breaker to the range, there was a loud pop and the oven came on. We couldn’t turn it off except by cutting the power at the breaker.

Thank heavens we have a service plan in effect so it is all covered under our contract. The repair guy came and said we need a new clock/timer mechanism and he ordered it. In about five days we should have a range again. Right now we’re stuck with just a microwave, a fry pan, a slow cooker and a gas grill….. and another option: dining out!

We won’t starve.

We wanted to go to the pool this afternoon but it started raining (not hard). So instead we looked at condos on our list of “possible” condo units. We viewed three (from the outside) that we really like. Maybe it would be a good move, but we’ll see. We should set up a tour through our realtor.

We’re about 950 miles into our trip with a planned destination in Tifton, GA, but John is saying that we’re making such great time, he’d just as soon keep going to the condo. We’d arrive about 10:00 p.m. We haven’t decided. We don’t have to commit until 6:00 when we’d need to cancel our room.

Our motel stay was a disappointment. Last night we got to our motel in London, KY, only to find that they no longer have the lovely waffle breakfast John was anticipating. He tried their oatmeal and said it wasn’t very good. Maybe next year we’ll try another place. There are several in the area that provide breakfast at a similar price. We’ll see.

But the trip has gone fairly smoothly. Traffic hasn’t been as bad today, but there are always construction zones.

We have seen some crazy drivers.

Yesterday, just north of Cincinnati, we ran into a tie-up.

Apparently one of the southbound motorists got impatient and decided to cut across the grassy median. There was no cut-through and in fact it was uneven terrain and probably 150 feet wide. With tall grass, it was hard to tell, but when the impatient motorist came to an abrupt stop in a ditch that was at least three to four feet deep, he realized he shouldn’t have tried it. He was waiting for a wrecker when we saw him.

Later we saw a guy with a blown tire. It wasn’t just flat, but shreaded and he was still driving on it. As we watched in our rearview mirrors, we could see him lose control and actually drive with one wheel up on the concrete barrier between the lanes. His car was at about a 45 degree angle.

And today we watched in horror as a semi truck driver nearly side-swiped a semi in the next lane, but he didn’t stop there. He wanted to move over a lane but there was a white RV trailer next to him. He didn’t let that slow him down. He just bullied his way over, and the trailer was forced over to the next lane where a small black car was just about taken out. We expected that there’d be a crash, but somehow all made it.

I am sure the black car driver didn’t realize that the white RV trailer was innocent. He’s probably still shaking. And the RV trailer driver had to be praying. I know we were!

We’re still in Michigan outab 48 miles from the Ohio/Michigan border. We plan to stop at Beaverdam, OH. We’ll grab a bite to eat and gas-up. Today’s destination is London, KY.

This is the first time that we haven’t traveled with little Willow. We were always “required” to stay in a pet-friendly motel, and Red Roof has worked great. The Red Roof in London has always been our favorite. I believe it’s the highest rated RR in the nation. Breakfast is included and they have the makings for great waffles. John’s in heaven.

Tomorrow night, we’ll try a Microtel in Tifton, GA.

We had a rather dramatic start to our trip. This morning, as we were about to pull out of our driveway, I plugged in the inverter I use to run my laptop. The inverter won’t work. John checked the fuse and sure enough it had blown. A second fuse, did the same thing. We decided it must be the inverter that was blowing them. It became apparent that, if it was causing the problem, I just wouldn’t be able to run my laptop on our trip.

I unplugged the inverter.

As I reorganized things, I plugged in John’s fuzz buster. It started smoking and I actually saw flames. Obviously it hadn’t been the inverter that was blowing the fuses, so I’m powered up and purring. The fuzz buster was left in the trash can.

With our new cellphones and my wireless usb modem, we have totally updated our communication and internet access.

Riding down the road, while on line, isn’t new to me. For many years I used an old cellphone tethered to a laptop running Windows XP. It ran a program which allowed me to use a cell signal for unlimited digital. Back in about 2005 and 2006, the network which it connected to was nationwide. It was about half the speed of dial-up so loading a page of data took patience.

But that system was gradually being phased out. Over the years many areas no longer allowed access. Last year I gave up and didn’t bother trying to connect through that antiquated system. We’d make a point to request internet in our motel rooms.

But now my internet connection is the same while in the car as at home. I can use either my laptop or cell to go on line. It’s great to have joined the technological age. I even got a “will you participate in a survey” phone call a few minutes ago.

Life is good.

Finally we’re ready! We’re packed and tomorrow a.m. we’ll hit the road for Florida!

We have appointments and plans waiting for us.

Unfortunately this week Michigan has decided to be unseasonably beautiful and warm. The forecast for this weekend may take temperatures to 80 degrees which is unheard of in Michigan in October. In fact, it’ll be nearly as warm as Florida but we’re going.

John isn’t really pleased, but he realizes that we can’t reschedule now. We arrive on Friday and have parties/dances planned for Sunday and Tuesday and a doctor appointment Tuesday a.m.

As I’ve mentioned frequently, I’m a detail oriented person. I plan. My specialty is “lists.”

This compulsion is especially evident before we take a trip, like the trip we’ll take starting Wednesday to our place in Florida.

I have lists for packing and lists for chores still needing to be completed. I know I’m obsessive about this sort of thing.

I also plan out every detail of our actual “trip.” I can tell you that at 9:05 a.m. on Day Two (Thursday, October 6th), well be crossing the Kentucky/Tennessee border; and that at 1:11 p.m. Friday, we should pull into our Florida condo.

Today John and I went over the “lists” I’ve prepared for our trip South so he’d know what’s left to be completed. We’ll do it again, at least once more, but little by little we’re whittling-down the stuff that remains.

Because John trusts and expects me to do all of this pre-preparation, I’m responsible if something is forgotten. That’s enough incentive to recheck the lists again!!

Today I found an app for my Droid which allows me to use my cellphone as a “wifi hot spot.” With unlimited data transferral available through my Droid, this will be a real godsend. I was budgeting my 5GB monthly allowance, which meant I had .172GB of data transferral per day. I found I could easily use two or three times that amount but I couldn’t justify paying more. The Droid was at least unlimited. I tried and used the droid all I could but sometimes the laptop was easier than the tiny droid screen. Now I can relax and be productive without budgeting.

Tonight we enjoyed our last walleye fish dinner at the Moose until Spring. Our old friend, Roger, came by to sa(Joyce) were active members in the old Moose Lodge on Hamilton Street. She’s since passed, but Roger is always there with a joke and a smile. It felt good that he cared enough to make it a point to come tonight to send us on our trek southward.

This afternoon it turned really cold. I’ve cranked up the heat to take the chill off the house. (It’s 43 but the wind and dampness make it feel like it’s 30.)

I’m ready to head South where it’s warm!

Today I cleaned house. I hate to leave a dirty house behind so I vacuumed, dusted, and did bathroom floors. I still have more to do, but I’m on-track. (The windows will wait until Spring.)

I have finished my “packing.” I have filled two bins with my clothes plus a third bin of “stuff” which includes a slew of batteries, a mail scale, a new weather “station,” back-up hard drive, hats, etc. In the “staging area” I’ve accumulated several smaller shoebox-size boxes (computer programs in one, make-up and medicines in another, and one of camera cables and camera instructional manuals), a plastic file-box, a couple reams of paper, a box of card stock and sheets of labels, a box of tax records, and a bag of recorded cds, one of microphones (etc.), a bag of shoes, and a bag with beach towels. I’m hoping it’ll all fit in the truck. If possible, I also want to bring a box of Christmas glass ornaments, a bag containing a wreath, and a few more holiday items. John has a bin of clothes, and a few zippered clothing bags (but he left most of his stuff in Florida).

I’m sure the mounds of stuff I have ready to go will more than fill the back-end truck box, and I may have to leave some stuff behind. We’ll see.

I want to get busy fitting it all in but we need to wait until we know we can leave the truck outside without affecting what we’ve packed.

We’ll take off in 5 days, 13 hours, and 30 minutes!

John just informed me that I’re two days too early to start packing the truck for Florida.

I’m ready! I’ve brought two plastic bins to the area by the door so they’ll soon be packed, but I understand that I’m pushing things.

John needs to finish cleaning out the truck and he really doesn’t want to acknowledge that we’re that close to leaving. So this weekend we’ll officially start packing. I am READY!!!

Guys do things at a different pace. Or maybe it’s just “me.”

I’m a planner. I’ve explained that for 23 years I was, by my profession, an “official hospital planner.” Now that I’ve retired I find myself still tending toward planning but John plods along. I make lists and get ready. John takes off and counts on me to cover his butt.

But somehow we are compatible.

Love that guy!!

I will adjust to his “lack of planning” but I will also be his backup with print-outs and readily prepared agendas of what we need to expect on our trek south.

Yesterday was a long but enjoyable day. We attended the ODPC meetings in Lansing starting at 10:00 a.m. It’s always fun to share time with good music friends.

We sat in on three meetings and a lunch. The fun music time was just starting with lots of wonderful friends playing, but we headed south to Ann Arbor to visit Audra and Dave, John’s (really nice) daughter. It was a totally enjoyable visit. Audra cooked up a meal that was amazing. Everything looked, smelled, and tasted magnificant. (Her culinary abilities sure show she’s John’s child.)

We left her place at about 8:30 so we’d have time to stop at Trader Joe’s on the way home. We really didn’t leave ourselves much time but we got some “Two Buck Chuck,” Charles Shaw wine.

We were tired and the trip home, through never-ending construction zones, was extra exhausting. John kept reminding me that he was close to falling asleep, so I continually chatted with him until we were home. It tired both of us.

We’d been gone since 8:00 a.m.

The many years of having Willow, our little dog, at home waiting for us, has left a not-to-be-erased feeling of uneasiness when we’re away from the house all day. There’s always that feeling that she’s waiting.

The ghost of Willow still haunts us.

Of course, last night, when we got home about 10:45, the house was empty. It still felt good to be there, but the realization that there’s nothing waiting at home is kind of disappointing.

Depends on the time of the year. Right now most days I’m in my early-60′s (although my driver’s license would say I’m nearly 70). But when we get to Florida (in about two weeks), my outlook will change. If you ask me this same question in December, I’ll probably say without hesitating that I feel about 50-55 and getting younger every day.

Something about the Southern climate and attitude changes us.

John hates to admit it but, when we’re in Florida, I see the years slip off him too. There’s a lift to his step, and a brighter twinkle in his eye.

I’ll bet if a test could be done, we’d each de-age by 20 years. I can’t help but wonder if we stayed in the south all year if our age-regression would take us back to childhood, if we stayed long enough.

Above is the newly finished north end of our Saginaw house.

The old siding was in rough shape! This is the same side as in the top photo.

Two more before and after’s: You can see the before and now the lovely cedar shake (vinyl). The color of the new stuff blends with the old and it doesn’t stand out that it’s not finished.

On the top photo, it looks sort of dark in the center of the wall. That’s where the stain was fading and needed to be redone. This is a forever fix.

When the project was started.

In Michigan, my closet is filled with BLACK. Sure I wear some color as an accent, but generally I find myself bathed in BLACK.

Example: Today I’m wearing black slacks, black sandals, a sleeveless black tank top covered with a long-sleeved Chico’s black buttoned cardigan with red/orange flowers with green leaves on a black background.

In a little over two weeks we’ll be in Florida. My color scheme and clothing when we’re in the south is totally different. Most of the time I wear really bright stuff. My shorts are shorter and more fitted and they are nearly always white or light. My tops are bright! (Grandma didn’t know what she was talking about when she told me, “A lady never wears white after Labor Day.” In Florida, I wear white all winter!!) In Florida, clothing tends to be sexier. This year I’ll be SEVENTY but I love dressing young. In Florida, I find that attire is lots more lively and fun. It’s ME, my STYLE!!

The whole mind-set of Florida is fun. Color enhances the mood.

(Note: A couple years ago, I was in a restaurant in Ruskin, FL, and three or four couples came in. The only thing I could think was that it was obvious they were from the North. The women were all dressed in black or very dark attire and everything looked bleak and cloistered. I commented and everyone in our party agreed. They stood out because they didn’t portray the Florida image of light colors and fun.)

John has been working every day on the installation of vinyl siding on our house. He’s progressed to the “peak” (about 30′ up). It scares me every time I look out. (If he doesn’t finish it today; he’ll complete it tomorrow.) Once the north side is done, his plan is to postpone any more siding work until next spring (the lake side and south side still remain to be completed but they’re only one-story high so, by comparison, it’ll be a snap.) The one side toward the lake will be vertical siding, to accent the cedar shakes. That should make it a lot easier with less waste. What’s finished really looks nice, but it’s been so much work for him. I’ll post photos.

He is saying he also wants to cut down two dead poplar trees before we leave for Florida, but I’d like to see that job wait until next year.

Our 5th wheel trailer is winterized, the sprinkler system blown out, and our truck is nearly ready to take off. The lawn needs to be mowed at least one more time. Last minute apples picked. There are grapes to be harvested. We’ll probably bring along some juice to make into wine when we’re down south. Looks like our lawn guy will have to do the leaves because they haven’t even started to fall.

But everything is wrapping up.

I now have 4G access both in Michigan and in Florida. My connection speed, even at 3G, was outstanding. But I do have a problem. I’m restricted to 5GB of digital download a month. Seems that at the faster speed, I use even more bytes yet previously I was restricted to 2MB per month (with Speednet) and I never had a problem (ok, so maybe once or twice I went over for less than 1 gb per month, but now I’d doing twice that volume!!). I’ve stopped visiting my favorite game site (GSN.com) because I can’t “afford” the digital usage. Why is it taking so many bytes to do what I have done for over a year?

=====

Note September 25: I have found that the 4G area is very limited. Yes, I receive 4G, but a mile from here, there’s only 3G.

This morning it was time to get up, but it was dern chilly in the bedroom. I pulled up the quilt and nestled down for a few minutes additional warmth. My nose was cold! Yup, we’re in Michigan and it’s late September. There’s definitely a nip in the air.

The leaves have subtly changed and will soon blend into reds, yellows and oranges before they fall to the lawn.

Since it’ll only get into the high 50′s today, we’re talking about having a fire in the fireplace.

We’re leaving for Florida in three weeks. Since the leaves are still fiercely clinging to the trees, it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to get them off the yard before we leave. Hopefully we can hire our yard guy, Steve, to finish up the job.

This evening we had a big pot of from scratch chile! That’s the best meal on a cool day and it really hit the spot. Wonderful chile made with lots of fresh picked tomatoes, from the garden green peppers, kidney beans (yes! chile must have beans), onions, spices and ground chuck. Served it with club crackers. Yummy!!!

Lots of folks know that John was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2009. IPF is a very serious lung disease. (To be very clear, the available information would say that such a diagnosis is generally a death sentence with, at most, a three to five year life expectancy!)

But John’s doctor in Saginaw is really, really optimistic. She has proven to us that her treatment plan can produce positive results and she has statistics to prove that her, non-standard treatment of early stage pulmonary fibrosis, works. (Notice I said “early stage” because John went to the doctor as soon as he noticed a change in his lung capacity and kept working with doctors until he was diagnosed with a lung biopsy about six months later.)

Here’s what the University of Michigan said about Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis but they aren’t dealing with my husband nor his determination.

So we work with with his Saginaw doctor, and he continues to do very well on her prescribed treatment of Prednisone and Imuran.

Admittedly her treatment plan isn’t recognized as acceptible by most pulmonologists who study Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, but since it works for John, even his Florida doctor says, “Although I would never have prescribed that treatment, it’s working, so continue following your Saginaw doctor’s suggestions.” (And he added, “You’re lucky you went to her first because I would have told you there is NO treatment but she has one for you which seems to be successful so continue it!”)

So John’s health problem is holding it’s own. He’s physically doing more hard work than he should. He’s definitely not at 100% but he is much better than he was two years ago so we are grateful.

We’re indebted to his Saginaw pulmonologist, Dr. Indura.

She’s really kept him ticking.

Our Florida doctor (who is highly recognized as one of the best in his field) feels that John’s amazing progress means that he must not have pulmonary fibrosis, although when his biopsy was review by the Mayo Clinic they confirmed his diagnosis. Whatever has happened to John shows that prayer and good medicine works. And John receives both.

Everyone can tell you precisely what they were doing when our nation’s innocence was destroyed by terrorists who used planes to toppled the World Trade Center, hit the Pentagon, and caused a fourth plane to crash into a field in Pennsylvania.

Where were you?

I was working for St. Mary’s Medical Center and had left my office at about 8:20 a.m. to attend a meeting at Bay Medical Center. I was listening to the radio as I drove. Regular programming was interrupted with an announcement that a “small plane” had hit one of the twin towers in the heart of New York City. It was assumed it must have been a small private plane, but a short while later, the other tower was hit by a second passenger plane, and the horror of the situation became apparent.

I was with a half dozen of our area’s hospital administrators. We were on a committee to run a lithotripsy service in our area. (In addition to Bay Medical and St. Mary’s, Mid-Michigan Medical Center, McClaren, West Branch, and a couple other hospitals were represented. About six of us attended the meeting.) I was the only one who didn’t hold the title of President or Vice President of his facility.

When I walked into the meeting room at Bay Medical, several others were already watching the unfolding story on television. All eyes were riveted to the news as it developed. The dramatic photos showed the damage to the buildings. Terrorism was apparently the cause.

We attempted to conduct the meeting, but it was impossible. The TV was behind me. The sound was turned down. All of the sudden there was a gasp from those on the opposite side of the table. The second tower to be hit had collapsed. Shortly thereafter the other tower came down. It was devastating.

We were silent as we listened to the reports.

The meeting concluded prematurely and I headed back to my office. The rest of the day was spent huddled around the TV set in the conference room at St. Mary’s. No one worked. There was little conversation. We were stunned.

It was an unforgetable day. Our nation’s innocence had abruptly ended.

Well, we had a very nice dinner. We went to the Rustic Inn in St. Charles. The food was excellent! The ambiance was different: lots of huge stuffed animals including a couple bears, elk, deer, birds, etc. It was a nice evening. Thanks, John!!

Tomorrow is our 26th wedding anniversary. We don’t normally make a big deal out of birthdays or anniversaries but last year was our 25th and although we tried to make it special, it was very disappointing. We had hoped to go out for wonderful dinner and thought we’d found a nice dining room, but it ended up being an expensive crowded, noisy meal that nothing noteworthy. “Review” of last year’s anniversary dinner.

Maybe tomorrow night we can find a place which will make our 26th special.

Anything will be better than last year’s “celebration.” John mentioned a really good burger from our favorite burger spot would be fun so Farmer’s Home Tavern might be our destination. Or maybe a steak at Outback. We’ll see. It has to be better than last year’s lousy experience. Come to think of it a Farmer’s Home Tavern burger, fries, and a pitcher of beer might be the best “gift” for John.

We don’t get ESPN and he really wants to watch the football game. We could view it from Farmer’s Home. Boy, would that ever win me points as a good, understanding wife.

We’ll see.

Last night I reminded John that we’ll be leaving Michigan in four weeks. He looked stunned. Although we plan and prepare for the trip south well in advance, to know that it’s approaching at an unbelievably quick pace, surprises us. He hasn’t changed his mind, but I think he’s shocked that it’s approaching so fast.

I’ve set some personal goals for our six months in the south:

I mentioned to my Facebook friends that we have made a decision about when we’ll leave for Florida.

I explained that John has been very unhappy about leaving September 28th. He was talking about how he’d like to stay up north through the fall. Finally I realized that dragging him south would make him miserable and we’d end up having a lousy time. So instead I suggested that we change our plans and leave on October 5th.

Now John is happy. He gained a week which to him was a victory.

A couple of my gal friends have given that post a thumbs up. I’m sure they see that us wives often make our men feel good about small gains to win the fight.

We give up concessions so we get what we ultimately want.

I want to get to Florida. John’s balking. I would like to leave asap. John would like to delay for months.

By saying, “Ok, let’s we leave on October 5th, instead of September 28th” he’s happy. He gained a week. I gained a contented guy who is smiling because he got his way.

Sure I could have fought him on the date, but seven days isn’t that important and now we’re off dead-center. We’re leaving on the 5th, and he’ll be happy when he gets down there. I’m happy that we have resolved it.

Besides, I have a feeling I need eye surgery and my appointment with the surgeon is October 11th. I want to get it over early in October so I’ll be all healed by Christmas time.

At least now we have resolved our departure plans and I can get things packed. Yeah!!!!!

Our plans are now complete. We have decided that we might as well wait to leave for Florida until October 5th. We’ll arrive on October the 7th. Yes, we’ll miss one Baby Boomer party and a farmers’ market, but I have a feeling that this concession will make John much happier, and therefore there’s no doubt that it’s what we should do. He’ll be miserable if I drag him down there reluctantly. If we delay our leave date, I’m sure he’ll be happier about the trip because he’ll know his feelings are being considered.

John would like to wait to make up our minds. He doesn’t understand that, for me, it’s a very uncomfortable feeling when things aren’t decided. I need to start my mental “count-down.” It’s 31 days until October 5th, and 24 days if we leave on September 28th. The week’s difference won’t matter in the overall scheme of things. We’ll still have lots of time to have fun. I do want to get down there before the 9th. (We have a party on the 9th and I have an appointment with an eye surgeon on the 11th.)

In this case, moving our departure a week later will make my man happier. It’s a great trade-off.

I’m not sure when we’re leaving for Florida. At the earliest, we’ll leave September the 28th and arrive at our Florida condo the 1st of October. But it’s possible that we’ll leave a week later. Either way, I’m starting to get ready now.

My staging area is the dining room. I’m collecting items I fear could forget like a new crocheted beach hat, our tax records, a bag of cds, a couple reams of paper for printing, the CDs for computer programs which are installed on my laptop, and lots more stuff. Everything I don’t want to leave behind goes to the dining room. Also clothes are hung together in a special area in my closet. I have a detailed/refined packing list which I review frequently, but there are always those “extras” that may not be on the list. I’m doing my best to be sure that when we’re to leave, things will be packed. It’s just too far and we’re gone too long to forget critical items.

We have lots of exciting occasions waiting for us in Florida. Everything from a couple of pizza parties, dances, wine and cheese parties, sunsets, friends and fun! Can’t wait.

I’ve found a free service which I’m sure will be of interest to those who love to write and would like to see what they write “in print.” It is also a good source of free books for those of us who are “readers.” I can download these books to my Droid cellphone and folks with iphones or ipads can also access them with apps for their devices.

Check it out: Wattpad.com

I also love the free ebooks which Amazon makes available in Kindle format. With my Droid I can search the Kindle Store by price (lowest to highest) and find all those that are free. Yesterday I finished one by C.L. Bevill that was very good. I’m sure I’ll read more by this author.

So far, my price for my ebooks library = $.00.

One side note: I can read in bed and not bother John. The screen can be changed to a black background with white text and dimmed down so it’s only visible to me. (My too bright book light used to keep John awake, but he says it’s much better now that I’m using my Droid and eBooks.)

BTW Kindle books can be read using any computer, so if you don’t have an eReader device, you can use your laptop. Not as compact, but there are free books galore so you’ll never run out.

We had planned to leave the U.P. on Saturday, but decided instead to leave on Monday. Today we’ll pack what we can for our Saginaw-bound trip. It’s always a chore to winterize the place and make sure that it’s as safe as it can be until our return next summer. John does most of that stuff, so I sure don’t have anything to complain about. My part is easy.

He has done a great job cleaning up and grooming the yard. He also added a “skirt” so the area under the deck is now more “hidden” from view and can be used for storage. Don’t know how he does it all.

We moved furniture around in the living room. The place now looks bigger and gives us a little easier way to view the lake while relaxing inside. We’d like to get new living room furniture, but this stuff is actually quite comfortable.

It’s amazing that things continue to be livable even though we only visit once a year. We fear that someday when we get up here the pump or the hot water heater won’t work (both are old and way past their life expectancy). But for now, everything is purring and we enjoyed our stay.

Next time we come up here I vow we’ll have television, if it’s at all possible. Our old set that’s here has never worked well and requires an HD converter (which I forgot). But we’re thinking about getting a bigger TV for our living room in Florida. If we do, we can move the living room set to the bedroom and bring our Florida bedroom set home for use in the bedroom in Saginaw. (It’s a HD flat screen.) Since it’s a manageable size maybe we could bring it up here plus use it in our trailer. Or maybe we’d just bring our the small trailer TV and converter box up here and leave it. One way or the other, we need to have TV while we’re here. It’s been difficult to follow the progress of hurricane Irene and stay abreast of what’s happening in the world.

Guess I better go start packing.

(BTW it was COLD this morning.. only about 45 degrees.)

When we got here (in the U.P.) on Monday, the place was dirty. After more than a year of being closed up, it smelled moldy and stale. We cleaned up what we could that night and I made the bed with bedding I’d brought from home including a clean mattress pad on the bed. It was livable. No hot water but we “washed up”. The next day (Tuesday), I was really glad when John got the hot water heater going so we could have wonderful hot showers that night.

Last night (Wednesday), I anticipated another relaxing shower, but the water heater wouldn’t stay lit.

NO HOT WATER!!! NO!!!!

Since we’ve only been up here twice in three years, it’s hard to keep track of how much bottle gas we have used. Apparently we ran out of gas.

Tomorrow they’re refilling our two 100-pound tanks. In the mean time we have no hot water.

I’d love a hot shower tonight (Thursday).

I can take the lack of TV but no shower is worse!!

Later: John just coaxed enough gas out of the tank to start up the water heater for a short while before it went out again. There’s hope that we’ll each be able to take a very short warm (not hot) one. At this point I’ll be happy with a warm dribble.

========================

Yeah!!!!! The water heater put out enough to warm the tank and we both enjoyed gloriously hot showers.

Isn’t it funny how one adjusts and finds joy in simple things when they don’t come easy.

Considering that:

this visit could have been a disaster but we’ve had a surprisingly good time. I love sharing adventures with John.

In fact we’re now thinking that instead of leaving tomorrow (Saturday) we may stay until Monday.

I’m so sick of hearing how bad our administration and life in this country is. It’s really sad that all of the radio broadcasts are so negative. I’m tired of it.

This week has been a real eye-opener. In my previous post, I explained that I left behind our HD converter so we have no television. Therefore we’ve been stuck listening to radio. I’m totally depressed. No one could listen to daytime talk radio and not come out with a distorted view of America. This land is wonderful. Not all politicians are corrupt. Not all Democrats are bad, nor are the Republicans. Seems we have a pretty good balance of good and evil in each party.

I just wish talk radio would stop being so negative. They see nothing good in anyone.

Give me a break. I’ll be so glad to get home so I can listen to Dr. Oz instead of the bitter talk radio personalities.

I am the one who is responsible for “techie” stuff and therefore the HD converter was my responsibility. I forgot it! About a week ago, I had packed it up along with my new hard drive (which I’d planned to set up so it would back up my system) and my router (which was a key component in my plans). I put everything in a cloth bag and put it in the dining room (our staging area). The problem was that I’m also using that area to get ready for our Florida departure. Somehow in my mind, I thought of the bag as something which was ready for our Florida trip. So when I was packing for the U.P., I left it behind. It wasn’t even an accident. I just had the mind-set that it was for Florida (because I’ll also be taking it south).

So we’re up here in the north woods without TV. Our only set is an old one. Last time we came up, there were no digital channels which could be accessed. That was over a year ago, so I would think that they’d have some available for those who can’t get cable. But we won’t know until next year.

At least my new Verizon USB 3G service works just fine. Wish we could use it for TV but that doesn’t appear to be an option. I keep checking various apps which say that they play television, but they are just videos.

I thought maybe we could at least watch videos with NetFlix, so signed up for the free month trial, but it hasn’t worked. I can’t get any sound. Maybe it needs separate speakers. I don’t know. It just doesn’t work, and also the 3G connection speed is so slow that it bogs down while buffering. Hopefully it’ll work better at home.

Sunday, August 21st, we went to the Detroit Tigers baseball game with George and Judy Horny.

The game was exciting to the very end. Only negative was that we were in the HOT sun without sunscreen and both got a little fried. Now I have a “farmer’s tan” since I was wearing a short-sleeved tee shirt with a slightly scooped neck.

Stopped on our way home at Fuddruckers in Flint for a great burger.

Monday we packed up and headed to our place in the U.P.

We arrived mid-afternoon and found a real mess. Mice had gotten in so a lot had to be “scrubbed down.” Also a spruce had come down in front of the deck. If the tree had been a foot or so taller, we would probably have had damage to our place, but as it was, we squeaked by.

Yesterday (Tuesday), John managed to chop up the tree and work a little on mowing.

I finally went down to the water this morning. It was totally “over-grown” with cattails and over 6′ tall marsh grass. There’s no beach. It’s depressing. It used to be so lovely up here! We’d take our lounge chairs to the water’s edge and stay there all day. It was heavenly. Thank heavens we have a deck because, from it we almost feel that it’s still beautiful as you can see in the photo.

The stump in the center of the picture is where the tree was that came down. Actually it gives us a better view with it gone.

Not posting to my blog leaves me feeling “incomplete.” When I haven’t written down my thoughts, especially for several consecutive days, it often feels that maybe my “life-experiences” weren’t vital enough to share but that definitely hasn’t been the case since I last posted. We’ve just been swamped with activities.

Back on August 9th, when I last wrote, things nationally/world-wide seemed rather bleak, but the days since then, including Thursday the 11th through Sunday the 15th, were crowded with friends and music. That weekend, we were at the Gladwin Fairgrounds where we helped celebrate the Gladwin Carriage Days. It was fun! Lots of music performances, catching up with friends, and food galore. What more could we ask for? Even the weather cooperated and wasn’t as steamy as previous years. Yes, we had a few showers, but none stopped our good times.

When we left on Sunday, we were exhausted, but good-tired. We were on a “high” that has carried us through the week.

Then yesterday, Thursday, the 18th, we played for a Red Hatters’ Party at Wescourt Retirement Residence facility. Again, lots of fun folks and a great time.

You can enjoy our performance here:

Thank you, Sue Smith, for the video memory.

(By the way, our 93-year-old friend and mentor, Bill Kuhlman started “In the Mood” for us.)

Tonight we enjoyed a great walleye fish fry at the Saginaw Moose Lodge. It was one of the best fish dinners I’ve ever eaten.

So life is great. The weather has mellowed and hasn’t been overly hot, and we’re staying really busy. I’m definitely not complaining, nor bored.

All of the news these days seems to be bad: helicopter crash kills 30, stockmarket takes a beating, record heatwave threatens much of U.S., national debt at record levels, England rioting.

Actually today the market looked better. Maybe things are improving.

Tomorrow I clean and pack the trailer for a weekend camping weekend with friends. That will cheer us.

About a year ago I bought a wonderful external 2TB Seagate Black Armor hard drive which I felt sure would allow me great peace of mind since I’d never again have to worry about lost data.

Actually it worked quite well until about a month ago. At 9:00 a.m. each day, it would back up any data added since the previous day. But it got so that the scheduled daily back-ups were failing most of the time. After about a dozen failures, a week ago, I figured that I’d clear it off and start over. I deleted a year of back-ups (but not before I’d made a series of small back-ups on 4GB jump drives.)

Over the past few days, I’ve reinstalled the software multiple times but it’s working worse than it was.

I’ve tried everything I can think of. A full back-up can take a day and a half to run to run and I can’t use my computer while it’s doing the initial back-up. At first, I got several hours into it before would fail, but always it stopped, and I have to start over. I keep thinking, “Maybe I just need to tweak this.” So I’d do some small change and try again.

Now it’s stopping only a few minutes into a back-up. I’ve wasted about a week. I am at a loss. The Seagate site explains that there’s a three year warranty, but the website warns that, if you send the drive to them and the problem isn’t with the drive, they’ll send it back to you and charge you for their time. So I keep testing.

I’ve finally given up and emailed their customer service department in hopes that they can offer a suggestion but I envision a whole department of “Peggys.”

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Monday, August 8, 2011 – 3:30 p.m.

I just got off the phone after many hours with Seagate. They are the company which offers my 2TB hard drive back-up. Yup, they got back to me this a.m. by email, and I called them. They have been very helpful.

I spent the whole morning working with their (U.S. based) service department trying to trouble-shoot and see if the problems I’m having are because of their drive or my computer. Many hours later, the two techs I worked with finally determined that the problem is with the back-up drive so they are sending me a whole new set-up.

I will pay a $9.95 service fee which will cover the UPS cost both directions. I’ll have a brand new unit. I can keep both units for 30 days, so I can take my time and move the videos and photos I’d backed up.

I hate to think of all the time I’ve wasted, but at least I found it wasn’t “me” and they’re the ones saying I should send the drive back.

The year John was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis he started putting up vinyl siding on our Michigan home. That was the summer of 2009. Last year he wasn’t well enough to do much but this year he has been working on it, especially since it cooled down some. With less than two months before we head south, he’s in a frenzy. We are committed to a few days in Gladwin with our dulcimer club and a week in the U.P. but the rest of the time I predict he’ll be busy with the siding project.

I have waaaaayyy too many clothes I’ll never wear! They are crammed in two up-stairs closets, two basement portable closets, and 3/4′s of a walk in closet off our bedroom.

I have decided to take clothes I know I’ll never wear to a consignment shop or donate them. Today I really got busy. When I got into the depths of the guest room closet, I found some things I’d totally forgotten. There is a pair of crisp off-white dressy crepe slacks with a very sharp crease which fit perfectly, a perfect long pleated evening skirt (I’ve been looking for one on eBay but hadn’t been successful), and a very pretty sleeveless flowered dress (very long) which will look perfect at at one of our dressy dances. Maybe tomorrow I’ll uncover more treasures.

I went successful “shopping” in my own closet.

This summer it’s just been too hot to enjoy being outside. I look at the temps in Florida and realize that it’s often even worse down there, but somehow I think of our time in Florida as breezy with lots of cooling pool time. Realistically I know that during the summer, everyone suffers in the heat.

Next week we’re going camping with our Sub-Strings Hammered Dulcimer Club. Last year we about cooked in the campground in Gladwin. Hope it’s more comfortable this year.

There is hope. This afternoon we’re supposed to have storms moving through and then cooler weather.

John has been working on the siding so I have to keep after him to take it easy.

John said today that he wishes we’d stay in Michigan through October.

Not me. I want to hurry down there, the sooner the better.

In Florida, we have several events scheduled for October, and one is a “free” pizza party and there are a couple of dances. John also does better in Florida than he does up north.

But mainly I want to get back to see friends.

I’ve had my Samsung Droid for about four weeks now and I LOVE it. When we got my Droid we also got a Chocolate Touch with email and digital access for John and a USB modem to provide wireless internet for my laptop.

The Droid has unlimited digital. The USB modem is subscribed to a 5.0GB per month plan. I may find that, in order to stay within my budget, I will have to learn to use the Droid better. I sure don’t want to pay an additional $10 per gig for overage because I over-used the laptop connection.

Actually the Droid can do most everything my laptop can do but at this point, it takes me lots longer. Hopefully I can manage my usage and also use the Droid more effectively.

I think I’ll have enough access to get me through the month, but it’s going to be close. The month ends at 12:30 p.m. on August 4th. This afternoon, with six days to go, my data usage was 3.765GB which means I have about 1.235GB left for the remaining six days. Dividing that out it comes to .206GB per day. The original 5.0GB equaled .161GB per day, so I should have excess; about a quarter of a gig left over. I hope!!

We’ll be driving down to Florida in less than two months.

This week we started assembling stuff.

We now have a box ready to take with us for our 2011 income taxes. We’ll still have to add our most recent payments, but all of the historic information has been collected.

I’ve prepared a file which uses my GPS program on my laptop so we know where well stay and even where we’ll eat. Our motel reservations have been confirmed. I’ve figured out how I’ll get my orchids back with me. And I’ve even lined up our realtor to show us new condos when we get down there.

I’m busy working on my “lists.”

I have lists for chores I need to do before we leave, items I need to take back with me, and things which I need to remember for the trip. (It seemed really strange to eliminate all of the items we used to bring for little Willow, our sweet little dog who was always with us as we traveled to and from Florida.)

Betcha there aren’t many folks who spend more time “getting ready.” I truly love to plan ahead.

I plan ahead in part because we spend so long in Florida or in Michigan, and it’s distressing to forget something that’s necessary for our comfort. I do everything I can to avoid forgetting.

We had about 20 members of our dulcimer club playing at Haithco Park last night. The rain held off until we were packing up to leave.

We need rain desperately but why does it always happen when we have an outdoor event? I kiddingly commented that whenever we have a Haithco Concert, it rains (or looks like rain).

I love it when folks who have never played a hammered dulcimer get an instrument and are hooked by it.

Our good friend, Shelly Brooks, is progressing nicely on her instrument. She got her instrument at the ODPC Funfest the 13th of July. It was provided for her use for a year by the ODPC’s mentor program.

Today a sweet lady, Barb, from Ontario Canada and Florida, picked up her new instrument from me. She’s excited and anxious to get started.

It’s fun to watch these people get excited about their instruments. I’m sure they love the experience.

We have our second Haithco Concert Wednesday the 27th. Two weeks from now we’ll join our club for the performance at Gladwin Carriage Days, an event that also serves as a camping weekend for the members. The week of the 21st we plan to head to our place in the Upper Peninsula. When we return, we’ll be heading into September and the grapes should be ready for John to pick, crush, and make into wine. At the end of September, we leave for Florida. Wow! Time flies!

Yesterday we received a message from Oldies but Goodies, a dance club we belong to in Florida. Their activities are enticing. We’ll miss their root beer float party and dance, and several other fun times, but at least we’ll be there for their annual pizza party and dance in October.

I’m already starting to gather the stuff we need to take back to Florida. We leave

But I hate wishing my life away. Time flies fast enough and here I am hoping time will hurry past.

So I’m going to savor each day. I’m going to “use up” each minute before it passes.

For years and years we were out-of-date with our cell service. Our phone was about ten years old (an old flip phone), which we paid for with a monthly $15.60 pay as you go payment which gave us very few minutes.

On the 30th of June, we signed up for Verizon’s two-member famiy plan and bought two high end phones and a usb modem which plugs into my laptop and brings in high speed internet.

John got a fairly basic LG Chocolate Touch (with internet and email access), and for me, smart phone, a Samsung Droid Charge (with all the bells and whistles available). Neither of us are into texting so we didn’t bother signing up for that extra service.

We had problems with each of the two phones. John’s was DOA so he had to get a replacement. Mine worked fine, but had a major overheat problem and ate battery charges at a rate that was unbelievable (at best, two hours per charge). But now both phones have been replaced and they’re working perfectly. We’re happy. The service from Verizon has been excellent. I’ve spent hours with customer representatives and all the folks have been quick to respond (no wait times on customer service). They’ve all been well equipped to answer my questions and give me the kind of service you don’t often receive.

Now that things are purring, I realize I enjoyed the visits with those nice folks.

Maybe I should just call them up to say hello.

John and I are realizing that our summer has been really demanding and we have limited energy. We helped all we could with Evart, and although we’ve been home nearly a week, we’re still tired. Coming up, we have fun commitments to our dulcimer club, Saginaw Subterranean Strings, including a long camping weekend in August and some performances, but that’s it! The rest of the summer, until we leave for Florida, will be calm and tranquil. We deserve it.

We haven’t been to our Upper Peninsula retreat since last July. We have a trip planned for late August, if we’re able.

Florida, with its relaxed attitude, is We look forward to quiet time, but with lots of activities and friends we enjoy at our Florida home.

I know my blog is followed by several of our Florida friends. They generally think of Michigan as the ice box of the country. Comments are frequently made that we are in the “cold” north.

Well, this week would change their minds. It’s dern HOT (92) right now, with a prediction to go to 95 this afternoon. There are “Excessive Heat” warnings on the weather sites.

I checked the reports on Sun City Center and they haven’t been spared. The temperature is the same (92) but the feels-like temperature is a cooler 101 compared to our 109 feels like temp and they have the pool. Also they are expecting a cool-down into the 70′s about 5:00 when rain moves through.

We’re staying inside with the A/C running at a comfy 76 degrees. Our plan is avoid going out. We invited a friend over who doesn’t have A/C. It’s just miserable if you can’t escape it.

John went outside a while ago and after about 15 minutes gave up because it was really hard to breathe. The humidity really gets to you.

We’re heading home from Evart. It’s been an exhausting ten days but I have no complaints. My workshop leaders were wonderful. Everything flowed smoothly and we felt the love.

I will be happy to put my feet up and enjoy air conditioning at home.

Our friends, Shelly and Richard Brooks, left the fairgrounds last night at about 10:30 and headed to their motel in Clare, MI. We turned in about 12:30. We were up by about 7:30 and by about noon had broken down our campsite and at 1:00 we sat in on the ODPC meeting.

After repeating “Good-bye” and “See you next year” many times, we left the hot and dusty Osceola County Fairgrounds.

Loved it! What fun!

I’m so exhausted and grubby but today’s the last day of the ODPC Funfest. I think I can survive it.

Right now I can hear three or four music jams going on around us. There’s one in the “Rabbit Barn,” one in the “Swine Barn,” one at the Kaiser family’s campsite right inside the corral, and one in the ODPC pavilion. I hear the Rabbit Barn playing “Peacock Rag.” The one that’s at Kaiser’s is playing “Wizzard’s Walk.” That’s probably the fastest and craziest of the gatherings. Everyone is wearing battery-powered hats that blink or flash. We sat and watched them for a while and it was fun, but when John wanted to join a jam, he chose the one in the Rabbit Barn which is a bit more mellow.

Since arriving at the fairgrounds last Thursday, we’ve been non-stop busy. A lot of our time is taken up talking to friends. But there have also been a few pre-arranged events. Sunday night we attended a huge pre-festival potluck and jam at a nearby lake. We’ve gone out to dinner a couple of times. Tonight there was an ice cream party.

A lot of our time has been spent getting things ready for the start of the festival on Thursday. The tempo is definitely picking up. Tomorrow morning there’s a “breakfast” in the community building. At 1:00, we’ll join the officers for pizza. At 6:00, there’ll be a cart parade, followed by the “list” reception at 7:30 tomorrow night at our campsite. Also there’s a meeting of the “mentors” so Shelly and Richard (our friends from Florida who we visited a week or so ago) will be arriving in the afternoon. (She’s one of the participants in the program.)

We’re in Evart, MI, at the ODPC Funfest, the largest hammered dulcimer event in the world.

Arrived yesterday about noon. Friends have been pulling in and things feel “right with the world.”

I did hurt my foot yesterday. It was really sore last night and swollen. But Gwyn Besner loaned me some Arnica gel which helped. When the swelling went down, I realized the swelling had caused my foot to fit differently in my sandal and a blister formed on my little toe. This morning it had broken and it’s a really raw spot. Oh, well… Where are the bandaids when you need one?

We’re in our regular spot where this a.m. we’ll be putting up the “workshop leader rest area.”

It’s a challenge. My old brain is trying to absorb the inner workings of my new Samsung Droid cellphone. Additionally I’m trying to help John get up-to-speed on his LG Chocolate Touch. All this stuff is stretching my mental resources. I am challenged.

Alao I’ve had to set up a new method for receiving my email message. (My new usb modem won’t let out-going mail be sent so I’ve had to find a way to use web-based email to send my messages.

I know eventually I’ll be comfortable with all these techie tools and I’ll be back to working comfortably, but right now I’m stressed by what I’m trying to grasp.

We’re really tired tonight. For a little more than 24 hours, we visited Caroline and Stephen Cooper at their home in White Lake, MI. It is a lovely area and the Coopers and the Brooks (Richard and Shelly, who live within walking distance from each other) jointly hosted the weekend. We met both couples in our Florida community, Kings Point. They’re good friends both here and there.

We arrived early afternoon Friday at the Cooper’s home. It is a 4,000 sq. foot lovely tudor-style residence that is unique and totally lovely. We occupied the second floor suite.

We all took an excursion on the Brooks’ boat around the area. It was very pleasant. When we got back to the Brooks’, we were joined by more guests, Bob and Sherry, who also live in King Point, our Florida community. The evening was filled with food, beverages, and fireworks. The fireworks display was unbelievable especially for a modestly sized small community. We watched for a solid 25 minutes of constant light display. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better show even when it was an organized as a whole-community event in a good-sized city.

We finally made it to bed about 1:00 but sleep came later.

This a.m. we were up fairly early (about 8:00), and spent several hours getting to know Caroline and Stephen better. What a wonderfully interesting couple! Stephen is a retired judge, Caroline runs a business.

The other two couples joined us about 10:30 and then we took a interesting tour of the Cooper’s home. It’s fantastic. The original artwork which has been incorporated and the stories, made it even more interesting. It’s totally unique and original.

Our brunch probably started close to noon. Caroline fed us fabulously.

We then adjourned to the deck and conversed for hours. It was obvious that everyone needed a nap, but we all fought to stay awake through the afternoon.

Bob and Sherry left late afternoon and we followed shortly after them. We got home about 7:00 p.m.

This evening, John’s zonked out and I’m watching TV but ready for bed.

What a great weekend. One of the best I can remember.

I tried to enter a post from my new Droid Charge smart phone but I have a lot to learn. Oh, well… I’ve learned a little since I got it last night and within a few days, I hope to know more.

We returned John’s Sony Kin and instead ordered a LG Chocolate Touch, a simple but multi-featu

red phone.

We will wait to leave for our friends’ house Friday until John’s cell arrives. Otherwise we’ll run into conflicts with the Fourth of July and also our departure to our huge Evart festival.

In 2003, I made a trip to Florida and John (because he was concerned) gave me a (then high tech) cellphone. It was a Motorola T-730C, a nice looking “flip phone.” Back then it was “top of the line.” But many years have passed. We have used the phone with its $15.50+ monthly pay-as-you-go service all of the intervening years. We never exceeded the total monthly 200 minute allotment (but they carried over each month so no big deal). We now have a slush fund of nearly $200 in reserve funds (yet every month we had to pay another $16.)

I’m tired of an “antenna,” which no other phone has, no-texting, and a totally antiquated system.

It’s time to upgrade. I’m known by Bluehost (my website hosting company) as their most knowledgeable “Techie Geek” and since I’m a woman, that makes me even more notable.

What am I doing with an 8-year-old cell phone? Times have changed. I’m ready to get a state-of-the art cellphone.

I’m looking at a Samsung ‘Droid Charge which is a 4G phone.

Yes!!!

Our place in Florida is already receiving 4G service (the fastest available wireless service) and Michigan is promised to have 4G by early 2012. Here in Michigan from now until we leave for Florida in September, we will have 3G. But when we arrive in Florida, at the end of September, we’ll be able to receive the 4G service.

While we’re in Florida, we will receive at 4G from very late September until late April. When we get back to Michigan at the end of April, 2012, we should be able to receive 4G in Michigan. Can’t get any better than that.

I’ll be able to receive at the fastest possible speed (4G), work on line from my cellphone, take high def photos, and all the rest that everyone else is accustomed to with cellphones. I’m planning to commit to a USB modem which will allow 4G access directly to my computer (so wherever I am I’ll have internet access via my computer). John will also have a new camera-ready phone.

What I’m proposing is service which will replace our Vonage phone (house phone), our Verizon cell (wireless) and our 24/7 Speednet internet access with two new cell phones. Totally we’re talking about having spent $1,100 annually for our past service, but the new bill will be over $1,500 annually.

We’ll have our current house phone number (989-781-0849) ring on one of our two new cell phones, we’ll have a new Florida line (813-633-xxxx or 634-xxxx), and we’ll have our MagicJack (813-398-4670) forward our “previous” Florida number to one of our new phones.

Starting with our new commitment, we’ll have two phones, unlimited digital on my cellphone, 700 minutes on the two cells, and the usb port modem which will allow my computer up to 5 mb monthly access through my computer.

Sounds great! Wednesday I’ll order it all. (If I do it before 4:00 p.m., I’ll have it by Thursday.) Yes!

I want the best! I want to be able to do it all.

The sign-up will give us a two phone subscription so John also gets a good phone too. The KIN TWO M looks like a good choice for him.

Looks super. We’re READY! I can’t educate myself any more completely than I have over the past three days. I’ve wasted dozens upon dozens of hours.

Caroline and Steve Cooper (Ret’d Circuit Judge Stephen Cooper) invited us to their home at White Lake, MI, next Friday for the White Lake Fireworks show. We’re looking forward to a couple of days of wonderful socializing with these good Florida friends. Although we’re staying with Stephen and Caroline, we’ll be joining Shelly and Richard Brooks for a big part of the weekend event since they are only a step away (.1 of a mile by GPS). The schedule includes a Friday night dinner at the Brooks’ and then brunch Saturday a.m. with Caroline and Steve. Can’t imagine a better weekend.

Richard & Shelly and Stephen & Caroline are super Florida friends. We’ve spent a lot of time with them at our southern home. Can’t wait to renew our friendships!

It’ll be the first time in nearly 26 years of marriage when we can just take off for the weekend. Always before we had a dog that restricted us. Willow, and before Willow, Gizmo. Now, with no pet, we can be free. That’s not to say that we wouldn’t rather have our sweet Willow (or before Willow, Gizmo), but the commitment to our dogs did tie us down. Now we should take advantage of being committed only to each other.

We returned to our Michigan home at the end of April (from our Florida place) and I immediately tackled the ODPC workshop program. Even unpacking from Florida was put on hold so I could work on the program. Every day I’d do some (while admittedly taking lots of breaks) but the past month it became a full-time job.

I thought it was finished last weekend, but Monday evening, one of the leaders cancelled leaving me with nine vacancies. I filled in the holes but the harder part was revising the program to get it to fill the pages appropriately. Tuesday I worked from 8:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m. with only about an hour break for dinner. Wednesday I proofed the changes because it was scheduled to be at the printer that afternoon. As it turned out, the printer closed early so we didn’t get it to him yesterday.

But today, we delivered the finished project. With the program in the hands of the printer, I finally have time to do something else, but what? I’m now so far behind that I’ll never catch up. The house needs a good cleaning, the trailer needs to be prepped for the festival (we leave two weeks from yesterday), and I have sewing projects and other chores that have been on hold.

I wouldn’t mind planting a few flowers and making the place pretty.

We’ll leave for the festival either Wednesday or Thursday, the 6th or 7th of July. That gives me about 13 days to really “pick up the pace.”

I think tomorrow I’ll start with our bedroom. One room at a time.

Willow, our sweet little dog helped us recycle our newspapers. She’d always been trained to papers so we didn’t have to walk her. We went through quite a few multiple times a day. We subscribe to the Tampa Tribune in Florida and when in Michigan, the Saginaw News. But when the News changed to three days a week, we found we didn’t have enough to keep up with Willow’s requirements. We added a subscription to the Wall Street Journal which provided a better grade of paper, and enough so that we could change her “area” frequently.

Now that Willow’s gone, papers are piling up. John’s now accustomed to the WSJ and the Tribune and News provide us with local input. We recycle but before we re-used them for Willow which was even better. We’re astounded at how quickly we accumulate them.

There are times when we’re really tempted to get another dog. But we know we’re better off without one. Our laundry room which was always Willow’s area for papers now has extra “space.” In Florida, my “office” can revamped and we’ll be able to make it more usable. We will be free to fly to Florida, if it’s necessary. And at our age, we fear a dog could out-live us.

Admittedly Willow was difficult for John (although he never complained), but it was a constant struggle to keep her and her area clean and she only wanted John to handle her. He doesn’t want to start over, and neither do I. We’re free to come and go. It’s a different feeling. The liberation is good for us at this time.

Another topic:

When we get back down south, we want to replace our Florida vehicle. What we have there is a 1992 Toyota which was included (for free) when we bought the condo. We drive the big GMC diesel truck down because it holds the road without being buffered around by the semis which rule the highway. But when we arrive, we park it in the garage and put it in “storage” so we aren’t paying road insurance on it. We use the Toyota exclusively. I’ve been looking into the possibility of storing the truck not in the garage but instead in the Vehicle Storage area in Kings Point. That would allow us to park our car in our garage. (It’s a two-car garage, but with the truck in half and the other half filled with our golf cart and a workbench area for John, there’s no place to put a second vehicle.)

I hate getting out of the car in the rain. And because there’s a tree over the driveway, the car is always covered with bird do-do.

John has always wanted a convertible. What better opportunity than now? But the birds and weather would really mess up a vehicle parked on the drive.

The other advantage of not parking the truck in the garage is that we can consider buying a condo with a smaller garage.

Last November, we found a place. You can read about it here: buying the Princeton Greens Condo.

The next day we tried to put in an offer, but that condo had been sold, while we were making up our minds. The main reason we hesitated was the “too short” garage. But if we drive the vehicle we’re parking in the garage is a regular car, instead of our truck, we’ll have lots of room. Most of the newer garages have about a 19 foot garage. We need at least 20 feet for the truck. The length of the garage will no longer be an issue.

We’d also gain storage space in the garage. And having an “empty” driveway so guests can park there would also be a lot more welcoming. The amount it will cost us (after paying the initial “membership” in the vehicle storage club), will be about $155 per year. Not a bad price to gain a garage.

I’m anxious to get back to Florida and I’m beginning to see that John feels the same way.

Our plan is to leave Michigan on October 1st, but we found out yesterday that if we travel in September, we will be able to buy our gas at a discount. Not much, but since there’s no reason why we can’t leave a few days earlier, we may. We need to attend a meeting on Saturday, September 24th, and on Monday, the 26th and 27th, we have appointments, but leaving September 28th would work. Why not? We’d love to get down there and bask in the Florida sun.

Maybe by September we’ll feel differently, but the 28th sounds great!

Florida is always so much fun, mostly because of our active social calendar.

Finally here in Michigan, we have found an activity 15 minutes for our house. It’s a once-a-week dance lesson followed by a dancing. Nice, friendly people.

It still lacks some of the fun of Florida because the people don’t necessarily reside close to us, and many are at different stages of life than we are. But hopefully we’ll start to feel that they are friends. It’s an enjoyable evening.

Last night was the second time we have attended. The instructor is teaching “the East Coast swing” which is a dance we’re familiar with so it’s been comfortable for us. We mess up on some of the later activities but the lessons have been working out nicely. It’s a reasonably priced activity ($10 each) and includes some munchies. (Last night we had cake, relishes, nacho chips, etc.)

Tonight we have a Subterranean Strings meeting and tomorrow we will be attending a graduation party and a wedding, so we’re busy. Feels great!

Today and for the rest of the week, the weather will be glorious!!

The ODPC Funfest (the largest dulcimer event in the world)’s workshop program (my contribution as Workshop Chairman) is READY!! It’s proofed, and re-proofed. And proofed again.

I also completed a website for my son-in-law’s business: Schmidts Construction.com. (It was too bad that I had to postpone the work I did for him because the demands of the festival had to come first.)

Today I spoke on the phone with Richard and Shelly Brooks, VERY good Florida friends who are now looking forward to their first Evart Funfest.

Life is good.

Tomorrow John has a breathing test at the Ambulatory Care Center, followed by an appointment with his pulmonologist. He may have to have his meds adjusted. His condition isn’t as good as it was when as he was in Florida, but maybe with a tweak in his medications, he’ll get back on track. I just hope he’ll continue to amaze the experts because he’s doing so well.

(PS for those of you who have started watching this blog fairly recently, let me explain that in 2009 John was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Normally it’s a dismal diagnosis, but he’s been beating the odds.)

Almost as soon as we returned from Florida, we ran into strange weather. We got back to Michigan from Florida at the end of April. The temperatures started out at about 70 but almost immediately dropped down into the 40′s and 50′s for most of the month of May, so by normal standards it was considered cold/cool.

Then it “hotted up” drastically, within a day. We had several June days in the 90′s. That’s unceremoniously high for the month of June.

But now it’s dropped back to the 60′s. In one day, it dropped 40 degrees. It’s now cool and gloomy.

Ups and downs. Unlike anything we’ve seen.

Wednesday I was dressed as skimpy as I could find. Today I’m in sweat pants and a long-sleeved top.

I can’t figure nor rely on anything to do with the weather.

=============

I’m updating this post on Sunday, the 12th of June. Today was still dern cold. I started out in shorts, switched to sweat pants, then added a long sleeved vellour button up top and later yet another layer, another top. I also hugged my laptop for warmth. It’s not supposed to be like this here in June in Michigan!!!

I’m the author of the ODPC workshop program and therefore, I have to proofread a lot of text. I was explaining to my proofreader, Nancy, why I am so finicky. I explained it this way:

My first job in 1961, was that of a proof-reader at a newspaper (the Midland Daily News). Obviously that made me aware of the problems with the “language.” It was about then that I had my two children.

After that I worked as a secretary at Dow Chemical Company for about a dozen years. I worked there in the 1970′s. (That means I am “vested” and I currently receive about $60 a month from the Dow Chemical retirement program.)

I quit working completely for a couple of years while my children were teenagers (a difficult time.) After that brief hiatus when I was a “stay at home mom,” I became personal secretary for the wealthy owner of several hockey clubs including the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was a tough boss who really needed someone who knew everything.

But the job at the newspaper, at Dow, and at the hockey club, were all easier than what I encountered next… When I left the hockey club, I went to Saginaw Valley State University.

It was in the late 1970′s that I became supervisor of faculty secretaries for Saginaw Valley State University. Obviously when you are preparing papers for instructors, including the English Department, you need to be accurate.

That’s when I discovered that I could spot problems in punctuation, spelling, and language usage. I found errors when papers were handed to me by the instructors in the various departments. (Those departments included English, accounting, history, etc.) I felt there were often obvious problems.

Finally I went to the head of the English Department (Dr. Basil Clark). I told him I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t my job to tell a PhD that he’d used incorrect English, but I could tell that many of the instructors were wrong in their grammar or sentence structure. It was a problem of tact. I didn’t know how to handle it.

Dr. Clark and I came to an understanding. He had faith that I knew more about proper English usage than all but one of his instructors. After our conversation, Dr. Clark let it be known that I had his permission to change any papers that came to me with, what I determined to be, errors. (He said I knew more than his staff.)

There was only the one exception. That one exception was a Rhodes scholar, Dr. Tiner, who wanted everything the way he wrote it without exception. (And I certainly respected him enough to leave his writings and papers alone.)

For the couple of years while I worked at Saginaw Valley State University, my instruction was to proof all papers which came across my desk. I was told the reputation of the university depended on me. I needed to be sure that there were no (English language) mistakes.

It stuck with me.

A couple of years later I was sought out by St. Mary’s Medical Center to work in their Administration Department. I felt that was one of the strong reasons they had recruited me. At St. Mary’s, my first job was at an administrative secretarial level but, by the time I retired (23 years later, in 2004), my job was in administration at the hospital working as the person who wrote reports which went to the state for approval of services and equipment. I had become the expert person who worked for them and through-out the region and wrote vital reports to obtain operating rooms, lithotripters, MRIs, and other major pieces of equipment. I was “rented out” for my skills.

During my last year at the hospital, when a Vice President from St. Mary’s went to another position (Tawas City) as president of that hospital, I took over a lot of his job.

All of it took an excellence in writing skills.

But surprisingly, it was that old job at Saginaw Valley which had impressed on me the need for perfect English more than any other ability.

I can’t change now. I’m too old.

PS: Part of the problem is that rules continuously change. I just “proofed” this posting and found that the word “English” is now almost always capitalized. Previously it was only used with a capital when it pertained to “England.” Therefore the broad term, english language, would have been ok in lower case, but now it’s “English language” with a capital on the “E.” You can’t use yesterday’s rules and be correct.

And I never use spell checkers. They don’t understand English usage.

Donna Markland (of Bill and Donna, our Florida country dance instructors) called me today. It was nice to “catch up” on everything they’ve been doing. They’re super friendly folks who really help create a fun atmosphere.

Before the call ended, Donna asked if I knew anything about the dead lady in the freezer in Kings Point. It was intriguing question but I didn’t know anything about a freezer and a body.

She went on to tell me the story.

It seems that an 86-year-old resident of Kiings Point (Allan Dunn) committed suicide (gunshot) in August 2010. He had no heirs who would step up to claim his body. His children wanted nothing to do with him. Instead a waitress who had befriended him was assigned to manage his assets. After probate, she was given the keys to the condo at 201 Kings Boulevard, and she and her sister started cleaning out the place in preparation for sale.

When she opened the door of a freezer on the back porch, imagine her shock. There was a woman’s body.

Allan Dunn had cared for his wife during the last years of her life. She apparently died of natural causes but he stored her body in the freezer for 11 YEARS!!

You can read “the rest of the story” in the this article from the “Tampa Bay Tribune.”

How tragic.

Last night the new credit cards finally arrived at about 5:30. It took all last evening and about an hour today to notify the 18 companies where auto-payments are credited to our account. I’ll probably think of more as time goes by, but I got through the list I’d prepared.

I also finished the workshop program and now it’s in the hands of my proof reader. (Still could have changes, but it looks pretty dern good!)

This afternoon John and I are going shopping. Maybe we can find a way to celebrate the completion of my projects. John needs to feel he has his “wife” back.

Working on the program of workshops for the dulcimer festival always takes months but I’ve nearly finished. Within the next couple of days, it should be “in the bag.”

What can we do to celebrate?

John’s been patient, but he’s tired of me being tied up on my computer.

I think we both deserve a holiday.

Of course, it’s not done yet, and this weekend’s credit card problem still isn’t solved because the replacement card didn’t come today as I’d been told.

Today started out promising. Lovely weather.

We decided to buy a pedal boat. It would be great exercise and would get us out on the lake. Menards had them on sale (great price) but they’d sold out and rainchecks weren’t available. We were disappointed.

On the way home we made a couple additional stops. I was surprised when my credit card was rejected at Meijers (but figured it was a glitch in their equipment.) At Home Depot, John’s card was also rejected. Something was up!

When I got home I immediately called Chase/Visa. They said they’d spotted a problem with our account and realized John’s card had been compromised. To make sure there were no further attempts, they’d put a hold on both our cards. (They’re linked through my business.)

It was impressive to find that they’d caught the attempts before they cleared and stopped them before there were more. There were a lot of them ranging from only about $10 to nearly $300. Maybe there were even higher amounts but those were the ones mentioned. Three of the transactions showed up as pending on my on-line account and weren’t places we’d ever heard of. The customer service rep (who sounded like “Peggy” from the credit card commercial) said he would cancel all charges, and cancel John’s card, which was the only one that had been compromised.

John uses his card primarily for gas and food purchases. No big deal.

I was assured my card would not be affected.

After dinner, I went to the Chase/Visa website to check the names of the businesses and to look over our previous statements but everything was cancelled. I called Chase/Visa and found they’d made a mistake. Instead of cancelling John’s account, MY account had been voided. Our MAIN HOUSEHOLD ACCOUNT was gone. His was still active! They immediately cancelled his. There was no way to “restore” mine so two cards are being issued with new account numbers.

I did find the reason the usage had triggered concern was that John’s card was being used in New York Friday and the items purchased didn’t fit our profile. Obviously that wasn’t us. Glad Visa caught it, but wish they hadn’t cancelled my card.

That card is the one we use for all of our on-going monthly payments. Everything! Our Upper Peninsula light bill, our cable in Florida, our cellphone, my Paypal account, Wall Street Journal, newspapers, phone service, domain host, motel reservations, domain names, and several more accounts are paid from that card. There are at least 15 accounts that I’ll have to revise and/or notify when we get our new cards. Since the old card will be rejected, payments won’t be made with the old card. One due date is the 5th. I have to work fast and I hope I remember all of them. The cards should arrive Monday.

We have great credit. I never have to send checks, nor do I worry about anything being paid on time. Everything is auto-paid with my credit card and the credit card is paid off each month in full from a bank account. It was easy, until this happened!!!

I’m bummed!!!

Note: Knowing that I’m an internet techie, a lot of folks are going to think John’s problem was somehow caused by internet use. But John’s credit card numbers were never given out on line. He used his exclusively for purchases from gas stations, stores like Meijer, Home Depot, Walmart , Menards, restaurants, his dentist and grocery stores. And he never lost or mislaid his card. We can only think that a store that John purchased from, had their transactions hacked.

Michigan finally feels like Florida. (And that’s a compliment.) It’s warm and balmy. For once I can’t find any complaints with the weather. It’s absolutely glorious. Today it was in the mid 70′s and sunny without any noticeable wind.

I’m perfectly content to stay here, as it is now, until October 1st when we’ll pack it all up and head south.

Today I spent several hours finding motels which fit into our itinerary for our return trip to Florida. We plan to leave Michigan on October 1st and will arrive in Florida on Oct. 3rd.

The whole landscape has changed since Willow died. No longer is it vital to find a place which accepts pets at no additional fee. Our tiny dog was a very quiet, non disturbing pet, that no one ever even knew was on site. The only choice we felt we had was a stay at the closest Red Roof Inn. Now the horizon is wider.

With Willow gone, we can consider those places which would have charged large pet fees or just said “no.”

Almost always we stayed in London, KY, at a lovely (very high end) Red Roof Inn, and then in “Valdosta, GA.”

We’re still planning on London, but in Valdosta, the Red Roof has closed (and wasn’t very impressive when it was open).

For our October 2-3 stay, I finally found that Tifton, GA, is a little further north and would probably fit the schedule even better so I went searching. I locked into a Microtel in Tifton, GA.

John definitely prefers a continental breakfast over most features and the Microtel offered one. So we took the bait and we now have reservations.

I spent from 8:15 a.m. until after 11:20 a.m. today, not counting the more than hour I wasted last night. That’s nearly FOUR HOURS OF SEARCHING and scheduling!! Certainly the few dollars I saved are worth a lot more than I invested.

It’s a problem which I haven’t totally solved. The internet has all the info but it takes so much time to scope it all out.

But at least for October 2011, I have us reserved at the Red Roof, Oct. 1-2 in London, KY, and in Tifton, GA, Oct 2-3 at the Microtel.

If we find a great “stay,” we’ll be repeat customers for all the years ahead.

We’ve stayed in London at the Red Roof countless times. It’s still our favorite stop and definitely best in that area. We have nice rooms and pleasant hosts. The restaurants in the area are good, the continental breakfast grand, and we feel it more than fits our needs.

The Microtel Motel in Tifton will be a “first time” stay. We’ll let you know what we discover.