We’ve now been down here for 10 fun days! We’ve enjoy the company of wonderful friends, danced and reversed aging. I feel like I’ve lost ten years and I’m aiming for fewer pounds.

We’ve been getting together with friends and enjoying our first five days in Paradise.

We’re having golf cart problems but it’s nothing that buying new batteries won’t solve. John wants to try all options before he out-lays the $600 dollars but I’m impatient to have reliable transportation. I hate wondering if we can make it round-trip. We can only go about six miles on a charge so we haven’t felt like we can talke the cart to Publix, Walmart or Beall’s. Hopefully I can convince him by Monday.

Our car and truck are running, so we do have transportation, but the truck will be moved to storage this afternoon so it’ll be out of driveway and we’ll have easier access to the garage.

Here we are with a car, truck, bike with a motor, and a golf cart (which admittedly needs new batteries), but we are definitely not limited.

Woke up this morning in our Florida bed. Even at 7:30, it was hot, very overcast and super steamy, but now (in the middle of the afternoon) my view from the great room window shows beautiful blue skies, few puffy clouds, beautiful palm trees, lovely green grass, and our pretty ponds.

Our condo had accumulated more dirt than I remember in the past, or maybe it just seemed that way.

Funny how you forget things, when you’ve been gone six months. We had problems using the remote on our main TV. Changed the batteries and tried everything but then discovered we were using the wrong remote.

With Halloween right around the corner, I’d like to put out our ceramic pumpkin and little “howling” ghost, but both have disappeared. I have looked everywhere for them. I’m sure I’ll eventually stumble across them. Maybe when I’m looking for our Easter decorations.

I still have a lot of clothes to put away but little by little we’ll get settled. No rush.

Only major problem is with our golf cart. The batteries lost their charge completely and won’t even respond to the charger. Hopefully, using a suggestion from the golf cart store, we can charge the individual batteries but since there are six, it’ll take until tomorrow. Let’s hope we can get it going. I feel like a shut-in without a cart.

Today was a good day to rest, but tomorrow I want to spend time at the pool. The sunshine is really inviting and it’s supposed to be close to 90. (The report is for a cool-down into the low 80’s by Wednesday of this week so I better take advantage of the warmth.)

We’re nearly ready to head south. Tomorrow night at this time, we hope to be in Clinton, TN.

Packing is a science. I started a couple weeks ago, but the final stuff won’t go in until tomorrow morning.

The past couple of days, John’s been packing the truck. We sure take a lot. We have instruments (banjo, sax, hammered dulcimer, autoharp, ukulele and marimbula), 25 gallons grape juice to be made into wine, a bike on a back rank, clothes, and lots of miscellaneous stuff.

We definitely resemble picture. Loaded to the max.

I look forward to the 1,300 mile trip. It’s fun to spend two days beside my husband. A great time to chat and enjoy the scenery.

Saturday night we hope to enjoy a lovely dinner and stay in a nice motel. Sunday, provided everything goes according to plan, we’ll pull into our condo at about 7:30.

It’s an adventure! And when we get to Florida, the adventure will continue. What an awesome life!

This year, the first day — and the second night — of Chanukah falls on November 28, which also happens to be Thanksgiving. This particular coincidence, according to one calculation, won’t happen again for some 77,000 years, and some American Jews are pretty excited.

Our Jewish friends are imagining “mashups” of the two holidays — turkeys with latkes, pilgrims and rabbis, dreidel balloons at the Macy’s Thanksgivukkah Day Parade.

The hybrid holiday — which some folks spell “Thanksgivukkah” offers a chance to celebrate both Jewish and American values.

Thanksgiving always falls on the fourth Thursday in November, and the next time American Jews will light Chanukah candles at Thanksgiving will be in 2070, when the first night of the festival begins at sundown on November 27. That overlap hasn’t happened since 1918.

Regardless, because the Jewish lunar calendar is slowly falling out of sync with the solar calendar — with Jewish holidays moving forward through the seasons at a rate of four days every 1,000 years — Chanukah has slowly but surely been moving deeper into winter and away from Thanksgiving.

This year, however, Chanukah begins at sundown on Wednesday, November 27, which means that the entire day of Thanksgiving overlaps with the Jewish holiday. So on Thursday night — sometime during the first quarter of the Steelers-Ravens game, for those on the West Coast — families can fire up their menorahs.

Since we have several Jewish couples among our friends, I’m glad to announce this joint holiday.

Today I got a call from Linda, one of our Kings Point Friends. She was checking to find out if we will be with her and her husband (and a dozen or more others) at the North Club New Years Eve party.

Yes, we are definitely planning to attend the party she mentioned so I mailed the check immediately.

She (as a year-round resident) always makes sure that we have our tickets/arrangements so we don’t miss things when we return to our southern haven. She keeps our fall/winter/spring life going. When she realizes there’s party/show/dance that we may not know about, she contacts us, collects the money from us, and buys the tickets.

There are givers and takers as we go through life. Linda is a giver. She makes sure we don’t miss a thing. She looks at the calendar while we’re up north (six months of the year) and makes sure that, if we’re going to be in Florida, we’ll be able to enjoy those activities she knows we love!

Thanks, Linda. You’re one of a kind.

We love you!!

We have a full calendar of events to anticipate:

I’m eager. Here in Michigan from May to October, we live day to day, doing very little socializing. But in a couple weeks we’ll be having fun with friends and we’ll soak up the lifestyle that keeps everyone we know young and smiling.

The first week we arrive we’ll have extra stuff to do (cleaning the condo, unloading and moving back in, grocery shopping, putting the truck in storage, meeting with our financial advisor, etc.)

But we’re anticipating the fun stuff. Getting to the pool is primary for me. It’s where we meet up with our friends. We will arrive at our condo Sunday evening. I know we’ll need to settle in, but hopefully we can get things roughly organized so we can head to the pool for an hour or two Monday morning. On Mondays, we always have a afternoon commitments to John’s chorus and my line dance class.

Tuesday is a free day for the pool. Tuesday evening there’s a karaoke evening in the clubhouse. Karaoke nights are really fun. (We used anticipate Thursday’s Rockin’ Rendezvous over everything that happened all week, but now these Tuesday night activities have surpassed Thursday.)

Wednesday is kind of an open day (with a “Nearly New” sale downtown in the morning). If we haven’t done so before, we’ll need to go shopping to stock the condo.

We have a conflict that first Thursday: a wine and cheese party AND a Rockin’ Rondezvous at the South Club.

Friday p.m. and Saturday a.m. there’s a fun “almost world’s largest” Garage Sale at the main clubhouse, and Friday evening we’re planning to attend an evening concert at the Sun City Center Community Hall. We have tickets for an event which will feature a tribute to Buddy Holly and Fats Domino with performances and hopefully some dancing. Saturday is a “free day” so we can shop, or whatever we need/want to do.

Sunday evening we have a costume party/dance at the main Kings Point Clubhouse presented by one of the clubs we belong to (Baby Boomers).

Sounds like a grand week and that’s just the start of nearly seven months of good living and happy days.