It would be great if we could fly back and forth from Florida to Michigan and everything would be in place when we arrived at our condo (or Michigan home). No days of packing and unpacking. No loading and unloading. We wouldn’t miss the fourteen hundred miles of traffic and congestion. The first year maybe we’d need to UPS some of our stuff, but we’d like to aim for the eventual possibility of just having everything in place.

I have a lengthy list of stuff we drag back and forth. Many of the items could be left either in Michigan or Florida and we’d get by. We would need to buy duplicates of a few things, but I’ve started outfitting both places with the same essentials.

Our musical instruments present some problems. John could leave his Webster dulcimer here and I could leave my Orthey autoharp. John could play one of our other two Websters which are currently in Michigan and I could play my Oscar Schmidt autoharp when up there. But his Bacon and Day Silver Bell banjo is a bit of a problem. Although he has another banjo in Michigan, it’s not the quality of the one that he drags back and forth. He also has only one ukulele. He could ship the banjo, but eventually we want to get it down to a point where we have all items located one place or the other and they’d stay there.

But in the near future, the bigger blockade to our plans is Charlie, our bird. What do we do with Charlie? We’ve kidded that we could let him fly on his own, but obviously that’s not possible. He’s old. He may not be around many more years, but he seems to be doing fine. We certainly expect that he’ll make the round trip with us home in May and back here in October so we’re stuck driving.

At least in May, 2014, and then again in October, 2014, provided Charlie is still with us, we plan to drive to Michigan and back to Florida. That may mean John will want to buy another vehicle for our “road trips.” He would like to replace our Michigan Chevy Malibu with a late model SUV which gets decent mileage. He’d drive that to Florida instead of our 2003 GMC diesel truck.

Of course even if we bought an SUV, we’d need to keep our truck in Michigan until we decide to replace our 5th wheel with a trailer. (It’s the vehicle we use to tow the 28′ 5th wheel.) If we get an SUV, upgrading our RV to a nice but smaller trailer would be our next purchase.

Once we have a road-worthy SUV and we drive it to Florida, the next thing John would like to do is to sell our Florida Jaguar (although I love that car more than any of our vehicles). It stays down here all of the time (in our Florida garage when we’re in Michigan). But we could get rid of it, if we have a more conveniently sized vehicle we can use when in Florida. Our big GMC diesel crew cab truck, which we drive down, doesn’t work for any car trips around here at all so we move it to the “RV Storage area” and there it stays (covered with a canvas cover we bought for it) all the time we’re in Florida. (The RV truck storage rental slot costs us $155 annually.)

John’s a numbers guy. As he sees it, we’d save $155 annually for truck storage, plus almost $560 which we spend annually for the Jaguar license and insurance. And if we get rid of the Malibu, that would save over $530 in license and insurance. Of course he isn’t considering the more than $30,000 that it would cost to purchase the new SUV which would also need license and insurance and for an SUV would probably be higher than either the $560 or $530 we pay on our current vehicles annually.

I’d rather wait another year. Maybe by then we’ll lose Charlie. If that happens, we can keep the truck to haul our 5th wheel in Michigan, keep our 5th wheel, keep our Jaguar, and just fly back and forth from Michigan to Florida. No expenditures would be necessary except for the flights back and forth which sound like a bargain. And if we do that, we won’t have our truck here in Florida, so we’ll save the $155 for the rental of the storage space in the RV storage area.

The way I look at it, the vehicle is only part of the equation. We aren’t getting any younger so driving back and forth, even in the snazziest SUV won’t eliminate the strain of driving the 1,300 miles each way. If we don’t have Charlie (our bird) in the equation, we’d be wiser to fly which is safer. We would then want a vehicle down here so we could fly in and have a car to drive. The Jaguar is perfect.

Eventually we may still replace our Malibu with a more versatile SUV and eventually upgrade our 5th wheel and get rid of the truck, but it wouldn’t be because we needed it to drive to Florida. We can figure it out at that time.

Of course at that point you’ve gotten into big bucks: A SUV and a new trailer are BIG expenses. We have an 2003 GMC truck, a 2004 Chevy Malibu, a 2005 Jaguar and an old 5th wheel to trade up or sell for these new up-grades but you’re talking about well over $50,000-$60,000 in new purchases, and probably less than 20,000 for the vehicles we’d sell or trade in. That’s a huge difference and for what reason?

Oh, well.. we’ll figure it all out.

In the gated community of Kings Point there are three pools available to all residents: the North Club pool, the South Club pool, and the Nantucket pool.

For us the closest one is at the South Club. (It’s an easy five minute walk.) It’s beautifully landscaped, large and a fun social gathering place. Unfortunately it’s always over-crowded, especially in the springtime when kids visit their grandparents. No matter how early we go, it seems it’s hard to find a shady spot.

So today we decided to try the Nantucket pool. It’s not as far from us as the North Club and we have heard that it’s rarely crowded.

It was a nice golfcart ride. We went about noon. It was quiet and nearly empty! A few more folks arrived through the afternoon, but it was never crowded. It isn’t as pretty, the chairs were a little less comfortable, but the tranquility was wonderful!

John said we should keep it our secret. We’re afraid everyone will discover that this location is perfect. We’ll go back, and I might even try walking to it (although it’s considerably further).

So don’t let anyone know. Shhhhh….

Many states are becoming more restrictive and requiring state issued I.D. cards prior to voting. That started a discussion among my facebook friends. Comments were exchanged. The side which felt I.D. cards should be required had a strong argument. Those on the other side suggested that the state requirements often were difficult for some voters. I fell in the middle until I thought back to my own experience:

A couple of years ago I decided to become a Florida resident which meant I’d have a Florida I.D. (in my case, a driver’s license.) I couldn’t believe how difficult the process was.

Once a lady is married, you had to bring your certified birth certificate and certified marriage certificate (which proved your new name.) If you’d been married more than once, you needed to bring your divorce certificate and next marriage certificate for any subsequent marriages. I had a current (Michigan) drivers’ license but I was told that wouldn’t count.

It’s my feeling that most folks who are divorced don’t bother to save old marriage licenses and divorce certificates, but in Florida, they had to be provided (especially for women) to “track your name”. I had called the Florida state offices so I knew what was required and since I’d been married before I spent quite a bit to secure both my marriage and divorce records from Michigan. It wasn’t cheap and it took time (about a month) and paperwork.

Surprisingly when I got to the Florida county office to apply for my Florida license/i.d., the clerk looked at me and let me use just my birth certificate, my 1985 Michigan marriage certificate to John and my current driver’s license. She said it was because the Michigan marriage certificate showed both my maiden and married name. But I guess most states don’t include maiden names on (re-)marriage certificates so both the divorce and the re-marriage certificates are required to apply for a state i.d. or drivers license.

I can see why getting a voter registration certification is difficult for those with limited resources. How many disadvantaged folks would spend several months preparing and spend $$$ so they can vote? That’s what I did so I could secure a valid Florida ID.

John is still a Michigan resident, but I am a valid, driver’s license certified Florida resident. I now have a Florida voter card. But it was complicated because I’m a woman so don’t carry my name from birth to death. I’m glad I have the resources and abilities to file the necessary applications.

Do those who are disadvantaged have that ability?

I carry a purse (as do many women). Several times I’ve used public rest room and found that rest rooms aren’t set up for women with purses.

Most recently (Friday, March 7th) I was in Riverview, at John’s pulmonologist. I took my purse into the unisex rest room and found there was no hook nor shelf on which to set it. The doorknob was a lever so it wouldn’t allow me hang the purse there without the weight of it unlocking the door. I put the purse on the only place I could.. the very narrow edge of the sink. Of course it fell into the sink (or maybe it only hung over), but either way, that action triggered the “automatic” faucet and my purse was drenched. I grabbed it as quickly as I could but it was dripping wet as was everything inside of it (checkbook, tickets for a party I was selling, etc.)

Actually I’m glad it was just MY purse. Since it was “unisex,” John could have just as easily used the facility and he was carrying his medical records in a case. They’d have been drenched and they’d be difficult to replace.

If this had been the only time it had happened, I wouldn’t be as upset, but it also happened at another doctor’s office and it too had no shelves nor hooks and an automatic faucet which was triggered by the purse on the edge.

Unfortunately both times I thought I could balance my purse. And both times I didn’t know the faucet would come on, triggered by the over-hang or the purse which had fallen into the sink.

I don’t want to appear to be against technology and the auto faucet features are handy and desirable, but I feel businesses should provide a solution (or a warning saying, “Don’t set items on side of sink because it may trigger the faucet and your item is liable to be drenched.”) But what’s the choice? The floor? A poor solution!!! I suggest they send their handyman to Home Depot and buy a cheap shelf. It can be installed in 10 minutes for under $30 and we’ll all be happy.

(Note: John suggested a hook on the back of the door until I reminded him that the portfolio case he carried didn’t have a handle so, if it had happened to him, he’d have still have wet medical records.)

Business places, please consider the folks who use your facilities. (Put up a shelf.)

Both John and I have been congested and miserable for several weeks. We haven’t felt like going out much but we haven’t been idle either. We’ve visited Busch Gardens once a week for the last three weeks where we’ve enjoyed the Osmonds, Frankie Avalon, and Lee Greenwood’s shows.

King’s Point’s huge “garage sale” was Friday the 28th and March 1st. We picked up a few bargains.

For John’s 76th birthday on March 1st, the two of us took a picnic (huge carry-out wet burritos) to Sunset Beach, Little Harbor, on Tampa Bay, and enjoyed the sand and surf. At home, we enjoyed a piece of John’s b-day cake. It was a little chilly (mid 60’s by sunset) but we’d brought jackets so it was nice. (We also brought a small table, cooler, and folding chairs. We do things right!!)

Oscar night, Sunday, March 2nd, we attended a fun Oscar party complete with great food, fun setting, and super people. Stephen & Caroline are hands down the best hosts.

We hadn’t been to any of the nominated movies this year but I considered it a challenge when Stephen mailed us a ballot listing the 24 Oscar category nominees so I studied. I only missed selecting three of the 24 winners. (The three I missed: the big one.. best picture, animated short film, and documentary. Got the 21 others.)

My birthday was Tuesday, March 4th. John gave me the option to do whatever I wanted. I chose to go to Busch Gardens and take in the Lee Greenwood show. It’s not that I’m a Lee Greenwood fan, but I was sure I’d enjoy him since no tune stirs me like “God Bless The USA.”)

Lee is a decent country singer but he only had one recognizable hit (ok, maybe two if you count “Dixie Road”), but most folks can only recall his one 1980’s great patriotic tune. I enjoyed the show. He definitely can still sing and play the sax, but unlike most of the acts in the Busch Gardens Real Music Series, his list of hits was very short (for me.. one). “God Bless the USA” was worth the price of admission and everyone sang along, but usually at these shows you hear more recognizable tunes… There weren’t any.

John wasn’t feeling well so when we left the show we made our way to the exit gate (stopping often to rest). I am concerned about John’s health! (Thank heavens he has an appointment Friday with his Florida pulmonologist.)

When we got back to Sun City Center, we stopped at Publix and bought an awesome steak which we enjoyed for my birthday dinner with a nice salad, a baked potato, and a glass of wine. PERFECT!! My kind of birthday!!

Weather couldn’t have been better (80+ degrees) but the really heavy heavy oak pollen impacted both of us. My black camera bag looked like yellow baby powder had been shaken on it. Couldn’t believe it could be that heavy.

Maybe the pollen is why we’ve been miserable.