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.

Today, finally (with the help of my proofreader, Nancy), I completed the “index of workshop classes” and “three daily workshop grids” for the ODPC Funfest in Evart, Michigan. I emailed those two files to the leaders. I’ll be hearing from them as they review their commitments.

The recent weather has been lousy. Today was another rainy cool day, but tomorrow things will change. They’re saying that, within the next couple days, it’ll be nearly 90! That’s quite a change from the 50’s and 60’s we’ve been experiencing as daily highs.

But I’m already planning for the fall. I’ve reserved a table of tickets to a Prudential Sunshine Kids (kids with cancer) benefit in October at the Community Hall in Sun City Center, FL.

And the North Clubhouse at Kings Point in our Florida community is undergoing a major renovation. Can’t wait to see the changes.

What are we doing socially here?

This Thursday, we discovered a ballroom dance group. It’s a reasonable price and includes a really good dinner plus dance instruction and free-dance time. Can’t go wrong at $10 a person.

Right now I’m waiting for the predicted warm-up.

I have watched and rewatched this video which was a Grand Rapids community creation. I can’t imagine a city caring so much and creating such an awesome video.

Watch it once, and I’ll bet you’ll go back and watch it again!

Grand Rapids, Michigan promo Video!!!!!! Wow!!

I don’t like to have my photo taken.

Recently I was asked to provide a photo for the ODPC newsletter (an article about the workshops). I suggested one which I’ve used for a couple of years at “my 2009 photo.”

It was rejected and I was asked to take another. It was two years old so I guess it was time to replace it. So today I did. (John took the picture) And to the left is the current photo I came up with, which was taken today.

As I get older (my next birthday I’ll be 70) I balk at photos. I know I could be worse off and I’m fortunate to be in the shape I’m in, but nevertheless I hate to see myself in print.

In fact I’ve often wondered how my family would ever find a picture of me if they needed one. I had dozens of my mother, and I know I could lay my hands on dozens I’ve taken of John, but I’m usually the one behind the lens and therefore I have very few pictures of me. So here’s the most recent from May 27, 2011.

The three daily grids of workshops for the ODPC Funfest Hammered Dulcimer Festival are now in my proof-reader, Nancy’s, capable hands for checking and re-checking. It’s taken me nearly a month to complete the scheduling of the three days (from 9:00-5:00 each night in nine different areas).

I sent her all of the raw data as well as the three complete and ready-to-go daily schedules. (I call the grids.) The three daily grids are the back-bone of the workshop schedule. They’ll go in the final program.

Now I need to get busy with the “descriptions,” which are the elaborations for each class in the schedule.

I should have the whole 18-page program completed by the end of June. (Three pages done, 15 to go!!)

A couple days ago, I thought I’d have the workshop schedule done by now but nope!! I worked a whole eight-hour or more day today. I finally sent the files to my proofreader only to find I had sent an “earlier revision” and some how the last revision was lost. I had to tell her to hold up any proofing. (I’ll re-do it tomorrow.)

My proofreader, Nancy, has helped me for several years.

I just found out, she has faced a health crisis over the past seven months with multiple surgeries and now chemo. I wish she’d shared her problems with me.

She’s a sweet lady.

We work well together.

I have sensed that she thinks like I do. She knows how I want the punctuation. She understands why I decide to do things like I do. We have an unspoken bond. Because we think alike. To find that she’s had health problems bothers me. I want to help her somehow.

What a lovely, giving person!!

Today I worked for six to eight hours on the schedule of workshops for the ODPC Funfest, the world’s largest hammered dulcimer event.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve devoted dozens upon dozens of hours to this project. Today I set as my weekend goal, the completion of the three daily grids (for July 14, 15, and 16). I just about succeeded, but I decided to wait until tomorrow or Monday and, with a fresh start, I can get that part of the workshop program job done with greater accuracy.

Of course, once the grids are finalized, I still need to generate 16 pages of descriptions which will let those attending know what they can expect from each class.

I haven’t been feeling well, but I knew I needed to keep working. Today I had to re-do a lot of what I’d done when I wasn’t up-to-par. I now realize have to be “sharp” when I’m working with this stuff, and it’s apparent that I wasn’t. Nevertheless, I hope to spot my mistakes within the next day or two and get everything smoothed out. Then I can send it to my proof-reader while I start on the descriptions.

At least I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The three daily grids are the tough part of the project. By comparison, the descriptions are easy. I figure I’ll have it ready to go to the printer near the end of June.

At least the day was lovely and my view was grand. I took my laptop and the printouts to our deck so at least I was outside. (The photo above was what I saw whenever I looked up from my work.)

The past couple of days I haven’t felt well. It started Tuesday morning. I woke up really congested. After I got up and started moving around, it didn’t bother me much until evening and then I felt like I had a horrid cold. A few shots of nasal spray (high octane stuff) and some antihistamines cleared my head.

I felt better most of Wednesday. But Wednesday night was a repeat of Tuesday. The bad cold feeling hit me again in the evening and I really suffered. Last night I got almost no sleep.

If my problem is an allergy, I don’t know what I’m confronting but it really wipes me out.

Tonight I had planned to go to St. Charles for our sub-division association meeting/dinner, but I feared a repeat of the past two evenings, so I stayed home.

John had a practice with George Horny’s polka band so he wasn’t planning to attend the association dinner-meeting with me anyway, and the idea of driving over alone and then maybe feeling rotten dissuaded me.

George’s band is playing for a graduation party on the 11th of June.

This week it’s been wet and chilly. Tomorrow and over the weekend it’s supposed to warm up and be glorious so I can’t wait. Maybe with a little sunshine, I’ll feel better.

(*Note: My definition of “half a bubble off” means not feeling up to par. If you’re familiar with the use use of a level, you know when things are “centered” by the bubble. But when things aren’t quite right, you’re “half a bubble off.” I didn’t feel well so that’s how I described my condition. I wasn’t sick, but not well.)

The pace of our life is so different in Florida than in Michigan. In Kings Point, Sun City Center, FL, we’re up and out early to get to the pool where we join with friends. There are dance classes and evening gatherings. There are spaghetti nights in Ruskin and dances at the Community Hall. We hang out at the pool on our “noodles,” exchanging small-talk. All activities are accompanied by the chatter of people who are special to us, the pleasant warmth of multiple friendships, and the feeling that “it doesn’t get any better that this.”

Here in Michigan, John gets more than enough of exercise working in the yard. I’m busy working on-line doing festival organization or web work, but that only exercises my enlarging butt. In Florida, I feel better because I walk a great deal. John gets lots of exercise with pickleball.

During these summer months in Michigan, it’s the social aspect of our day-to-day existence that is missing plus, this week, I’ve missed pleasant temperatures warm enough to encourage lots of lung-cleansing deep breaths. It’s been really cold (stay inside cold!)

Here, we have very little involvement with others.

The quiet/peaceful situation we find ourselves in here in Michigan is of our own doing. Most of it is really enjoyable. We usually love our solitude. But at the some time, we/I miss the social contacts we have in Florida. But if we want to create a social circle close to our Michigan residence, we need to work on it.

Neighborhood: We moved into our neighborhood 25 years ago. We were one of the first houses on our lake. That first Christmas we got to know all of our neighbors by hosting a party that included everyone. But over the years, the neighborhood has developed and all the sites around the lake are now filled (about 80 homes). The original folks moved out and were replaced by new neighbors we didn’t know and we’ve never met. For many years, we were working so didn’t have a great deal of time to visit and weekends were taken up with trips to the U.P. where we have a place. But now we’re retired. Most of our neighbors still work and they have their own lives. I don’t think those who live near us are a ripe source of friendships. They have their own interests. It’s possible that the neighbors aren’t good candidates, but this Thursday the subdivision is having a gathering and I’m hoping to go (although John may have other plans). We’ll see what happens.

Church: We have a bond with a congregation when in Florida at the United Methodist Church of Sun City Center. It has a wonderful music program and we feel at home there. We haven’t found a church in Saginaw that has had that impact on us, but we are going to see if we can find one where “fit” like we do in Florida.

Organizations: In Florida, we belong to a bunch of social clubs: Oldies But Goodies, Kings Point Ballroom Dance Club, Baby Boomers, and the Michigan Club. We take advantage of several dance opportunities a week including our Rockin’ Rendezvous Thursday nights, our Wednesday night Country Dance Club group, and other “get out and shake you’re booty” opportunities.

I’ve been trying to locate dances in the Saginaw area. I’m still looking.

Sure we have friends who have been important in our lives for years. Most are part of the music community. But the problem is that those Michigan friends are “spread out.” Getting together involves driving a distance. These great folks aren’t next door or even a few miles away. Most of our friends are half way across the state. We see those folks at music gatherings, but they don’t occur often. Between times, there’s a void.

Our Michigan social situation is in a “rut” that is hard to escape, but it’s time that we tried. I realize that my life is “on hold” during the summer months. I find myself waiting to return to Florida.

John, on the other hand has a more active social life here than I do. He has a close, near-by buddy/friend. They get together frequently, gardening, making wine, and playing music.

John also looks forward to working in the yard. It’s his thing. (But even he admits, each year he is more content during the six months when we’re in Florida.)

But we need to create a fun social life from April until October.

Maybe, when it warms up a little, we can host have a bar-be-que on our deck. We need to do something to wake up our social life!!

We’ve received several “sympathy” cards from friends who know about our loss. They are thoughtful and deeply appreciated. (We have special friends!)

Willow was a tiny heart-stealer. She joined our family 14 years ago when she was nine months old. She died April 29th, a month short of her 15th birthday.

What a charmer! But she wasn’t easy. She had a reputation for being impossible for anyone but us to approach successfully. She’d nip (although no one ever claimed she’d successfully bitten them.) But it was fun to watch folks try to get her to warm up to them.

The secret was to grab her from behind and hold her off the ground. She wouldn’t bite the hand that was holding her if she knew she’d have a distance to fall.

Willow loved music. As a young pup, John would play his dulcimer with her on his lap.

She went everywhere we went. She never missed a festival. Everyone knew she reigned at our campsite. She had her own comfortable double-seated lounge chair, but didn’t appreciate sharing it. When we’d arrive at the fairgrounds where the festival was held, she’d have more visitors than we did.

One of the sympathy cards came from a friend representing the Original Dulcimer Players Club (the organization that puts on the big festival we always attend.) The note in it said, “We were saddened to hear of the passing of Willow. She was a part of the festival, especially being named after Les Raber’s tune. The music community mourns with you.”

She was a special little dog and a true beauty. We miss her. There’ll definitely be a vacancy at the festivals where she was a fixture.

Last night John and I lead a Subterranean Strings Hammered Dulcimer Club practice. We challenged our members to play a whole bunch of new tunes. Most went well, but we did take it one tune too many. The last one didn’t work and it wasn’t anyone’s fault. You can’t over-saturate folks’ brains with new stuff and that’s what happened with the last tune.

June’s practice will polish up those that worked well and we’ll omit the ones that didn’t.

What a great bunch of friends. We love ’em all. They are the reason we enjoy Michigan.

Today we substituted for Gail Schwandt in Chesaning at the library. She’d promised to play for them today and then had to be out of town.

Gail had called us and asked us if we could fill in for her. We agreed. Gail’s husband, Lyle, came by and sat in with us, playing guitar. He’s a strong player but, as a three-some, we were a little shaky on some of the tunes we tried to play. John and I had practiced them together (the two of us), but a new person changes the dimension. Next time we’ll do better.

It’s good to be back in the music world. We aren’t the best, but we try hard and enjoy the people we know from music.

This house is a lot of work.

We got home two weeks ago and everything needed to be cleaned. Very little has actually been accomplished. It’s hard to get motivated. We spent most of last week shopping for a washer and dryer. It took several long days comparing prices and features.

And we’ve been trying to get ready for our music club practice tonight. It’s a big job to brush off our list of “playable” music. Also tomorrow the two of us are performing in Chesaning at the library for a couple of hours.

I also need to get crackin’ on the ODPC Funfest Workshops. I am behind schedule!!

Yup, I’m now going to report on our new washer. It’s purring.

I’ve washed so many loads that I’ve lost track. LOVE IT!

Nuff said!

Our 40-year-old washer was hauled away today by the guys who delivered our new and shiny, high efficiency, low-water washer.

The jury is still out on how we’ll like the new unit and its companion dryer. It wasn’t the most expensive. In fact, we considered units that were twice the price, but this unit sounded like it would “do it all” and give us more control over the process, while costing half the price of the high-end models.

The first load is still washing.

It was delivered this a.m. but the washer hoses weren’t included as we’d thought they would be, so we had to go back to the place where we’d bought the units and pick up hoses. We also needed more vent duct parts so John could vent the dryer to the outside. Everything is now installed and it’s working.

The models we selected are by Whirlpool. Nothing flashy, just a plain-jane white washer and dryer.

John’s concerned because the washer uses very little water. After it filled, we checked and the water level didn’t even cover the clothes. We had been forewarned that the new units really conserve water and energy.

We’ll report on how it cleans, but the fact that we have a washer and dryer and it seems to be going through the motions, gives me hope that tomorrow we’ll have clean underwear.

The house was dusty and dirty when we got home on the 27th, but we’re getting things in order. It’s not easy because I hate house-cleaning. I know there are people who actually like cleaning. I like a clean house, but I hate the process, and I’m very allergic to dust which makes it extra difficult.

John’s been working on the yard and garage. Plus he’s installed a vent system for our new dryer (which will be delivered tomorrow). I’ve tried to start on the workshop organization for the ODPC Funfest because I know I have only a few weeks before the entire program must be completed.

Things are actually shaping up. The great room is now nearly dust-free and things are coming together. Today I started to tackle the hot tub room, but there’s still lots more to do in that area. Little by little things are back in shape. The hot tub room, where we had a gazillion plants that all croaked over the winter is still not totally in order, but it’s much improved. The outside deck is cluttered but the maple trees are leafing out so it looks better.

Since getting home, John’s been cleaning the garage and working on the yard, while I’ve been cleaning, dusting, and doing some minor purging.

We have a couple of music events scheduled this week. Our club will practice on Friday and on Saturday the two of us will perform at the Chesaning Library.

We’re fitting back into the tempo of this area. There’s not much here as far as socializing, but it’s still the area where we have our roots.

Here’s a message I sent to Florida friends that catches everyone up on what’s been happening since we traveled from Florida to Michigan:

We got back to our home in mid-Michigan last Wednesday, the 27th.

We’d had a rather rough trip back because our little dog was so close to death. She had a seizure in the middle of a heavy rain-storm in route, but we got her home. She passed away Friday night. We’d had her for nearly 15 years!!

Saturday, we had to go across the state, to a planning meeting for the huge festival for the music community. We were gone all day and traveled almost 300 miles!

But now we’re home and settled.

The other night we had a big fire in the fireplace. It was cozy and enjoyable, but we miss the pool, pickleball, and rides on the golf cart. (But fireplaces are grand and make cool weather bearable!!)

We’ll be really busy as summer gets closer. We’re involve with the big festival during most of the month of July; and in June, July and August, we’ll be hosting three concerts in-the-park. We usually have a weekend camping event in August and we also have to find time to get to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to check on our property up there. (We only plan to go there for one week this summer, but it will be necessary to check-in at least once.)

Our clothes washer died before we left for Florida (last October.) We couldn’t do anything about it then, so we’re been in shopping mode. We finally found a washer and dryer so eventually we will have clean clothes. Delivery is scheduled for Tuesday. I don’t know yet if we made a good choice or not. but we were so tired in the end, that anything that promised to wash clothes was all we asked for. We didn’t care if the units folded and put them in the closet as some seemed to claim.

Right now I’m trying to organize the music insturment workshops which have been submitted by the best instructors in the world. I will prepare a 16 to 20 page program. It’s a huge undertaking. I figure it takes me three plus weeks of solid work (150+ hours.) I’m just starting but already I’m feeling the strain.

I’m working with hundreds of classes which have been submitted. I’ll have plenty of classes to fill my 220-240 workshop slots, but creating three days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.each day in nine different areas at the same time is a challenge (especially since each instructor has their own needs.) Last year’s three daily grids are shown here: Last year’s workshop program. You can see what an undertaking it is.

When I get into scheduling mode, I kind of lock myself away and just concentrate. That chore will keep me busy for more than the next month. John will feel I’ve “left him.” But actually our festival is not until July. Until then we’re kind of isolated in central Michigan.

John is trying to get our yard and garden in order.

When we got home, we found some of our wines were excellent but they’re quickly disappearing. I hope next year’s batch is as good. Sometimes the results are a little less than we’d hoped for.

Yesterday we attended a sad funeral. It was for my brother’s grandson. He’d killed himself. No one understands why, but it was sad.

After the funeral, we stopped and visited with my aunt who had turned 100 while we were in Florida. We told her how sorry we were to miss her big 100 birthday celebration, but I suspect she liked the extra visit more than she would have enjoyed another couple at her huge birthday party in March.

So life in Michigan goes on.

I’m sure you are enjoying Kings Point. I know I would be.

John and I are performing in a neighboring community next Saturday.

When the people contacted us about playing, I commented that’s the day of the Kings Point Baby Boomers Pool Party. I said we had a conflict but only if we could get back to Florida.

Sadly we can’t make it to the Baby Boomer party so we are now committed to making music in Chesaning, Michigan, Saturday, But believe me I’d rather be at the party. And we’ll be thinking of all of you folks having a grand time.

Wish we could be there!!

Hugs to both of you.

Sharon & John

Just before before we left for Florida last fall, our washer died. To bring you up to date, here’s a link to my “Drip Dry” blog post from Thursday, September 30th (we left early Saturday).

When it died, it was because our washer full of dirty clothes, wouldn’t spin out. We had a tub full of wet, dirty clothes. We ended up drying the still dirty clothes and taking some of them to Florida with us where we washed them and brought them back with us last week. But since arriving home, the remaining dirty clothes from the load last fall, plus our travel clothes and the stuff we’ve soiled since arriving, have been piling up. It was obvious, we HAD to get a replacement washer and it was time to replace the dryer too. (After forty years we doubted we could them to still come under warranty.)

Last week was spent shopping for a new pair of laundry appliances. I can’t begin to tabulate the time looking on line and in stores. (I figure about five hours each day for about three days.) We gravitated toward two flashy, sparkling, high end units: the LG Wave or Maytag Bravos. Wow they were pretty! Either pair was a marvel of beauty and energy efficient engineering. The Maytag pair had a SALE PRICE of about $1,600 and the LG about $1,900. There were so many features that you couldn’t remember what each appliance would do. (Did they put the clothes on hangers, and put them in drawers or was that left to you?) And everything was pre-programmed. If you remembered you wanted to wash another pair of socks, the water would have to drain out so you could “start over”. A load of clothes could take two plus hours to wash. It was mind-boggling. We wanted the best, but the best seemed to be too restrictive.

Friday we were so tired of shopping that I made a vow: “We would get a washer and dryer before ending our day and going home.”

We got more and more confused as we reviewed the features and explanations of those “best” units.

Finally we went back to ABC Warehouse and picked out the simpliest of the High Efficient units, a Whirlpool. It didn’t have all the bells and whistles, but more of the controls were left to the user (instead of totally automatic). It’s highly energy efficient and even qualifies for a rebate from Consumers, but it has no extra hot water header to sterilize the clothes by using super hot water. There’s no steam in the dryer. Just a plan-jane but very serviceable pair of appliances. The price was half what we would have spent on the LG Wave.

The delivery will be Tuesday. We can’t say now if we were right getting the simple units, but in the end, we figured anything will work better than our forty year old pair which we’re replacing. And we can always get the super-dooper pair for Florida where we’ll probably use it more than here. Afterall here, we will only a grand total of four and a half months out of the year.

Yesterday morning I wondered why two robins were repeatedly flying by our large window. From inside, their destination was out of view, but apparently they were going somewhere under the eves. I went out and found a nest, or at least I guess that’s what you’d call it.

We wonder why they didn’t select a tree. There are so many of them around our house. (Maybe the neighborhood cat has something to do with that decision.)

Or maybe they chose this site because it’s protected by the roof over-hang.

But the slippery surface of the flood lights seems to be presenting challenges. There’s more stuff hanging below than there is sitting on the lights. It’s obvious that they have lots of work yet to do.

Yesterday, when they’d only carried a couple of pieces of grass, John dismantled their efforts, thinking that maybe they’d move to a better location. But they weren’t deterred. We’ll follow their progress and you’ll be able to see the final creation.

Day 3 of the Saga

The photo to the left was taken today, a day and a half after the top one.

You can see the robins still haven’t mastered nest-building skills. Wish we could help, but this something they have to on their own. We can only watch.

You’ll notice that there hasn’t been much progress, but they’re still flying back and forth with bits of grass and stuff. They haven’t given up. There’s a pile of grass and sticks directly below the nesting area. The heap of materials on the ground is bigger than what’s staying on top of the lights.

Our birds just aren’t very good at this nest business. I’m sure they’ll have lovely babies, if they ever get their home ready for them.

=====

The sixth day!

Still no progress. The same amount of stuff is still sitting on the lights, but it doesn’t look like nest. I haven’t noticed them arriving and departing for about a day. I hope they’ve moved on to a better location. I’ll break in with a “news bulletin,” if I can find their new nesting site.

John built a fire in the fireplace this afternoon then left for his friend (George’s place). I kept it going until he returned, and now the flames are warming and friendly.

I love a fire in a fireplace. I’m sitting her watching the currents on our lake (Lake Cecil, a 26 acre lake on which our Michigan home is located) and several pair of geese who are currently very concerned about their nests on the island.

The fireplace is wonderful. It’s built of split field stones and two-stories tall. It really is the key feature in our great room. Love it!

Our Michigan place is definitely different than our Florida home. In Florida, our view is of a golf course and two ponds. It’s lovely. Here we have trees and a close-by lake with geese. It’s even prettier. Just wish it would warm up here, but it will. I have faith.

Life is great!

It’s damp, gray and a chilly 44 degrees.

John’s at his friend’s house. Before he left, he built a fire in the fireplace for me. It sure helps make the place cozier. I love the crackle and glow.

We’re expecting an over-night house guest Friday. I need to get busy and clean the whole house. It’s hard to catch up from six months when we weren’t here.

It’s difficult to get started. A day or two of this kind of cold, damp weather and I become lethargic and depressed. I really need some sun and fresh air.

I keep reading the weather reports here and in Florida. I miss the 88 degree days which we’d be experiencing in Sun City Center. Here 50 would be appreciated.

I guess the total invasion of love bugs in Kings Point, Florida, where we live so much of the year, has occurred and consequently the pool down there has been vacated and folks are staying inside. (How sad!)

Love bugs seem to appear for a couple weeks two seasons during the year. This year they held off until we were about to head back to Michigan. Easter weekend we saw more of the critters than we wanted, but they were just a “to-deal-with” pest. Now they’re restricting the fun in Florida. This too will pass, but it’s sad to think that our beautiful life down there can be interrupted by bugs.

If you check my previous posting, you’ll understand a bit more about these critters: Love Bug previous posting

They are pesty and miserable. Yet they don’t bite or make noise. They’re just a nuisance because they are everywhere and “in your face.” The only ones who love “love bugs” are the owners of car-wash businesses. It’s said that they do a major portion of their business because of these bugs.

Friday night, at about 8:00 p.m., Willow died as John stroked her. She’d had a rough afternoon and evening and we knew the end was near.

When she left us, we both felt it was a blessing. She’d cried out a few times. It was heart-wrenching.

John built a solid wooden box for her interment. She was gently wrapped in her favorite soft blue blanket. We buried her adjacent to the foundation of our house near our front entrance. (That’s where we’d buried Gizmo, our other dog.)

Over the site, we placed a stone marker that’s carved with these words.

Gone yet not forgotten
although we are apart,
your spirit lives within me,
forever in my heart.

Willow was a sweet dog. She would have been 15 years old on June 2nd. She owned part of our hearts. She was our “baby.” (Wasn’t she a beauty?!!! Her grandpa, was the most awarded, recognized as the best-of-the-breed chihuahua of all time!!!)

Today was a stay-at-home day. I shopped on line for a washer and drier. I worked on the additions to the ODPC Funfest Workshop classes, and I unpacked.

Willow is still with us. My hope is that she’ll pass on her own (maybe tonight while we sleep). I don’t want us to have to decide that it’s her time to leave this earth. It would be so much easier on us to have her just go naturally and peacefully… So much kinder from every angle.

I unpacked and I took time to try to get a printer to work wirelessly. I was successful!!

My HP Laserjet Plus printer, which costs a fraction of a cent per copy (in black and white), is purring along. I hope it will serve me for the entire pre-Evart festival period. Everything is working as it should so let’s hope I can get the copies I need at a low cost. (It took a while to get everything set up to work so I can print from the living room to my printer in the guest room.

Now I need to get busy and work on the scheduling of the workshop classes. I have the expansive “worksheet” done. It provides me a compact, simple way to see all the classes which are being offered. Now I need to position all the classes in timeframes that work for the leader and give me a balanced line-up of classes.

It’s good to be home, but being home is a lot more work!

Got home mid afternoon to a real mess. A mouse (or mice) got into our pantry. We tossed out most everything (except the canned goods). All the cans and shelves had to be washed. We found their entrance through the drier vent (there was a hole in the vent and easy entrance from outside.) We hope we can fix it so it doesn’t happen again. At least the pantry is sparkling clean.

Willow had a rough trip back, but she was actually very easy to travel with. She slept all the way. Didn’t eat or drink and her other functions seem to have shut down. We know we’ll lose her soon, but it’s best that it happen naturally. She’s very comfortable. Yesterday afternoon, during a major downpour and heavy traffic, she had a seizure. I held and petted her until she came out of it, but it was a tense time.

Except for the mouse damage in the cabinet, the place was in great shape. Even the lawn doesn’t look too bad.

None of the trees are leafed out yet and it’s pretty cool, but then again I’m used to 80-90 degree temperatures. I’ll adjust.

I already miss Florida and I’m not even home yet.

We started out this morning at about 9:00. When we were about a block from our condo, I realized I didn’t know where the cellphone was. We turned around (much to the dismay of John) and went back. As it turned out it was in the car, buried in my computer bag, but that set us behind about 15 minutes.

Our tiny dog, Willow, has stopped eating and drinking. We have said all along that we know the end of her life is near, but we hope to get her back to Michigan. I don’t know if she’ll make it. She’s comfortable, but so weak that she can’t stand. I tried putting ice chips in her mouth, but they just fall out. She’s really out of it and doesn’t seem to know how to eat or drink at this point. When we stop the next time, we’re going to try using a syringe to put water in her mouth.

Traffic hasn’t been bad, but Willow’s situation and my losing the cellphone haven’t put John in a very good mood.

Tonight’s stay will be in Kennesaw, GA. We’ll go to dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s or Cracker Barrel. The decision will be John’s.

Tomorrow night we’ll be in Miamisburg, Ohio, near Dayton. I like Marion’s Pizza when we are in Miamisburg. I’ve lusted after that pizza since last year. They make it with a very thin crust with lots of cheese and pepperoni It’s cut it into small square pieces. Hopefully it’s as good as I remember.

We should get home in the early afternoon Wednesday.

Saturday we have a meeting of the Original Dulcimer Players Club in Holland, MI. It’s nearly 140 miles to the church where the meeting will be held. That means that we have to leave by 7:15 and it’ll be an expensive trip (approx. $40) at current gas prices.

Today was our last full day of the “season.” We leave for Michigan tomorrow a.m.

We went to church, cleaned and packed, enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Wayne and Linda Conklin’s.

Our plan was to finish everything early and squeeze in some pool time but it rained hard right after we got back from dinner and it didn’t let up for a while. So much for our pool plans. Oh, well….

We’re nearly ready to go. We’ll get up early and try to be out of here by 8:30.

I’m sorry we didn’t get to say good-bye to many of the special folks who made our winter in Florida enjoyable. (Especially We’ll have to email them and

Last night about 2:00 a.m. I found myself totally awake and feeling rotten with a very queasy stomach. Finally about 5:00 I got up and read until John got up at 7:00.

In addition to being tired all day, my stomach ache never went away. I’ve felt really yucky.

I had great plans for the day. I wanted to spend a good share of it at the pool saying good-bye to friends. But instead I felt it was an accomplishment to stay upright. Somehow I managed to get my packing and laundry done, but basically I vegged and complained that I wasn’t feeling well.

I have a theory that my body is rebelling because it’s being dragged unwillingly back to Michigan.

I think even John wishes we had set our departure for early May instead of April. Next year we may do things differently.

Tonight we went to our last “Rockin’ Rendezvous” of this season. It started out slowly. The seats were all vacant and lonely.

Gradually folks arrived. It wasn’t the rowdy bunch we used to enjoy, but John and Brenda came to say good-bye and we also saw other good friends so in the end it was an enjoyable evening.

Brenda and John are the nicest folks imaginable. Both are fun and enthusiastic about life. Brenda’s cute and bubbly. John’s charming and every inch a gentleman.

They are people anyone would be honored to call good friends.

But as my John pointed out, there are no people in our circle who aren’t nice. Everyone is exceptional. I don’t know how we got so lucky.

As an example, we also saw our friends Sue, Linda, Bert and Cheryle, Richard, Bob, Shirley, Janice, and others. What a great bunch!

October is a long way off, but hopefully they’ll all be back with us in the fall.

For some reason this post was corrupted so I had to re-enter it. It was actually posted on Saturday, the 16th.

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

Today (Saturday) we sort of “divided” the chores. I stayed home to start packing for our return home (on April 25th) and John went to play pickleball.

When he got back, he headed to town to get some groceries. I continued to work around the condo. (I have moved most stuff to the “staging area” in the spare bedroom). My plan is to have everything done so we can just relax next week and finish packing with only a couple hour’s work.

He was gone a couple of hours. Before he got back, I realized it was hot in the condo!! Usually we keep the A/C at about 75-76 and that’s where I thought it was, but the temperature was rising. At first I just though I was working up a sweat, but I checked the temperature. It wasn’t just me! It was about 82. I tried lowering the setting but nothing changed.

I listened to the outside compressor and realized it was making a strange sound. Immediately I called the repair service. (We have a contract which covers seven days a week air conditioning, heat, refrigerator and range emergency service.)

While waiting for the repair guy, I turned on all four of our ceiling fans and opened the door, but it was about 85 outside so it only got hotter.

A couple of weeks ago we’d had a service tech make sure our A/C unit was purring so we wouldn’t have to worry about it this summer. We also had a humidistat installed. We thought we’d made sure that everything was in good working order.

When the contracted repair fellow came he said the capacitor which had been replaced by the service tech had been “recalled.” It was defective. He had to replace it again. Thank heavens it failed before we headed back north. (I’m calling the service tech’s business to complain that they should have notified us about the recall.)

Waiting for the repair guy had taken a couple of hours. The whole day was shot. It was way too hot to do any more work, and too late to go to the pool.

John worked on the front door and got it so the new “sweep” at the bottom works the way it should.

The parts for the garage door came today so I’m sure he’ll get that fixed within a few days.

Bad luck usually comes in “threes” but we’ve had so many problems the past few days, that I’ve lost count. I’m sure we’re on the second or third series of three.

(Or maybe this was actually good luck because we were still here when the a/c failed.)

A NIGHTMARE type morning.

Last night we discovered the garage door wouldn’t work, and this morning the repair guy quoted us $350 for a new one.

Our old, tiny dog, Willow, wasn’t doing well at all. She can no longer stand up.

Then John, who wanted to go play pickleball, discovered that the car door had been left ajar so the battery was dead. Thank heavens he checked before he left the condo because I had an appointment to have my hair cut and had planned to use it.

While all this was going on, the painters arrived and started painting the front door.

It was one thing after another. Things got more and more stressful. I was hurrying to get ready, John wanted to leave. Willow was bad. The painters were working at the front door.

But eventually it all smoothed out.

John used the truck to jump the car’s battery.

I got to the beauty shop on time.

John went on-line and found a replacement part for $50 instead of paying $350.

He got to go play pickleball.

Willow is resting.

And painters will finish tomorrow – we hope. The windows are now covered with opaque plastic so it looks like there’s heavy fog outside. The front door is ajar to let it dry, but the sidewalks and drive have been power-washed.

We were able to go to the pool about 1:00 and stayed until 3:15. That definitely helped relax us.

Tonight was another Rockin’ Rendezvous. We danced a little and said good-bye to some friends who were leaving. We still have another week, but time’s flying.

I have figured it out…

The reason time passes faster as we get closer to our departure date is “momentum.” It’s the phenomena that occurs when an object rolls down an incline. It picks up speed.

Our days are slanted toward April 25. Each day moves along at a faster clip. At two weeks from departure we’re really moving along, but next week time will blur past even faster.

No time to waste.

Today was a perfect day! We went shopping this morning and this afternoon headed to the pool. The temperatures were high but the Conklins had staked out a couple of prime lounge chairs for us in the shade.

The temperature of the water was perfect! You floated in a wonderful luxurious soft cloud of warmth and comfort. Everyone commented that it felt so good!

Last Sunday our minister asked us to meditate. He wanted us to close our eyes and think of a place where everything was perfect. I thought of the South Club pool on a day like today where your body feels caressed with the warm water.

It wasn’t overly crowded, the music was nice the people friendly, the air temperature in the high 80’s. (Humidity creeping up.)

John, who is reluctant to acknowledge that this is preferable to being in Michigan, said he’d describe this place as Paradise. He commented that, “Anything that interests you is available to you. You can relax or be busy. You can sing, or play cards, or exercise, or get involved in any of the 200 clubs. What more could we ask for?”

And to think we’re leaving it in two weeks for cool weather and solitude in Michigan.

Why do I say “solitude”? Because in Michigan we live in an area that is remote and distant enough from friends that I often go several weeks and don’t leave the house. John goes to George’s (his best friend’s house), but we really don’t have a social life there.

In Florida, we enjoy multiple daily activities with friends. It’s just the way it is.

Over next few days we’ll have a party tomorrow night with our Country Dance Class (the 9th), a dance on Sunday with the Oldies but Goodies Club (the 10th), a birthday party/dinner Monday at Anna Maria Oyster Bay (the 11th), a ballroom dance club dance Tuesday (the 12th), country couples dance lesson and a Nantucket V Association hor dourves party Wednesday evening (the 13th), Rockin Rendezvous Thursday the 14th, and that’s just the next five days!

Thank heavens for our Michigan music which helps us interact with others. Most of the month of July we’ll be able to be with music friends at the Evart festival, and we have once-a-month concerts at Haithco Park in Saginaw.

It would be nice to simplify our lives, but I don’t think John’s ready to sell our place in Michigan and be full-time in Florida. But eventually I see that happening… not yet…. someday!

Three weeks from yesterday we’ll pull into our Michigan home. (We leave on the 25th.) Can’t say I want to go, but I know that we have to get back. I have an important dulcimer festival planning meeting the Saturday after we return and before long, Spring with bring our lawn to life. There’s always a lot for John to do to keep up with the yard. We don’t want it to get too far ahead of us.

Tuesday was a rainy day. We took advantage of the time we couldn’t get out and took care of stuff inside (Believe it or not, I ironed some sheets, some of John’s shirts and other items! I-R-O-N is one of those four letter words which I avoid but it was hard to stall any longer.)

Tuesday night we attended a Michigan Club gourmet dinner and annual meeting, Wednesday (yesterday) was a pickle ball club luncheon at Ybor Grill. Even though the weather had improved we didn’t get to the pool. Instead after our luncheon in Ruskin, we went shopping and I was successful finding another “church dress.” (I’ve only had a couple down here that were conservative enough for church. This new one is perfect: a black two layer voile sundress style with a voile jacket with a ruffle on the bottom of both the jacket and the dress.) I also found a cute bright cotton trapeze style sundress with beads and jewels embroidered around a Cleopatra-style neckline. I got both at re-sale shops but both were NEW with tags!! Don’t tell anyone but I spent a total of $10 for both dresses!! I love a bargain. Yesterday afternoon we were at our second-to-the-last country dance class.

Today (Thursday) was warm and lovely. We had a Nantucket V condo owners meeting at 11:00 a.m. We were at the pool before the meeting and again afterward. We came back home about 3:30 and at 5:00 went to Rockin Rendezvous. The exodus of Snowbirds was apparent. The Palm Cafe was nearly empty until about 5:30. It finally fired up and we did a little dancing and saw a few friends but it’s obvious that the flow of folks from Florida northward is already well underway.

Time is short. We need to take advantage of every day before we join the herd heading back to their summer residences.

Yesterday we received about 4″ of rain. At the height of the storm, the wind was scary, the skies black, and the downpour volume over-whelming. We ended up with water in our lanai, but other than that, everything stayed snug. Our power had stayed on through it all, we never lost our cable, and my internet was only interrupted for a second or two.

Late in the afternoon, there was a break so John, who was antsy from being cooped up, took the car and went into town.

Stop lights were out and there were areas where the water on the road was a problem but he accomplished a few chores.

We had planned to go to Rockin’ Rendezvous, when he got back, but when the rain started up again, we changed our minds and stayed in.

Today the golf course is littered with debris from the trees, but the lanai is drying and the small pond which had formed beside the condo yesterday has dried up.

Nearby areas weren’t as fortunate. Lots of homes were damaged north of us and an air show was hit with several planes flipped over by the wind. Even a semi on the highway was over-turned by the gusts.

We may get to the pool late this afternoon, but I’m sure the temperature of the water will have dropped considerably with the addition of the cold rainwater and it’s only going to be in the mid-70s.

This weekend promises to be glorious. We have tickets for a dance tomorrow night.

I want to stretch out the time we have left and make the most of every day. It’s tough when we’re stuck inside. I should have used the time to start packing, but that’s really a signal of the end of the season and I’m in denial.

This year we have met lots of “new friends.” Yes, we still adore Jean & Mel, Darlene & Gary, Sharon & Alan, Robbin & Terry, Mary & Ron, Rachael & Jerry, Brenda & John and all of the super nice folks we’ve met over the years including those Brenda & John introduced us to (mostly from Maine but also a fun Michigan couple). And then there are all of our Nantucket V friends (that’s our home owners’ association), and of course our wonderful long-time friends the Conklins. There are also “pool friends,” John’s new “pickleball buddies” and the “Rockin’ Rendezvous crowd.” They all make those activities fun.

But this year we got acquainted with Richard & Shelly, Carolyn & Stephen, Sharon & Ed, Lilly & Hank and all the fun folks we know from our country dance classes (including the instructors Bill and Donna). And recently we’ve gotten to know Linda & Ron, who are shown in the photo. They all make our stay here in Florida totally enjoyable. These new friends are super additions to our “circle.” This is just a sampling of the folks who are important to us down here.

I didn’t touch on those who are in the ballroom dance club nor our pool friends, nor our previous neighbors from the Fairfield association, and I could go on and on.

My plan for this season was to have a house party but the list of folks we’d need to invite keeps growing. I can’t imagine having a party that didn’t include them all. Our place wouldn’t accommodate the crowd.

It’s not that we are popular. It’s just that the people we have met are so inclusive. They are totally approachable and caring. They make it easy to warm up to them. They invite and support you. They are what good folks should be but no where else have I found them.

One time I heard the definition of a good friend as someone who would loan you $10 in a pinch or come after you if you had car trouble. I actually feel that there are dozens who fit that description. Of course we don’t plan to test them, but they’d be there for us, and we’d do the same for them.

We’ve had lovely weather for the past month but today Mother Nature dropped over 2″ of rain on our area. Looking beyond today, it appears we’ll be back to our glorious sunshine and warm weather in a day or two.

We had to find a way to entertain Suzie and C.T., John’s sister and her guy. They had arrived Saturday. When they got here it was gorgeous and also yesterday so we got in a full day of pool time. Last night we all went to a fun dance. Today, with the rain, our pool plans were cancelled. Instead, we went shopping, to the North Club where we listened to some live music, and then to Anna Maria Oyster Bar for an early dinner.

Back at the condo, the rain really came down. We may need an ark because more is expected.

We have had a ton of fun over the past week or so: A dance, an association cook-out, a South Club pool party, a tour of a friend’s lovely decorated new home, dinner with friends, lots of pool time, our country dance lesson, and tomorrow we’re going to Busch Gardens. (Charo will be there and she does a great show.) The whole five and a half months we’ve been down here have been crammed with enjoyable events but it’s seem that now we’re in over-drive.

We have only one more month left here in Florida. It’s hard to cram in all the good time stuff on our agenda between now and our departure.

Lots of good memories will carry us through until October when we return.

“Don’t cry because it’s over; Smile because it happened.” – Dr. Seuss

You can enjoy all of the videos from the March 8th Lip Sync Show benefiting LifePath Hospice. (Click on the title of the music, and you’ll be taken to the You Tube video.)

1. I Wanna Talk About Me – Larry and Darlene Meadows
2. Unwritten – Robin
3. Big, Blonde and Beautiful – Carol Geary
4. Soul Man – Linda and Jane
5. Golf is a Naughty Game – Sue Sussman
6. Splish Splash – Honey and Shawn
7. Paper Gangsta – Bobbi Burnette
8. Ring of Fire and Jackson – Ron and Ron and Ellen
9. All of You – Gerry Dearden and Doc
10. These Boots are Made for Walking – Brenda Hartman
11. I’ve Got you Babe – Janice and Pat
12. Sue Me – Linda and Tom
13. I Will Survive – Elaine Kijek
14. Thriller (dance routine) – Larry and Darlene Meadows
15. Hello Muddah Hello Fadduh – Tom Gasnon
16. Whatever Lola Wants – Rachel and Billy Bob
17. Forever Your Girl – Bobbi Burnette
18. Wedding Bell Blues – Bill and Donna Markman
19. Country Boy – Ted Metcalfe
20. Billy Jean – Jane Boccieri
21 My Husband is Playing A Round – Sue Sussman
22. Hey, Big Spender – Honey, Shawn and Norman
23. Alone – Brenda Wiseman
24. Too Much Too Little Too Late – Gerry Dearden and Doc
25. Mississippi Squirrel Revival – Ann Parisen
26. Middle Aged Women – Sue Sussman (by Lisa Koch ©2005 Mamajune Music (BMI))
27. YMCA – Jane, Shirley, Linda, Linda and Bobbi

John and I video’d the Kings Point Lip Sync Show last week. It was fun and benefited Life Path Hospice where my mom spent her last days. The videos turned out ok. (My view was a little “sideways” so I didn’t block anyone’s view, but it seemed to work.) After doing the videos last year for this same event, I purchased a better video camera. A week or so ago I realized I needed some “practice” to be sure I knew how to use it. And this was the first time I’d tried up-loading from that camera to youtube. I found myself stuck without the tools I needed.

I ended up with about 30 clips of the various acts. My plan is to get them up on youtube as soon as possible.

What happened was the camera wasn’t compatible with my existing editing program so I had to shop around for a simple (inexpensive) way to edit the videos. Finally I made a commitment to iCoolSoft-HD (an editing and conversion program). It isn’t perfect but was fairly cheap and allows me to convert to any format and clip the length of the video.

Preparing each video takes several steps. (Trim the raw footage with iCoolSoft-HD, add titles with WindowsMovieMaker.) Last night I up-loaded the first three acts and hopefully within the next three or four days I can complete the rest of them. (It takes at least a half hour per act to take the raw clip and get it in place on youtube and there were 28 acts.)

If you’d like to see the first ones I’ve completed, you can go to youtube.com and use the search words “Kings Point Lip Sync, Sun City Center, 2011.” Eventually I’ll put links to all of the clips here.

Today’s St. Paddy’s Day so tonight I might not get much done.

Yesterday and today it’s been chilly (60’s with overnight lows into the low 40’s).

It’s Friday again and another week has flown by. We enjoyed pool-time daily during the first part of last week even though it was windy. Tuesday we filmed the lip sync benefit show. It went well.

Wednesday we went to our couples dance class, Thursday we spent the day at Busch Gardens enjoying the Osmond Brothers and a great dance show. Thursday evening was a typical Rockin’ Rendezvous.

About noon today (Friday) we went to a Kings Point festival on the grounds of the North Club. After doing a little shopping, this afternoon we came home and dressed for a country dance night at the club. Tomorrow it might warm up to 70 and then next week even warmer. By next weekend, it’ll be into the 80’s.

We only have 44 more days before we head home. I hate to think of leaving. Even John is enjoying himself more than he dreamed. He’s playing pickle ball every day, we’re dancing a lot, and having lots of fun!

By comparison, back in Michigan, life will be pretty dull. The 153 days we’ll be in Michigan will be divided between our place on the lake in rural Saginaw County, our place in the U.P and the Evart dulcimer festival. By the time you subtract those times we’ll be out of town, we’ll probably spend a total of approximately 20 weeks at our house. Twenty weeks when I’ll be anxious to get back to Florida.

Even when it’s cool down here, it’s lovely. Today was a good example of that.

Our remaining time here will be crowded with about a dozen dances/parties, a couple dinners, dance lessons, karaoke night, pool parties, pool time, a four or five day visit from John’s sister and her boyfriend, and other enjoyable events to fill our days to capacity. Wish we could slow down time!

It’s been a long while since I’ve done a flurry of on-line “shopping.” The last time was documented in my Sharon’s Blog Post of May 19th, 2010.

Today I celebrated my 69th birthday. John and I don’t generally exchange gifts, but during the period of our birthdays, we can shop and get what we want without guilty feelings. (I don’t have guilt feelings anyway.) This week I shopped using my 69th birthday as an excuse.

I got a cute, quality, Chico’s top which came today. I also bought a pair of tan city shorts (I already have identical white ones and love them), a lovely silk very elegant strapless top, and a bargain priced pair of tops (one of which should I be able to wear over a strapless bathing suit for a totally new look). I got the two of them for about $14 with shipping. John got me a pair of lovely earrings. (Actually I got them, but they came from him because I said, “I’ll order these for my birthday and they’ll be from you, ok?”)

I love clothes. I feel best when I get them cheaply. The Chico’s top which came today cost me less than I saw similar “used” items in a resale shop. It’s already a favorite of mine and I haven’t even worn it worn it yet.

Only problem, I need a bigger closet!

For John’s birthday, which was Tuesday, we went to a lunch buffet which he selected. Today we went to Circles at Apollo Beach at about 3:00 for my birthday. Both meals were super. At this rate, it’s good that each of our birthdays only come once a year. I would definitely “chubby-up” and none of those clothes I just bought would fit me.

I spend a lot of time at the pool and consequently have several (many) bathing suits. As you’d expect, some are “favorites” and soon they look dull and a tad worn. I stumbled on a simple way to up-date a suit.

I wear a lot of black and have several suits which are solid black. Most of my suits can be worn strapless since I prefer an un-lined tan. A couple of them I’ve had for three or more years and they’re a bit shabby, or at least I don’t feel they have the same sizzle they once had.

In January I bought an evening wear top which I thought was really cute. I got it on eBay, but when it came, I knew I’d never wear it because it was just a bit too over-the-top for me. There was a turquoise under-layer but the black, which had large flowers woven in, was totally see-through. It went into a drawer and I figured I’d never wear it. It had only cost me $12.99 but I figured it was wasted money.

Sunday I creatively put the cute (never worn) top over a plain black strapless bathing suit and voilà I had an updated suit! I tried it with the ruffle over one shoulder and it was ok, but found that I could wear it as a strapless with the ruffle all around the whole top. It isn’t noticeable that it’s supposed to be one-shouldered (the fabric is very stretchy and the arm opening disappears making it a cute strapless top). I liked it better that way. Maybe I’ll eventually remove the bow which ties in the front because when it gets wet, it just hangs, but I’ve left it for now. And yes, I wore it in the pool and it looks great even wet.

I knew it had been a success when, after I’d worn it to pool, a friend’s husband commented Sunday night that he’d liked my “new” swim suit. He described it to his wife as cute and ruffly.

So now I’m on the prowl for tops that I can wear over my bathing suits. This one (above) is perfect I’m wearing it again today over a different black strapless suit.

I found several others on eBay (below). I can see there are lots to choose from.

Some are a bit too expensive. The stripped one, as an example would come to $36 with shipping.) But I think, if I’m patient, I can find some in the $5-15 dollar range and I’ll have a whole new bathing suit look. To prove my point, the last one (below) is $10 including shipping.

The weather in Florida has been flawless.

We had a busy time last week.

Thursday night we performed for the Manchester I pizza party. Our performance with the Conklins as the foursome Kings Strings, was well accepted. We felt good about it.

Friday the South Club had a party to celebrate the reopening of the pool (which had been closed for a month to level the tiles which surround the pool.) It was a beautiful day, a huge crowd, and the entertainment (Elvis) made the day perfect. ….. Naw, I take it back, it was our friends that made it perfect.

Saturday I was chairman of the Michigan Club pizza party. It went off without a hitch. We had an excellent vocalist (Salvina) as entertainment. Lots of pizza, salad, and beer! We had great help at the party. Couldn’t have done it without our friends who stepped up to assist us.

Sunday we had an invitation to Steve and Caroline’s Oscar party. It was great time. We stayed to the end. Fun people and the food… Wow! I really need to watch what I eat.

Today, Tuesday, is John’s birthday. We don’t know what we’ll do but we’ll celebrate.

The past couple of days I’ve spent most of my time outside. The weather has been perfect, mid to high 70’s, and sunny.

Today the South Club Pool was packed. After noon folks had to wait for a lounge chair, but we were in good shape, because I’d arrived at 10:00 so we had seats before the crowd arrived. Saw lots of friends.

We need to be especially careful avoiding a sunburn because Monday we go to our dermatologist. Don’t want him to scold us.

I’m Florida’s newest resident. Yup, today I got my Florida driver’s license and I’m officially a resident. I can vote. I can brag. I can claim Florida as “mine.”

I know I’ll spend more and more time each year in the Sunshine State. I figured switching now is a good idea. Eventually it will help with a few financial benefits like a possible homestead exemption and no state income tax.

Florida, with its wonderful views, its lovely coastline, and its glorious weather.

I will always think of Michigan as the state where my “roots” are but the longer I live, the more time I’ll be in the south.

I love Florida. It’s now “my home”!!

The forecast in central Florida is for high 70’s temps next week.

You’d think I’d be celebrating, and I am…. sorta.

But back, many months ago, I made a public vow to lose about 15 pounds and, guess what? It hasn’t happened. The show-down occurs when I must again don a bathing suit.

I’m no longer slim and shapely. I’m pudgy and aging. My birthday next month will celebrate 69 years! That’s awfully close to 70, which I always considered really “old.”

I promised myself that, when I got to Florida, I’d walk a lot and watch my diet. I didn’t take into consideration that a couple times a week we’d dine out and take in multiple potluck dinners. I am much more active than in Michigan, but the Florida winter cool weather restricted our time outside since early December. The pool closure this past month also discouraged our promised routine. But those are only “excuses.” I’m at least 15 pounds over where I want to be. I weigh nearly 130 (ok, I’ve honestly been at least 130 for many months) which on my 5’2″ frame is about 15 to 20 pounds more than I want. I’m nearly 70. I’m not a sex symbol to anyone except my husband.

Once I was a size 2. (Yup, that’s me at about 90 pounds in my size 2 wedding dress.) Now I’m a comfortable size 8 (or sometimes even a 10.) Even my shoe size increased from 6 1/2 to 7 and I have a pair or two of 7 1/2’s.

Life is truly wonderful, but I do lie a lot when I’m making promises to myself, especially when they have anything to do with my weight.

I wonder how long it would take me to lose 15 pounds so I would feel good about myself? The weather is going to be grand and now I have “incentive” to stick with my vow. Let’s see what happens.

It’s raining and cool today.

Yesterday when we went to our couples country dance lesson we spotted an announcement which said that the pool re-opens Friday (tomorrow). Unfortunately it’ll be too cool to take advantage, but next week it’s supposed to warm-up so the re-opening of the pool is definitely good news.

And next Friday, the 18th, there’s a party planned to celebrate the renovation of this lovely feature.

Over the next week we’ll be mucho busy: tonight is Rockin’ Rendezvous, tomorrow night our dance class will “practice” in the Palm Court Cafe, the 13th we have tickets for the Baby Boomers’ Valentine dance, Monday is Valentine’s Day, and Tuesday our annual Kings Point Ball Room Dance Club (fancy) dinner dance.

Next Wednesday, the 16th, the skies are supposed to be clear and the temperature will be near 80! To me that sounds like POOL TIME!!!

The pool has been closed since January 19th. (The closing was so the “paving tiles” around the pool could be re-leveled.) The pool is where we see a lot of our friends. We’ve missed that connection. Also can’t wait to “soak up” the sun and get exercise walking to the pool. I just feel better when I spend more time outside.

Up north it’s been bitter cold. Right now (at 10:30 a.m.) it’s 3 and feels like a -8. It’s only supposed to warm up to about 16. That’s dern cold. So I’m not complaining about mid 60’s and some much-needed rain as long as it moves out soon.

Yesterday we went to our friends, John B. and Brenda’s condo for a Super Bowl party. It was fun; especially the “football pool.” My John won one of the four possible pool prizes. Watching the scores makes it exciting, and I’m not normally a football fan.

The party food spread was fabulous (chile, chicken wings, lots of munchies and good stuff). Everything was excellent! I went home thinking that I really have to start watching my waistline which is expanding. The crowd divided into two groups: those watching the game (and eating), and those playing marbles. John and I hung out near the food and close to the TV.

Pauline celebrated her birthday so put a candle in John S.’s carrot cake and we all sang to her.

This was the third year we’ve attended the party. We’ve always had a good time, but maybe because we know the people better, it was even more relaxed and fun. There’s a comfortable attitude that mades it a truly enjoyable evening.

Brenda does a great job organizing. And her place is lovely and homey. I could learn from her example. And everyone who shows up is incredibly nice.

Today we’re eating sensibly. It’s 5:00 p.m. and I’ve only had two pieces of toast and a grapefruit. Tonight we’ll enjoy salmon, sweet potatoes and salad. Unfortunately it won’t undo last night, but it’s a start.

Debbie Reynolds put on a very nice show Friday, February 4, 2011. She’s nearly 79. Not a youngster, but “looking good.”

Debbie was popular when I was in high school. You can see a photo of “early Debbie” here:

We’ve been hurrying around all week.

We entertained Michigan company, attended our association’s annual meeting, went to a pizza lunch in Apollo Beach with our neighbors, enjoyed our country couples dance lesson on Wednesday, and had fun at Rockin’ Rendezvous last night.

Today we enjoyed Debbie Reynolds at Busch Gardens and toured the Yuengling Brewery (the nation’s oldest). I’m hoping I can create a collage of photos of Debbie Reynolds’ performance like I did for Charo’s pics. Debbie was funny and it was fun going down memory lane with her leading the way.

Tomorrow is “Super Bowl Sunday” so we’ll be heading to Brenda and John’s for their annual gathering. They have the nicest friends. Each one is special. Maybe it’s just that all folks from Maine are nice.

Last week we enjoyed a karaoke evening (we don’t sing but it’s fun to watch), I attended my “writers’ group,” we had fun at our country couples dance lesson, went to Ruskin for spaghetti, socialized at Rockin’ Rendezvous, attended the Cirque De Monde show, joined friends at a memorial to honor Rose Wark (a good friend who died in October), danced and feasted at the Sno-Ball (a fancy formal party), shopped a couple of times including at a huge flea market (the Big Top), practiced our music with Wayne and Linda Conklin (the other half of our little performance group we now call Kings Strings), and planned for an equally busy week this week!!!

It’s no wonder that the condo hardly ever gets cleaned.

This week we will probably have company from Michigan (Cindy and Mike Baker). They are looking for a rental condo unit for January, February and March, 2012. They were north of Nashville last night when they called. That’s at least a 13-hour drive. I invited them to stay with us if they want. If they do, it’ll be tonight but I can’t imagine how they can make it here unless they arrive in the wee hours. Tomorrow at 3:00 they check into their rental condo unit in Orlando northwest of us. I have a feeling they’ll come tomorrow about 10:30 a.m. We’ll take them on a tour until they have to leave (about 1:00). It won’t give them much time, but they’re anxious to see the place.

I hope, if they call and say they want to stay tonight, I can find the bed under all our music stuff which has taken over the bedroom. (Actually I’m stretching the truth for effect. I could get the bedroom ready with 30 minutes of polishing.)

We have a condo association annual meeting at 8:30 tomorrow, a pizza party with the same group on Wednesday, our couples country dance lesson Wednesday afternoon, Thursday we have another practice scheduled with the Conklins and Rockin’ Rendezvous is that evening at the clubhouse. On Friday, we’ll go to Busch Gardens and see Debbie Reynolds. Saturday we’ll hit the “Nearly New” re-sale for bargains and Sunday we’re invited to Brenda and John’s for a Super Bowl party.

Love our life here! It’s almost good that the pool is closed until the 17th (while the paving stones which make up the pool deck are torn up and leveled). We just don’t have time to relax in the sun. We”re too busy having fun.

Here are the long-promised before and after kitchen renovation pictures.

The honey oak cabinets (above) were in the condo when we bought the place in 2008. You’ll notice the oak cabinets are short, and there’s an old fan over the range with a counter microwave. There’s wallpaper behind the cabinets and on the wall behind the “buffet.”

We had Mauro’s Cabinets re-do everything. He finished Saturday. The top cabinets were totally reconstructed. The bottom cabinets were “resurfaced.” Eventually we’ll also put granite on the countertop and a nice back-splash. The walls in the great room and kitchen are all sand color (a light brown). The wall behind the “buffet” is a milk chocolate color.

There’s also a new stainless French-door refrigerator, microwave, buffet, and hanging pendant lights over the bar area. (The range and dishwasher will eventually have stainless installed, but that will wait.)

This is the “buffet” that prompted the whole renovation. We loved the dark storage piece we bought, and it matched nicely with the lights we hung about the same time, but the cabinets didn’t work with it. Now they do!!

The last photo is the way folks see the kitchen as they enter our condo.

We still have more to do: counter tops, back splash, new bar stools, and eventually the flooring. It’s coming together!

The kitchen isn’t complete, but hopefully Mauro will finish up this morning. (We’re waiting for him now.)

He needs to finish the spice rack (a skinny pull-out to hold our array of spices). He’ll add a door to the corner cabinet, put the doors on a narrow tip-down door under the sink for a scouring pad, etc., adjust some too tight shelves and insert in a missing shelf. Then the hardware (handles) need to be added (22 in all).

John is going to add shelves over the microwave and refrigerator (since Mauro hadn’t included the price of those in his original bid and would have added about $200 to the amount he charged us.) John is also finishing up the painting of the kitchen wall toward the guest bathroom. That one wall will be a milk chocolate color and will accent the lighter sand colored walls in the rest of the kitchen/dining and great room.

We still need to get the stuff put back in all the cupboards. Right now most of the dishes and glassware have been put in them but the top two shelves in all of the cabinets are totally empty. The added shelves really gave us a lot of additional storage area which I hope will take a lot of time to fill. And when John gets the old cabinets installed in the office, we’ll have even more places to stow our stuff.

I don’t want to accumulate things we don’t use, but we, or more accurately I, want to do more entertaining down here. Our social life in Michigan in is almost non-existent. When we entertain in Michigan, it’s at festivals and very casual. I’d like to bring some of our stuff down here so we can host our Florida friends more easily. We have very few serving pieces.

When the kitchen is complete and the wall painted, I’ll post before and after pictures. We feel it’s really a nice improvement; a totally different look. Yes, there’s more to be done in other areas of the condo, but little by little we’ll get the place the way we want it. Next year flooring and maybe counter tops.

What a great month it’s been. The weather greatly improved so we were able to spend a couple days sunning ourselves at the pool.

We’ve been to a couple of great dances, and tonight a super Rockin’ Rendezvous.

We love our Kings Point friends. Tonight again I sat beside Phyllis. She’s the 80+ mother of Brenda. What a charming, lovely lady! I would love to talk one-on-one with her and get to know her even better. Since it’s difficult to seriously converse at our evening gatherings I’ve invited her to stay with us for at least two nights in 2012. I’ll have her captive. She’s the mother I wish I had. Next year we’ll get to enjoy some quality time. Can’t wait!

I just read this and it’s how I want to live life:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, glass of wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”

We went to the Baby Boomers’ annual meeting and ice cream social. It was primarily a business meeting, but the ice cream was great!

After we left the meeting, we headed to the Oldies But Goodies monthly dance across town.

We sat at a fun table of nice Michigan folks: Caroline (who could be my BFF because she also belongs to my creative writing group and is very encouraging) and her nice husband Stephen. They love to dance and it shows. They also belong to our “couples country dance class.” Caroline is such a charmer.

And we also had Shelly and Richard at our table, another Michigan couple. Shelly is fascinating and I already felt I knew Richard because we keep running into him at nearly every event we attend. I spent quite a bit of time exchanging life-stories with Shelly. She and Richard have been married nearly 25 years; just a year less than John and me.

It was a fun, relaxed table of compatible folks. Hope we can get to know them better!!

To finally “feel good” and enjoy the company of friends was grand. It seems we’ve been “out of it” for so long. Actually it’s been less than a month, but it felt longer. Finally we know we’re “over it” and we can again be part of society without feeling contageous.

Dear God:

For 2011, all I ask for is a big, fat bank account and a slim body.
Please do not mix up the two like you did last year.

Thank you.
Amen.

PS Why can’t I get a little ahead instead of a bigger behind.

(Note: This isn’t my “original” thought, but I definitely “second” it.)

A lovely January sunset I photographed tonight.

Yesterday we got a call from Mauro, our kitchen cabinet contractor. He’ll be installing our new top kitchen cabinets and resurfacing the bottom cabinets tomorrow (Friday). They’ll be a warm chocolate brown with brushed stainless bar-type handles.

Before the new cabinets go up, we wanted to get the old wallpaper off the walls in the kitchen area and paint it the same sand color as the living room and dining room.

There’s also a long wall-papered wall where there won’t be cabinets that will need to be stripped of wallpaper and painted but that can wait.

John started yesterday and I assisted. Today we need to take EVERYTHING out of our upper kitchen cabinets.

I can’t wait to see the finished product. It’s going to be so much nicer! Even without the new cabinets, the removal of the old wallpaper has up-dated the room.

I’ll post before and after photos.

I’m still not 100%. It’s been a long, slow recovery but I’m finally feeling better. Not great, but better.

This week I’ve had a major website crisis. My workshop leader registration script wouldn’t run and it was time to send my “invitation” to the leaders. For some reason the website wouldn’t work. I spent dozens of hours trying to trouble-shoot it. I contacted everyone I could think of who might know how to write a perl script. It’s finally working. (I contacted my domain hosting company and they got it running.) Classes are being submitted by leaders and I’m happy.

We were supposed to go to a “sock hop” this evening but neither of us really felt like going anywhere tonight. Hopefully tomorrow we can get out. John’s still coughing a little, but he looks better (except for a cold sore which is bothering him).

Another chilly spell has moved in. It’s not frigid, but certainly not warm and toasty.

Generally my postings are light-hearted. This one is serious. Let me start off by saying that my opinion on this topic is influenced by the fact that my father and two of my aunts were heavy smokers who died of emphysema. My mother, a non-smoker, also had emphysema from my father’s “second hand smoke.”

I’m very allergic to smoke. If I’m around even small amounts of cigarette, pipe or cigar smoke, I usually lose my voice (sometimes for long periods after exposure.)

======

John and I divide our time between two lovely states: Michigan and Florida. We therefore experience the way these states deal with the conflict between smokers and non-smokers. Michigan is more pro-active when it comes to protecting the rights of non-smokers. Florida’s law, sorry to say, misses the mark.

This week, several hospitals in the Tampa area made news by forbidding smoking on their property. In Michigan, hospitals haven’t allowed smoking for at least a dozen years. Michigan hospitals took the lead and said they would set a good example and it’s worked. It’s hard to believe that in Florida, hospitals are doing this “voluntarily” and aren’t required by state law to provide a smoke free environment for those on hospital property.

Although Florida does not allow smoking in public buildings/workplaces, they let folks smoke on terraces, patios, and other similar areas. In Michigan, if a business has even one paid employee (and that includes private clubs), smoking is not allowed even on terraces and other adjacent outdoor properties.

It would be great if Florida would extend their law to cover these out-door places. There are many instances where Florida non-smokers are forced to endure the smoke of others. If Florida’s law matched Michigan’s no-smoking policy which went into effect in 2010, the pool deck would be off-limits for smokers. There’d be absolutely NO SMOKING on patios. You wouldn’t have to avoid “smoke zones” at Busch Gardens.

What difference does it make? you ask. If you’re a smoker you probably feel that you’ve already lost most of your right to smoke. But Florida law still give preference to smokers in many areas.

Smoke knows no boundries. It doesn’t stay within the “smoking” area at the pool deck. Smoke can’t read signs. Frequently the wind carries the smoke from one area to another.

At least at Kings Point, no smoking is permitted inside. But the other day we went to the Moose Club in Ruskin for their Friday fish fry. The food was good but we won’t go back. To order your food or get a drink, you had to stand in “the smoking section.” That room was blue with heavy smoke and the non-smoking area smelled strongly of smoke. In Michigan, our Moose Club was forced to eliminate smoking completely because the Michigan law applies to private clubs, if they have any paid employees. The Ruskin Moose won’t see us again. We’ll find a place that puts a higher value on the rights of non-smokers.

My allergies are often triggered by the blowing smoke at the pool, even though it’s outside. And just who figured out that outdoor food service should be located IN the smoking area?

When smokers ask, “What about our rights?” to be honest, that isn’t my concern. Everyone has a right to expect that they can breathe in smoke-free air. Smokers don’t have the right to polute the environment. Smokers’ rights end when they contaminate the air I breathe in.

In the past, I’ve been forced to give up bowling (because all bowling alleys allowed smokers), I’ve had to move at restaurants because smoke traveled from area to area, I’ve had to leave venues where smokers were contaminating the area. Now, when the rules are supposedly favoring non-smokers, I’m still having to avoid the pool deck area at our favorite pool because smoking is allowed in “smoking” areas and the smoke won’t stay in the areas designated for it.

I just wish Florida would adopt Michigan’s stricter non-smoking policy.

=====

(Today, January 15th, I went to the pool. There was a guy in the smoking section with a cigar. I wanted to get a burger but I had to stand in the smoking section to get my food. Later, I had to endure his smoke even at the other end of the pool. I believe the lack of wind and heavy air contributed to the inversion which trapped his smoke. But why did I have to put up with it? I left.)

No, I’m not back to “normal” but I feel much better and so does John.

This morning we went to the “resale” shop. (We are looking for an old steam iron so we could use it to strip the wallpaper off our kitchen walls.) We were home before noon.

Our country dance lesson was tonight but we didn’t feel we had enough energy. We also turned down the opportunity to go to the Elks in Ruskin with a big bunch.

But we are getting better and that feels great!

I’ve taken dozens of photos of the view “from-our-condo” but tonight’s sunset was awesome!

We’re both still sick with horrid colds. It’s been over a week for John and I’ve had it for about five days. No fun!

With both of us being ill at the same time, it’s difficult because we both need to be babied but we’re too sick to do much for each other.

John really scared me a couple days ago. His color got really gray and he was afraid it had gotten into his lungs. He couldn’t get warm and was shaking with chills. He finally took a really long hot, hot shower but he passed out in the shower. Thank heavens he was sitting on the bench in the shower when he collapsed.

As soon as I opened the shower door and he got fresh air he revived and was on his feet within a few minutes. His color slowly returned to normal and he felt better that evening (at least he’d warmed up).

Friday night went to our New Years Eve party. We were careful to take all the precautions so we wouldn’t pass it on (hand sanitizer and no sneezing or coughing). We lasted until about 10:20. I was asleep long before midnight.

We haven’t eaten any real meals for three or four days. The closest was last night when I opened and heated a can of chicken noodle soup.

Neither of us has been dressed since Friday night, but we’re going to try to get presentable and go out for groceries this afternoon. We don’t have a choice. We’re out of bread, bananas, and kleenex.

So far 2011 has been a disappointment.

I have a bad cold which I caught from John. He started feeling rotten Sunday, by Tuesday night I had all the symptoms.

We have tickets for a New Year’s Eve party tomorrow. John’s feeling pretty good today, hopefully I’ll show improvement tomorrow.

At least the weather is going to be nice for the next week or so (in the mid-70’s). That’ll help!

John and I were concerned because every time we passed the heavily decorated sign announcing “Lancaster,” one of the condo associations within Kings Point, the blow-up Santa and Frosty were deflated. They were just heaps of unrecognizable (dead) vinyl. We couldn’t figure why that association didn’t remove the defective/damaged Christmas decorations.

But the other day, we finally learned how how these lawn decorations work. (We’re probably the last to know.) We had been under the impression Santa and Frosty were balloons which were inflated and should stay inflated. Now we understand that the new, higher tech lawn ornaments are kept upright by an air pump which has to be running to keep the characters standing. It all makes sense. The Lancaster lights were on a timer and they were also out.

Although we haven’t seen them “come to life” somehow the mental image is of Christmas zombies.

We enjoyed a pleasant holiday.

Christmas Eve we’d joined a houseful of friends at Rachael and Jerry’s for a fun (rather rowdy) house party. At 11:00 we went to church for a candlelight service. It was nice to see everyone on the “night before.”

Christmas morning we opened our gifts. (We’d agreed that the new refrigerator and kitchen renovation were our gifts to each other, but we did have a few things under the tree.)

John played a little pickleball. I’m amazed that he’s using his damaged lungs so efficiently. (As a brand new player, he feels badly that he can’t keep up with the best of the players, but he’s more than holding his own with those who are average.)

Dinner was a feast of baked ham, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, American fried potatoes, apple/waldorf salad, corn pudding, home made bread, lots of relishes and two desserts (chocolate mousse and pumpkin pecan pie).

We vegged the rest of the day. Nice and quiet. Life is good.

We spent the day at Busch Gardens. The Christmas shows were wonderful. Costumes and talent awesome! The ice show was especially breath-taking. The Russian couple scare me because every year I expect she’ll hit the ice when he holds her ankles and spins her face inches from the ice. This year the little girl was very young but charming!

Of course we enjoyed the animals in the Gardens too.

It was a tad chilly but with no wind and bright sunshine, we were comfortable.

We’re looking forward to the music series at Busch which will start in mid-January.

Last night we went to “Country Night” at the South Club.

It seems that for quite a few years, the rest of the world has enjoyed group (line) dances but we’ve never tried. It seemed the longer we postponed learning those dances, the harder it was to jump in. Everyone else learned how to “grape vine” and “stomp” while we were sitting on the side lines.

Our Wednesday lessons are exposing us to country “couples’ dances,” and we’re finding that line dancing is creeping in.

Last night we got out there and tried most of the dances. We had fun! Lots of fun.

So I’m no longer avoiding line dances but I still won’t do the “Chicken Dance” or the “Hokey Pokey.” I find them absurd.

The weather here in Florida has been dern chilly. Tonight we went to Rockin’ Rendevous (by golf cart). It was a pleasant time.

The Rendezvous is still much quieter with smaller crowds than previous years, but the cool weather and absence of folks who have left for the north to be with family for the holidays explained many of the absences.

At least today wasn’t as bitter cold as it has been the past couple of days. (It actually spent most of the day in the 60’s.)

At Rockin’ Rendezvous, we sat with Don and Jan, who are friends of Brenda and John. They may stop over Christmas afternoon. We’ll open our door to anyone who wants to stop in that day. We can open some wine, and make a few tasty munchies.

I told John I wanted to go to shopping tomorrow because I needed to buy a warm jacket.

I had every intention to bring a short black winter jacket with us from Michigan. But after I got down here, I had looked for that jacket and I hadn’t been able to find it. I figured I’d left it in the dining room in our up-north home. (I use the dining room as a “staging area” when we are packing.)

Tonight, when I mentioned shopping for a jacket, John said he’d found my black one a week or so ago and had put it in the truck. I checked. It was there! Yeah! I won’t freeze. I now have my warm gloves (which were in the pocket) and a warm jacket. Wish I’d brought the removeable lining but the nylon shell will sure help.

This time I wanted to put the jacket where I could find it, so I decided the best place to store the jacket was the back of the walk-in master closet. When I went to hang it way in the back, I found my long trench coat. (It’s black with a velvet collar.) I must have brought down with me last year. I remember looking for that coat after we’d gone back to Michigan last April or May. I didn’t remember that I’d brought it south. Now I know why I couldn’t find it in our up-north home. It never dawned on me that the trench coat was down here, I was under the mistaken impression that it was in Michigan.

I’m so glad I have them. It’s been cold and I could have used the trench coat Monday night. We were sort of dressed up but it was cold. I have a mink jacket, but that’s only for rare occasions like balls and truly dressy events. Monday wasn’t that dressy, but a casual fleecy jacket would have looked tacky so I didn’t wear any jacket at all and I froze!!

TWO houses make life entirely too confusing. Is it here? Or is it there? At least now I’m all set for jackets/coats.

Last night we attended the Nantucket V Christmas party. It was a very nice evening!

We were the entertainment with our friends, the Conklins. The four of us had practiced several times. We had a nice selection of holiday tunes and a few that were just fun!

Many in our audience had never heard a hammered dulcimer. John and Wayne produced a nice sound with John taking the melody and Wayne making nice harmonies. Linda and I played chords and provided a rhythm on our autoharps to lay foundation.

I was the emcee and “talked” to the audience. I tried to keep it light-hearted and it worked. When you “make a connection” you can feel it, and last night felt good!

We felt they really loved the music and appreciated us. It was FUN!

The positive comments were plentiful.

One friend came up afterward and said, “You guys are so ‘professional’.”

For a first music experience with our neighborhood, we were pleased with the way it turned out.

It’s funny but since we’ve been coming down her to Florida, Thursday’s have been the most popular night of the week. The South Clubhouse is always packed with dancers, those who enjoyed adult beverages and folks in search of fun. We’ve always loved it!!

But this year it’s been different (although we had no true comparison because we’ve never spent November/December down here).

Previously we would plan to arrive before the starting time of 4:00 p.m. but we had few seating options that “late.” We would dance, partake of adult beverages and have a grand time socializing.

But this year there have been very few in the clubhouse for the Thursday Rockin’ Rendezvous party.

Tonight we got to there about 5:15 and had our choice of seat locations. It’s obvious that the “crowd volume” is still down. By about 6:00 the place was comfortably crowded and it became a fun gathering.

We left about 7:00 when we’d “had our fill” but it was a nice time with lots of friends and great music.

I’m wondering why folks are hesitating to come to the Thursday night’s Rockin Rondezous party. The music couldn’t have been better. John and I danced to a lot of good tunes. We couldn’t have asked for anything we’d have enjoyed more. It was definitely a good time.

I hope those who are hesitating for whatever reason decide to come and join the fun. The Kings Point Clubhouse is a rockin’ place on Thursday nights!!! We notice there’s an absence of lots of folks we’d like to see attend. Too bad. We’re all having fun but it would be even better if they’d join us.

Yesterday I attended my first meeting of the Kings Point Creative Writers’ Group. It was an enjoyable two hours and I’ve penciled in their gatherings for the future. (They meet on the first and third Tuesdays in Sun City Center, and the second and fourth in Kings Point.)

The format is simple. Everyone brings something they’ve written and they read it to the group.

There were ten attending.

There were: fictional stories, poetry, narratives of current situations and other contributions.

When my time came, I read the first part of “Family Matters,” the discovery of my brother Jim. (Note, you can find a link to it immediately to the right under the heading “Menu”.) It was well received. I think, when I attend again, I’ll bring the first part in case someone missed the beginning of the story but for my second presentation, I’ll tell “the rest of the story.”

We’re kind of stumbling into a kitchen renovation.

A week or so ago we put up new blown glass, dark brown very contemporary pendant lights over the “breakfast bar.” They looked great but they made everything else look bad.

Then we found a great buffet,

There’s a blank wall in our kitchen, near the dining area. We’d pressed a tacky free-standing bookcase/bar-type unit into service when we moved in, and located it on the blank wall for extra storage. It was ugly, but served us well. We realized was time to do something about the bookcase, so we purchased the buffet. Yes, we know built in cabinets could be built-in to match our kitchen, but this is something we can arrange elsewhere or even take with us if we buy a different condo. With wine storage and ample drawers and cabinets, it fits our lifestyle.

The new unit is dark, chocolate colored wood with brushed stainless knobs. It looks great with the hanging pendant lights, but it sure doesn’t match the existing honey oak kitchen cabinets.

Today our new stainless French-door refrigerator was delivered. The refrigerator, buffet and the lights blend together quite nicely. But the existing wallpaper is too busy. (We’ve always said the paper should be removed.) But it’s the cabinets that now stand out as “totally dated.”

This afternoon we had a guy come to give us a bid for changing the cabinets. For obvious reason, he wants us to go with replacement cabinets. He’d like us to get rid of the buffet, which he said doesn’t do a thing for the area. He may be right, but it’s serviceable and we’re satisfied. We didn’t spend so much that we can’t ever part with it, but for now, we want to just concentrate on the rest of the kitchen.

For the lowest price we can paint the existing kitchen cabinets, or for more we can put new doors and skins on them, or we can replace them completely. We’re getting bids on all options.

We’ll see what this cabinet maker can do and tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have another bidder look at the job.

We don’t want to put too much into this project. We’ll see…..

Monday we spent the day in Brandon shopping. We ended up buying a stainless French door refrigerator which is going to be great!! No more turning the ice maker on and off and if we forget, ending up with a freezer full of ice. It’s large (29 sq. ft.) with accessible ice and water without opening the door! And a freezer which will be large enough to hold our Thanksgiving turkey.

We are also getting a buffet with a hutch top to go on a blank wall as you go into the kitchen. That’ll give us five additional drawers and three sizeable cabinets plus a wine storage area. We especially need the drawers!

We’ve added new hanging lights over our breakfast bar. They really up-graded that area. With the refrigerator and buffet/hutch, it’ll be much nicer and more appealing. Next step: add granite counter tops, up-grade our kitchen cabinets and hopefully replace our bar stools with some that are more contemporary.

Of course the floors need to be either tiled or we need to lay wood flooring. There doesn’t seem to be any end to our dreams.

Thank heavens!!

Dreaming makes life fun!

Today we rearranged my “office area.” We brought a four-drawer file cabinet in from the garage, which means I can “get organized.” It’s a temporary fix. Eventually we want to make the “office” into one huge pantry/storage area with a sink and cabinets for canned goods against the back wall and a built in desk area to the right side. At least now, the space isn’t totally wasted. I’d also like to find a good sized book shelf to hold my abundant books. Maybe it can go in a corner of our bedroom. I read so much and our community is utopia for buying bargain books.

Let’s see, since getting down here (six weeks ago), we’ve gone to Little Harbor to watch the sunset and enjoy hamburgs three times, two evenings at the Elks Club in Ruskin for spaghetti, an Oldies but Goodies dance, an Acadamy dance, and a Ballroom Dance Club dance, a pizza party, wine party, a fund raiser dinner, a potluck with the Pelican Players (drama club), dinner at Circles (very good and up-scale), and we’ve had dinner at the Conklins twice, pizza here once, pool at least five or six times a week and well…. you get the idea. Busy Busy Busy!! Love it!

Yesterday we had decided to make an offer on the lovely condo on Princeton Greens. It offered more space and storage with an unequaled view at a very low asking price.

About noon we called our realtor and she in turn called the listing agent. We were too late. It had been sold. Darn!

But the experience has prompted us to look at our place differently. We do love our view and there are a few things we can do to make our place even nicer for us. We’ll gradually complete some small projects. The large ones will wait for now. Even the small ones will make a difference.

We’ll move the utility tub from the office and move a storage unit into that space. We’ll see about adding a cabinet in the master bathroom. We’ll look into the replacement of our refrigerator and relocate it left of where it is now. We’ll add a pantry where the current refrigerator sits. We’ll see about some extra cabinets to the left of the new refrigerator location. We’ll buy a new furniture grouping for the end of the living area. That should do it for this year.

Yesterday our garbage disposal died so John replaced it and we added two pendant lights in place of two recessed lights over the bar that divides the kitchen from the living area. Those projects totaled less than $200. Little things like that will enhance our place.

I do need to wash the living room windows while it’s cool. (The 85-90 degree temperatures didn’t encourage working outside especially on the sunny side of the condo but this week it should be nice and we have few activities planned.)

We also need to have the living room carpeting commercially cleaned.

We’ll keep our eyes open for a different condo, but there’s no rush. (I really wish we’d moved faster on the Princeton Greens condo!)

Today John and I took a tour of the above condo which is located in Kings Point (our gated community).

We’ve been hoping to find a place that would make up for our current condo’s short-comings. This may be it.

If we stay here (in our current condo), we’ll eventually need to do some expensive projects to make it work for us.

We’ll need to replace the carpet and vinyl floor coverings with durable tile or wood flooring. We’ll eventually replace the living room windows with some that are more weather resistant, expand the lanai, enlarge the kitchen, and possibly move a wall between the master bathroom and office to expand the master bath by two additional feet (and rearrange the shower, etc.) Roughly we figure the changes we’ll need to make will total $30,000-$50,000. Although once we get a place or decide, we’ll hope to stay put, the value of the condo probably won’t reflect any of the changes.

The condo we looked at today is two years OLDER than ours but it’s considerably larger and has an exceptional view (a view is a requirement for me). There’s a pond directly behind the condo with a conservation district on the other side of the pond. The side yard is wide. It’s on a quiet cul-de-sac.

Most of the floors are 18″ ceramic tile. (Only the bedrooms are carpeted.) There are lots of closets and storage galore. The galley style kitchen is twice the size of ours with a window over the sink. There’s a nice-sized utility room with a utility sink off the kitchen and the utility room has a whole wall that’s a pantry (about 18″ deep).

The master bedroom is much larger than ours and would accommodate a “sitting area” toward the pond. (They have 4 or 5 dressers in a row along one wall in the bedroom.) The bedroom view is awesome. There is a walk-in closet for the lady and a second closet for a guy. The master bath is spacious with a large “Roman shower”. There’s a long two-sink vanity with ample storage. There’s nice sized linen closet in the master bath and a hallway closet in the foyer near the front door. (Yes, it has a foyer!) The guest room is larger than our current one with a closet along one whole wall and a pretty arched window.

Both bathrooms have solar lights.

The living room is about 30 feet long and about 20 feet wide (with two solar lights). They’ve divided it into two distinct furniture groupings: one area for TV and another for conversation, but we’d blend the two.

There’s a nice sized dining area which opens with sliding doors to the lanai. The screened lanai is really pretty. In addition to the dining room siding door the whole width of the living room opens up completely to the outdoor room and the doors slide in such a way that the opening is totally unobstructed. The lanai would also act as a greenhouse for John’s green thumb.

We didn’t come in the front way, but it appears there’s a gracious entry feel.

All the condo’s ceilings are very high with interesting angles and slopes and neat ledges at different heights. (They are currently filled with knick-knacks, but we’d prefer to just see the angles of those shelves bare.)

There are four solar lights (two in the living room and one in each bathroom).

The current dark, musty den, which is being used as a “library” with a whole wall of dark bookshelves, would make a perfect “office”/”music room” and is positioned away from the traffic areas so the required clutter wouldn’t be visible. It would eventually need another solar light but is large enough to serve all those purposes.

Negatives: the current owners are into art work and have dozens upon dozens upon dozens of paintings on all the walls (30-50 hung on just one living room wall). We’d therefore need to patch nail holes and repaint completely. The place is so cluttered that it’s hard to see the “bones” of the place. It has a sort of an old, musty smell (which would be eliminated with a thorough cleaning). The kitchen is dated but serviceable. Older white appliances are ok, but not glamorous. There’s no “breakfast bar” which we love in our current condo so we’d need to eat in the dining room all the time. There’s no dining light fixture, only an ugly fan with a light (a fan over a table?? Naw!) The garage Is too short for our truck and that’s almost a deal breaker for John. There’s no window in the den. It faces east while our current place faces west so we’d lose our lovely sunsets. We would be further from the South Club where we hang out and I wouldn’t do as much walking (too far to the clubhouses and it’s easier to be motivated to walk with a destination).

The things which would need to be done to the place: paint throughout, change cabinet knobs in kitchen and bathrooms, change light fixtures in bathrooms, upgrade fans in living room, dining area and lanai, install a hanging light over the dining room table, change lanai light fixtures, (if possible) add a “breakfast bar.” Eventually re-face or paint the kitchen cabinets. All of those things could be done for a few hundred dollars. Quite a difference from the $30,000-$50,000 we’d need to spend on our current condo.

Both of us can envision the lovely place this could be. It really has a lot of promise.

I should mention that the place we’re interested in has a very motivated seller who must unload the place. (The husband needs to be in an assisted living area and they have made plans to move to Lakeland where doctors can help with his care.) They need to move by the end of December. Therefore, we’re hoping we can make a cash offer and get a quick acceptance. We’d list ours for about $5,000 less than we paid for it two years ago and hope to sell soon. But we could also consider renting it out.

A lot to think about.

======

It’s now several hours later. We went to the condo again with Trudy our realtor and I thought we were ready to make an offer. Then we measured the garage and the truck and found the garage is too small. The truck doesn’t fit. That was like a “sign.”

John’s now cool to the whole idea. He’s afraid of owning two condos at the same time. The association dues would have to be paid on both units. That’s nearly $400 monthly. With his cold feet and the garage too small to hold our vehicle, we’re giving it second thoughts.

I still love it. John’s less convinced. Actually don’t think John has the energy to move right now anyway. It is difficult and stressful to move and today John wasn’t feeling well enough to consider it. I know he doesn’t feel strong enough. I have to bow to his decision.

This place is nice. I just hate to spend the money we’ll need to spend to make it work for us.

John and I went to Little Harbor for dinner tonight. (Just the two of us.) It was lovely.

Here’s one of the photos I took.

I thought it would be wise to have items at both our Michigan and our Florida home. But we’re finding that we aren’t using up things fast enough. Stuff “expires.”

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

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.

Today it rained (close to 1/2 inch) from about 10:00-1:00. We were so glad! It’s been nearly a month without any precipitation at all. Although our community has a lot of “irrigation” with huge sprinklers, and although everything is still green, we feared that the trees haven’t been getting enough deep rain to keep them going if we have any stressful situations (like the cold we had last winter).

For the past half dozen years (or more years) I’ve totally ignored my health. First it was my mom’s heath and I was consumed by her needs. Then about 18 months ago John’s health deteriorated and I was busy worrying about him. But recently I realized I need to worry about my own condition.

Last week I went to an internist who scheduled me for blood work, x-rays and insisted that I needed to go to a gynecologist for total gynecological exam. I also needed a mammogram. I have taken care of all but the blood work (which I’ll do asap – I just have to get up early and have the tests done before I eat anything) and I still need an uterine ultrasound next week. So far so good. I don’t want to let it slip again. I want to live a long, productive life.

I love our time down here and I don’t want to miss any of it because I’m not healthy.

So I’ll have all the tests done. I’ll get the final wrap up explanation on November 22nd.

With the rain, we didn’t get to the pool today and the forecast looks like it’ll be considerably cooler. If we have any warm weather, we’ll definitely spend it at poolside.

A friend of mine pointed me to this Key West (FL) moonshot from October 22nd. The moon has been so bright it looked like a floodlight. I realized I could have “read” by moonlight.

The schedule for 2011 for Busch Gardens Real Music Series was released and lots of excellent acts are included in the line-up:

Jan. 19 – 22 – The Terry Myers Orchestra (a Tribute to Benny Goodman) with the Swing Sisters
Jan. 26 – 29 – The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
Feb. 2 – 5 – Debbie Reynolds
Feb. 9 -12 – Paul Revere and the Raiders
Feb. 16 – 19 – The Ventures
Feb. 23 – 26 – Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone
March 2 – 5 – The 5th Dimension
March 9 – 12 – The Osmond Brothers
March 16 – 19 – Tony Orlando
March 23 – 26 – Charo

Most of the acts have visited Busch Gardens before, but we’d still go back and see them again. Our special favorites are: the Osmond Brothers and Charo. We haven’t seen either of the orchestras, Debbie Reynolds (although I saw her about 40 years ago in Chicago), the Ventures or Tony Orlando.

It should be a great season.

I took these photos of Charo in April, 2008, when she visited Busch Gardens. According to Wikipedia, official documents in Murcia, Spain (where she was born) and the United States indicate she was born in 1941, but Charo insists she actually was born in 1951. If Wikipedia is right, when we see her in March, she’ll be 70. When these photos were taken she was 67!

Today we picked up our new golf cart. It’s pretty, shiny, and has all the bells and whistles.

Unfortunately, when we were parked in front of the dealer’s store, testing the brake lights, the sales person said, “Hit the pedal.” I was sitting in the passenger seat and he pointed to a pedal, which I hit. Unfortunately it was the accelerator, not the brake!! John had left the key on and it was in forward so it took off and hit another (NEW!!) cart. Our front was metal, the front of the other one was plastic. Ours was fine. But we now have to pay for a new front piece on the other cart!! I feel so stupid!!

John kept saying, “How could you?” and he has been really quiet and I can tell he’s really mad.

I don’t know how much it’ll cost, but the golf cart shop said, “It won’t be much.” I hope not.

I think they feel that it wasn’t totally my fault. From my view, the guy pointed at the wrong pedal. (In fact I questioningly looked at him and got a nod.) And John left the car in forward and not neutral as he’d been told to do. But I took 100% of the blame because I should have known not to hit the accelerator.

So the good feeling we got from the new cart was quickly gone. We didn’t even go to the regular Thursday Rockin’ Rendezvous. We stayed home in a quiet funk. Last night left us tired and not feeling like more beer. John said the loud music would drive him crazy tonight, so we didn’t go anywhere.

Last night we invited Linda and Wayne Conklin to go with us to Little Harbor’s Grill to watch a Florida sunset.

Little Harbor is one of our favorite destinations but it’s usually a bit pricey. We’d heard that on Wednesday they are offering a “special” of a $5.95 half-pound angus burger and cheap beer. We arrived at about 5:00 so we got a great outdoor table in the shade. It was perfect! Apparently we weren’t the only ones who had heard about the bargain because by 6:00 the place was packed.

The food was great.

At about 6:30 our friends, Darlene & Gary and Sharon & Al showed up and were trying to find a table. We crowed in four more chairs. It was a nice evening.

At 6:55 the sunset didn’t disappoint.

After the sun had gone down but the sky was still colored, Wayne & Linda walked with us down to the water. It was a perfect temperature and a lovely breezy night. The fish were jumping and it smelled like “ocean.” The tiki torches illuminated the shoreline.

Florida has a “feel” and the whole evening definitely had that quality. Wayne and Linda agree that Little Harbor is the perfect place to take folks who want an experience. It’s the sort of place that we want to save as an “occasion,” but it is fun and October with mid-70’s temperatures was a perfect time to take it in.

Nearly every day we’re at the pool for at least four hours (sometimes six). Weather’s been delightful.

Last night we went to the Pennsylvania Club’s Octoberfest. Nice event. Tonight we’re heading to Ruskin for a spaghetti dinner at the Elks Club. (Mel and Jean loosely organized a few of us to go over for the evening.) Tomorrow night it’s Rockin’ Rendezvous from 4:00-7:00 (we’ll probably go at about 6:00), followed by a Baby Boomer Club wine and cheese party. Then we have a few “days of rest” (unless we decide to go over to the clubhouse Saturday night or Sunday night for football), before we attend a Kings Point Ballroom Dance Club dance next Tuesday. Whew!

We’ve been at the pool most days since arriving. (I think we missed one day when we had a full schedule.) Friends gather and we float around and exchange stories. It’s fun.

Yesterday we went inside (to the bar area) for the last couple of innings of the Rays game. It was super fun when the Rays won. The crowd went wild and the excitement was contageous.

The Tampa Bay Rays are obviously very popular here. Tampa Bay’s baseball team will come home Tuesday night to play a fifth and decisive game against the Texas Rangers in the first round of the American League playoffs. The winner will go on to play some team or another from New York City for the league championship, and a place in the World Series.

The Rays lost the first two games, but they rebounded to win games 3 and 4 in Texas over the weekend.

Tomorrow night we’ll have a grand and exciting showdown. John and I will miss most of the excitement because we’re going to a Pennsylvania Club Octoberfest dinner dance. But I’ll bet we’ll know what’s happening. There’s a TV set outside the ballroom and I have a feeling that if we’re still at the party and the score is close, the whole party will be gathered around the set.

Saturday we went to a lovely Fundraiser at the Sun City Center Community Hall. The crowd was large and supportive. It was a benefit for Sunshine Kids, who are children with cancer. One of the youngsters spoke and made a real impact with her explanation of how this charity had helped her.

We’d never heard of this annual event, but we won’t miss it next year. Tickets were $18 per person. The dinner was catered by Carrabba’s and was excellent. (We’ve even tried to find a recipe for the chicken.) Talented locals provided the entertainment. As the evening ended, there were lots of items raffled off. Everyone was given a Sun City Center candy jar or coffee mug. We bought a white golf shirt with embroidered Sun City Cener logo. It was a wonderful bargain.

Our friends, Sharon Baremore and Alan Goodyear, were our guests. Alan won a raffle package.

We ended the evening at our house for a little wine.

Nice evening!

Since we arrived Monday the skies have been blue without a single cloud. Temperatures have been delightful (low to mid 80’s). It’s been really nice.

Today we looked at seven condos (exterior observations only). None impressed us enough to be given further consideration. The more we look, the more we feel it’s best to stay where we are.

Many of the places we’ve checked need TLC. Flower beds are over-grown and a good power-washing of the exterior would help. Some have small living areas and NONE we’ve checked have a view equal to what we have. The perfect place may show up, but we haven’t found it yet.

Tomorrow evening we’re going out with Alan Goodyear and Sharon Baremore. They are a cute couple we met last year. We’ll attend a benefit for kids with cancer. Dinner will be catered by Carrabba’s. Our original plans were to go with Wayne and Linda Conklin, but Wayne’s nephew died, so they made a quick trip back tle Michigan and they suggested that we give their tickets to someone who would enjoy the evening. Alan and Sharon will be fun.

I need to do a little house cleaning early, we’ll head to the re-sale shop, and check the bulletin boards to see if we can find any wonderful bargains.

Don’t know if we’ll make it to the pool. We’re both getting a gentle tan.

We’ve made lots of special friends here in Florida. One of those was Tom Petzak. He was a 71-year-old, sun-tanned fixture at the pool. He always had a smile and would always take time to talk with you. John and Tom really hit it off. Tom played softball and was as more active than anyone we knew. He had a malignant brain tumor and only live five weeks after diagnosis.

Tom died in July. We didn’t know until today at the pool. Actually, I didn’t find out until John told me as we were driving home.

The pool won’t seem the same.

We’ve commented that the lost of Jay Morris in August 2008, and Bob Taylor in December that same year had a major impact on our Florida experience. Now we’ve also lost Tom. There’s be an empty spot in our lives.

We arrived in Sun City Center about noon. After stopping at the post office and Winn Dixie, we got to our place about 12:45. The place is dusty but in good shape.

The bougainvillea, which we feared had died after last winter’s heavy frosts, is in bloom but needs more pruning. It had been about eight feet tall, now it’s half that, but at least it survived.

In 2008, we brought a small six inch poinsettia in a 3″ pot. It had one or two flowers. Last year, when we arrived just before Christmas it was lovely.

When we got down here today, it had doubled in size. Of course, it’s not time for it to flower, but it’s going to be awesome during the holiday season. It stands over four feet tall, and it’s a good three feet across. My pansies had died, and the flower beds where they’d been planted are overgrown with weeds, but I’ll get them to look nice again.

It’ll take a few days to get everything polished up, but I love it here!

So far Mel & Jean and Wayne & Linda have stopped in. Our neighbors have stopped us to welcome us.

We attended the Pelican Players (drama club) potluck but it was small. It’s obvious everyone hasn’t returned yet.

John said he already feels better here. The six months will fly by.

We’re in Florida with about 180 miles ‘til our exit. It’s 9:00 a.m. and 60 degrees. We’ve spotted a few palm trees but no “love-bugs” yet. Traffic is light, Charlie, our cockatiel is cooing contentedly, and Willow’s anxious to arrive.

The trip has been fairly uneventful. Traffic was bumper to bumper and slow-moving as we went through Atlanta. Maybe a sporting event (??). We never figured it out but things all lanes were clogged. We’d figured that by traveling on the weekend, we’d avoid a lot of the truck traffic, but we were wrong. Yesterday, especially through Tennessee and northern Georgia, truckers were out in force.

But today, on this last lap, we’re moving smoothly along.

We’ve noticed a lot of big rig RVers pulling extra vehicles. Yesterday it seemed every other vehicle on the road was a huge, pricy motor home.

Tonight we’re headed to a Pelican Players’ potluck at the North Clubhouse. We’re hoping to bump into the couple that gave us grapefruit last year. We don’t know their names, but they were complaining about too much fruit and anxious to give it away. We’d like to get on their list of “recipients.”

Our friends, the Conklins, called us yesterday afternoon and asked if we’d like to come to dinner tonight, but I explained that we already have plans. We’ll see them Saturday night when we go to a benefit for children with cancer.

We’ll be there shortly.

On September 17th, 2007, I wrote about “unlovely love bugs.” Yesterday I was warned that “they’re back!”

Our friends, Wayne and Linda Conklin, who are already in Florida said we should be prepared. They’ve really invaded the south.

Again, for clarification, what are love bugs? I found this technical explanation:

The female is the larger one on the right.

The love bug (also known as lovebug, march fly, honeymoon fly, telephone bug and double-headed bug) (scientific name Plecia nearctica) is a small flying insect common to the southern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast. It was first described in 1940 in Galveston, Texas, and was said to be invading Texas and Louisiana. By the end of the 20th century, however, it had spread heavily to all areas bordering the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and other parts of Central America.

Just before we get into Florida, we generally see our first love bugs. They don’t bite, sting, stink, or buzz. But they are annoying because there are so many of them. And they are really hard on car finishes. Someone made a comment in something I read that lovebugs truly help the economy because so many people have to have their cars washed after driving through them. If you leave them on your car, they’ll permanently pit the finish. But even if an insecticide could be found to eliminate them, there’d be a lobby defending them, since so many folks earn money off them.

Our problem: Our clothes washer decided to die while I was doing final, before-we-leave laundry. It’s ancient (at least 40-years old) and has served us well, but why now??!! It won’t spin the water out of the clothes. Our choices seemed to be: pack up wet clothes and re-wash them when we get to Florida, haul the whole wet load to a laundrymat and spend the afternoon there, or go buy a new washer.

But together we handled the problem.. Yes, it’s a temporary fix.

The clothes are drip-drying in the garage. We siphoned the water from the washer. They’ll go in the drier when they’re not so wet. (All will need to be rewashed anyway.) We’ll take any that we need to Florida as they are and wash them down there.

In April, first thing we’ll do when we get home is buy a new washer AND dryer. Since the old harvest gold set has lasted for more than 40 years, they deserve retirement.

Wonder what currently sold washer/dryer set will last 40 years. We’ll be in the market in April.

Come to think of it, if the new one lasts 40+ years, I’ll be 109 and John will be 113. Maybe 25 or 30 years will be a sufficient warranty.

“I can’t promise I’ll love you for the rest of your life, but I can promise that I’ll love you for the rest of mine.”

My sweet husband, John’s, illness is frightening. There’s no cure. He’s doing well, but his condition could worsen at any time. Sadly, the statistics would indicate that I’ll lose him at some point. It doesn’t help that he’s older then me and a male. (He’s 72 and I’m 68 and he has what is considered a terminal illness.)

The above saying really “hit home.” I’ll love him for the rest of my life. But sadly he can’t promise that he’ll love me for the rest of mine.

Here’s the view which awaits us from our condo.

Today we were hustling around finishing up a slew of appointments. John went to his doctor, stopped by our investment counselor and attorney, went shopping, picked up John’s new glasses, and got a chest x-ray. We were on a strict schedule. Everything fit together, but he did have to schedule blood work and a breathing test for tomorrow.

Additionally tomorrow we have the closing on the farm. (We sold it to a neighbor.)

We’ve set aside Thursday and Friday to pack the truck and mow the lawn again.

It’s all exhausting, but we’ll be able to relax when we get to Florida.

It’s good that we no longer have to worry about our house staying safe. Paying for a “security system” seems like a good peace of mind investment.

Last night I clicked on my desktop icon to bring up my “Palm Desktop” program. That’s the place where I record all of our appointments. It opened but it was EMPTY. Instead of the full calendar pages I expected to see, everything was gone. The calendar was totally blank.

I put EVERYTHING we do on our calendar. Our lives are controlled by it. I was shaking and there was this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I thought of what it would take to recreate our schedules. (Doctor appointments, dental appointments, beauty shop, birthdays, etc., it’s all on my computer in that program.)

Since I’ve been faithfully backing up my computer to my new two terrabyte hard drive, there was hope. My fear was that the program wouldn’t accept the back-up data, but with nothing to lose, and my fingers crossed, I went to the back-up hard drive and found the directory where my Palm program was stored. There was a version of the Calendar database which had been created Friday (less than 24 hours previously). I copied from the back-up to my C: drive.

IT WORKED! The back-up saved the day.

The Seagate two terrabyte hard drive…. $206. Restoring our calendar…. PRICELESS!

A week from right now we hope to be somewhere south of London, KY, on our way to Florida. On Saturday, we’ll drive about 500 miles. We’ll have dinner at John’s restaurant of choice, Cracker Barrel. Sunday we’ll go 535 more miles and overnight in Valdosta, GA. On Monday, we’ll complete our trip and hopefully reach our destination shortly after noon. We’ll have driven 1,300 miles from our home in Saginaw. The sun will be shining, and we’ll be anxious to head to the pool. While floating on a “noodle,” we’ll find out what our Florida friends have been doing since we last saw them (in April).

Somewhere, somehow, someone decided that Halloween stuff should come out as soon as possible after Labor Day is past. And then immediately following Halloween (sometimes even before) Christmas merchandise goes up. (What happened to the old adage of starting the Christmas season with Thanksgiving?)

Apparently in Walmarts, the pattern of marketing extends uniformly through all the states. You’ll find the same stuff in Florida that’s sold in Michigan at the same time of the year. Yes, Florida residents think in terms of “seasons” just as they do up-north, and when you’re talking about pumpkins and Christmas trees, it makes sense.

But the seasonal merchandising extends to a lot of items which have nothing to do with holidays. Think of the stuff you buy in the summer when you’re heading to the beach. And what about grills for cooking outside, and lawn furniture? Those items are also “seasonal.” Apparently the rules are uniform. Cold weather items are stocked from the fall through the winter. Warm/hot weather stuff in spring and summer.

Here’s the problem: We need those beach items in Florida year-round.

Wouldn’t you think that someone would figure that out?

When folks vacation in Florida, they are often looking for warm weather items? Especially with the additional restrictions on airline baggage, folks will be “traveling light.” With these baggage restrictions, there will be more folks who will expect to purchase what they need when they arrive in Florida.

Several years ago, we arrived in Florida in September, as many snowbirds do. I wanted to buy additional beach towels for guests who were scheduled to arrive during the winter months. Walmart, where I’d generally shop for towels (because theirs are big, thick and fluffy), had absolutely none and I was told I had missed the season for beach towels by about six months. Same was true of “pool noodles” and “beach umbrellas.” But just before we (and all the other snowbirds) left for home in March, they brought out the next season’s supply.

I asked a clerk and she said that it’s always that way. Beach stuff is considered seasonal, and it’s therefore only sold starting in the early spring. Yard items are put away until about April. She said, “Hope you never want to buy any lawn furniture in December. We don’t stock outdoor items during the winter months.” Yet Florida boasts year-round nice weather.

The heaviest influx of snowbirds is in January, February and March. The population of many areas doubles or quadruples. Wouldn’t you think that these prospective buyers would be recognized by Walmart and they’d make it possible for these folks do their shopping at Walmart for a beach towel, a beach bag, or a sun umbrella? Nope.

But if you want a heavy winter coat, the Florida Walmarts carry them in December. I’ve even seen mittens and scarves and I’ll bet you could buy a snow shovel at a Florida Walmart, but no beach items. Go figure!

In our destination community in Florida, there is a Bealls department store. They get it. They cater to the Florida lifestyle and you can always buy shorts, bathing suits, and other beach attire. You’d think that Florida Walmarts would also catch on.

(Note: I should revise this critical report. I checked on February 5th, 2011, and found that Walmart has just re-stocked outdoor grills and they even had a few “pool noodles.” This is the first time they’ve been in stock this early. Maybe they’re learning.)

I think Willow is part Energizer Bunny. She just “keeps on going.”

Back about three years ago, Willow was diagnosed with a major heart problem and started on diuretics and heart meds. We were told we’d be lucky to have her for two years.

On December 22nd, 2009, she had a really bad spell and it was suggested to us that we “let her go.” But with lots of gentle care she rallied and within a few weeks was doing much better. She had another serious problem this Spring when she couldn’t stop coughing, but increasing her meds got her over that hurdle. (We’ve since reduced them back to a lower level because, once she got over her cough, she appeared over-medicated.)

Admittedly I keep fearing that soon we’ll lose her. She’s so fragile and at this point nearly incontinent. It’s difficult. She’s only allowed on vinyl floors unless we’re watching her closely.

Last Spring, when we brought her back from Florida, we didn’t expect her to make it through the summer. Now here it is time for us to return to Florida and she’s still with us. We’ll take her back to Florida again. I know the trip be hard on all of us. She doesn’t walk well but at least she’s small and we can contain her on plastic sheeting so she won’t soil the carpet in the motel. It’s the ride which worries me. She’s uncomfortable so she is more demanding. I’ll keep a water cup and banana chips handy so I can keep her happy, but it’s not easy and it wears on all of us. Three days and 1,300 miles will be tough.

At least we don’t feel she’s suffering. When that happens, we will have to make a hard decision.

In my last post I mentioned that I can’t find my large suitcase so I must have left it in Florida. My gray duffle bag is also missing.

We got back from Florida in April. It’s now been six months and we’re re-packing for our return trip. What we left in Florida is now a faint memory.

Six months is just a tad too long to recall what you did with things. I remember some stuff, but usually written lists save me. And photos. Yup, I take photos of the inside of our refrigerator, our pantry and our closets, but I don’t see the suitcase nor the duffle bag, so I’ll just have to assume that, if I can’t find them here, those things are in Florida. I guess I can survive without them, if I’m wrong.

Why can’t I be certain?

I think I left my large suitcase in Florida so I’m using plastic “bins” to pack all my clothes and other items.

We have less than two weeks before we “take off” so I’m packing in ernest.

I’m notorious for my “lists.” I have a detailed packing list which keeps growing.

Yesterday in my first bin, I started packing a bunch of new sweaters and bathing suits (including the ones I bought in May), some dressy stuff, and several pairs of shorts. Today I started with another bin and crammed in more shorts, camisoles, more dressy dresses, and started a heavy gauge clear plastic bag of just sandals/shoes. I am also working on a bin of techie stuff. I need to bring a winter coat (in case it’s cold again in Florida or cold when we drive back in April). John is bringing back his bicycle, and his oxygen generator. I sure hope we can fit it all in.

The stuff I’m packing is all “extra.” I have enough clothes and other items to “get by” even if I don’t bring anything back from Michigan to Florida. This will be the very first year we’ve stayed for six continuous months so leaving winter stuff up north won’t serve much purpose. And despite my previous plan to leave everything in place in Florida and in Michigan and not move clothes back and forth, I’m finding that doesn’t work. Things go out of style too fast and I’m always missing what I left behind. So I’m hauling stuff back that I brought to wear this summer in Michigan.

My packing list has therefore expanded. It also now includes Christmas and Halloween decorations (although this year we’ll be back in Michigan in time for Easter). I think I’ll even toss in extra table service in case we host a large party. No sense doing without when you have it at the other “location.”

It’s a challenge. Half of my yearly life is now spent down south and those six months are the most active. I need ball gowns, bathing suits, and all my cute outfits down there. I really don’t need much here in Michigan.

So I’m packing and packing and packing. The “staging area” in the dining room is a mess. But my closet is nearly empty and I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

John doesn’t prep at all. Of course, I’m the one he blames if WE forget anything, so it’s really on my shoulders to get everything ready to go. Everything from the mail scale to an outdoor thermometer, and all our camera and recording equipment goes with us. We’ll be performing so we’ll need mics. We’ll be there over St. Patty’s day so we’ll need our green garb, and on and on. So much.

Maybe we should bring along our 5th wheel so we’ll have more room to pack stuff in. I can’t imagine how we’ll get it all in our truck.

We’re tempted to buy a different condo when we get to Florida. Of course, we should look at it before we decide and we’ve only seen photos. But before we bought our current condo, we had looked at what was available and we both felt the perfect condo for us would be a two-story model with a room over-looking the living room which we could use for a music room. The two-story units were totally out of our price-range, when we were looking, but there’s one available now with a decent view that might be affordable. Since we toured many units with that layout, we know what to expect. The balcony has a FULL bathroom instead of the usual 1/2 bath. There’s also a lovely screened balcony room.

The best improvement would be the master bathroom. John hates our current condo’s bath because it’s small. This one would have a master bath with lots of room with two vanities, a garden tub and a large walk in shower. There are also two walk-in closets in the master bedroom area. There’s also a lovely bay window (sitting area) at the end of that bedroom. Our living current living room is probably about the same size. The kitchen in the two-story has a breakfast room (eating area) and twice as many cabinets. There is a room which is currently being used as an office which could be restored to a utility room, or there is room in the garage for a washer/dryer. The dining room is open and spacious. The second bedroom and bathroom nice. The floors are laminate in the kitchen, office, and hallway. There’s tile in the three bathrooms and foyer area. But unfortunately the great room and bedrooms are carpeted.

The negatives: no washer or dryer; and it has wallpaper in the bathrooms and kitchen (which I hate); and a fairly steep stairway which I may not be able to handle. The dining room light fixture would work until we can replace it and the view isn’t quite as spectacular as ours, but there is a pond which is sorta visible especially from the screened balcony off the upper room.

We love our current location but the two-story condo is almost within view of our current court. The two-story is about five years older.

We could swing the price of the new unit, but we know we’d take a hit on the sale of our current place. We’d probably lose about $20,000-$25,000. The place we’re looking at was valued at $300,000 a few years ago (when the economy was strong). Now we could buy it for less than half that price! We feel certain that the values will eventually turn around.

But do we want a 2,200 sq. ft. place? That’s really large! I have a hard enough time keeping our smaller place clean. It would be better when we have house guests because we wouldn’t have to move out all our instruments to make room for company. We’ll see. If we are going to do it, I’d like to decide soon so we can put our current place on the market and hopefully sell it and get settled over the winter.

What about friends and neighbors? We love our current neighbors. It would be difficult to “start over.”

I’m trying a new look for my blog. It has a bit more information in the right most column and it’s a little “brighter” with slightly larger text. I’ll give it a chance. I can always “switch back.” This layout also treats the Archive and Categories differently. It gives you the first three lines of a posting which can be expanded. Makes it easy to scroll through a month of posts to find the one you’re looking for, but it omits photos until you go to the complete text.

I’ve also tried a design which lets me use multiple header photos but it squeezed the text into a narrower center column which didn’t work with photos I often include. I’ll keep looking for the perfect design.

Times change. We used to be able to lock our door and leave for Florida without thinking about safety for our Michigan home. Now “security systems” seem like a very good idea. They may be pricy but they’re effective.

We have 15 days before we leave for Florida. Right now the leaves on the trees are a concern. Short of going out and plucking them manually one-by-one, it’s doubtful that we’ll have many on the ground before we head South. Someone said we should shake the trees because John would love get them all raked up but it’s not going to happen.

We have lawn service lined up to do the job, if it’s necessary.

We have lots to do over the next two weeks. Packing will take time, we need to blow out the irrigation lines in our lawn, store the lawn furniture, and fix all the plants so they’ll survive. We will be selling our farm and figuring out investments. It all takes time.

We’re hoping to complete the deal on John’s farm before we leave. It’ll be tough to crowd it all in, but we do our best work when pressured.

1. Don’t consume sweet sodas (aka pop or soft drinks)
2. Don’t eat after 8:00 p.m. (or if you have irregular hours, 3 hours before bedtime)
3. Move 10 minutes a day.
4. Don’t eat snacks bigger than your fist.
5. Weigh yourself and record it daily.

You will lose 10 pounds.

I’ll try it!!

The Kings Point, Sun City Center, FL, community where we have our condo put up a new website today. It’s awesome and shows why we love the area. You can see the site at the Kings Point Sun City Center website.

John and I are sorta looking into “upgrading.” Yes, we love our current condo, but the prices are so extremely low for high-end condos, that we feel we might be wise to invest in something which has all the stuff “completed” which we’ll have to do to make our current condo work for us. We’re looking, but we do like our view. I’ll take something really remarkable to convince us to move. We’ll see.

After all the problems I had with my websites being hacked, I finally solved the problem by eliminating my classified area on http://dulcimers.biz which provided a portal which was used by the hackers to get into my domain hosting area. I was forced to delete the entire program with all the existing advertisements.

The past month I’ve researched safe classified ad programs and decided to go with Classipress which runs on the same platform, “WordPress,” as this blog. It’s extremely safe and I’m comfortable with WordPress. The area is up and running smoothly. Now I just need to get those who had listed their items for sale to come back and list them again. I’ve tried advising them that the new site is up. Haven’t quite stooped to begging, but I may.

Last night was my 50th class reunion. I looked around the room, I was surrounded by “old folks” and since most all had birthdates within a year of mine, that means I’M THEIR AGE! NO! It can’t be!!!

The evening was fun. We arrived at the reception about 5:45 and socialized until about 7:00 when the doors to the dining room opened.

Everything was “first class.” From the reception muchies to the lovely white table linens on the round tables it was more than we had expected. The food was perfect! After a nice fresh salad (with a selection of dressings), a perfectly cooked filet mignon, PLUS we all got a good size chicken breast, a large baked potato (with butter and/or sour cream), steamed vegetables, roll and butter, and a blueberry topped cheese cake. And at every table there were two bottles of wine (a red and a white). Of course a wonderful coffee was also served.

The entertainment was a comedian/magician who was fun! He had several of us up on the stage with him as he performed his tricks. He did a rope trick with me. I cut the rope and it was “reconnected.” I watched closely and sure couldn’t figure out the trick.

Butch Heath, provided a little dance music and sang a few oldies tunes.

It was a most enjoyable evening. Even John had lots of fun.

I so enjoyed seeing old girlfriends: Sue Lloyd, Sue Miller, Heather LaCroix and others who I’d totally lost touch with were there. It was fun catching up.

Some I didn’t recognize. Sue Miller still has a body to die for!

But I didn’t feel as bad about my own shape as I’d feared. John said I was among the top. Notice, he didn’t say I was the best, but I’ll settle for being one of the best. (Especially in a class of nearly 700!!) Of course love is blind, but I think his vision is pretty good. I noticed he had looked them all over!

John and I had carefully planned our 25th anniversary celebration.

I’d researched every restaurant in the area. We really wanted to do more than just go out for a meal, but after calling every place where evening entertainment might be available, we decided we’d settle on a lovely dinner. The two most highly rated restaurants (according to friends and internet reviews) were Jake’s Grill in Old Town Saginaw and Lucky’s Steakhouse in Bay City. We settled on Lucky’s.

Both of us spiffied up. John looked grand. He was dressed in nice dress pants and a comfortable long sleeved shirt, (no-tie). I wore a short black dress with black knit cardigan style top over it.

This was a special night!

We should have been forewarned when the restaurant wouldn’t take a reservation for two on Friday night.

We ran into problems just getting out of our subdivision. The annual garage sale is tomorrow and lots of folks came in tonight to get a jump on the actual sale. We couldn’t get out to the main road. Our streets were blocked with folks parked on both sides of the street and folks coming and going. It was a mess. John is not a patient person, and by the time we got out to M-52, he was angry. (Not a good start.)

We arrived shortly after 6:00 and were told the wait would be about 15 minutes. That didn’t bother us at all. But we felt that we were way over dressed. The other “guests” were in summer casual casual casual… (example: gym short shorts on guys with hairy legs). Very few looked prepared for a nice dinner.

We went to the bar, where loud obnoxious patrons annoyed us. We could hardly hear each other talk.

Within five minutes we were seated in the dining room and our nice server, Stephanie, did what she could to make our evening feel like an “event.” I ordered a filet mignon, Caesar salad and a potato. I’d carefully quizzed her about the restaurant’s definition of medium versus medium rare steaks. She assured me that since I wanted a warm center but definitely pink to red, medium would work for me. But when it came, it was dry and very well-done! Of course waiting for a second filet to be grilled took forever so I filled up on potatoes. John’s prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes were ok but the prime rib was medium well instead of medium.

The dining room was noisy, crowded, and definitely lacked ambiance. Ponderosa Steakhouse, across the street, would have been better, probably quieter, and we’d have felt more satisfied and we’d have spent $20 less.

The filet was good, but much too salty. It was if it had been soaked in soy sauce.

So much for a grand dinner.

We were home by 8:00. That was our 25th Anniversary celebration… very disappointing. Hopefully our fiftieth will be better.

Tomorrow is our 25th wedding anniversary. In celebration of the event, a lovely bouquet of a dozen red, long-stemmed roses grace the coffee table. They are perfect right now. Wish I could freeze them at this point.

We have no sensational plans for tomorrow. We’ll go out to dinner, then dancing afterward.

Saturday is my 50th class reunion so we’ll be eatting fabulous meals for the next two days. It promises to be fun. I’ve organized a website for the class (at http://mhschemics1960.com and I’ve established an email list to use following this “get together.”

There’s going to be a great turn-out. We had a graduating class of well over 700. But we have about 300 classmates plus their spouses and “dates.”

I had vowed to lose weight and look really great for the “reunion.” I did shed about five pounds, but I didn’t reach the toned state I’d promised myself. I wonder if it’s too late. It’s still 20 hours away. If I start exercising now….

All afternoon I’ve been trying to find another “free” blog theme which would work with the stuff I generally post on “Sharon’s Blog.” (Themes are the “design” which organizes the stuff you see.)

I want one that allows me to have nice “photo” at the top of something which impresses me. I want a few links for my true stories (of “Grandma,” “Our Fire,” “My Brain Problem,” and the story about finding my brother, “Family Matters.”) I’m surprised that few blog formats allow for the things I want to post, so I’m stuck with this layout.

I tried to freshen up “Sharon’s Blog” but so far I’m not successful. That doesn’t mean that I’ve given up, but after about four hours of “looking,” I’m disappointed.

I’m turned off by tattoos. I’ve never seen a tattoo which I’d want on my body permanently. Seems as if there should be a market for more permanent, temporary tattoo. Something which could be removed with a special solvent but would stay put for a period of time. I suppose it’s the “tough” factor that attracts some folks to get ink, but I can’t imagine that, when these folks are 50 years older, they’re going to want the tattoo which they have etched into their body permanently.

I feel that way about piercings too. Of course I have one hole in each ear, but I never felt the need for a hole in my nose, tongue, or any other part of my tender body.

When I got my first and only earring piercing, I was hesitant. It was the 1970’s but I doubt that it’s much different now. You could have the hole punched in at your local drug store or jewelry shop. I didn’t feel that environment was sterile enough, so I went to the most popular piercer in Frankenmuth back in the 1970’s… the local vet.

The vet explained that he had a young daughter who wanted to have her ears pierced but he was concerned about the places women had to go to for this service. He bought one of the piercing tools, and did it in his veternary clinic. It was sterile. He felt better and so did I.

Even if tattoos weren’t permanent, I’d be concerned about the settings where this service is done.

So even though I think of myself as a modern senior citizen, I don’t need to be tattooed to prove it.

The illustration I found when I looked up “tattoos” really bothers me. That little girl is covered with tattoos AND her brow, lip and ears are pierced!

I watched a cute video a friend posted to her Facebook which pointed out some of the signs you’re getting old. I recognized many of them.

Hairs appearing in weird places: Sprouting out of your chin or above your lip where no hair should grow. Long nose hairs and eyebrows that extended beyond their appropriate borders.

Forgetfulness! The other day I was at Penney’s at Fashion Square Mall. When I was ready to leave, I exited via what I thought was the closest door to my car. When I got out to the parking lot, I realized I was on the East, not the South end of the building. Felt dumb as I walked around the sidewalk to find my car. It was right where I’d parked it, but I swear the door had moved.

Aches and pains! When I twist my body, I swear the cricks and creaks are audible.

I remember my mom talking about her graduating class’s 50th class reunion and being surprised that any of them lasted that long. Now I’m planning for mine in a week!

Hearing is difficult. It has hit John too. “What did you say?” is our most common question.

Pills and medicines in quantity. I’m fortunate, but even I now take over-the-counter ibuprofen and allergy medicines every night. Although I forget most of the time, I’m also supposed to use eye drops for dry-eye and apply some skin cream prescribed by my dermatologist at night.

Extra skin: Even though I haven’t lost any noticeable weight, it’s like my skin is becoming too large. Under my chin, my eyes, my underarms and my belly. It’s all so flabby!

Foods affect me more. If I eat certain things it’s a problem. I love hot and spicy but it’s getting so my system doesn’t enjoy extremely hot any more. And some foods seem to produce more gas than previously.

It takes longer to get ready to go places and the results aren’t as satisfying.

My feet hurt more than previously. I’ve always loved walking but now it wears me out and I can’t seem to find a comfortable pair of walking shoes.

Time flies faster. It was just Memorial Day (just a blink ago) but now it’s nearly Labor Day.

Our future plans have changed. I remember when John and I purchased our place in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan). We actually thought we’d retire up there. Now we want to be closer to people where we can socialize. And in selecting a place to live, we think about how far we are from a quality medical facility.

The Emmys, Oscars and music award shows are filled with acts and material I’ve never heard of. They may be the best, but I’ve never seen nor heard of a lot of the “big names.” I love the fashions, but often don’t recognize the person wearing the gown.

Yup, I exhibit a lot of signs that I’m a “senior” but life is still great and I’m not complaining. Just commenting.

John and I love a bargain. (Actually we’re pretty much “cheap skates.”)

Going out for an expensive dinner never happens. We do try to dine out weekly, but our idea of a splurge is happy hour at the Moose Lodge followed by a super walleye fish dinner. Total evening cost about $20.

On September 10th we will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. I’ve been trying to find something for us to do which would make the evening memorable.

Since we’ve never gone to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, that came to mind, especially since they often feature star-studded talent. But looking at the restaurants in the casino, I’m not impressed with what’s available. On our anniversary date the only entertainment is “Uncle Groovy.” No kidding, that’s the headline act. And we definitely aren’t gamblers.

The idea of a dinner cruise on Saginaw Bay or down the Cass River (in Frankenmuth) sounded special, but no dinner cruises are scheduled for that evening!

I went back to reviews of special restaurants. In Saginaw, the highest rated restaurant in the area is called Jake’s Old City Grill. We’ve never been there, but it comes highly recommended, has earned five star rating and is “Best of the Best” in this area.

Lucky’s Steakhouse in Bay City has an even better menu and their prices aren’t exorbitant. We’ve heard they are also very good.

We will be going out the next night for my 50th class reunion so that weekend will be calorie packed.

So it looks like we’ll go to either Lucky’s or Jake’s. Once we get to Florida, I’d like to plan a get-together for our friends. I don’t want to announce that it’s an “anniversary celebration” but it would be a good way to convince John that we should host a gathering. So that’s probably what we’ll do.

For an anniversary gift, we will probably buy something for both of us. We’re thinking of a “yard light” and a “front door light.” (When the sidiing went on the garage the lights were removed and discarded.) Or maybe some furniture for our Florida condo. (True, we’d buy that stuff anyway, but it’ll be a good excuse to get it now.) Probably we’ll wait until we make a big “expenditure” and declare it our “gift to ourselves.” As I started out this post, we’re very frugal. (AKA Cheap!)

George and Judy Horny had a bunch of us over tonight for a “wine tasting.” It was a nice evening. We really enjoy getting together with folks and chatting. It’s too bad that we don’t do more of this when we’re in Michigan. In Florida, it happens all the time.

The reports from the Midland music festival at the Midland Fairgrounds have been very favorable.

John and I are hosting Bill Robinson and his back-up guy, Greg, so Bill can donate his time to the festival. He filled us in on what’s been happening at the festival grounds and his observations have eased our concerns.

When John’s health forced him to retire, I was quoted as saying that, because we had no way to reach many of the attendees, “I would rather see the festival put on hold for a year (during a transition period), than to present an event which was markedly different than the event which Margaret and John had offered.”

But much to the credit of the volunteers, they have successfully preserved what John, Margaret and Bill Kuhlman had accomplished. It appears that most of the festival kept the format which had been set. People who traveled a great distance, weren’t disappointed.

I have heard that the pricing structure was changed (no more one-day admissions), and the elimination of the friendly sales policy which allowed campers to sell their music items from their campsites was a disappointment to many, but all-in-all the reports have been up-beat.

It pleased us to hear that camping numbers are equal to last year’s high numbers. (When folks come back, it’s a good indication that they had a good time last year.)

It has been a tough time for us, especially John and Margaret. We have loved that event! The time we spent building it can be measured in years/decades. We hated to see it be something other than the unique “hammered dulcimer” festival it had been since 1994! (Especially since it was only one of two in the world!) But from all appearances, the hammered dulcimer still reigns. Too bad the name changed!

PS We’ve been hearing that a presentation of some kind of a plaque was planned for Saturday night to the former committee (Margaret, John and myself). Too bad no one let us know.

In 36 days we take off for Florida. No, it won’t take 36 days to pack, but starting Monday I’ll begin by collecting stuff in a “staging area” which we’ll take with us. I’ve already gathered quite a bit together in the basement, but it’s nearly time to put it where I can easily “add to it.” That’s the only way I can be sure I’ll include everything.

Our friends, Wayne and Linda, are even more “detailed” than we are about packing. They were renting a trailer to haul furniture down to Florida so they chalked out an outline on their garage floor and placed what they wanted to take so they could be sure it would “fit” in the alloted space. Of course they had a lot of “big stuff.” For us, it’s a bunch of small items but we don’t want to forget anything.

Yesterday I noticed that John’s “bike battery” is in the trailer. With our luck, he’d bring the bike, but forget the battery.

We have lots of stuff to do around here before we take off: the trailer needs to be winterized, the grapes picked and squished, the sprinkler lines need to be blown out, lawn furniture stowed.

I have completed all the stuff like being sure the mail forwarding both directions is set up correctly, cable TV and internet are scheduled to turn on, the newspaper in Florida will be delivered. We have our motel reservations. The only thing left is to shut the Saginaw newspaper delivery off.

Ok, I’ll admit I’m “anal.” I love planning. To me it brings the whole adventure closer. There is nothing I dislike more than feeling I’ve forgotten something which I should have remembered, so it’s important for me to do the advanced preparation.

As for the pronunciation in English of Chile, if you are talking about the ground beef and bean meal, Chile is definitely Chilly.

But when referring to the country, there are more differences. Most people who don’t speak Spanish say it like chilly, but others who do speak Spanish mostly say something more closely approximating Che-lay. For a long time in the USA, Chile, the nation, was generally pronounced “Chilly,” even by radio announcers.

In checking, it seems even those who speak “the language” don’t agree. If you google the pronciation of Chile (the country), you’ll find that, depending on what language you speak, it’s spoken differently.

For me Chile (meal or country) has always been Chilly. But I’ve recently realized that the country, Chile, has various pronunciations. I’m glad those from the country of Chile are forgiving so even to them, it’s fairly unimportant in the over-all scheme of things. I’ll probably still say “Chilly” regardless of my meaning. But when I’m trying to impress someone who “knows,” I’ll go with Che-lay.

Today I finally got the “automatic” process to save all of the changes on my computer to my new 2TB Seagate Black Armor hard drive. It’ll run each day at a scheduled time, so I now have a way to “recover” if I ever lose my computer. I felt like I’d crossed a successful hurdle. Everything should have been perfect. I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Then this evening I checked in on http://dulcimers.com and my bluehost domain service had totally shut down all the sites I host because of “viruses/malware.” When I called Bluehost, they informed me I’d been hacked again. It’s been a problem since the end of June, as you can see from my June 30th blog post,

I’d kinda figured there was a problem when I spotted “hAcKEr” as a new user name signed up to get into my http://dulcimers.biz/classifieds area this morning.

I’ve erased that whole classified area of the domain. Evenutally I’ll find a way to re-establish a safer classified sales area, but right now I am just relieved to have everything solved.

Apparently it was so clear to Bluehost that they felt they had to “turn everything off” so none of my dozen or so sites worked. Now everything is back up, and hopefully it’ll continue to work fine but maybe, like before, the hacker will have left behiind scripts which will run each day. I’ll keep watching. Meanwhile, the classifieds area is no more, hence the back-door in has been slammed shut! Let’s hope he didn’t leave behinid anything malicious.

Ok, if you’re a guy, turn this next discussion off.

I am currently into “city shorts.”

Ok, what am I talking about?

Those long shorts that come just above the knee, and are fairly fitted (usually with a bit of spandex.). They used to be called bermudas, but today’s are a bit less baggy.

I love white ones. I’d wear them year-round if I could find a sufficient number of them. Too often I order them on ebay only to find they aren’t “tapered” enough or they are a tad too long. As I said, they’re very much like bermudas of old, but much more “stylish.” The spandex makes the difference.

The other day I found some by a designer called Josephine Chaus and when I received them, they were nearly perfect (ok, so they need a little tapering but they were the right stretch and length so 2 out of 3 criteria wasn’t bad). I was happy.

I’ve since bid on two more pair by that designer (black and kahki). I won’t know until next weekend if I won them.

Tonight I bought another white pair by Eric Casuals. They are supposedly $98 shorts. They look great. (See photo.) I’ll know in a few days.

It’s awful to have an obsession.

(And it’s so good that my Grandma Brophey’s “rule” of no white over Labor Day doesn’t apply in Florida. I plan to wear these kinds of shorts all the time!! I don’t mind black, but white is always perfect.)

Yesterday John was gone from 8:00-5:00 (taking a class at a sportsman’s club). I had the day to myself. I gloried in the thought that I’d have a full day do some heavy cleaning and get to some other long-postponed chores. My to-do list was lengthy. I was sure I’d accomplish a lot; I’d have lots of time to work uninterrupted.

So what did I get done?…. Not much!

I did complete the initial back-up of my computer to my new Black Armor NAS (network) external hard drive, but that happened pretty much on it’s own. I just looked in on it occasionally. In the meanwhile, I used John’s computer and tried to “speed it up.” I got stuck trying to get his mouse to work. It kept failing despite my settings changes and re-boots. And I couldn’t get on-line, but since I rarely use his computer, I thought it was just slow.

It was now about 10:00. I needed to get started with the heavy cleaning, but first I thought I’d check my email and my facebook with my own computer. That’s when I realized I couldn’t get the internet to start up on it either. I tried to figure out what wasn’t working, and why I was having problems. The phone was operational and since it uses the internet, I assumed that meant that the internet was working. So I checked, and rechecked the network.

About noon, after trying different cables and connections, I called Speednet, my wireless internet provider. The service person explained that “part” of their system was down which explained all my problems. They expected it would be fixed but no idea when. I just had to be “patient.”

It was now after noon.

Ok, so I’d wasted about three or four hours. I still had half my day left. I’d have to hurry but I’d still have time for major accomplishments.

I fixed my lunch, started a load of laundry, and began rearranging and cleaning the upstairs. But almost immediately I was faced with a decision.

John has been using the guest room for a music practice location but with the Robinsons coming Thursday, they’d use that room, so I had to move his instruments out. I started moving them into the computer room but realized that area was going to really seem crowded. Maybe it would be better to move the practice area to the balcony room….? I knew John would prefer the computer room but what if the Robinson’s brought along their guitarist? It stopped me. I needed to ask John. I did get the guest room fairly “emptied out” but it really messed up the rest of the up-stairs.

I sure wasn’t getting through my “to-do list” very fast.

It was now 3:00. I spotted a book I’d started a day or two ago. I figured I would read a chapter and then hurry to get more done. I still had two hours to make a dent in my self-imposed assignments.

At 3:30, John got home. I was still reading. (The class had gotten out early.)

My list was barely touched.

This afternoon John will be finishing up his class. It’s scheduled from 1:00-4:00, but I’m not counting on the full three hours.

I hope to finish the upstairs, and/or I can tackle the hot tub room. Or maybe I’ll find another book.

I’m very good at “wasting time.”

Boy, am I anxious to head south!

This past weekend we were with our good friends, the Conklins. A couple weeks ago they purchased a condo about a mile from ours (in Sun City Center, FL). This next Monday they’ll hit the road with a trailer full of furniture so they can “move in” to their new place. All our talk about their plans made me anxious (and a tad envious).

John and I have some commitments we agree we must attend in September (a family dinner, my class reunion, a performance, and a meeting), so we will hang around until October, but I’m counting the days until we can leave. I think John will also be more than ready to take off. By October he should have been able to pick his grapes, and maybe even be able to get the leaves off the lawn. One way or the other, we’ll take off then.

This will be the first time we’ve headed south with the plans to stay six continuous months. Leaving October 2nd means we’ll leave when it’s moderately warm. We’ll be there over Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, and both of our birthdays. When we come back in April, it’ll be cool, but hopefully past the snow season.

Packing will require a lot of forethought. I will need to think about things like holiday decorations and clothes for multiple seasons.

Since I’m sure we will follow this schedule next year as well, we may as well transfer stuff to Florida permanently. We do more entertaining and partying in Florida so there are a lot of things we can use for those purposes. It’s silly to get to Florida and not have things which would make life easier. Therefore, as I think of things I try to write them down. My list keeps growing.

When we left Florida last April, I had vowed that I’d be able to get by without hauling many clothes back and forth. My plan was to create a wardrobe for Florida and one for Michigan. I’d leave clothes in each location so there wouldn’t be much to pack. But I’m realizing that isn’t such a good plan. If I have fashionable clothes, I want to wear them, before they’re out of style (or I out-grow them). Therefore I’m bringing back a lot of my Michigan summer attire. I’ll even bring a moderately heavy coat (but no snow boots). Last year we had such a frigid January/February in Florida, that I learned that I need some fairly warm outfits and I wore that coat a few times when it was really brutally cold.

In the past, we’d head south in September but we were back in November. I was able to plan for a shorter increment. If I forgot something, it was only two months before I could get it. Of course, last year we did stay from the end of Decmber until mid-April, but we were already well into Michigan’s winter when we drove down, so it was easier to think in terms of that season.

John’s not a planner. It falls totally on me. I make the lists.

So I check and re-check. Everything we take is “my” responsibility.

I gave up my attempt to use the Seagate GoFlex Home external back-up drive. After nearly two weeks trying to get it to work, I was told by a Seagate customer service rep that I would have to re-install or change my operating service. I decided that wasn’t do-able, so I’m sending it back.

Today I ordered another 2TB hard drive. It’s called a Seagate Black Armor. I’m hoping it’ll be even better for me. I’ll be able to run a total back-up including all files, programs and the operating system. If my system ever dies, I can insert a cd recovery disk and everything can be restored. It’ll also save on an on-going basis.

I got a good price on it. So I’m starting over. I love techie stuff, but not the frustration that it often causes.

Yesterday I spoke with Bill Robinson. He and his lovely wife, Ann, will stay with us starting next Thursday. They’ll leave Sunday early in the day. Most of the time, they’ll be in Midland at the music festival, but hopefully we’ll get to visit a little. He and Ann are genuinely nice folks.

Today I changed our motel reservations so we can leave for Florida a week earlier. (The first week of October instead of the second.)

The rest of the day was spent trying to get my new Seagate back-up drive to work as it should. It keeps stalling and not starting up. If delete the program completely and reinstall it, it runs fine until I shut the computer down again.

Finally Seagate suggested that I reinstall Vista. That’s a cop out if I ever heard one. It would be a major problem to reinstall my operating system. Each program I run would also have to be installed.

If I can’t get it to work right, I’ll see if I can send it back. I’m still trying a few of my own fixes.

We had a very nice weekend with good friends. Not all of our Subterranean Strings Hammered Dulcimer Club members could attend, but we had a nice group. There were six camping units and a bunch who drove in. We arrived at the Gladwin Fairgrounds Thursday and got back home late this afternoon.

The only complaint was the heat. Although we had rain, it didn’t interfere with us in any way, but the heat and the humidity were horrid.

Every time we played, we received lots of positive comments. Audiences were small, but we always drew in folks who stayed to listen.

We played for our lunch Friday (fried chicken) at “the Brook.” Several of us went to a fish fry Friday night. (Very good and cheap!) And the club provided dinner Saturday night (pizza) and a big waffle breakfast Sunday. I think I gained weight over the weekend.

Much of our free time was spent chatting. We started with a Thursday night marathon conversation. Several other occasions, we chatted for long periods. It was fun to get to know our people better.

They’re a great bunch of good friends. Except for the heat and small audiences, we can’t imagine how it could have been better.

Earlier this week I called Geri, who lives just a condo from us and is one of our Florida friends. During our conversation, she said, “It’s sure hot down here. I’ll bet it’s lovely up there in Michigan.”

And in an email from Sun City Center, Terri said: “It’s terribly hot here right now. I bet the weather in Michigan is perfect.”

They don’t know Michigan. Right now it’s hazy and so humid that our deck furniture is actually dripping and some of the windows were steamy when I got up this morning. The predicted high is 90. And it’ll be so sticky that it’ll make it feel like 100 today. Toward the end of the week, it’ll actually “warm up.”

Yes, Florida is hot but probably the “feels like” temperature is higher here this week. Michigan can be miserable in the summer and this year it has been been excessively hot .. much hotter than normal.

No doubt that “global warming” is reality.

We’re never satisfied.

Life is grand … but (and there’s always a “but” isn’t there?) .. Things could be better.

• I could be more energetic and could get this house in order and have all my windows clean and shiny.
• John’s health could be better. It would be wonderful if his lungs could be restored to normal.
• We could have a greener lawn and fewer bugs and weeds invading our garden.
• We could see our children (and my grandchildren) more often.
• My new back-up program/device could be working better (faster).
• Willow (our sweet dog) could be more comfortable, without the problems of her old-age.
• Our years of working to build the Midland Dulcimer Festival, could somehow seem valued.
• The siding could miraculously be installed on our house.
• We could win the lottery (although our odds aren’t good since we never buy tickets.)

Yes, life would be perfect if only….

But if all of those things were fixed, would we find some new complaints?

Some of those problems (like John’s health) are serious. They are life-altering. But in analyzing even those huge problems, the question simply stated is: “How good is our life?”

We have a great marriage. We are debt free, with two very comfortable and lovely homes plus a place on Lake Michigan. Our vehicles are decent, we have all the toys we need. Our dog is doing better than she should be considering her diagnosis.

The economy may stink but our finances are in order.

Yes, John has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and that’s a frightening diagnosis, but he’s actually doing quite well. He feels pretty good. He’s 72. He’s not a youngster. He still acts like one. He may not be able to do the things that he did 20 years ago, but he’s much healther than most of our friends of similar age.

We have close families and considerate, caring, valued friends.

When it comes right down to it, we are blessed.

No, our life isn’t perfect. It has a freckle or two, but it’s still grand and I wouldn’t want to change places with anyone.

My wonderful Seagate GoFlex Home back up device is disappointing. It’s been running for two full days and only 42% of my hard drive has been backed up. I tried running it cabled rather than wireless, but I couldn’t tell the difference. Both ways it’s sloooow.

But I’m also concerned about what I see when I look at the stuff that’s been backed up. It doesn’t resemble my hard drive.

And the couple of times I’ve had to shut down my computer, it was really difficult to restart. I worked over an hour yesterday to be able to get my computer to start up again, after I’d shut it down. It caused lots of system errors too. I had to run chkdsk for the second time since installing the back-up system.

I did find one nice feature. I can plug a printer into the device using a usb port, and it works wirelessly. But that’s not enough. I want a smooth seamless back-up system and this one is sluggish, doesn’t work well with my computer system, and the back-up appears unusable.

I wanted to wait until the whole hard drive had backed up before I called and complained, but I’m losing patience.

So here I am frustrated with technology. A common complaint!

On Monday I set a goal of cleaning out my computer room this week. This afternoon (Friday) I will finish up the job but I wasn’t as thorough as I hoped to be. The clutter isn’t completely gone. I thought I could purge everything and I did toss out a bunch. The garbage was collected this a.m. and there were three huge bags totaling over 100 pounds! But I still have a big box of stuff that I don’t want to toss now. I’m trying to weed through that stuff and hope to eventually eliminate it too, but for now I’m stuck with that one big box.

Some of the items have been posted on the freebie yahoo list (SaginawMi-Freecycle@yahoogroups.com). I was successful getting rid of a midi keyboard that way, but still have a USB four-port hub and a bunch of printer cables (about 13 of them of various configurations), but I’ll keep trying to eliminate more. It’s awful when you can’t even give away your “treasures.”

If only I’d had it before my computer crash in January 2010. If only I’d had it when I lost everything back in 2008. If only I’d been aware that it existed the other times I had total system failures. Even when my domain was lost, it would have helped.

But it was just released.

I just got my newest techie gadget and it would have saved all those headaches.

It’s a Seagate GoFlex Home two terrabyte storage system. It sits beside my wireless router (upstairs here and in the computer area in Florida). It works WIRELESSLY (using my router). The set-up was a breeze and took under 30 minutes. Right now it’s backing up my laptop’s hard drive and then, whenever I start up my computer, it will automatically run a back-up of any files which have been added or changed.

With two terrabytes of storage, there’s lots of room for storage of all digital photos and videos. I’ll set it up so I can save my digital images. I won’t out-grow it for a long time. I love it!!!

I’m amazed that it’s as compact as it is. Our friend, Paul G., said the only negative he could see was the back-up’s slow speed but since it runs in the back-ground it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to even know it’s running.

I hope I can now I can be “worry-free.” When I have a system crash, or a domain crash (like in March), or a problem with a hacker, I can restore a pure version of the files on my domain or on my computer. I figure that this past year, those kinds of problems cost me at least five to eight 40-hour weeks of restore time. (When I lost everything believe me I was at it 10 hours a day for many days.) Even at minimum wage, I’ll have paid for this $200 device, even if I only use it for standard restores of files I mess up.
ca
I have a feeling it’ll become very popular.

======

Less Content today:
24 hours later and I’ve only backed up 14% of my files. At this rate, it’ll take me a week of downloading. I am using an ethernet cable, NOT wireless. It ran over night last night. Hopefully eventually I’ll get the first backup done. From then on, it’ll run in the background and won’t be intrusive.

Now that I’ve started purging the computer room, I’m anxious to get back at it. It sometimes just takes getting started.

After I’ve satisfactorily finished that room, I hope to move to the guest room where I’ll clean out that closet and dressers. Then there’s a cubby hole which has collected junk in the balcony area. I want to rearrange the balcony room. (Give away extra furniture we have crowded in there.) Next the hot tub room needs major attention. My goal is to really rid us of clutter. For now I won’t even think about the clutter in the basement.

My first goal is the computer room. I’m not looking beyond that.

Somehow when you bite off too big of a bite, the overwhelming amount of work, dooms the project. Smaller projects are more easily accomplished. So I’ll only think in terms of one room at a time. When I finish a room, I can feel a sense of satisfaction. This week, it’ll be the computer room. It’s Monday. I will budget my time accordingly. Then the rest of the upstairs. The basement may wait until next spring. Small manageable bites. I don’t want to choke on my goals.

I find myself taking frequent breaks. I can’t see it, but there must be a lot of dust in the air. There’s stuff from the very back of the closet which hasn’t been touched for 24 years. My eyes get itchy and I find it hard to breathe. (Darn those allergies!)

Today I discovered this message (in my mother’s handwriting). I was going through Mom’s files and discarding old papers I don’t need to save.

I know she didn’t originate this poem but it was important enough for her to copy. Therefore it became her thoughts.. her feelings. She died in September, 2008. (I wish I’d found it before she died. I would have included it in her funeral.)

Miss Me But Let Me Go

When I come to the end of the road
And the sun has set for me,
I want no rites in a gloom filled room
Why cry for a soul set free?

Miss me a little, but not too long
And not with your head bowed low.
Remember the love that we once shared,
Miss me but let me go.

For this is a journey we all must take
And each must go alone.
It’s all a part of the Master’s plan
A step on the road to home.

When you are lonely and sick at heart,
Go to the friends we know
And bury your sorrows in doing good deeds,.
Miss me but let me go.

Little rain. It’s ok, we need the moisture! The lawn toward the lake is brown and very dry. (We were gone a couple of weeks so it didn’t get watered.)

I’m definitely in “end of season” mode. I’m looking forward to packing for Florida. Seems like the fun stuff is coming to an end. There is still our “camping” weekend August 12-15 , and a few minor activities, but Florida is definitely sounding good!

Normally we’d have Midland to keep us occupied for a week in late August, but since that’s not an option for us, we have sort of an open spot in our calendar. We’ll have Bill Robinson visiting us that weekend, and Haithco on August 25th, but it still feels like the summer’s winding down yet we’re just moving into August.

Maybe we should plan a week in the U.P. but our calendar makes it hard to full find a week when nothing’s planned.. Besides in late August it can get pretty darned hot, with lots of flies. (The flies up there are vicious!)

John still wants to finish siding the end of the garage. Probably next week when it’s a tad cooler than it has been.

Today I started “purging”. I’ve gone through a plastic bin of my mothers files which were stored in the basement and I’ve started working on the computer room.

Many of the computer disks which clutter my computer room are empty but some contain photos from an old Sony Mavica camera (which used 3.5″ diskettes.) I no longer even have a computer which will play them so they’re almost lost to me. But they cover various topics: cars we sold, places we visited, festivals we were part of, and friends we have lost. I couldn’t just toss those old diskettes without reviewing them. So I became totally absorbed going through the ones containing old pictures. I found one disk of 18 photos which was taken at the Nashville Grange Hall and featured Les Raber. Ahhh!! what memories. I realized I needed to slow down, be careful, and not lose a valued memory I’ll cherish, so I’m going through them slowly, disk by disk. It sure takes time! I can see I need to save many of them. I’ll buy an external drive so I can play save them to another format. Life’s too short to lose archives of memories that were that special.

I don’t know what people expect from my blog. You’re basically just “looking in” on my life. Some days are going to be pretty boring. This was one.

Last night we had one of the best Haithco Park performances ever. It was so much fun. I think it was grand because initially we had great news which we shared with our audience. Our friend and Sub-Strings member, Rose Wark, had an MRI yesterday morning prior to her proposed brain surgery. The MRI showed that her brain tumor had shrunk and the surgeon decided to postpone yesterday’s surgery until it can be re-evaluated. Another MRI will be done in a couple of weeks. We were all so happy and we shared that with our audience at the beginning.

All evening was up-beat and filled with kidding and silly stuff. We had toilet seats, “counters” and lots of other things which made the evening special.

Our audience numbered over 200!! The evening was perfect. Weather was grand. Music was perfect. All stars were in alignment.

Now we move to today.

It was a dull day by most markers. But I found it was great. I’d had a “wireless” printer set-up which had worked for a year or two but in April had decided to just stop. Today I got it to work again. Yeah! Now I can use my big old laserjet printer which makes super cheap black and white (crisp) copies. It’s so old that it doesn’t have a way to link up to it through my computers usb port but wirelessly, I can now use it. Also I started purging my computer room. The desktop computer was eliminated. The desk reduced in size by removing an extension we’d put it. My goal is to make it a nice room with less clutter. I have a few weeks to accomplish this (before we have house guests.)

Additionally we had a phone call from John’s 93-year-old aunt, an email from a close Florida friend, and a message from my beloved daughter. All were welcome communications.

So today was a success. We glory in small accomplishments.

For the past week I couldn’t connect to the internet through my wireless system. I monkeyed with it for hours. I could hard wire it (using what is called an ethernet connection), but when I tried to go through the router so it would be wireless, it wouldn’t work.

Finally, after a lengthy phone call with a wireless technician, I learned enough to figure out a “work-around.” I set things up in a different sequence than was recommended. Instead of taking the incoming line to the Vonage device and then to the Router, I had the incoming line go to Router then to Vonage.

This morning I called Vonage and explained the whole problem. A really nice fellow named Tim helped me and explained the Vonage system. Once I understood it better, I felt comfortable “resetting” the Vonage unit which cleared out the conflict. Now it works perfectly using the suggested Vonage set-up.

Yesterday was a lovely day. We had a group of 13 musicians playing at River Place in Frankenmuth. (On Saturday we’d had 16 but it had been hotter.) Sunday’s weather was flawless. The skies blue, the birds soaring overhead. Temperature was about 80 with a breeze. It doesn’t get much better.

The music we played came out good. Hopefully the players and audience enjoyed the day as much as we did!

Nothing could spoil it.

And after the play Linda and Wayne Conklin went out to dinner with us.

All in all it was a super day!

My goal for today: I’m trying to come to grips with the fact that we should change the things we can but we should accept the things we can’t change and move on. It doesn’t pay to worry about the small stuff – generally problems are pretty unimportant in the overall scheme of things anyway. I am content with myself knowing I have almost always done things thinking about the benefit to others. I’m certainly not monetarily rewarded, but I’m content with myself.

As I’ve mentioned before, last fall John and Margaret resigned from the chairmanship of the Midland Dulcimer Festival which will be held the last weekend of August. It was immediately renamed the Folk Music Festival and other things were changed. We were disappointed.

We aren’t planning to go.

Today Bill Robinson, one of our favorite musicians, asked if we knew where he could stay during the festival. We offered to let him stay here. I don’t know if he will, but he’s welcome.

We don’t want to be in an uncomfortable position so we’ll stay away from the festival. It’s better.

On the right side of this page under the heading Categories, you’ll be able to click on “Time until..?” which will give you a current update to the following “countdowns.” I’ll probably change them as time goes by, but it’s my way of keeping track of how long it is to something I’m looking forward to.

The week after Evart is always a wasted time. I accomplish very little and drag around. This year was even worse than usual. (I think because we are older.) We were pooped Sunday when we left for home, so we brought in what we had to have from the trailer and then we vegged. That was two days ago. I’m still in vegetative state. I just can’t pull together any energy. Lots of stuff is still in the trailer.

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday) we’re performing in Frankenmuth at River Place with our club. We’ll do it, but I wish we could have left a dozen additional days vacant after Evart. We need to recover before we pretend we’re back to “normal.”

One thing on the “anticipation side”… We’re getting closer to our time back in Florida (only 79 days) which is slightly over two months! The Conklins have bought a place not far from ours and they’ll be back down there in September. We won’t arrive until October 11th, but we’ll stay until mid-April, once we’re there. I am already packing and preping for our return trip and I’m definitely counting the 79 days.

This week is also stressful because we have had workers at our house for two days. We’re getting a new energy efficient furnace (to replace one which was 24 years old), a new thermostat with wonderful energy features, a humidifier (with sensor), lots of filtration of the air, and efficient water heater. The government will pay us up to $1,500 of our purchase price and Consumers Energy will chip in $200 plus the thermostat will bring us another $20, but it’s still a major expense for the improvement.

The huge and extremely successful 2010 ODPC (Evart) Funfest (hammered dulcimer festival), is now history.

It was a great festival. We are beyond exhausted. Got home about 5:00 last night. Lots to be done unpacking and cleaning the trailer, but right now we’re just pooped, and it seems over-whelming.

John over-did it but truly appreciated the help of a lot of friends. There was also a “crew” assigned to help us break down and stow away the workshop stuff but it was still a huge amount of work!

We’re still here at the fairgrounds at Evart enjoying the ODPC Funfest.

This morning we’re at the breakfast. It’s about over. Some folks are still sittin’ around chatting.

Today will be a busy one. We’ll have the cart parade at 6:15. At 7:30 “the reception.”

We need to slip in enough time to greet friends and play a little music.

This was written Monday, the 12th, but I didn’t get to post it until the 14th.

===

Fifth day at Evart and I’m pooped. Today was a better day. (I didn’t feel well yesterday.) It wasn’t quite as hot and I took time to wash my hair this morning. I felt much more human.

We had lunch with Wayne and Linda. (Wayne’s famous “gumbo.”) It was excellent.

Tomorrow we’re going to host one of John’s famous “breakfasts.” We’ll provide coffee and waffles. Others are bringing eggs, sausage, juice, and hopefully lots of other good stuff.

Last night we had a jam here in the “rest area.” Today we’ve had a nice amount of music and right now three dulcimer players are learning tunes from each other (Peggy Carter, Mary Lou Battley, and Kathy Cook.) We can also hear the Kaiser Family Band practicing. (They’re the final act Saturday night.)

Willow has been getting along ok. She sleeps most of the time and isn’t friendly, but she’s been pretty good about getting to her “papers” where she does her thing. (She has a closed in place under the one bench seat which she uses so it’s out-of-the-way. She’s definitely at the end of her life, but she’s not suffering in anyway. She stays inside where it’s air conditioned. We are able to keep her confined on vinyl to about a five square foot area so she doesn’t get too far from her “essentials” (food, water and papers).

Weather is only in the mid-70’s now, but when the sun is out it’s definitely hot and it’s muggy. We just had a shower come through and there’s another on the horizon.

Last night at 2:00 a.m. we had a heavy storm. It came down so hard that it shattered the skylight over the toilet in the bathroom. (We heard there was hail but it might have been just the rain and wind.) It also filled our awning, and when John tried to lower it, the awning jammed. Duct tape fixed the skylight and everything dried out today.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be about 80.

I am tired. I haven’t been sleeping well, and the rain last night disrupted things. John took a nap this afternoon. I wish I had.

We made it to the festival yesterday. The festival, the ODPC Funfest, is our largest music event of the year.
John was able to get into the dentist to have the permanent tooth installed at 10:30 (he’d lost most of the temporary cap Wednesday night). We took off a little after noon, stopped for lunch on the way up, and arrived mid-afternoon. It rained hard on the way, but it had stopped by the time we arrived.

Getting our trailer parked just right took longer than it should have, but eventually we got it in place, turned on the power, opened the slide, and kicked on the A/C. It didn’t work correctly – wouldn’t go to high. John took the thermostat apart but it had lots of broken pieces inside it. Wiggling the control just right turned it on low and we left it that way – hanging by wires from the wall – afraid to touch it at all. When it cooled down sufficiently last night we shut the A/C totally off but didn’t touch the one switch at all. This a.m. it worked when we switched it on. (On low, but it was definitely working.)

Fortunately a RV repairman was working in the campground this afternoon and John bought a new thermostat from him and we installed it.
Lots of our friends have now arrived. We’ve chatted a lot but haven’t played much music.

I’m able to connect to the internet once from our canopy. (But when more trailers arrive, the view to the building where the network server is located will be more obscured.) Most of the time I walk toward the office until I find a vacant bench behind it.

It was a lovely day. Mid-80’s and the humidity was down. Guess we can’t ask for more.

John’s tooth is holding us up. He broke a temporary cap last night and right now he’s at the dentist getting the permanent one installed. It was better to do it now than to have him have trouble with it over the next two weeks.

But everything’s packed and he should be back here in about an hour. We’ll take off about noon and be there before 2:00. I’m looking forward to seeing friends, but I don’t look forward to the work. So much fun, but so much work!

I have hinted that I am ready to give up my workshop duties. Fifteen years is long enough. I will continue to be involved (maybe just webmaster) but I think it’s time to back away from the huge responsibility of scheduling the workshops.

Better go double check everything, so I can be truly good to go, when John gets back here.

Folks would be surprised that a “techie/geek” like me uses a cellphone which is an antique. The reason: years ago I stumbled on an old Verizon service (which is nearly phased out) which lets me use the cell with a laptop to connect digitally for FREE (unlimited)! In many locations it’s already been shut down, but when we travel, I can usually connect about half the time while in our vehicle. Because I want to continue using that system, I must continue with the same cellphone.

Admittedly it’s not as important as it once was because now the motels where we stay have wi-fi, but it gives me something to do while in route.

So, although my phone will accept text messages, it’s bulky, and there’s no keyboard and texting would be pricy and cumbersome. Do I mind? Would I like to be able to get text messages and have all the bells and whistles on my phone? Actually, it doesn’t bother me at all.

Who would I text? I rarely use my cellphone. It’s never been a big part of my life.

I realize younger folks have grown up with their cell at ear. They can’t survive without constant texting. I don’t know who I’d call or text. Very few of my friends really care about that sort of thing.

That doesn’t mean I don’t lust over an I-Phone for the apps. I would enjoy being able to do it all. But I survive.

You can get an idea of what an improvement the siding project is making by seeing these two pictures. The top one is before and the bottom one is after. It’s 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.

You can also see hot the other side of the garage looked before John did that wall: Last summer when the project was started.

John’s finished siding the most visible side of the front of the house. He’s done a superior job. We’ve been trying to get the trailer packed while he’s worked on the siding, but a lot has to be done by him.

So tomorrow, with the siding now at a good stopping point, we can work on the trailer.

We have about five days to go before our scheduled departure, but we really don’t have to rush. Our planned “leave date” is Wednesday, but if we are delayed, that’s fine. We can get out of here any time before the 14th. Of course we need to be there early enough to get set up and relax, but no need to feel hurried.

I was hacked the first time the evening of June 25th. That night four sites were hit. Every morning since then, a few of my sites have had the Muslim message and arabic chanting. The changes show up here early in the day because I’m sure the offense is happening on the other side of the world.

I have come to the conclusion that my invasion must have been a “time-bomb” type program which was left behind at my website. My reasoning is that I have 13 websites. None have been hacked more than once. I therefore figure the hacker came once and left something that would run through available subdirectories. I’ve put in place all the “protections” but I can only do so much.

I had hoped the nightmare was over since they’d hit all my domains, but this a.m. the message was found on a subdirectory which contained an index html file. That’s a trigger component which can be used on the next tier down.

So now I fear that the hacker will go through all the other subdirectories that have index.html files. Here are all the areas that might be hit:

The first bunch have all been hit (but he could come back.)

1. http://dulcimers.com
2. http://dulcimers.biz
3. http://originaldulcimerplayersclub.org
4. https://sharons-blog.com
5. http://sonasmusic.com
6. http://finniganmusic.com
7. http://deedeetibbits.com
8. http://mhschemics1960.com
9. http://sub-strings.com
10. http://flintbanjoclub.com
11. http://originaldulcimerplayersclub.com
12. http://midlandduulcimerfestival.com
13. http://sharonsdiary.com – a password diary for only me.

Subdirectories with index files:

http://dulcimers.com/audioclips
http://dulcimers.com/Annettesmusic
http://dulcimers.com/dulcimerslist
http://dulcimers.com/buttons
http://dulcimers.com/email
http://dulcimers.com/evart
http://dulcimers.com/fbc
http://dulcimers.com/festival
http://dulcimers.com/Jim_album
http://dulcimers.com/lesraber
http://dulcimers.com/music
http://dulcimers.com/nantucketv
http://dulcimers.com/odpc
http://dulcimers.com/ODPCMembers
http://dulcimers.com/petes09
http://dulcimers.com/photos
http://dulcimers.com/skaryds
http://dulcimers.com/tunes
http://dulcimers.com/workshops

Going down the list to check works great then you hit your back to come back to the list again.

Hopefully folks will help me check out this list and let me know if any are hacked.

John and I travel often enough to know that it’s easiest to use a “staging area.” The dining room in our house is little used, so I’ve been filling up the table with bedding, toilet tissue, cds, ODPC information, recording equipment, batteries (for the battery operated amps), blankets, sound equipment, software, and lots of items which need to go to our trailer for Evart. I’ve vacuumed and cleaned the trailer, but lots more needs to be done. We will live in our fifth wheel for 12 days.

We have decided to stay in Michigan until October. We’ll leave for Florida, arriving on the 11th. We will stay straight through until April 11th. (No more extra driving trip back to Michigan in November for a month.)

It’ll save us an extra 2,600 mile trip and the $$$$ that represents. No more driving on winter/snow-covered roads.

This whole back and forth four times has bugged both of us. It’s a relief to have made a decision. I’m sure we’ll have some disappointed club members, but we have to look out for ourselves. It made no sense to drive back to Michigan for a month (mid-November to mid-December) strictly to DONATE our time to play music with friends once or maybe twice. It’s too dangerous on the roads in December!!! (We used to have 7 or 8 performances starting in November, but the economy is so bad hat we’re lucky to play twice during the holidays. It isn’t sensible to drive that far for a benefit concert.)

John had an idea for a special day today.

We had to do some shopping and then he thought it would be great fun to go to Saint Stanislaus’ polka festival in Bay City. I agreed.

We made a couple stops and then headed to Bay City but as we were driving over, we saw dark clouds forming to the southwest. By the time we’d arrived in Bay City it was pouring. Not gentle raindrops, but buckets. We sat in the car for awhile. When it let up slightly we got out and headed to the huge tent where the event was hosted. Between the parking lot and the tent, the water was ankle deep. By the time got under the cover of the tent, my feet were totally wet.

We sat and listened for awhile, but the kids drove us crazy. They were running around, knocking into us. The rain which had let up, started coming down again harder and harder. We were trapped. There were sheets of water running off the tent and it appeared that the top of the tent was sagging where water had collected. I got really up-tight. I couldn’t relax thinking that the tent could come down at anytime.

When there was a slight break in the rain, we ran for the car. I had taken off my shoes so I was running barefoot, but my slacks got wet about three inches up the leg. It was unbelievable.

We made it back to the car. For me, it was an adventure. John thought of it as a disappointment.

We got back to Saginaw. Did a little more grocery shopping and headed home to a wonderful steak dinner, corn on the cob, oven baked fries with a bit of homemade wine.

The day had been a blast! I loved running through the puddles. I loved being so relaxed and the rain.

No complaints at this end!

Four of the websites I host on my domain were hacked by a person who called himself Al-GhAmDi. What he posted was a web site for Muslims with Arab singing and guns, etc. (Thank heavens, he just replaced the “index” file, which opens a website, and didn’t replace subdirectories.) It was disappointing to think that I must tolerate the theft of my websites. It’s a form of terrorism. It a challenge. It’s like these people who promote guns and jihad also feel that a 68-year old woman can be a target by stealing her hard work as represented by the websites I create. I have always felt that all religions need to be a “personal” thing, but not when a person steals my website to promote Muslim beliefs complete with guns, etc.

I’m dern MAD!!

Thank heavens folks sent me an email. I had lost control of http://originaldulcimerplayersclub.org,
http://sonasmusic.com, http://finniganmusic.com, and http://deedeetibbits.com. I don’t think it was that way very long. And I was able to quickly restore three of the four. Now all are back working fine, but Dee Dee’s site has lots the most recent update. What a pain!!

I found many similar hacks. Just Google using “Al-GhAmDi hacked.” It’s safe to look at it, but I wouldn’t click on any links.

Surprisingly, as I was looking for other sites hacked by Al-GhAmDi, I found that there are sites that instruct and provide the files. I didn’t bother to look further, but it’s sad.

Note: http://dulcimers.com had been hacked this a.m. Again, it was easy to fix. I am tired of this problem but can’t seem to “plug” the hole. I’ve followed all the instructions Bluehost (my domain provider) has given me. I’ve deleted files, and made sure things are secure. Nothing seems to stop them.

Our big event of the year is coming up —

On Wednesday, July 7th, we’ll take our trailer and head to Evart, MI, for the world’s largest hammered dulcimer event. We’ll be loaded down with everything imaginable. Since I’m Workshop Chairman, we bring the programs, items for the workshops, chairs for the “hospitality area,” and stuff so John can fix a huge breakfast for anyone who wants to join us one of the mornings. I set up an “office” and a “print shop.” We “live” at the fairgrounds for a week and a half so we bring attire for any weather, two TV sets, food and cooking stuff. It’s like moving. The advantage is that we don’t have to “unpack” when we get home, because our dulcimer club has a camping weekend in August.

The trailer needs to be prepared. It’s filthy with winter grime. I’ll get busy next week and get it ready.

This afternoon I need to take the workshop program to the print shop. It’s a huge job, and with the Fourth of July coming up, they wanted it by Monday, but it was better for us to drop it off today. We’ll pick it up on the 6th of July and head to Evart, on the 7th.

While we’re in Michigan, we are isolated home-bodies. Therefore I find I “dress-down.”

And folks around here don’t “drop in.” Since no one will be seeing me, it seems there’s no reason to put on make-up, fuss with my hair, or dress carefully.

I know I shouldn’t be that way. The person I want to impress more than anyone is John. He sees me at my worst all the time. Sure we go places (and I clean up nicely), but here in Michigan, unless we leave the house, we can go for weeks without anyone else around us.

We’re in a nice neighborhood, but we know no one. I know the neighborhood isn’t going to change. We’ve lived here for 24 years. We’ve tried approaching folks in the past, but we’re just not at the same point in our lives. We have accepted that.

Knowing we won’t be seeing anyone, I tend to get pretty lazy about how I look. So does he.

Because folks drop in all the time when we’re in Florida, I am much fussier about how I dress, about how the house looks. I wouldn’t dream of not putting on make-up (in part because it contains SPF 30 sun screen and I know I’ll be in the sun.) I’m a different person. I love the “drop-in” Florida attitude and the friends we see frequently when we’re at our Kings Point condo. Down there we are all in the same boat. Most folks are back and forth between their southern homes and a place up-north. We compress friendships into a six-month format and they seem to be more intense.

I feel better when I’m in Florida: younger, more attractive, and more energetic. I don’t know how to turn the situation around so I feel better about myself here in Michigan. This isn’t the way I want to be.

We’re trying to decide what we should do regarding our return trip to Florida.

For the past half dozen years, we’ve gone back and forth between Michigan and Florida multiple times each year. Most years we arrived in Florida in mid-September, but we’ve always returned to Michigan from November until about mid-December so we could lead our club in a lot of Christmas performances around the Saginaw area beginning in mid-November and usually wrapping up the week before Christmas. We also able to attend the Skaryd Christmas dinner.

We genuinely care about our club members and it has seemed important to be in Michigan for them. Two years ago we had about about a half dozen holiday performances for the club and two or three for John and me (by ourselves). Last year we had half that number. At this point we’ve made ONE playing promise in Michigan and the November event has been cancelled. We may have only the one. (Who knows, with the economy?!!)

Until last year, we also made a trip back from Florida in January so we could put on “Snowfest” in Frankenmuth, MI (sometimes only staying a week or two). That’s one event we’ve passed on but prior to giving up that date, we had to make yet another trip back in January!

Last year John was ill so we didn’t make the fall trip to Florida, and instead went down about a week before Christmas and stayed until mid-April.

Currently our plans are to return to Florida, leaving Michigan on September 12th. We’ll come back north (for a month) on November 15th until December 17th. We’ll stay in Florida until mid-April.

We’ve been thinking about changing our plans. Instead of two round trips, we might be wiser to stay in Michigan until early October and then go down to Florida and stay put until mid-April. It would be a cost savings of close to $500 for the extra round trip, not to mention that we’d avoid the risk of being on the highways all those extra miles (especially if we travel in December when the weather can be bad).

Changing our plans requires more than just motel revisions. We will have multiple changes in doctor, dental and beauty shop appointments. And we have already made one performance commitment in Saginaw for our dulcimer club on the 12th of December. The Skaryd family Christmas dinner would definitely be missed. We will need to make a decision soon.

Wish we could be two places.

You celebrate your 25th wedding anniversary and your 50th high school class reunion only once so, if you’re a lady, those events require the right dress. On September 10th, we’ll be celebrating our silver wedding anniversary, and the next night (September 11th) is my 50th class reunion. I’m their webmaster: Midland High School Chemics, class of 1960!

I have been looking for something which would work for me. The class reunion invitation says “casual dress” but I’m not an overly casual person, yet I want something appropriate.

I ordered a dress the other day from Bealls, my favorite Florida store. It arrived yesterday and I love it but John commented that I could be pregnant and no one would know.

When I had placed the order, I’d actually preferred another dress but it was “out-of-stock.” Yesterday, when I checked back, it was available, so I also ordered the dress shown on the right. Both are cute and look like they’ll be comfy.

The second dress is a little flashier. After a “facebook discussion” with girl friend, Gwyn, I decided to splurge on the second one too. When it comes I can make the decision to either keep both or return one. (I know for certain that I’m keeping number one.)

I remember when my mother had her 50th class reunion. I envisioned a bunch of really old people. Definitely none of the ladies would be brazen enough to wear either of the dresses! The one is “above the knee” and the other is even sexier. My friends commented: “You go, Girl!”

Note: The second dress came and the print in the panels wasn’t just little dots. I was disappointed. I can return in when I get back to Florida.

In the past, I’ve posted photos of our Florida condo and our home in Michigan. I’ve never shown our place in the U.P. of Michigan.

Last week when we were there, I took a few photos:

The “great room” (ha!) of our 55 x 12 foot, 1960’s house trailer.

We do have a view of Lake Michigan. Swans are sure pretty. We have never seen swans there before this year.

That’s our place. Certainly not fancy. It consists of living room, kitchen area, small guest room, bath room (with storage), and a carpeted master bedroom. Across the front it has a 20 x 10 deck. If you’re interested, we’re thinking of selling. We just don’t get to use in often enough and when we do go, it’s too much work for John.

John was discouraged today. He’s been doing his vinyl cedar shake siding project for several weeks. What he’s accomplished looks great. He started in September 2009. The one elevation on the west end of our house was nearly complete. He ended up in the hospital, wasn’t well enough to continue and didn’t get back to it until a few weeks ago.

He’s been working on the front of the garage which looks great. Today he was working on the side of the garage that folks “walk past” to get to our front door. He was making decent strides when he realized that the front of the garage and this side, must tie in together. When he did the front, he’d found the front wasn’t straight. The distance between the ground and the eves slanted so there was more height on the left side. John adjusted, making sure the left side was gradually higher.

What he forgot was that he should have also adjusted the side he’s currently working on so it would “match” the front. Instead he kept the siding level and by the time he got to the eves, the siding didn’t match up with the front. The “corner pieces” wouldn’t work. They needed to snap into place. The claps which hook on the siding wouldn’t work. He’s going to have to rip off much of the side and adjust it as he did on the front.

It was many hours of work that he’ll have to re-do.

About 4:00 p.m. we decided that it was wise to put it aside. We’d to go to town.

Willow needed a re-fill on a prescription. Friday we’d tried to pick up a three-month prescription re-fill (90 pills) but Walmart’s pharmacy didn’t have enough to complete the 90-day supply. They sold us three pills to tide us over, and asked us to come back. We returned today to get the other 87 pills of his three-month supply. The total three month prescription should have cost $10. We had paid $.54 for the three ($.18 a piece) on Friday. We knew that was an over-charge, but we expected that we’d pay $9.46 for the remainder of the three-month supply. Instead we were charged $.18 times 87 pills or $15.66. John complained.

The clerk recognized that there’d been a mistake. No problem. Our charge would be adjusted to the correct price: $10 total. The $6.20 over-charge ended up costing us about an hour of our time. Goof after goof. After about 45 minutes they produced a new charge slip for $10. The clerk realized it still wasn’t right, so she tried again. About a half hour later, I said, “Just charge us the $10 for three-months (forget that we already paid $.54), and we’ll be happy.” It still took another 15 minutes (at least.) In the end, we paid $10 today (plus the $.54 Friday) for the three month prescription. We were over-charged by $.54 but I was glad to get out of the store. It had taken well over an hour!!

We left Walmart and went to the local Moose lodge to enjoy an advertised “all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner.” For some unknown reason, the dinner was cancelled. No spaghetti. We ended up enjoying a happy-hour beer and grilled burger and fries. Spaghetti will happen tomorrow.

Maybe we should just forget today.

John says I’m addicted to the internet. I do find it an educational and informational tool.

What sites to I visit frequently, usually at least daily (sometimes more often than that)?

Obviously I return to this site (sharons-blog.com) and http://dulcimers.com, http://dulcimers.biz and my other websites. I am always re-checking content for errors, and making sure everything is up and running. I also check the “guest book” comments and make sure no entries to the “classified” section (on dulcimers.biz) need approval.

I also check in to my two banks (Florida and Michigan) and my credit card account to make sure that everything is reconciled. I keep a running total on a spread sheet on my computer so I always know where we stand financially, and when payments are being made. I stay current on everything every day. I use auto-payments whenever possible and shuffle money so it always earns the highest interest rate.

After finances, I check the weather a lot! Knowing that it’s rainy or hot in Florida, makes me feel more connected with our “other home.” My favorite weather sites are: accuweather.com and wunderground.com. Accuweather is great for forecasts up to 10 days into the future, and wunderground gives you live satellite and radar images with “wundermaps.”

I’m also the moderator of the “harplist” which is the largest email list of harp players. Since all subscriptions to that list must be “approved,” I usually check the website for the harplist to make sure there’s no one waiting to become a member.

For checking on what my “friends” are doing, I head to facebook. (I don’t do twitter).

And frequently I’ll check out items for sale on ebay. Usually I have something I’m “watching.” (Admittedly I’m often bidding on something.)

When I’m bored, there’s always You Tube and if I’m in a game-playing mood I will sometimes go to yahoo’s game area and play “Bookworm”.

I also love staying “current” on what’s happening in our Florida community. Kings’ Point Activites are available on line if you scroll down the page. (The complete Kings Point Newsletter called “The Pointer.”) When we’re in Florida, I’ll frequently check what’s happening at Busch Gardens so we don’t miss a great “show.” And there’s the Sun City Observer, the weekly publication.

I am always watching for “the perfect condo” in Kings Point, our Florida gated-community. The ideal residence for us may be the one we have now, but we know that in order to be completely content with our place, there are several projects which will be costly. We may be better off selling our current unit and buying one which already has tile or laminate on the floor, better windows, and an up-graded kitchen. I check out what’s available at http://www.suncityflorida.net/. That’s the website of Trudy Province, our realtor. It’s fun to look at the videos of the lovely places. (I do a search within “Hillsborough County/Sun City Center.” I limit my search to offerings in a “gated community” which gives me only Kings Point places, and usually look at only those over 1,400 sq. ft. I can also restrict to a certain price range.)

When there’s a news-type crisis, national or local, I will generally google the topic, and try to find information, but those sources vary, depending on the topic.

So that’s what I watch for every day. I love the internet. I’ve been involved with it since the mid-1990’s when it went from a way of linking universities to being a way of staying in touch with friends and learning about the world.

If an atheist has to go to court, do they make him swear on the Bible?
Why is it illegal to park in a handicapped parking space but its ok to use a handicapped toilet?
How come you play at a recital, but recite at a play?
If a fork were made of gold would it still be considered silverware?
If heat rises, then shouldn’t hell be cold?
Why can’t you get a tan on your palms?
How come popcorn isn’t a vegetable?
Once you’re in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?
If Sunday is the holy day of rest why do we have to get up early for church?
When you snap your fingers, does the sound occur when your middle finger releases from your thumb, or when your middle finger hits the palm of your hand?
Why are you IN a movie, but your ON TV?
If you don’t pay your exorcist, do you get repossessed?
Why is Bra singular and Panties plural?
What are those little things on the end of your shoelaces called? (Answer: They’re called aglets.)
How can someone be dirt poor, and another be filthy rich?
When you put ‘THE’ and ‘IRS’ together, it forms ‘THEIRS’. Coincidence? I think not?
Isn’t it scary that the word “therapist” is the same as the words “the” and “rapist” put together?
Do sheep get static cling when they rub against one another?
Why do people say heads up when you should duck?
Why did Superman wear his briefs on the outside of his tights?
Why do they call it your “bottom”, when it’s really in the middle of your body?
Why do British people never sound British when they sing?
Why is it called a TV set when there is only one?
If it’s zero degrees outside today and it’s supposed to be twice as cold tomorrow, how cold is it going to be?
If you mated a bull dog and a shitsu, would it be called a bullshit?
Why are they called stairs inside but steps outside?
Why is it that rain drops but snow falls?
Why is the third hand on the watch called second hand?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
Why is an elevator still called an elevator even when its going down?
Why is an electrical outlet called an outlet when you plug things into it? Shouldn’t it be called an inlet.
If love is blind, how can we believe in love at first sight?

Credit should be given to http://www.goodquotes.com/funnythoughts.htm

Michigan’s hot summer humidity can be hard to endure and today is one of those “off-the-chart” humid days. Temperature right now is only 77 but the it’s hard to breathe.

It’s supposed to get to nearly 90 this afternoon, which will make it even more unbearable.

I’m trying to tidy up the place. We seem to always be unpacking or packing. Clothes are always going in and out of our place.

In about twenty-five days we’ll head to the huge dulcimer festival in Evart, MI, which means we’ll “move into our fifth-wheel” and live in it for nearly two weeks.

I’ve been working on the Evart (ODPC) workshop program. It’s coming together, but still needs some tweaking.

I have just made the “workshops” available for folks to check out. You too can find them at:

Today I have tried hard to catch up on all the things, which piled up while we were in the U.P.

Email crammed my mailbox. (600+ messages.) A lot of those messages were from folks wanting to attend the Evart Funfest. Questions like: Can I be on stage? Can I reserve a campsite? When will the workshop program be available?

I also had to up-date the stuff I’m doing for the Midland High School class of 1960’s 50th Class Reunion, and revise that website.

One thing after another.

Bank accounts to be reconciled.

But finally I feel I’m up-to-speed.

Tomorrow I’d love to enjoy some out-side time.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

We’re here at our place west of Manistique on Lake Michigan.

We arrived about 4:00. Lovely weather… mid-70’s.

A pair of white swans were in the water in front of our place. Lovely!

I should explain that the place is a 1960’s 50 x 12 mobile home. It is sufficient for our needs: two small bedrooms, a kitchen-living room and a bathroom with full sized tub and shower. We added on an extra pole-barn-style roof a few years ago. We had it off-set it in such a way that we could add a large deck toward the water. The raised deck is about 10 x 24 with a fabulous Lake Michigan view.

We hadn’t been here since August, 2008, so we didn’t know what to expect. Surprisingly, the place was in remarkably good condition for having been vacant so long. Dusty and dirty.. yes!

We spent several hours making it habitable, but other than dust and a musty smell, it was fine. Dead flies and lady bugs in the windows, and a few (but not many) mouse droppings. We swept, scrubbed and dusted. It still could stand lots more cleaning but we’ll get by.

A clean mattress pad, clean bedding on the bed and clean dishes make the place feel acceptable.

We forgot a few things (a vacuum cleaner, small electric heater, some folding lawn chairs, the outdoor carpet we use on the deck, dish cloths and some extra cleaning products) but we’ll get by.

The beach is down a path about 150 ft from the deck. The water looks a lot better than it did a couple years ago. Smelly seaweed has washed up at the waters edge, but this year the cattails are fewer and the water looked clear and inviting.

The tall grasses had grown in the pathway we take to the beach. By the time we got back, we were liberally covered with wood ticks. We hate ‘em. They are ugly parasites that seem to be waiting to latch onto you. They don’t immediately burrow under your skin, but they do settle in after a few hours and leave ugly infection if you don’t get them off you. They’re about 1/8 inch around with lots of legs, sort of dark reddish brown.

I wore white long pants so I could spot them easily and sure enough there were dozens on me. I removed my slacks and turned them inside out. One of the wood ticks had managed to work his way up to the highest point of where the legs joined. This was in five minutes or less and while I was wearing them!

We looked each over and found all that we had dozens of the crawly critters.

This is not my idea of a good time.

Tomorrow and for the next couple of days it’s supposed to rainy and cool. Monday it should be fairly nice.

Oh, and to top things off, we have no TV and my internet connection isn’t working. (I didn’t expect that it would.) Oh, well…

Tonight we enjoyed a glass of wine and danced to a country tune playing on the radio. Life could be lots worse, but I wish we were home.

========

Saturday, June 5th

We went into town yesterday. Stopped at a couple re-sale shops. I bought a lot of books for later reading and a folding umbrella (which I immediatly put to use because it was pouring outside.) We also got a coffee maker. On our way back, we stopped at the Moose Lodge for an excellent dinner.

It was cold tonight (as was last night) so we headed to bed early.

Today it’s semi-sunny and a little warmer (low 60’s). John’s been trying to mow the grass. It’s a large area. He used his chain saw and cut up a tree which had come down where we often park. The driveway still needs to be cleared but the place looks surprisingly good.

=======

Monday, June 7th – 9:30 p.m.

We’ve decided that we’ll head home Wednesday. Today it was in the low to mid-60’s, tomorrow it should be a tad warmer. We figure that we will leave Wednesday because there’s a rain front moving in for Wednesday, plus we have an appointment on Thursday.

I’m listening to John play “Take Five” in 5/4 time. It’s not an easy jazzy tune to play on any instrument. John’s playing it on sax.

Sax is not his primary instrument.

Why is he struggling to play “Take Five”? Because it’s a good exercise for his deteriorating lungs. When you have Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, you do what you can to help your lungs. John’s efforts include playing the sax

He’s made this place look very nice. He’s mowed, trimmed, and even painted. We called a realtor today about selling this place. I don’t know what we’ll do. It’s not the best time to sell, but we should divest ourselves of some of our property. It’s too much work!

===========

Wednesday, June 9th – 11:15 a.m.

We’re headed home. Still in the Upper Peninsula. We should make it home by 4:00 or so this afternoon.

The weather during our stay hasn’t been very pleasant. The first day we had temps in the 70’s and that was grand, but since then, we haven’t gotten past the mid-60’s. Nights were in the 40’s (although one night it was near freezing).

Yesterday the sun was out, so I decided to go for a walk. I walked toward the lake, then went parallel to the shoreline in a southerly direction. I was curious about a couple lovely lovely places which have been built within the past five or so years. One is landscaped with a rolling lawn. I decided to cut through their yard, go up their driveway, and then take the road back to our place (so I went in a circle). But when I cut through from the beach area to their yard, I had to go through a fairly tightly packed row of spruce trees. I looked down at my legs and saw I was “covered” with wood ticks. Dozens had hopped on me. It took a while to pick them all off and continue on my way back to our place. Once home, I gave myself a total inspection and discovered another tick. A couple hours later, I was combing my hair and realized I had a couple that had gotten in my hair!

That experience left me feeling “crawly.” I still have the sensation that something is on me. Can’t wait to get home so I can wash my hair and rid myself of the phantom feeling of “bugs.”

No, it hasn’t been a wonderful trip. John loves it in the wilderness, but it’s not my idea of fun. Staying on the deck and looking at the water from a distance was the most pleasant part of the visit. Each time I walked to the beach meant I picked up ticks.

I became a fan of Dr. Laura, who did a talk radio show each morning.

I’ll be glad to get back to civilization where I can check my email.

But during our stay, I did accomplish quite a bit: I was able to type pages 2-11 of the dulcimer festival’s workshop program. I still need to finish up the back and front covers of the program, but that’s easy compared to what I’ve already done.

Last night we went to bed early (about 10:00). A storm with a heavy wind and a lot of rain hit us from about 10:30 until about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. It blew so hard, that it was difficult to “shut out the noise” and sleep. Everything was really wet this morning so it made packing the truck for home a little more difficult.

So we’re headed back to “civilization.” It’ll be nice to be “home.”

My dad did this sketch of me when I was nine months old. I found the original in my baby book.

My newly discovered brother, Jim, contacted me yesterday. (Actually he’s not all that new now, because I found him five years ago.)

He finally got himself a new computer so he can get back to emailing me again. I hadn’t heard much from him since January, 2009, when he gave up on his old desktop. Email works great between us. It’s less intrusive than a phone call. (Although I have called him a few times when the space between our contacts went too long.) But now we can get back to email exchanges every few days.

Let me explain, for anyone who is new to Sharon’s Blog, that Jim, my half-brother, was totally unknown to me until I accessed my mother’s medical records. She had alzheimers and I had her power of attorney and spoke for her medically. In 2005, I discovered that my mother had told her physician she had three children: me (the oldest) and my brother Denny (1949), but also she claimed there was another child who was born in 1946. I didn’t know about Jim, but with the help of my aunt, I found Jim. He lives only about 6 to 10 miles from me.

The story is all posted here: Family Matters (“My New” Brother Jim) which is always in the menu to the right on Sharon’s Blog.

I successfully located Jim my totally-unknown-to-me-brother on March 20, 2005, but after the initial contact, it took until February 2006, before Jim got back to me.

During that time, Jim had become totally blind. He was dealing with all that and multiple surgeries to try to save his sight. It didn’t work. He never saw me.

We have a nice relationship. He has been here, he’s come to our concerts, festivals, and even my mother’s family’s annual family reunion. In September, 2008, when Mom died, he was “our” mother’s funeral beside me and my other brother, Denny.

I genuinely adore him and his family.

He has a leader dog, Jake, and he does pretty darned good although his vision is almost totally gone. I’m proud of his independence, as only an older sister would be.

Jim is a sweetheart but I am also glad to have found his lovely family.

Louise, his wife is someone I’d enjoy even if I just met her casually. Ideally I’d like it if she and I could be BFFs, but she’s a busy working woman. She works for the eye practice where both John and I have our optical services done. She’s the kind of person I find myself really attracted to. She’s genuine, bubbly, and warm. What a treasure!

Jim has three children: Emily is his older daughter and works at Dow in Midland. She married Chris a couple of years ago and we were at the wedding. Last year they had, Will, who is the family’s pride and Joy. Will REIGNS but it’s fitting. He’s a beautiful boy-child.

Abbie is a grade school teacher in Georgia. And there’s Eric who has a nice girlfriend. Eric’s a wonderful cook!!

That’s the family I found. What a wonderful discovery.

But this past year I’ve rarely heard from Jim, so it was nice to get a casual “HI BIG SIS” message yesterday. With a new computer, I hope he’ll stay in touch. He always signs his emails… LVLBJ and Jake. (Love, little brother Jim.)

I’m so blessed to have found this wonderful addition to my family. It was a miracle. I couldn’t have picked a better addition(s) to my family. I only wish I’d grown up knowing him.

I’m nicely bronze when we’re in Florida. Not burned, not dried out, just nicely tanned. I love the look and even my dermatologist said we do something right, so I would love to keep that look twelve months a year.

For most of my life, I have lived in Michigan. Pasty white was the color of all skin ten months out of the year. We would tan a little in July and August before the tan started fading and we went back to no-color.

Now that John and I spend our winters in Florida and live in the pool, we are both a lovely, healthy tan at least six months of the year. I use sunscreen to avoid burning, I never lay out in the sun, but instead we stay in the shade and let the reflected sun tan us gently.

But after listening to all the discussions on TV about the dangers to skin of even being just moderately tan, I’ve decided to try using a “self-tanner.” It supposed to be a chemical alternative to the sun but your skin is supposed to look naturally tan without the possibility of sun damage.

Although I haven’t tried it all that long (about 10 days), I can’t see any difference. I don’t look gloriously healthy, and I don’t really like the smell.

I’ll keep trying. I spent my $$$’s to buy this product so I’ll give it a fair trial, but it doesn’t seem to work. I use it every day, often twice a day, on my face. The rest of my body is still nicely tanned from our time in Florida, so it doesn’t need the extra color, but since I have always used a SPF 30 in my daily face make-up regime, my face is totally untanned. The rest of me may look bronzed, but my face is “Michigan white.”

So I’m trying to match face to body. I read the reviews and Jergens seemed to have a reliable, relatively inexpensive product, but it has failed me. My face is still pasty Great Lakes no-color.