03/03/11

Tuesday the park had a ladies lawn bocce tournement.  Mike (my brother) is now on the Board of Directors for the lawn bocce group.  When they were putting the teams together the board realized they were one lady short of having 8 teams.  Mike ask me if I would play to even up the teams.  I agreed, even thought I had not played a lot of games.  So Tuesday morning I reported to the bocce field and was delighted to find I was on a pretty good team.  In fact, my team came in second and we each received $10.00 as are gift!

A nature bonus was during one of the games there was a wood stork down by the little pond here at the resort.  One more bird checked off in my bird book.

The four or five days before the trounement and even the last couple of days have been pretty hetic.  Larry started seriously looking for full tone dually truck.  We visited three of four dealers and many deals and contacts going on.  In fact, Larry was so ate up shopping and dealing his head was spinning by Sunday. He told me we were just going to take the day off from truck shopping,  But, after church, we went out for brunch with some friends, Max and Lois.  Max knew that Larry was shopping for trucks and someone had told him of one they had seen by the road for sale, but they though it was a gas and we needed a desil.  So on our way back from the restraunt, Max suggested we go check it out just to be sure.  Well, when we gt to the truck it was exactly what Larry had been looking for and the price was reasonable!  Larry and Max looked it over and we all took it for a test drive.  Now remember we have been looking at trucks for days and were about $1000.00 apart on one and had been made a good offer on another, so Larry knew a bargain when he saw one.  So right on the spot he made an offer and the guy accecpted.

So now we had to get our truck out there on the market. Larry spent most of the rest of the day cleaning it up and making signs.  Monday we had to call the bank.  I also called the IN DMV and the FL DMV, which was no easy task!  We had an offer on our truck Tuesday and the guy paid a deposit, but he told Larry his wife might object, so Larry being Larry told him if that happened he would give the deposit back.  Well, we did not hear anything that evening and not until the next morning about 9 he called and said his wife did not approve of the deal.  We were so bummed!  I reminded Larry that another man had called late in the day and Larry had told him the truck was sold.  We knew around what time he had called, so Larry looked on his phone and called the number. He left a message that the truck was back on the market.  Well, by golly,  the second guy came by and drove the truck and ended up buying the truck.  In between these events we were on the phone and emailing our insurance company.  The we had to go to the bank and get a cashier check to buy are new truck.  Lots of hassles, but in the end we sold our old truck and have a 2007 Chevy full ton dually.

02/25/11

The days and nights here in Florida are finally getting very warm.  We have turned our air on in our fifth wheel.  But this means the pool and hot tub are now open till 10.  So the other night we decided to hit the hot tub about 8.  Some friends of our said they would like to go also.  So we agree to meet at the pool in about 10 minutes.  Larry and I arrive with our suites on and I had a cover up on and he had a t-shirt on with his trunks. and we both had our towels.  We waited a few minutes for our friends to show and finally we saw them walking down the road with their sweats on.  I said "are you not going to get in the hot tub".  They replied yes and they had their suits on under the sweats and after getting out of the hot tub they were going to throw the sweats on over their suits to make the trip back home!!  They look pretty funny stripping off their sweats down to their suits!  And believe me, when you get out of the hot tub you are warm enough to get home, unless you have to walk a mile or two.  It was very funny to see them coming down the the hot tub in their sheats!!  Wish you could have been with us to see them!!

02/24/10

Larry waiting for the shuttle launch at New Smyrna Beach !

We went to the beach to see the shuttle launch with Mike & Paula.  Mike drove and we arrived right at three o'clock.  We were able to park right on the beach.  We set up our chairs and killed sometime people watching.  We bought some ice cream treat and walked the beach.  A bird came right up behind Paula ad tried to steal my granola bar right out of the side pocket of my cooler.  If she had not been sitting there they would have drug it off.  As it was they still torn a hole in one end of the wrapper.  The birds were pretty smart and very aggressive.  I guess they have to be to learn to survive on the beach!

Everybody on the beach, and they were a lot of people, began to turn their chairs to face south down the beach at about 4:30 or so.  Mike and Paula had their laptop but could not find a network.  Other people had their radios and informed the crowd that the launch had been delayed by three minutes. We anxiously keep waiting for something to happen and finally we all saw the rocket take off  The brightest and biggest thing was the fire behind it.  It was very, very cool.  The picture below is just on of the pictures we took.  The neatest thing to me was probably after another second or two after this picture was taken that we hear the sonic boom!  In fact, we saw the boosters disconnect and fall before we heard the sound! It was a cool thing to be able to witness!

02/09/2011

Today we travel over to Clearwater Beach. It was a beautiful day!  Not a cloud in the sky.  Nothing too exciting at the beach.  We did stop and have dinner at " Whiskey Dan's", which is a restaurant on the edge of Tampa coming back from the beach.  It is built out over the bay and we were seated right at the window.  Larry and I were able to watch a beautiful sunset!

On a nature note, last Friday, a Sandhill Crane visited our park for a few days.  This is  majestic bird that is about 4 ft tall and has very different call.  One morning it came strolling by our dinning room window.  And when we went outside, we were able to get within 5ft or so. Later, Mike saw it standing and eating our of their neighbors bird feeder, which hangs on a shepherd hook about 3ft off the ground.  For several days, in the mornings, I heard it's unusual call.  But, sadly it has now moved on.

Little House, Big Backyard!

Gail

02/10/11

Nothing to exciting has been happening.  The weather has not been the greatest.  It has been cool and rainy, with a few days of sun in between.

Last night was a exciting night.  The park had a talent show and the called it "Doing what comes naturally".  And of course, Larry participated!  In fact he was in four different acts.  One with the choir, in which they did two numbers and Larry played the guitar for both.  Second, a friend of ours, Max and Larry did an old Everly Brothers song "Bird Dog".  They wore T-shirts with EX- on Larry's shirt and LAX on Max's shirts and introduced themselves and the Crappy Brothers, because they don't give a crap! Third, Larry played and sang the "Auctioneer's Song".  And the fourth and last of his acts was the Quacker.  A men's quartet sang the Blue Daube with quakes as the chorus.  To me, this by far the funnest thing Larry did, because I knew he hated it.  He was not happy about it at all, but he agreeded to do a song with them before he really knew what it was about.  I thought it was hilarious because I could see on Larry's face he was not a happy camper!  I was very proud of him for everything he did.  I am a lucky woman!!

There were 25 acts in all.  Some were very funny, some were not as funny, some were good and some were not so good, but everyone including the audience had fun!!

Little house, big backyard!

Gail

01/30/2011

This has been a good weekend!  The weather here is great!  We went over the Edgewater to visit Larry's x-in laws.  We stayed overnight and this morning Larry performed at the church where Don is interim pastor.  He really had a good time.  He loves to perform and he is very good at it!

Florida is spectacular!  Saturday night we ate at a restraunt on the intercostal waterway (which looked like a big river to me).  But while we having dinner dolphins were swimming and jumping in the waterway!  Along the highway, over and back, we saw several great egrets, some sandhill crane and double-crested cormorant!

Little house big backyard!

Gail

01/28/2011

Today we enjoyed the nature side of Florida and it was great!  We went to Blue Springs State Park and saw the manatees!  This is spring that feeds into the St John River.  This spring is warmer than the river or ocean and the manatees have to stay in water above 66 degree to survive.  Just by walking down the boardwalk we saw lots of manatees, several alligators and tons of fish.

We also went on the St. John River boat tour.  This lasted two hours and was also great.  We saw alligators, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, yellow-crowned Night Heron, Great Egret, snowy Egret, Anhinga, Double Crested Cormorant and many others!  At one point, we were right beside the reeds and in the reeds were a bunch of baby gators.  It was all very cool!!  I recommend this park to anyone who is every near that area.

Little house, big backyard!!

Gail