Jumping Into December

NO, THOSE ARE NOT PAJAMAS!

 

After recovering from our wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, we decided to get ambitious (well sort of).  Dick help me set up a couple of jewelry tables at the Christmas Craft Fair in our neighboring senior park.  I coaxed him with the promise of a $2.50 breakfast that he didn't have to cook.    Dick never did eat breakfast but I munched down on scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, and orange juice.  No wonder I'm not losing any weight!  Three hours of socializing and meeting new people, a few sales, and we packed up and returned home.  

On one of our walks around the "hood," Harley and I found this little guy munching down the grass ....  He was about 8" long and didn't mind us a bit.

Sunday found us at my nephew Rick's house borrowing his truck and circular saw - let the deck building begin!  Dick and I decided that a new deck would be our Christmas present to each other this year, knowing that we'll have to leave it behind when we leave :(   Good thing we had the shade of the RV awning and our pop up canopy tent - cause without that I think we would have been building deck in the dark when it was cool.

HALF WAY DONE

OUR NEW DECK

Oh my gosh or OMG as the text generation says - I simply can't believe that tomorrow is December 1st!  Dick and I are both donning "summer" colds - damn!  If I'm going to feel bad, I may as well do it in Idaho, sitting by the fireplace and watching the snow fall, with a hot toddy in my hand!

It seems like we were just putting away our tree from last Christmas.  Oh wait, we were! cause the Coca Cola tree was still set up down in the basement and I finally put it to bed for good!  Ha, ha, ha ..... or is that Ho, ho, ho?

I finally met our next door neighbor; her name is Marie and she runs fair concessions, elephant ears in particular, and has just come up with a new tasty fair item - deep fried strawberries sprinkled with chocolate and powdered sugar.  She says they're to die for and I can hardly wait to try one! 

We've been trying to get connected to her internet (with her knowledge of course) because as we found out - Verizon mobile hot spot is very expensive for us.  I got the bill for last month and it was almost $200.  Going to Verizon tomorrow to see why on earth it was so high!  We also found out that Marie is a good cook; she supplied us with dinner tonight - cabbage rolls, and were they ever good!  I think she's going to be a great neighbor to have!

Harley and I took a walk around the neighborhood tonight and snapped a couple of Christmas photos for your enjoyment. 

YEP, THAT'S  PALM TREE

I don't think we'll get into Christmas quite that much this year!  With our Happy Holidays flamingo welcome mat and the lights around our deck, maybe we'll add a wreath to the front of the RV and a lit up pink flamingo!

Dick, Jo & Harley

Happy Thanksgiving from Sunny Florida

OLIVIA & NAN

Happy Thanksgiving from all the Turkeys in Florida!


Can you think of something better to do on Thanksgiving than eat, watch football, eat some more, take a nap,  eat dessert, swim!

MEN IN THE KITCHEN??  COOKING??

TOO MANY COOKS??

WARNING - DO NOT TOUCH THE TURKEY!

OLIVIA & GRANDMA PATT

OOPS I THINK YOU MISSED ONE

OLIVIA & MOM JENEY

We had discussed on Saturday gathering and going to a Thanksgiving Day buffet; on Sunday I mentioned to Ricky that I would cook if I had a kitchen; on Wednesday I was at the grocery store buying ingredients to make my great stuffing; and, on Thursday we were all sitting down for a wonderful home cooked meal.  (Nope, no gator!)


Ricky and I put the turkey in the oven after I showed him how to stuff it LOL and then the men took over cooking - literally!  If that isn't a first, then I don't know what is.

MELVIN

HAPPY, HAPPY BABY ALISHA

 Rob's wife Sandy is a home care nurse and she brought her current charge Melvin with her.  He is a sweet man and thoroughly enjoyed his dinner and, I believe, the company.  Although I think that Nan's screams from the cold water in the pool woke him from his nap - I know it did me!

TIME TO CHOW DOWN

Gma Patt and Olivia spent some quality time doing "crafts." 

4-month old Alisha is the sweetest and most adorable great-niece ever.  A very calm, not fussy baby, and you can tell she loves her big sisters very much by the big smile that spreads across her face when she hears their voices.




Things I am thankful for ....


My sweet, tolerant husband ...
a truly wonderful and one of a kind son ... a beautiful and caring daughter-in-law ... two wonderful grandkids ...


The love of family and friends ... my soft bed ... my decent health ... my loyal companion Harley ... living in the great United States of America and being able to travel and enjoy it ... 


The love of God in my head and in my heart ....

Gma Jo put olives on Olivia's fingers and that little one did not know what to think.  First she decided they were to play with and then she saw me eat one, so she tried it.  Must not have been to her taste though as she quickly spit it out. 

DON'T PUSH ME IN !!

SASSY THAT IS NOT A GOOD IDEA

NAN & OLIVIA

ALISHA, JENEY, RICKY & SANDY

May you enjoy all of the blessings in your life.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!

Out and About

Tuesday, November 21, Sunny and 84

After dropping off my bike at the repair shop, we took our first "check this out it's amazing" trip and headed to the Manatee Viewing Center at Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station.

Every year between November and April, when Tampa Bay's water temperature reaches 68 or colder, the warm-blooded manatees migrate to the water discharge canal of the Big Bend Power Station.  Manatees are an endangered species and they were fun to watch, swimming lazily about, coming up for air every few minutes.. 

But there were more amazing creatures to watch and I was totally fascinated by the little red crabs as they skittered on the shore.  There was a shore bird of some type wading close by and the smorgasbord feast of crab was too much for him.  He would dart in, they would scatter en-mass, he would grab a tasty morsel and carry it back to the water.

We watched the huge tarpon fish flashing in the sunlight and walked the tidal walkway through the mangrove, enjoying the flowers, crabs, and the ocean.


The average adult manatee or "sea cow" is about 10 feet long and weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. It has a large, seal-like body that tapers to a large, spatula-shaped flat tail. The two forelimbs or flippers of the manatee are paddle-shaped with up to four nails at the tip of each flipper. The finely wrinkled skin of the adult manatee is gray or gray-brown. The hair is thin and far apart, except for the stiff, brush-like facial whiskers, which help the manatee forage for food.

HURRY BEFORE HE MAKES LUNCH OF US!

OOPS, TOO LATE!

NEEDLENOSE

TAMPA ELECTRIC BIG BEND STATION

LOOKING DOWN THE CANAL TO THE OCEAN

TINY TARPON

HANDSOME DUDE ON THE END OF THE TIDAL WALKWAY

If you would like to learn more about the manatee, click on the link below.  They also have a webcam where you, too, can watch the manatees with us.  http://www.tampaelectric.com/manatee/funstuff/webcam2/

From the Manatee Viewing Center we headed south on 301 toward Ruskin and Bahia Beach. About 52 years ago I played on this beach while my dad either managed the restaurant here or worked on it while it was being built.  I remember it was brand new at the time and I don't know why we left and went back to Colorado - not questions that an 8 year old would ask and by the time I got around to thinking about it, my dad was no longer around to answer my questions.  Gosh how I miss him!

We ate lunch at the Sunset Grill and plan on coming back one of these evenings to sit on the deck with our Mai Tais and watch the sun go down over the ocean.

ST. PETERSBURG ACROSS TAMPA BAY

BAHIA BEACH

Back home to sit and delight in what the day had brought us.

 

Dick, Jo & Harley

.

My Attitude - 80 degrees and Sunny

Howdy y'all from sunny, 80 degrees, fluffy coastal clouds Florida! We've been in our new "home" now for almost a week and are loving it more every day. What's not to like about sunshine and breezes as opposed to cold and snow? We have not experienced a lot of humidity so far but everything outside is damp in the morning. There is always a slight breeze blowing the American flag next door.

We spent the first week getting settled in - you wouldn't think it would take a week!  But .... having never lived in less than 400 square feet before, it is taking all of my imagination and strategizing (is that a word?) just to figure out where to put everything.  We now have a second pantry in the bedroom but Dick says that's okay cause he doesn't have to go as far if he wants a midnight snack!  You really do have to be organized - just to get a frying pan out of the cupboard takes a couple of minutes.  1) Get on the floor, 2) take everything out that's on top of the frying pan, 3) get the pan, 4) put everything back, 5) try to get up off the floor (ha). And then reverse the procedure after you use the pan.  Well, at least I'm getting some exercise!

We've scoped out the neighborhood and within driving (or bicycling) distance we have Lowe's, WalMart, lots of fast food restaurants, the Post Office, a veterinarian, but no bead stores.  Speaking of bicycles, I hope there's a bike repair shop close by cause my poor bike got squished by the car and I think it's gonna need some tender loving care to be rideable again.

Dick has been busy scoping out where all the good car shows are held, calculating the material needs for a deck he's going to build and taking lots of "senior snoozes."  While I've been putting my jewelry work area together in the stacker trailer and walking Harley.  Oh how he loves his walks; so many new smells and other dogs to meet and greet.

MY NEW BEAD ROOM

 We have a flock? of Sand Hill cranes that frequent our neighborhood and we see them on a daily basis.

OUR FIRST VISITORS

We had our first BBQ last night and my sister Patt came over.  I love listening to all of her tales about raising five kids in a 40' Airsteam while traveling on the road (story for another time).  She has provided us with lots of reading material about day trips for the area which we are going to start taking next week.

My nephew Ricky, his wife Jen, and daughters Nan (14), Olivia (2) and Alisha (4 months) stopped by for a visit today.  We happened to be here when both of the little ones were born - man how they have grown.

NAN & OLIVIA

RICKY, JEN & ALISHA

Well, it looks like it might be a good evening to drive down to the beach and check out the sunset.  Happy trails until the next time.

Jo

I changed to my old blog so that I could post pictures easier.  At the end of every blog is a comment box - please, please use it to talk back to me LOL.  You can also sign up to receive this blog by email and you will get it delivered direct to your inbox when a new posting is made.