Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 6:44AM Yesterday was a wander around day. Have I ever mentioned how much I love where we live?
This is the famous WWII photo ...
This is Sarasota's tribute to that iconic image...note the size of the tourists who insisted on getting in my way
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 7:40PM This is the real Florida. this is the Florida I love...photos taken at nearby Little Manatee River State Park
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 8:34AM
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus"
Just in case your school Latin is a bit rusty I'll translate for you. "Never tickle a sleeping dragon." It's the Hogwarts motto. It seemed the perfect caption for one of my favorite photos of Rico. He's often a back sleeper. I never tickle the sleeping dragon, but I do often sneak over, kneel down and gently kiss that little pink belly of his. He is the sweetest dog I've ever known. He has an odor to him, his own very distinct smell, sort of like puppy breath but better. You will only "get this" if you're a dog person. Otherwise, you will think me insane. If you are interested in learning more about Havana Silk Dogs follow the link. If you get to the page and click on the photo gallery link, Rico looks exactly like the sixth photo down and centered. I think that dog is a puppy and hasn't grown out his long coat yet. I keep Rico in a puppy cut. I have neither the time, inclination or hands to be messing with the long coat. Also, it's just not my thing. I think the short coat is so much cuter. When I walk Rico, everyone always wants to pet him. His fur, well in Havanese circle talk you aren't allowed to say fur" sometimes. A lot of afficionadoes prefer the term hair because of it's texture. It's very fine, soft and silky but non-shedding and hypo allergenic. Touching Rico's short coat is like what it must feel like to touch a cloud.
Other than blathering on about the sleeping cloud dragon, there is not much else to report. Husband is busy assembling two Ikea pieces we purchased while in Orlando on the weekend. More on that once he has finished.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 7:23PM 
We're alive. We're thawing out. Winter as Florida knows it is pretty over. So over in fact, that we felt confident enough to move the space heater to our new shed (see below). I started writing this on Wednesday, January 13th. It is now Monday the 18th. Time certainly has a way of slipping away from me.
A big excitement in the past week was the arrival of our new shed. Yes, my life has gotten that small. We ordered a custom built shed to put behind the trailer now that we are on a permanent site here on the west coast. I have "stuff." Too much "stuff" to store in this small trailer as we live here for three months. Hence the shed. It's not a big shed. And, the bad news is that it aleady chocked pretty full. But...it's delivery generated much interest among the old retired with nothing much to do men who live here for the winter. They swarmed around like bees to the honey. If you ever want to meet old men neighbors, just get something delivered on a flat bed trailer. Make sure it's something that has to be set up and leveled and so on. You will have more old men standing around giving advice, saying how "they'd do it differently back home up north" and whispering to each other how we probably paid way too much for the shed.
In spite of all the old men natterings, I am loving the shed. Geekster that I am, I am enjoying every moment of organizing and moving things out to it.
We spent Thursday recuperating from the excitement of the shed acquisition. We had previously purchased tickets for the big Friday night dance to be held here at the old folks vacationland. I asked about dress code and never could get a straight answer from anyone. The woman next door who has dementia told me, "Oh just wear what you have on." I was wearing my slippers and jeans and holding a bag for the trash at that particular moment. Fortunatley, John developed a backache the morning of the dance and out of wifely concern for his well-being, I convinced him that it would be best if we stayed home and he rested his back Friday night...
On Saturday morning we packed up and headed to Orlando to see son, DIL and grandkids as well as planning a foray to Ikea. More on thatnext entry. We returned to the trailer this afternoon and are vegging out for now.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 5:14PM
Just in case you were thinking that I was exaggerating how cold it is here, I wasn't. It was frigid last night...AND...WE HAD NO PROPANE!!! I mention this fact merely because OUR FURNACE RUNS ON PROPANE. We knew that we were low on propane on Monday, but no big deal, the propane delivery man services this place on Tuesdays. There's a system. You put this dayglow green "I Need Propane" sign in your window, the guy drives around in his big tank truck and stops at the places with the sign. Simple. Being the mistrustful person that I am, I called the propane company to request a Tuesday delivery. I like being careful. It's who I am. It's why they let me be the school principal. The scretary said "It's good to call, sometimes the driver doesn't see the sign because everyone puts them in a different place. I'll write you on his delivery sheet." Was I as smug as a bug or what? Little Miss Careful.
Well, Tuesday, about 4 AM, the propane was gone. How did we realize this? Basically because the vent was blowing ice cold air on me at about gale force strength. But hey, we'll be ok because it's warm here in the bedroom and we've got the little oil filled radiator electric space heater in here with us and that propane man is coming. So says Mr. Sunshine when I shake him awake and announce that I'm cold and am worried about the dogs being too cold because we had their hair cut on Sunday and I knew we shouldn't have done that because it was predicted to get cold and we're bad dog parents and yada yada yada. We snuggled back under our two comforters and one blanket wearing our flannel jammes and waited for the sun to rise. The dogs were jammed up against us.
We eventually arose about seven and opened the pocket door from the bedroom into the bathroom....brrrrrr. Then, we opened the pocket door on the other side of the bathroom to the living room/kitchen. OH MY GOODNESS! It was the gulag of RV living. I screamed to John, "Quick!!! Get the Girlz coats on them! It's freezing out here" He replied, "OK, but calm down. The propane man will be here soon." We dressed the dogs and dragged the space heater out of the bedroom. I braved the elements and took the poor dogs out. Believe me, each one did a ten second pee and raced back up the steps. The space heater had absolutely no effect out in the larger living area. The dogs stayed in their coats. I dressed in so many layers I could barely move. We waited for the propane man. I called the office a zillion times and only got a busy signal but I kept trying. It got colder and colder in here. We waited for the propane man. Finally around 9 PM I said, through chattering teeth, "I wonder what time he's going to get here?" John said, "He's not coming." I said, "I want to go to a hotel. I'm worried about the dogs." John said, "Oh for God's sake stop carrying on!" So I did. I went to bed dressed in my sweat pants, a shirt, a sweater, a fleece and socks. I made the dogs wear their coats. I tried shoving them under the blankets but they refused. They did crawl up between the two of us and snuggle. I watched TV until midnight. We had the space heater closed in with us.
I woke up around 4 AM feeling like I had died and gone to hell. I was sweating and these two breathing heat producing furry furnaces we stuck to me, snoring. I couldn't unbotton my fleece to rip it off so I woke John up to get me out of it. He was less than nice and said mean things to me about waking him up. I would love to know how many heat BTUs two humans and two dogs put out. I couldn't go back to sleep but didn't dare get out of bed and go out to the gulag.
When we got up I started trying to phone the propane company...busy....busy...busy .It was really cold in here. We knew we couldn't go another night like we did last night. Well, I knew I couldn't nor woudn't. We unhooked the two big propane tanks and squeezed them into the car. We drove around looking for someplace to fill them. Eventually we found one. We filled the tanks and hauled them back here. As we tightened the last fitting we saw the propane man entering the next street over....it figures. We took our green sign out of the window. There was no more welcome sound than hearing that furnace kick on and throw out the heat.
Below is the past twenty four hours...
This is how it's predicted to be...
And this is just for the heck of it...