Christmas Card Lane

No other words seem necessary. Happy New Year from the Floridians, young and old.

Guest Photographer

Guest blogger Nikki says -- we finally have proof that Brad is a serial killer. (That is an inside joke, I know. He's really more of a cereal killer, he says.) This was taken at the Shell Factory near Ft. Myers a couple of days ago.
Yesterday they went to Gatorama near Palmdale, and my guest photographer got this great shot of a parrot. It just walked up to her and waited until she took its picture.
It is called Gatorama for a good reason. Lots and lots of alligators. They were mostly sleeping.
This one was described as ginormous -- we think it is an alligator, though there were some big crocodiles there, too. Part of the entertainment was watching some guy put his hand in a big gator's mouth. A heck of a way to make a living. Both of the teenagers took videos -- if one gets posted to YouTube, I'll let you know.
Today it is cloudy, but a bit warmer than it has been. 70's are possible. The F&B's are planning a jaunt north to Sarasota for the day. I may take a bike ride, though I rode enough miles yesterday to put my December mileage total at 102. Goal met, with two days to go. Yay, I guess. I'll probably post a few thoughts about the biking season after the first of the year. For now, Happy New Year from Santini and the girl COTU.

Say It Isn't Snow

OSLO and I took a walk over to Sunrise Park early this morning. She was caught off guard by the temperature, and wasn't dressed quite warmly enough.
It was 'just' frost, of course. But a new record cold temperature for the date was set at the Pt. Charlotte airport. 28 degrees, replacing the old record of 31. Freeze warnings are up again for tonight. The F&B's are off to visit the Edison-Ford Estates today, and perhaps stop in at a few other tourist attractions off in that direction.

Walking Gma

Our visitors from the frozen north arrived safely, in good health, and more or less on time late yesterday evening. They do keep insisting that it isn't cold here, in spite of the fact the the temperatures will not climb out of the 50's today, and there is a fair amount of breeze from the north -- that coldest of all directions, as they well know.
This morning the grandkids volunteered to take Gma for a walk. (Gma is my texting name -- these kids are dragging me into the technological age, more or less against my will.) Not one of them was willing to put on a sweatshirt, though Totally Jammin' did wear socks. The other two wore flip flops, for crying out loud. (Note to TT: this is a bench photo.)
Totally Jammin' caved briefly and took my sweatshirt for a while, but quickly decided he was tough enough to deal with the cold, declared himself to be too warm, and gave it back. The two teenagers just kept moving. It's Florida, they declared. Over and over. We are very happy that they are here.

81 Miles

It is a quiet Christmas day, with just JB and I here at the moment. We Skyped with the F&B's this morning, and it is looking hopeful that they will be able to travel. We'll continue to hold a good thought for their safe and healthy journey. Our dinner plans involve a turkey roast by Butterball, which requires about 2 hours of roasting time, so there was plenty of time to get outside for an hour's worth of exercise before I begin the food prep process.
It was mostly sunny and 65 when I left the house, with a south wind about 14 mph. Not too many people were spending their Christmas day at the beach, though maybe the crowd will show up later. I was riding my hybrid, which has a handlebar mirror on it. Total December mileage so far is 81 miles, and there's still a week to go before the ball drops. I hope you are all well, warm and safe. (BB, the sea grape tree is specifically with you and your Mom in mind.)

Vultures and White Pelicans

You may have heard that for about two weeks before we got here, there was a spell of unusually cold weather in Florida. The gulf waters dropped to about 53 degrees, causing some massive fish kills, as well as some manatee deaths. We're hanging out down here right next to a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico, and as a result, there have been a ton of dead fish floating around behind the house. Mother nature has a plan for this situation. Vultures. This is a fairly small group of them, sitting on the sea wall next door, waiting for the tide to bring them breakfast. They are ugly creatures, but it would get pretty smelly outdoors without them.
It's been a free food bonanza for lots of birds, not just the turkey vultures. There have been numerous pelicans diving in for their share, as well. (Five of them dove into the water behind the house while I was writing that.) Most of them have been the traditional brown pelicans, but I've noticed that this year there are also some white pelicans.
I don't remember having seen white pelicans here before. I saw a blurb in the local paper welcoming back the white pelicans, so I'm pretty sure that this is what they are.
On another front entirely, I am squeezing in an occasional bike ride when I am not bird watching. So far I've managed to accumulate 60 of the 100 miles that I hope to get in this month. Can't count 'em 'til I ride 'em, as they say. This is a photo (above) of the local beach yesterday. Yes, those are vultures over the fishing pier. They are everywhere lately. It gives me an odd chill to look up from my bike and see vultures circling over my head.
And on yet another topic, we're hoping to have some company here next week. OSLO and her family are scheduled to be here, but she called last night and they're all sick at this point. So we're crossing our fingers and wishing good thoughts that they are all well enough to travel when the time comes. I just threw in this last photo for fun. It's a yard over by the beach, and massively overdone. Not to mention a weird combination of Santa, Nativity figures and nutcracker characters. And candy canes. Merry Christmas to "all" of my faithful readers.

Rock Creek Loop

I've done a fair amount of whining about what an abysmal year this has been from a biking perspective. (Not a bad year in many other ways, I hasten to add.) So when today turned out to be a gray and windy day, I had to talk myself into taking a bike ride. The yearly total is a lost cause, though I did manage to break out of the cellar, as I believe I have mentioned. But the next lowest annual mileage is about 300 miles beyond where I am now -- unreachable at this point. So I sat and looked at my bike log for a while, seeking inspiration. Then a new goal, a reachable one, leapt from the page. I have never -- yes, I said never -- ridden 100 miles or more in every month of the year, since I started keeping records. (It is safe to say that I didn't ride 100 miles in every month of the year at any point before I started keeping records, either. So never is the right word here.) You need to know that I have a rule for this, by the way. Any month with 100 miles or more in it is officially regarded (just by me, of course) as part of the biking season. There have been a number of years (4 -- 5, counting this one) when I rode more than 100 miles in 11 months, but never have I ridden 100 miles in all twelve months. So perhaps I can salvage something from this year's record keeping after all. A gold star for persistence, if nothing else. So I geared up and rode out. The wind was from the north, gusting around 20, so I did the Rock Creek Loop.
The attraction of this ride is that it follows a number of waterways through quiet neighborhoods. It gave me a chance to check out Christmas lawn decorations, Florida style. From this house, which backs up on West Tarpon Waterway, I could hear "O Come All Ye Faithful" being played by the church bells in the Lutheran Church on the highway. Very season appropriate. At this point I should say that, although it was 59 degrees, I was wearing my cold weather gear. In years past there have been days when I didn't ride here because I didn't have warm enough gear with me. This year I packed it, and today I wore it. Windstopper soft shell Gore long sleeve jersey, windstopper tights, headband, full finger gloves. It seemed a little like overkill at first.
I crossed over East Spring Lake Waterway at Edgewater -- taking a lane for that one -- and stopped at this park to take a picture of the low hanging gray clouds. You know what happened next, right? The sky started to spit rain at me. Not enough to make the pavement wet, but enough to be annoying. I was glad at that point that I had the water resistant stuff on. This is also where a guy on a mountain bike road up behind me and asked me if I wanted to race. This happens now and again -- rarely, but not never -- and it always makes me laugh. "No, thanks." I continued on through another neighborhood, eventually coming up against another waterway -- specifically Rock Creek. (And now you know why I call this the Rock Creek Loop.) At about the point where I have to turn again to follow the waterway, I saw this. An hibiscus nestled up against an orange tree. Soooo Florida. Trees full of oranges, all over the place.
It got windier as I headed back towards the highway, but there's no turning back on this loop. Once committed, it's the full loop, baby. (It has to do with being on the right side of the road to cross the bridges without having to cross the roads.) Eventually Rock Creek Road curved away from Rock Creek as I got close to the waterway that parallels the highway. I now needed two bridges to get back into my neighborhood, and they're close together here. Midway crosses one, and the highway crosses the other. That last part always feels dangerous, but it isn't, really. There's a huge wide paved shoulder across the bridge, and I never get near the traffic. Then a swing through the church parking lot and back towards the house. The only question is do I take Blue St. or do I take Orange St. (Imaginative street names in this area.) I opted for Orange, and crossed back into the neighborhood nearest the house. It's a tailwind now, and I'm feeling pleased with myself for getting out there. We'll see if I can get the other 70 miles in by the end of the month to set a new record for the longest season ever. Wish me luck.

Completely Different Climate

We woke up this morning in a different state of the union, and a completely different climate. Our flight got into RSW around midnight so we chose to spend the night at a motel near the airport -- neither of us like driving after dark or while exhausted. The trip from Michigan was not fun, but then it never is any more. At least neither of us got patted down at the airport, though in one sense it seemed like a waste of a perfectly good shower.
It was about 40 degrees when we got up, but the hard freeze warning expired this morning, and the winds have shifted to the south. It was about 62 degrees by lunch time. I pumped the tires on the Fuji Absolute, and took a little ride. Lord, it felt good to be outside with wheels on the ground.
I checked out Sunrise Park -- nothing much new going on there, but I did find a southern bench with a few cabbage palm trees in the background.
I had considered taking a walk instead -- it was a short night and my energy levels are low today -- but I can cover so much more ground on my bicycle. The round trip to the beach is short and sweet. The only other people there were a few sun bathers and some fishermen, but I think they must have been Canadian. Most of the action was on the bocce ball court.
There are still quite a few opening up the house tasks to be done, so I'm going to call this enough blogging for now.

Changes Coming

The next time you visit Michigan you may very well not recognize the place. Well, at least this little part of it. Today we chose a builder to remodel this garage area into something a bit bigger. Assuming that all the permits can be obtained, he'll begin work when it gets warmer. So not anytime soon.
Yes, I took this photo today. It was a rare day when the sun shone here in December, and though it was cold, it was quite pretty out there. And also yes, that's all the snow we got. In spite of forecasts of a foot or more (puny by Minnesota standards, I know), we got about an inch of the white stuff over the last 24 hours. The rain we got over the weekend has melted much of the 20 inches of lake effect that we got last week, so there's only 6 inches or so of the stuff on the ground most places. Less in the windswept areas at the beach. I spent a nice hour or so having tea with Lynne in her upstairs sitting room. Wow, she has great views from there.

Bike Tricks

I found this link while surfing bike blogs tonight. I thought that one or two of you might find it mildly diverting.

'Tis The Season

Our original plan was to celebrate an early Christmas with OSLO and her clan this coming Sunday afternoon. A storm is brewing that promises to make driving treacherous at about that point in time, so at the last minute we decided to do it tonight instead. I made a chocolate pie and JB purchased a bucket of chicken. OSLO brought a bunch of side dishes and we called it good. She told me that it really wasn't about the food, after all. Really, OSLO. It's always about the food.
The best part of the evening was the laughter and good cheer from these three youngsters.
Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house they go .... I think that everyone had fun opening their gifts, and our little family got an early start to the holiday season.

Fear of Falling

The snowfall amount in Holland since Sunday morning is reported to be about 20 inches. We were in the heart of the bulls eye this time around. This lake effect was of the light and fluffy variety, and a lot of it has settled. At the beach the wind has blown most of it away, leaving behind interesting patterns of snow mixed with sand.
We spent much of the morning at the beach, meeting with a builder about the possible remodel project out there. We like the plans, but there are still some potential stumbling blocks, such as the possibility that we'll need to replace the septic system, approval from the DEQ since we're on a primary dune, and lead paint tests that have to be done. So we're still unsure about whether we will be going ahead with the project. If we can do what we want to do for a sane amount of money, the beach will become our primary residence. If not, well... plan B, I guess.
I spent some time this afternoon at the township office paying real estate taxes, followed by a trip to the post office downtown to arrange to have our mail forwarded to Florida. I almost said 'warmer climes' but it's been pretty cold there, too. No snow, though. I eventually ended up at the mall, and did two full laps around the edges in about 35 minutes, with only brief stops to look at merchandise. I also got this photo of a bench in front of the place where parents can take their toddlers to sit on Santa's lap and get their pictures taken. OSLO and I used to take the COTU there, back when they were the SLO's. Mall walking was my exercise choice today because the last two days I walked outside, and yesterday I came close to falling on my keester at least twice because of ice under the snow. Fear of falling is the real reason old people head south during the winter.

I Can't Get to the Mall

The official storm total for snowfall this go-round at the Grand Rapids airport was 1.2 inches according to the morning news. Holland's official measurement was 12.1 inches since early yesterday morning when the lake effect snow machine kicked in in earnest. We are currently getting about a half inch an hour. Ugh.
The COTU were here with us on Saturday night, so they could help me with gift wrapping and Christmas decorating. It is also a Saturday night tradition when they are here that we watch a movie, so we ordered up Eclipse, one of the vampire movies, from our cable TV company. I've read the books, so it was fun for me, though the kids had seen it already.
We took them home early Sunday, anticipating that conditions were going to go downhill from there, which they did. This morning I measured 10 inches of snow on my deck, and 9 inches on our little bridge when I headed out for a walk. Another 24 hours or so of lake effect snow is predicted. According to our only source of information, local TV, the sun is currently out in Grand Rapids. As you can see, it is sooo dark here.
Our side streets aren't being plowed with any regularity at this point -- though our plow guy (Dave) has been down our driveway once so far during this storm -- sorry, lake effect event. There are currently at least 5 inches of fresh powder in the driveway, and I witnessed the mail truck getting stuck delivering mail to one of our neighbors while I was out. I walked around the neighborhood for 40 minutes in snow that came half way to my knees. Mall walking was not an option today.

Mall Walking

It is warm inside the mall, and I've heard that it is an effective form of exercise. Still, "Ewww."