The Last Two Days In February

Here are a  few photos from yesterday and today.  I like this one of TT and Ponce, as we call him here.  This is a favorite spot for picture taking -- I have several photos of the grandchildren goofing around in this same spot in December.  It's traditional, I guess.

We did the walk up to Walgreen's yesterday morning, and the pedometer measured 2.86 miles, round trip.  Close enough.  It's not all that scenic a walk, and I have no pictures to post from that outing.

Today was the day we had tickets to a ball game, but it didn't start until 1:05 pm, so TT and I visited the local beach this morning. It was another warm day, and the sun was already hot at 10:00 or so this morning.  I found the sign above down the beach from the fishing pier, and found it amusing.  "Resume Normal Safe Operation", it says.  From what?  Abnormal, unsafe operation?

Other than some bocce ball players we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Aside from the pigeons, sandpipers and plovers.  (We may have made that part up.)  It was a beautiful morning.

Coots

A trip to Ollie's Pond Park was on the schedule for today, where coots were plentiful.
No alligators, though.
Or BUFFALO.

Recovery Day

Both TT and I had a pretty active day yesterday. I biked about 15 miles while he enjoyed a day of tennis and beach walking out on Cape Haze. It seemed like a mellow day was in order for today, so this afternoon we headed over to the linear park along the Peace River in Punta Gorda for a "Miller speed" walk from the banyan tree to Fisherman's Village and back.
We returned in time for TT to fix dinner for us all -- bratwurst, sauerkraut, salad, hummus and chips, green beans and corn. A pretty good dinner, and a nice change of pace from my own cooking. It was a good day.

Stone Crabs

TT likes the one on the left best. The white part is a mesh material. One size fits most.
I thought the words Stone Crabs should be visible, but that seemed rare. Most of these have Stone Crabs written across the back on the adjustment strap.

This one was interesting.
This looks white, but is really a light beige.
Meh.
Kind of a brownish gray.
These were okay, but were sized. 7 3/8? Who knows the size of someone else's head? Not me.
The material was different on these.
Interesting color, but it doesn't say Stone Crabs.
In the end, we bought nothing at the team store. We did score some tickets for a game next week, though. And watched the pitchers and catchers do some practice drills, then we headed back to the house for lunch.

No Tennis Today

The fierce Minnesotan mentioned in yesterday's post arrived a bit under the weather. His plans to play tennis with his old Greenway High School tennis coach seemed too ambitious for someone who was feeling blechy, so he spent today trying to recover enough to enjoy the Florida sunshine. We managed a short walk over to Sunrise Park this afternoon, and he only had to sit down twice. Fortunately there were benches available both times.
An afternoon nap seemed to be restorative, and he ate a good dinner -- feta grouper, for those of you who like to know those things. We pretty much used up the rest of our bottle of Greek salad dressing, too. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. Watch this space.

Determined Minnesotan

Neither snow nor sleet nor canceled flights.... well, maybe canceled flights. This determined warrior arrived here today under what he called Plan C. Third time's the charm.
His new favorite quote goes something like this, "If you want to make God laugh, tell her your plans."

Spring Has Sprung (In Florida, at Least)

Signs of spring are more subtle here than at home. Often the first real sign of spring there is a crocus peeking its purple head through the white snow covering the ground. Here, green things never completely go away, though it can get pretty brown here during January, especially after a killing freeze.
In fact, at first I wasn't sure if the new green stuff showing up here was a sign of spring, or just a recovery from winter kill. It was the appearance of flowering shrubs that convinced me that spring has come to southwest Florida. This bush is covered in purple blossoms.
Left to my own devices, between visitors from the slowly thawing north, I spend time most days wandering around on my bicycle. I have seen a lot of signs like the one above -- in fact, I think we are now in alligator mating season. Something I am pretty sure nobody wants to see. It was thoughtful of the county to post signs to protect us from that.
So far I've seen no signs warning of buffalo, however. Still -- what are these big brown things?

Nice Sunday Surprise

Just as I was zipping up the legs on my tights, getting ready to leave on a bike ride, the doorbell rang. My dear dafter and her family had sent me these for Valentines Day!
Thank you! They are most appreciated. I don't often think of Valentines Day as being a day when you show your appreciation for you Mom and Grandmother, so it was totally unexpected. I love them. Yellow and purple -- I wonder if that was accidental? Probably not!

Another Form of Exercise

Today is one of those days that looks really nice through the window, but the wind and the cool air make it sweatshirt weather, at best. Rather than fight the wind on my bicycle again, I decided to finish getting my pedometer calibrated. It required a couple of measured walks, but I'm now fairly happy with it. It's overstating a little, I think, but close enough.
Sunshine Park had what looked like a kayaking clinic going on in their parking lot, and a large number of kayaks sitting at the water's edge. As is usually the case around here, all the participants had silver hair, including the instructors. Active aging.
As an added benefit of walking around the neighborhood, I got to chat for a while with one of my neighbors, and get caught up on the welfare of our old neighbor Ralph. He was in poor health last year when we left, and his house is sitting empty this year. Apparently he is too frail to make the trip to Florida from New York, but his good friend Bea talks to him on the phone every Wednesday. It was good to hear that he is still with us.

Gray Day on a Bike

It rained off and on all day yesterday. Today started out gray and misty. The misty part cleared up, though it is still a gray day here. For solitary exercise, I feel more comfortable on my bike than I do on foot.
The pond was full of noisy wildlife again today. I kept a close eye out for alligators and veepers. My opinion is that if buffalo were near by I would hear them, or smell them, so buffalo vigilance is not necessary.

Staying Active

It's been a couple of hard days on the bike. Yesterday the wind picked up while I was out, and I rode the last two miles back to the house into a wind gusting as high as 30 mph, according to the Weather Channel. I used my granny gear for the first time this year -- maybe ever, in Florida. Oddly satisfying, but way, way too hard.
Today my legs hurt, not too surprisingly, but I rode over to Ollie's Pond Park anyway. The wind blew mostly around 12, with some gusts close to 20 mph. It remains my favorite ride, but it doesn't seem to feel any shorter as time goes on. In other exercise related news, I'm still working on getting my new pedometer dialed in. My last .46 mile walk was clocked at .41 miles.

No Nap

My original plan for this afternoon was to take a nap. After a morning spent balancing checkbooks and paying bills, I felt the need for some fresh air instead. I can nap tomorrow. Or during the Super Bowl.

Ollie's Pond has a few of these "Caution" signs around its edge. I've been there quite a few times this year, and so far the signs have been the only clues that there are alligators in the park. I consider this a good thing.
Today was a pretty good day for admiring Florida pines draped in Spanish moss framed against the blue sky. And photographing odd cloud formations.
Now, I gotta say, that in my opinion, naps are generally a good thing. Today, a bike ride was better.

Smelly Beach

This picture looks a lot nicer than it smelled. Something about that line of algae that swept up along the tide line, I imagine. It was my first bike ride of the month, and I rode far enough to pass the total miles in February of 2003. I rode a grand total of 5 miles that month. Probably not worth a 'woohoo' or anything, though.

JWA

As reported elsewhere on the internet, today is blogger theme day, and the theme is fountains. I have custody of our most ancient laptop while we are here, and I found this photo in the archives. It was taken in 2007 of OSLO and the COTU in front of the Ponce de Leon fountain in Punta Gorda along the Peace River. Time flies.
Today's exercise was what my brother, Mr. MooHoo, has referred to as JWA. Just Walking Around.
The walking around was done on Gasparilla Island, out on Cape Haze, which is at the mouth of the Peace River, on the Gulf of Mexico. Above is GZ standing next to a bench near the lighthouse at the south end of the island. Benches are a sub theme of at least a couple of blogs that I am familiar with, and I am always happy to find a new one in a picturesque setting.
It was a beautiful day at the beach and in Boca Grande, the only town on Gasparilla. Every time I go to that island I wonder why I don't go more often. It's not much more than a half hour from here. Walking around in the warmth and the sunshine, it was hard for me to believe that there's a massive snowstorm moving into Michigan.