Inquiring minds want to know....... a blog post with no photos.

Yesterday I had a conversation with Diane, who lives next door.  We were standing on the dock talking about the green light (confirmation:  it's a snook light), when the topic turned to strange noises in the night.  She told the story about when they first bought the house, and Bruce nearly tore the place apart trying to find the source of the bass-like thumping sound.  Sound familiar?  He was sure it was mechanical, and according to her, he was up in the attic at midnight, trying to find it.  He eventually hired someone to track it down, who came in with a sound sensing device, and tracked it to the sea wall.  Long time residents chuckle, as they know what it is.   Drum fish.  I have seen schools of them in the water behind our house, but had no idea that they were the source of the noise.  Here's what Google has to say about it:

"Eerie Thumps Haunt Some Cape Residents," a headline in The News-Press of Cape Coral, Fla., said. "Noise May Cost City Big Bucks."
It was the end of January 2005, during the spawning season for a fish appropriately called the black drum. Nightly mating calls were at a crescendo. But no one living in the area seemed to realize the din was of aquatic origin.
The retirees who had come to spend their winters relaxing on the gentle estuaries and canals of the Gulf Coast in Florida blamed the municipal utility system. They were pushing the City Council to pay an engineering firm more than $47,000 to eliminate the noise reverberating through their homes.
Then James Locascio, a doctoral student in marine science at the University of South Florida, rescued the city from financial folly. After reading the newspaper article, Locascio called a council member just hours before a vote to appropriate the money. He explained that at 100 to 500 hertz, black drum mating calls travel at a low enough frequency and long enough wavelength to carry through sea walls, into the ground and through the construction of waterfront homes like the throbbing beat in a passing car.
"Black drum have taken a liking to the canal system in Cape Coral," Locascio said. "Their nightly booming is like a water drip torture that lasts for months."
At first residents wouldn't buy it. "The most vocal and persistent complainers said that there was no way a fish could produce a sound that could be heard inside a house," he recalled."

...............................

I don't know about you, but I am relieved to finally know the source of the noise.  Though I was okay with the haunted house theory, this one makes a better story.

Here's a link to the whole story.  It has a link to a recording of their sounds, for the skeptical amongst us.

Zero Percent Chance of Rain

A couple of days ago I checked the radar and left the house, planning to take a longer than normal ride.  The sky certainly looked like it might rain, but the Weather Channel radar showed no rain anywhere near here, and put the chance of precipitation at zero.

I hadn't been here yet this year -- it's a bit of a stretch in terms of distance -- and I took this photo about 8 miles into what turned out to be an 18 mile ride.  (Longest ride so far this year.)  It was taken from a bridge in the neighborhood that backs up to the Myakka River.  And yes, I got wet.  It rained.  Not much, but more than zero.  Today was another day with the same forecast.  Zero percent chance of precipitation.  Mother Nature got it out of the way early, and it rained before I left the house.  This was a shorter ride by quite a bit -- to Ollie's Pond and back.

It was overcast until late afternoon, but warm enough to bike.  It was in the low 70's while I was out and about.  On my way back, about 6 or so miles from the house, I made a beginner's mistake and hit a curb at an unfortunate angle and got a chance to check my bone density.  Broken bones are common in my age group, as we know.  Besides TT's broken hand, my next door neighbor at the beach fell and broke two bones in her wrist last week.  All of my bones appear to be intact, I'm pleased to report.

I have a few bruises as well as the road rash -- I think from where my leg hit my bike or maybe the bike seat.  I may have pulled a muscle or two, I'll have to wait until tomorrow and see what lingers.  I checked myself for broken bones first, then checked my cell phone to be sure I hadn't landed on it (I hadn't) and then checked my bike for damage.  (Dropped chain was all.)  A motorist saw me fall and stopped to check on me, and I appreciated his thoughtfulness.  I rode the rest of the way home under my own power -- and later JB took me out for a supper of soup and pie.  Soup to heal the cuts and bruises, pie to heal the soul.

Ducks on a sea wall

Any discussion of sea walls always brings back the memory of that adorable two year old (who still thinks we might have bought the beach house for her, and she might be right), who described the noise from the steel sheets being driven into the sand at the ordinary high water mark as "men wokkin on a wee wall."  In a different time and place I took this photo of ducks sitting on a sea wall.  I thought it was cool enough to share.

Before the Smith's visit I talked to Mrs. Smith who asked about what clothing to bring along.  Her comment was that "there are no photos of people on your blog."  That's quite true -- and more or less by design, since this is a public place, and all that.  I don't think I'm violating anyone's privacy with this one, though.

Taken today at the Port Charlotte beach.  It was almost 40 degrees warmer this afternoon than it was two days ago.  My decision to skip that bike ride turned out to be a good one.

Week's End

It is still quiet here -- we've settled back into our routine of going to the gym three mornings a week for a little exercise followed by breakfast at the senior center's cafe.  In a stroke of good fortune, it appears that eggs are no longer bad for you, and dietary cholesterol is no longer something to worry about.  In other exercise related news,  I took a break from riding in the wind when we had a bit of a cold snap here, with the coldest overnight temperatures in four years.  Yesterday I had decided to ride, got dressed for the outdoors -- tights, long fingered gloves, headband, jacket -- and walked out of the garage with my bike.  I said something mildly obscene, turned around, leaned my bike against the garage wall, and went back inside the house.  My thought process was that this is Florida, I will not ride in the 40's -- it will warm up eventually.  Later in the afternoon I took a walk, and came home with this photo of the work going on across Edgewater , near here.

Work on the road widening project is progressing, and next week Edgewater will be closed to through traffic as work begins on the first of the three bridges that will be replaced.  This will make going to the mall -- or Ollie's Pond -- more of a challenge.  Today an east wind warmed things up quite a bit and I made it past the end of my driveway on my bike.

I hadn't been to Ollie's Pond since I was there with the Smith's, and since it will soon be harder to get there, I ignored the wind direction (east) and rode there (west).  Sometimes you gotta break the rules. The cold snap appears to be over here for now, and apparently most of the fruit crop made it through okay.  

Blue Period

Pablo Picasso is credited with having said,  "The older you get the stronger the wind gets -- and it's always in your face."  A half hour at the gym this morning just didn't seem like enough exercise for me, but biking in a wind blowing at 23 mph,  gusting to 33, took care of that pretty quickly.  The round trip to the linear park along the Peace River is about 10 miles, with plenty of nice views along the way.  

These two photos are an attempt to duplicate the "world famous blowing palm tree" icon that the local TV weather people like to use to indicate a windy day.

I keep checking the weather conditions at home and in Minnesota, where real winter, with its deep cold and snow shows no sign of giving up soon.   So while I miss the COTU and OSLO, and my walking group, and my lake and my house and my truck and my bed ....  I think I'll suck it up and ride in the wind for a while longer.

Coldest so far this year.

I've been keeping an eye on the weather in Michigan the last few days, as there is a winter storm in progress there.  The daughter and grandson are hunkered down at home and thankfully the granddaughter stayed on campus this weekend to study for a test, so as of the last text message this afternoon, everyone was fine.  I got an email from Jill this morning, who is on house sitting duty for what sounds like the entire neighborhood.  She'd checked on the house and sent along this photo.

Kelly, the third member of the group, sent me this photo below from New Zealand, where she's currently touring the south island.  I believe this was taken on the north island, last week.

TT's travelogue looks a lot more like New Zealand than it does like Michigan.  Which makes perfect sense, really.  As for us, we've declared this to be the year of the appliances, as yet another large appliance bit the dust a couple of days ago, and we are awaiting the arrival of a new Whirlpool washing machine on Monday.  At least the water pump waited to spring a leak until after our company had gone home.  I managed to squeeze in a bike ride this afternoon, and rode over towards Ollie's pond again.  It's a wind direction thing -- a northwest wind means I ride west, towards Ollie's pond.

I had to break out a few extra layers -- there was some light frost in the rural areas overnight, and it didn't warm up all that much.  It was sunny and the sky was blue, and it was a nice ride.  Breezy, of course.

Solitary

Temperature, 62.  Wind from the WNW at 10, gusting to 15.  Sunny.  It was good biking weather, something that hasn't been all that common this year.  It seemed a little odd to ride without the Smiths riding behind me, but biking isn't really all that sociable an activity, so I made the adjustment fairly quickly, and quit checking behind me to see if I'd lost anyone by the time I got to the church.  Across the bridge, down Broadranch, past Geno's garage and beyond -- to Ollie's pond.

The last time I used my camera I was using it on the "food" setting, which must give the photos a blue cast.  My photo editor helped some, and with the aid of "warmify" and "warmer color tone" for the photo below, it looked a little more realistic, but I need to learn a lesson from this.  Seems unlikely, though.

I remembered to check the sunset about 6:15 p.m. and took this shot of the sun setting over Bruce's shore station.

On the subject of Bruce's dock, this is night three of the light in the green lagoon.  Or the green light in the lagoon.  Or something.

We really did enjoy having the Smiths visit us here, and hope that they'll come back again.  We'll have fish.

High Entertainment Value

Our time in Florida has been very quiet this year -- maybe even too quiet.  GZ and his attendant will be our only guests during our longer than normal stay here, and we looked forward to their arrival.  Their  time here has flown by, which is usually a good sign.   Yesterday it rained much of the day, so a trip to the mall filled in for actual activities/entertainment.  We did manage to squeeze in a visit to Ollie's pond between the raindrops. Mrs. Smith got to add two new birds to her "birds seen in Florida" list -- a mature eagle and several coots.  The coots entertained us with their running across the water as they taxied for take off.  Later GZ fixed dinner for us -- pork, onions and kraut, shown here at about the half way point in their preparation.  We've developed an odd attachment to okra with tomatoes as a side dish, which -- with green beans and potatoes -- rounded out the tasty meal.

We explored some new neighborhoods today on our bike ride, ending up at the Bicycle Center for the Smiths, where GZ returned his rental bike only after removing his own pedals to ensure that he wouldn't have to deal with that scam again.  I biked home against a 100 mph headwind while JB picked them up and drove them home.  Fortunately it was only about 3 miles, or I never would have made it.  In fact, once I recovered from the ride I had enough energy left to walk to the bridge with Mrs. Smith when she left to walk to the Pt. Charlotte beach.  (The wind had died down some by then.)  We used the last of our Christmas gift cards from OSLO and crew for dinner tonight at Carraba's, an affiliate of Outback Restaurant.  We all had their shrimp, making it a clean sweep for Mrs. Smith who's had fish or seafood every day since she's been here.  We made it back in time for sunset --

We fully expect Mrs. Smith to quote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as she leaves tomorrow --
"So long, and thanks for all the fish."  It's been great.

Peace River Amble

The afternoon walk along the Peace River began at the banyan tree, as is traditional.  It's a much photographed spot, so I'll just provide a link to a blog post with its photo rather than a new one.  It's been a number of years since GZ's attendant has been here, and she did not remember having been to that spot, so it is good that we started there. Across the street, next to the statues carved into the old tree, in front of the Chamber of Commerce building, we found yet another bicycle being used as yard art.

The sidewalk from there to Fishermans Village was busy with locals and tourists afoot and on bikes, but they were friendly and shared their knowledge of bird songs with us, so we could identify some previously unknown species of birds in a couple of trees along the waterfront.  It was a destination walk, in the sense that we planned to have lunch at the Fish Market in the open air mall.  The wait for food was lengthy but the company was good.

Since outdoor dining is not currently available at any of our "real" homes, we chose to eat outside.  It was a gorgeous day for it, so once again our timing was spot on.

We stopped to check on Eli G.'s cousin Phil while we were there.  He now palps a new hat and sunglasses, and has made a clingy new friend, apparently.  For comparison to my first meeting with Phil, use the same link (above).  A little sit down time was required for the oldest member of the group once we'd returned to the house, but she/me rallied to prepare feta fish and roasted vegetables for supper.  I heard that there's been some really good food being consumed by other winter vacationing family members in a (much) different time zone, but it really isn't a competition.

Jake? Or Jackie?

It was a pretty nice day here today, though still a bit cooler than normal.  There was a wind, of course, but not a punishing one, so my guests and I took a bike ride.  I took my camera with me, and my cell phone which has a camera, and took absolutely no photos.   I took a photo of the local blue heron a while after we got back, so at least I have a visual record of what a nice day it was here.

The local blue heron has been hanging around the back yards nearby for over a year, primarily because my next door neighbor feeds it shrimp.  We were told that he'd named it Jake, but learned this afternoon that he thinks that Jackie is a more appropriate name, given that he thinks it is a female.  I'm going to take his word on this one.

Gasparilla Island State Park

Gasparilla Island is about a 45 minute drive from here, and sits along the edge of the Gulf of Mexico.  It has shell strewn beaches and a state park at its tip.  Today's weather was nearly perfect for a visit there.  We parked at the south end of the park then walked to the north end where the old lighthouse still sits, now disguised as a museum and gift shop.

I'm a little picky about beaches, but I never get tired of this one.  It was wild and beautiful today, as usual.

GZ composed a photo of his fellow traveler in front of some sea grape trees at the very northernmost point of the island.  Taking a photo of someone taking a photo is becoming a theme this week.

I love these "light at the end of the tunnel" photos.  This is a good one, I think.  More details of the day are available on Kid Moohoo's blog post today, so I'm going to call this good enough.

The best parts of the day.

Yesterday was another one of those windy days that I keep complaining about here,  but we didn't let it change our plans.  I rode my bike up to meet Mr. and Mrs. Smith at the place pictured below -- notice the flag on the front of the building.  20 mph winds, give or take.  This is the only place anywhere near here where you can rent a bike, so in spite of some astonishingly bad service, they persevered and left there with serviceable bicycles.

It wasn't Cross Country Cycles, for sure.   We rode another 11 miles before arriving back at the ranch, enough to count as exercise for the day, and enough to be able to show Mrs. Smith a couple of nice views of small lakes and waterways.  Even with the wind it was the nicest part of the day.  It had clouded over by supper time (at Olympia) and rain moved in overnight, depositing more than 1.5 inches.  Today was forecast to drizzle all morning, which it mostly did.  GZ and I did some grocery shopping for entertainment, then we all headed out after lunch (black eyed peas and ham) for a walk along the water.

We walked the entire length of the linear park along this side of the harbor and back, stopping for photos now and then.  The sun broke through the clouds while we were out and it turned out to be another pretty nice Florida afternoon.  We put the groceries we purchased this morning to good use with a fantastic and colorful home cooked dinner.  Discussions are still in the works for Gasparilla Island and Key Lime pie.  We missed National Pie day (January 23rd this year) but it's never too late to celebrate with pie.

Bloggable Moments

I suspected that once the Smiths arrived for a visit there would be an occasional bloggable moment.  Not that I mean to imply that is why I am happy that they are here, mind you.  They are excellent company and pretty entertaining.  This photo was taken at the Port Charlotte beach this morning.

As you can see, it wasn't quite warm yet.  Happily the vests and long pants were traded for shorts and short sleeves by the time we headed out after lunch for round two of the day's activities.  It was a pretty good day, and it ended with this sunset.

A dependable bloggable moment.