New Year's Eve afternoon in Punta Gorda

A stop at the banyon tree has become a tradition for the grandchildren when they're here.  It's an impressive tree, and I don't mind visiting it regularly.

We walked along the waterfront for a while, then moved on to Fishermen's Village for lunch and shopping.  It was a nice day to eat outside at the Fish Market, and to enjoy the view of the harbor.

New Year's Eve is the only night of the year that I see a movie in an actual movie theater, and that only happens if I'm in Florida with my grandchildren.  Both of those are true this year and tonight we went over to the movie theater in the mall and saw Rogue One.  I had the distinct feeling that I'd seen a lot of those battle scenes before, but overall it was a fun movie.  It was a good way to spend the last day of this year.

De-Ice

The snow started falling on their way to the airport, causing a delay in take-off while the plane was de-iced.  About an hour, they said.  They arrived at the local airport about 45 minutes late, so not too bad by winter standards.  It was 74 degrees when they landed.  We were back at the house a bit after 10 pm, just beating the line of rain that marked the leading edge of the cold front that chased them down the peninsula.  It was 54 degrees this morning when OSLO and I left the house for a walk.

There's no need for an unsightly bulge alert when you're wearing a puffy coat.  The young 'uns wisely stayed inside until it warmed up a bit.

We spent the afternoon at the local mall, followed by a quick stop at the grocery store, then home to prepare a version of a late Christmas dinner.   The cold front should be moving back to the north in the morning,  leaving more Florida like weather for the rest of the week.  It is really good to have them here.

Christmas 2016

Three visitors arrived today, a rather appropriate number, I'd say.  It was a lovely day.

We took a walk after dinner, across the street to Sunrise Park.  It was great fun to have them here.  Merry Christmas, one and all!

Odd stuff

I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet.  JB noticed it first, and it startled me once I figured out what I was looking at.  It blended into the background, until it moved.

JB's quote.  "It's looking for nuts, and it thinks it's just found two of them."  Funny guy.  It's been a quiet week here, except for our squirrelly visitor.  Real people visitors from the north are going to stop by to see us for a little while on Christmas day, then our Michigan family will arrive later in the week and spend some much anticipated quality time with us. Stuff to look forward to.

Synapses and Neurons

How many benches have we photographed over the last ten years of this blogging stuff?  Here are a few from a walk I took Saturday, along the Peace River -- it's a linear park, and has a name, which I don't remember.  Time collapses when I walk there.

Walking there with the Grands -- some other year.  The artist grandchild scrutinized them.  One of the artists is another Nikki.

A different year.  The place in the photo below -- A Gecko scurried across the path.  "I don't want any of your damn insurance."  Laughter.

Saturday-- there was a light breeze off the water bringing with it the slight odor of dead fish. Charlotte Harbor has been hit with red tide off and on recently, with calls made by the media to the public to show up and help clean up the beaches before the big week of visitors around Christmas.  I didn't see any dead fish, but the nose doesn't lie.

Today I rode my bike early before the heat of the day became oppressive.  It was 76 degrees when I left the house this morning, with a 74 degree dew point.  It hit 88 in Ft. Meyers this afternoon, a new record recorded high.  

I biked here, to Kiwanis Park -- echos of other visits are there, too.  March 3, 2014 --  for the photo below.

Memories are a physical thing.  They exist in the neurons and synapses of our brains.  We literally carry them with us.

Sites Revisited

Promises can be easy to make and harder to keep.  I promised BDE that I would try to get back to the beach this week and photograph some of the sea grape trees that hold some good memories for her of a walk she took there with her mom, when they collected a bunch of the sea grape leaves and brought them back to the house.  They may even have taken some home with them.  Not sure.  It's Friday already, so if I was going to take that bike ride "this week" I needed to get on it.

Leaves for Mrs. Smith.

There is a side street along the way to the beach that has a house with a lot of lawn ornaments that has been photographed a number of times over the years by me and by visitors.  Today it was all dressed up for Christmas.

Bench photos have been a part of several Florida photo collections over the years, and this bench, in Sunrise Park, has appeared a number of times.

Earlier this week I revisited Ollie's Pond, and came away with a typical photo from that site.

I hear that it's snowing rather aggressively where we usually live.  LH went skiing today, and complained of "old knees" that slowed her down some.  My knees are the same age as the rest of me, but they still work well enough so that I could visit all of these old familiar places.

Things Change

Three mornings in a row we woke up to this kind of white stuff.  Nothing like the kind that's blanketing Michigan and Minnesota.  Visible evidence of a high dew point.

It was a different story this morning, and I texted this photo to my daughter to show her the view I had with my first cup of coffee.

Fishermen's Village made a few changes since my last visit there two years ago.  I was there today because there's a tourist trap/souvenir shop there, and I wanted some refrigerator magnets.  All of mine are missing in action since the new floor tile was installed.  I found a couple there that I like, including one that says "Bite Me" -- over a picture of an alligator.  

We used to eat at these two restaurants occasionally, but this year we're sticking to places that are more accessible with Ruby.  So far it's a manageable plan. 

Re-tracing old steps.

Checking this one off my list was fairly easy.  With the bridges out, the long way around is the only route available from here to the Port Charlotte beach, so it was a bike ride of nearly 9 miles.  It was quiet there for a mild and breezy Sunday afternoon.  The beach has had a few upgrades since  I was here last, the pier has been re-done and the wild grape tree that I usually photograph for Mrs. Smith has disappeared.  The butterfly garden that Jim liked to photograph was in better shape than I've ever seen it.

Birds on the beach.

Tacos at Tijuana Flats sounded good to both of us tonight, so we loaded Ruby into the back of the rental jeep and headed for the mall.  Half way through supper JB commented that "it just doesn't get better than this."  The little cups are for taco sauce from their taco sauce bar.  He got their standard sauce, I got the "Slap my sweet a** and call me Sally" variety -- it's a little bit sweeter.

We stopped at Macy's for Frango mint chocolates on our way home.  They're medicinal, we're pretty sure.  It's another Florida tradition.

A chair, a walk, an orange tree and a sunset.

We realized fairly soon after arriving here that there were no chairs in this house that JB could consistently get out of without help.  We had a similar problem in Michigan, so I knew how to solve it.  It took some doing, and some serious shopping, but I managed to get a power lift chair delivered today.  It fits in nicely with the other furniture, I think.  JB appreciates the increased independence and it eases my mind as well.

The electrician also arrived today, and fixed both the stove and the microwave, so it is now possible to fix food here at the house.  Major improvement.  Supper was cooked here, and was over soon enough for me to take my first walk around the neighborhood before the sun set.

The street widening project on Edgewater has come quite a ways in the last two years (!!) but it isn't quite done yet.  There are sidewalks on both sides of the road and a number of round-abouts.  With the bridges still under construction, there's no traffic to deal with.

Fruit grows on trees here in December.  There's a winter storm warning in effect where we usually live.

Sunset.

We're okay.

Ollie's Pond

It has a history for me, and lots of memories.  All of them good, many of them very good.  I went back there today, and found it very little changed from all the other times I walked and biked around it, though Mother Nature rearranged the furniture a little bit here and there, as she does.  So without further blather, here's a photographic version of a walk around Ollie's Pond.

This is the counter clockwise around the pond from the parking lot version.  There weren't as many birds as I'm used to seeing there, but there are always some.  No alligators.

Drum Fish

It has been a couple of years since I last heard the odd echo of the drum fish in our lake at night, and it didn't register at first.  Yesterday was a long, hard day, but at the end of it we were here.  After having been gone so long, it shouldn't have been a surprise that there were a number of challenges.  Plumbing, electrical, technical and others.

The trip was hard on both of us, especially JB.  He was quite happy to be here, however, so that counts for quite a bit.  The sun shone today, and I only missed the sunset by a few minutes. I'll take it.

Stuff I didn't use in November

I, too, had some stuff I didn't use in November.  Some of it was high quality stuff, but it was going to take some creative energy to put it together into a story to go with the photos.  I also had some pretty questionable material that I didn't really think would ever see the light of day, unless there was a blogging emergency.  Here is probably the most bizarre bit that I had in reserve, I would most likely have titled this "There's a Fungus Among-us."

My recollection is that these were taken last Saturday morning on a walk along the bike path on Lakeshore.

Fortunately my cousin Charlotte sent me some photos of some old family treasures, and I blogged about those instead.

Well, well.

It was another day when the weather was nice enough for a bike ride, but things at home required my attention.    Today was trenching day, when the new well was connected to the house.  With only one exception, it went smoothly.

The trench needed to be deep enough to get below the frost line.  It was all done by hand but went quickly.

The old well was at the end of the parking pad along side of the garage.  A spot that has concerned me, though our snow plow guy has always been very careful not to hit it.  The new well connects up to the same spot and enters the house there.

This old coke bottle was buried about four feet down, and was unearthed during trenching.  I have no idea how old it is.

The old well is now gone, and all we are left with is a landscaping issue.  Which can wait for spring.

The last step is testing the water, which the county health department will do on their schedule.  And so endeth the tale of the well. And that also ends November blogging.  Officially known at NaBloPoMo, National blog posting month, but also referred to amongst some of us as BEDFAMM.  Blog every day for a month, month.  It is a tradition that we all shared with Jim, which is, perhaps obviously, why I did it again.  It's a good tradition to honor, for that reason.

Thank you to all of you who commented during the course of the month.  I would have done it anyway, but it makes it a good bit easier to feel like there are other people in the room.  BDE, Gino, Emily, NCW, PM, OSLO.... I thinks that covers the faithful reader group.  There will likely be some new material here over the course of the next month or so, as we go through the holiday season and into the new year.  Not every day, but I haven't given up yet.  I started this blog back on April 7, 2007 -- so nearly ten years ago.  It seems like a streak of 10 years is close enough to give it a try.  Stay tuned.