Squeezing in a few miles on my bike at the end of the month -- you know how that is.

The weather channel was predicting rain today, some variable time after lunch depending on which app or channel I checked.  A bike ride might be possible if I left before lunch and didn't venture too far from the barn.  It has been my experience that January, the month that must be endured, is more tolerable if it includes bike rides.  So I put a protein bar in my pocket and left the house on my bike about 10:30.  The beach isn't far from here using the new bridge and made for a good first loop.  It was quiet there even given that it was a Sunday morning.

There was enough breeze to be noticeable.  I saw another biker who was also obviously riding loops, in his case he was riding loops through the parking lots at the beach.  Most of the rest of my ride stayed within 2 or 2.5 miles of the house, with the final loop being through the neighborhood on the other side of the water behind our house.  I was there yesterday as well, when I stopped long enough to get a photo of the new paint job on our house from across the water.

It's not a great photo -- cropping a zoomed lens photo is iffy, and there isn't a clear view that I can get to without standing in someone's back yard.  (Trespassing is risky in this neck of the woods.)  I got in a dozen and a half miles without getting wet.  Good enough for a day with 100% chance of rain.

CIX

It was my brother Jim who regularly marked the birthdays of our parents on his blog.  I did remember both dates this winter, but most years I don't.  January 26, 1909 was Dad's birthday -- 109 years ago.  There are still a lot of us around who remember him -- and carry some of his DNA.

This link takes you to Jim's post for Dad's 100th birthday.

Since I did remember, it didn't seem right to let the day pass without a comment here.

Here's the photo from the last time Jim did this -- on January 26, 2015.

I have a lot of old sayings that I attribute to the old guy, but the one that comes to mind at the moment is "the pendulum swings."  I think he was onto something there.

Day Two, Painting the Florida House plus a trip to Punta Gorda

It rained here yesterday morning, so there was no progress on the house painting project.  It cleared up in the afternoon, and today was a pretty nice day.  Work continued.  Here are a few before and after photos of the sides of the house that were painted today.  JB and I are both happy with the color.

Before:

After:

Before:

 After:

The painter will do the back of the house tomorrow, weather permitting.  I also have a couple of photos from yesterday's trip to the Peace River Wildlife Center in Punta Gorda.  It was a gray day to be out and about, but it's one of my favorite places and always worth the drive over there.

More later.

Painting the Florida House Yellow

We've owned this house for close to 20 years now and the last time we had the outside of it painted was in January of 2007.  It's always been a pale yellow, a color that fades in the Florida sun -- pretty much all of them do, most likely.  As part of our efforts to get "everything" fixed on this house, we hired a retired painter to paint the exterior.  He started today -- I should have taken some "before" photos, but I didn't. 

The trim will be white, as will the garage door.

It's just paint, but it makes a big difference in the curb appeal.  I'll post a photo or two when it's done.

Low Carbing It

It's been a while since I posted here.  The house has been pretty quiet since the Grands left, though we have managed to accomplish a few things.  Our anniversary was followed by JB's birthday -- he is now in his 80th year -- the year between 79 and 80 is the 80th -- and he seems to be getting a charge out of having reached that milestone.  The exterior of the house has been power washed, getting ready to be painted beginning next week.  The work on the dock has been finished and paid for, and I've taken a few bike rides.  Today it was Ollie's Pond Park, again.  It's a peaceful ride over there, though I still haven't found a route back that I really like.

Tonight was my turn to cook, and lately I've been using a lot of the riced vegetables that have shown up in the grocery stores as part of meal prep.  I made a fake risotto tonight, to go with a low carb baked chicken.  As I started the preparations, it occurred to me that chicken is already low carb, and there was no real need to go through the process I did, but since it turned out to be tasty, no real harm was done.

What made this oven fried chicken a low carb version was the almond flour instead of regular flour.  The coating was the almond flour, parmesan cheese and spices.

I melted about two thirds of a stick of butter, cut chicken breasts and chicken thighs into similar sized pieces, dipped the chicken in the butter then the coating, using tongs and put them on a cookie sheet lined with foil.  Baked at 375 degrees for 12 minutes, turned them over, baked another 8 minutes.

The risotto recipe is on the back of the riced veggies package.  I used a lot more onion than they suggested (a whole small onion, in fact) and threw in some of the left over butter.

Next up, sautee the onion, add the garlic, microwave the cauliflower (the package says to cook it in the pan, but I ignored that part), add the cauliflower to the pan, add the half and half and let it simmer for a while.

After it thickened up some, I added the parmesan cheese to the pan, stirred it up and served it up.

The chicken didn't brown as much as it would have if I'd used regular flour, but it tasted just fine.  A little sweeter/nuttier than regular, but good and very moist.

Pretty low on the carbohydrate scale, but high on the tastiness scale.  I really like the cauliflower risotto, it was very creamy as I think is the usual deal with real risotto.

I've used riced cauliflower a number of times before with mixed results.  I like the fake fried rice version, and I've made that a lot.  I also make a fake spanish rice with the riced cauliflower which is good, but still tastes like cauliflower to me, though JB really likes it.  I've made a cheesy cauliflower rice that JB liked, but I did not.  We now have lots of good leftovers here for lunches the next couple of days. Very little clean up, and probably about 45 minutes from start to table.  Successful experiment.

53 Years Later -- or, Who Does This?

Last summer I had a conversation with a woman who lives in our neighborhood -- she commented that she and her husband had been married 57 years.   "Who does that?" she said.  It's a phrase that has stuck with me ever since -- it amused me at the time, because I know the feeling.  It's "only" 53 years for us, but still -- really???  Who does that?  1965.  Three years ago, to mark the passage of 50 years I posted some words and photos for the occasion, and the world has moved on since then.  Today we plan to do what we usually do on January 10th -- go out for dinner.  OSLO gave us a gift card for Olive Garden, which we both like, so she'll be buying her parents dinner tonight.  Seems fair.

I've taken a couple of bike rides this week, the photo above is from a ride to Ollie's Pond Park.

This one was taken on a ride today, Spring Lake Park used to be 3 miles from here by bicycle, it's now just over half a mile.  The new bridges have made access easier to several of my old destination points.

One More Day in the Sun

Yesterday was the last day here for the Grands before leaving this morning before 5 am for a 7 am flight. (Ugh!!!!)  We touched a lot of bases over the course of the day, some we'd been to before and some for the first time this trip.  All were, of course, traditional.

 The tide was out at the Port Charlotte Beach pier.  It was closed last year for reconstruction.  It looks pretty much the same as it did before, except less likely to fall down.

 The banyan tree in Punta Gorda has a lot of history, but it didn't fare well in the hurricane.  There's a lot of damage to the branches, and I'd be surprised if it's still here a year from now.  The walk way along the Peace River has also been rebuilt.

 It was their second visit to Fisherman's Village this trip -- a walk from end to end is one of the requirements.

 So is a photo with the shark.....

 There was still time for chocolate truffles... apparently that's become a tradition while I wasn't looking.

 Ponce de Leon Park, with a walk through the mangroves was on their list of places they wanted to see before they left.  As was the Peace River Wildlife Center.

Supper was at Olympia (yes, again) followed by some time spent hanging out before one last soak in the hot tub.  The water was warm, but the air was cool -- 40's by then, and then 30's this morning on the way to the airport.  Their plane left here on time this morning and they were picked up by their Mom at the airport at the other end.  It was great to have them here for a week, but classes start for them on Monday.

Sunny Gasparilla

Today the three of us took a drive to Gasparilla Island to check out how well it had weathered Hurricane Irma.  There was less beach than I am used to seeing there, so there was significant erosion, though it's been about 3 years since I was there last and my memory might not be accurate.  It's still a beautiful spot and we were all glad to be able to spend some time walking the beach.

We had a late lunch at the South Beach restaurant and texted some photos to OSLO, though whether we were trying to include her in the experience or just being mean is open for debate.

JB joined us for supper tonight for Mexican food at Tijuana Flats.  It was a good day.  The temperatures are still pretty cool by Florida standards, but it was nice to see the sun. 

Grandchild Chronicles

This week is flying by as we try to fit something into every day they are here.  It was cold and rainy this morning, and we got off to a late start -- in part because of the weather, and also because a sliding glass door repairman was scheduled to arrive about 9:00 am to replace the rollers on the bottom of the door to the lanai/porch.  (Until recently, I didn't know this was a thing.  It's great to have the door open easily and quietly again.) Neither grandchild had ever been to Chik-Fil-A, so that was lunch.

The drizzle continued into the afternoon, so we settled on mall walking for some exercise.  Along the way we found some flannel shirts that they liked enough to agree to wear over their short sleeves, and thus equipped, we made a stop at Ollie's Pond on our way back to the house.

The drizzle had ended so we took a walk around the pond, with the two of them taking the occasional selfie to send to their Mom.

Tonight was the night we had decided that we would do an early birthday dinner for their grandfather, who has a birthday in two weeks.  He really likes the crab legs at Red Lobster but it's a once a year thing, for the most part.  His daughter had given him a Red Lobster gift card for Christmas, so thanks OSLO, for buying your Dad his birthday dinner tonight. The news from the north is white out conditions, and a foot or more of snow expected by Friday morning in lakeshore locations.

Florida Winter

Snow is in the forecast in northern Florida tonight or tomorrow, though not here.  Still, there was a significant cool down here as well, with the new year.  Yesterday we managed some outdoor time while we wandered around Fisherman's Village, but no big outdoor walks besides that.  Today was even cooler, and though our grandchildren are determined to dress in short sleeves, since they just came from the frozen tundra, I found it to be too cold and opted for long pants and a sweater.  For entertainment we finally went to the movie we'd postponed from New Year's Eve.  The Greatest Showman was a pretty entertaining piece of cinema, good feels and all that stuff.  About 20 minutes from the end of the end of movie the cinema lost power to all 16 of its theaters and projectors, and we waited in the sort of dark for 10 to 15 minutes until they got things back up and running.  "Sort of dark" because, though there were no lights on at all, everybody there whipped out their cell phones and checked their emails and social media while waiting.  I related stories from my youth of waiting for the projectionist to splice the film together when it broke.  My oldest brother even worked as a projectionist in a movie theater for a time.  Anyway, the grands found the fact that the theater now sells beer and wine at the concession stand to be a novelty worth commenting on.

Dinner tonight was a return to Olympia, we'll wait and see what tomorrow brings.