20 % Chance of Rain

It's been August like here this week -- Michigan August, not Florida August.  70 degree dew points, upper 80's and the sun is directly overhead and hot.  It must be ugly during the real August.  I've taken a few early bike rides and one evening ride.  Here are a few photos.

This was taken on the path around Kiwanis Park.

This is from an evening ride to the beach.

Yesterday the forecast  was for a 20% chance of rain.  (Above) is what it looked like at Spring Lake Park.  Below is how it looked about 15 minutes after I got back to the house.

We still had a nice sunset, though.

A Visit from NCW

We had a visitor from the north and the time flew by quickly while she was here.  I took a few pictures here and there for blogging purposes, to document the event and a few of the places we went.  This old blog helps me keep the years straight -- who was here when, that sort of thing.

Ollie's Pond -- it was cool that morning, the only cool weather we had during her 3 days here.  We layered up and walked around it and spent some time sitting on Ollie's bench, watching the birds.

We ventured out to Kiwanis Park the next day and walked their trail -- as is our tradition -- and spent some time leaning on the bridge railing watching the wildlife.  Later we walked the linear park along the Peace River, but it suffered some damage to its walkway during the recent hurricanes that hasn't been repaired.  The fishing pier was closed for what was probably the same reason.  These are both fairly short walks so we stopped at the beach and walked that pier and checked out the beach renourishment project that is under way there.

Her last day here was spent just hanging out and checking out the neighborhood parks -- Spring Lake Park and Sunrise Park are walking distance from here and we did a lot of walking those three days. We took sunset walks every evening and spent some sit down time on the porch every day.  We FaceTimed with the Grands pretty much every day, too.  The food was good, as it always is when NCW visits us.  We ate out twice -- Olympia, of course and Tijuana flats.  The other two nights we cooked, feta fish (also of course) and chicken teriyaki were the main courses.  It was good to have her here!

27,226

How's that for a number?  There is an online date calculator (probably several) that I found recently.  The number in the title,  27,226 is how old I am today in days.  I like numbers and I like counting things.  And I am easily entertained.   

Here are a few more "warm" photos for my daughter -- it's nasty in Michigan today, but at least she's not one of the 122,962 customers of Michigan's Consumers Energy who are still affected by the power outages from the two most recent ice storms that rolled through there.  Hope these help, OSLO.

The three above were taken at the beach a few days ago.  The middle one is for BDE and her Mom.

These two were taken at Ollie's Pond a couple of days ago.  The bird in the bottom photo is an Anhinga, I believe.  They seem to be there every year about this time.

This could be an orange, a grapefruit or a lemon tree -- it's hard to tell from any distance.  I once picked what I thought was an orange from a tree on a vacant lot neat here, and it turned out to be a small grapefruit. This one was taken today on a bike ride, near Kiwanis Park.  All the old familiar places.

Put your favorite number here.

It's been a while again, in this case it's a sign that all's quiet on the southern front.  The polar vortex that hung out in the north and dumped 24 inches of snow in Grand Rapids before it was done, had a cooling effect on Florida, but not even a freeze warning for the orange groves.  Highs in the 50's for 3 or 4 days, some rain, lots of wind --

Here are a few photos from recent bike rides.  Kiwanis Park, Spring Lake Park, Sunrise Park and the beach are my usual destinations, with an occasional ride to Ollie's Pond and Live Oak Park.  All the old familiar places...