Keeping it grim.

I drove up to Klaassen's to pay the bill this morning, and stopped by the cemetery to see how things looked.  We'd asked that the casket spray be left on the top of the grave, which they did. 

There was very little left of the spray -- a closer look explained why.

Deer tracks. On the other hand, it was a peaceful morning and quite nice there.

I doubt I'll be posting much here going forward.  This seems like a good way to end it.

Lull

The orange trees at NCW's rental house are real, but bitterly sour.  Sadly.  I rode my bike over to her house Monday morning for coffee and she and I eventually ended up cooking dinner for the three of us here.  (Tilapia with lemon dill sauce.)

She and I took a walk around her neighborhood after last night's supper -- it's a quiet neighborhood with lots of trees.  It's a great place to walk.  Today we walked around Kiwanis Park and she fixed pork tenderloin for the three of us before we headed back to her place for a walk around her neighborhood.  A pattern seems to be emerging here.  Two of her grandchildren will be visiting her for the weekend, so the activity level will pick up by then, I am sure.  We also stopped by BAM (Books-A-Million) for some reading material.  I am reading (possibly re-reading)  The Fools Run -- one of Sandford's Kidd novels.  It's a pretty good read, and I don't remember having read it before.  One of the few benefits of aging, perhaps.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

55 and counting

I'm a couple of days behind here.  The three/four of us have been busy, but I haven't taken many photos to prove it, and the days sort of melt together without pictures.  Friday the 10th was the 55th wedding anniversary for JB and me.  We had a nice dinner at Olive Garden (thanks OSLO and family) with the girl and NCW, and enjoyed the novelty of having company on our anniversary -- it's usually quiet in Florida in January, at least by the 10th.  Every year is different.  The girl was scheduled to fly home on the 11th, but Allegiant sent a notice about 6 pm the 10th that they'd cancelled her flight.  We rescheduled for Sunday and crossed our fingers.  With tornadoes in the south and ice in the north, it was a good call.  Most airlines flying out of Florida did the same.  The extra day in Florida gave her the opportunity for a walk around Ollie's Pond -- again, I have no photos, but she took several of coots, anhingas and cranes.  It was a good bird watching day.

Northern weather improved greatly by Sunday and the girl's new flight left on time and arrived early.  She and the boy even found the time to check on the beach house and sent some disturbing pictures.  Nothing to be done -- the lake does what the lake does.

Standing on the sea wall.  The lake is 37 inches above average at this point, and it's not dropping as it usually does in the winter.

Fortunately the most recent storm had winds primarily from the east --

In cheerier news, yesterday NCW moved into the house that she's rented here in PC to extend her stay in Florida through the rest of the month.  (She'll be back here for a while before she actually heads home.)  It's a cute house with lots of space.  We did a grocery run to get her stocked up with essentials before the three of us headed out for dinner -- our usual Sunday night at Bob Evans.  (Thanks, OSLO.)  After taking JB home, NCW and I took a walk around her new neighborhood.  It's one I bike through a lot, but other than my biking route, I can get turned around easily over there.  It's between Kiwanis Park and the big grade school.  It's a bit over a mile and a half from here, certainly bikeable, even walkable.  It was getting dark by the time we returned, so I didn't investigate closely, but I think there are multiple orange trees in her back yard.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Cats

Seeing a movie with the Grands in Florida has been a tradition for quite a while.  Originally it was a New Year's Eve thing, but we've modified it so that any day, any time, while they're here fits the bill.  I blogged about seeing a movie with TJ while he was here, and yesterday the girl, NCW and I went to see Cats at the local movie theatre.  NCW had seen the stage production, the girl had already seen the movie in Michigan, and I had seen neither.  Fortunately all three of us enjoyed it.

Our group of three took a walk after supper last night and our next door neighbor texted me this photo from his back yard.

The girl texted me this photo of the view of the after sunset sky, taken from the bridge over the Spring Lake waterway on our walk.  There's been no shortage of nice sunsets so far during her visit.

This afternoon we did some recreational shopping at the outlet store and bought some vittles for supper at Winn Dixie.  We Googled up a recipe for shrimp scampi which turned out to be tasty.  Tonight's sunset was unremarkable, and the girl is soaking up the night view across our little lake from the hot tub on the porch.  We've also been keeping an eye on the winter storm that is forecast to bring 9 inches of snow to Holland on Saturday, the day the girl is scheduled to fly home.  Even scarier is the forecast for ice.  The National Weather Service is predicting prolonged power outages and disruption to travel.  We may have the pleasure of her company for some extra days. Forecasts can change, and we're hoping that this one does. 

Staying busy.

 The three of us managed to pack a fair amount of activity into today, and it's only Tuesday.  We started -- oddly enough -- with a trip to Staples.  When JB and I arrived here last month we discovered that our printer no longer worked.  A new one was ordered from Amazon, and the old one needed to be recycled.  The girl knew that Staples would do that, free of charge, so we dropped off the old printer there and spent some time browsing their store.  From there we went to the linear park along the Peace River, Port Charlotte side, visited the Banyon tree on the Punta Gorda side and ended up at Fisherman's Village.  Some shopping and browsing took place, followed by the required trip to the truffle shop.  Where they sell gelato.

The three of us did a quick grocery shopping trip to get the ingredients for supper -- NCW made her baked chicken thighs with mushrooms and rice -- and gravy.  Bisquits, green beans and winter salad, enough for us all with leftovers for later.

The sunset was a lot crisper than this photo, but it's what I had on my camera.  I plan to work on taking better pictures.  It was another good day in southwest Florida.

It’s all good.

We seem to be a compatible group, the girl, the NCW and I.  We wandered all over Pt. Charlotte and a bit of Punta Gorda today, and had an amiable time doing it.  The only disagreement was over the choice of clothing for a day that started at 47 and topped out around 70.

In spite of the chilly start to the day, the girl insisted on shorts and short sleeves, since she's from Michigan and she's in Florida.  Still, it was  good day for walking and we started with a walk around Kiwanis Park.  The blog author makes a rare photo appearance.

Sbarros is the spot of choice for food for both of the Grands.  And they enjoy texting each other pictures of their food.  The afternoon was reserved for a trip to Ponce de Leon park and the Peace River Wildlife Center.

After a supper at Bob Evans, Nikki walked outside to get a photo of the sunset and got invited next door to watch the sunset.  NCW and I joined her -- NCW commented that the sunsets here remind her of sunsets on Swan Lake.

It was a really, really nice day.  We'll try again tomorrow.

Three trips to the airport(s)

Totally Jammin' arrived at the GR airport pretty much on time yesterday  and exited from his concourse as his sister made her way through the security line to wait for her plane to take her back from whence he came.  Sort of a ships that pass in the night deal, except in was early afternoon.  The girl's plane was about an hour and a half late into Punta Gorda, but did arrive safely eventually, so we have effectively swapped grandchildren.  Or as they would say, the Grands are tag teaming their grandparents.

It was a little late for dinner -- fortunately Olympia was still open and the girl got a Greek salad and shrimp alfredo.  Her standard.  Fast forward to 11:30 this morning and the girl and I are standing at the end of concourse C at the Ft. Myers airport, waiting for our next visitor.  The girl even made a sign that said "Welcome Sharon."  Three round trips.

Still in her travelling clothes, but to all appearances, happy to be here.  We took a walk, a quick trip to the beach, another quick trip to the grocery store, and ordered Papa John's pizza for supper.  It's been a good day.

Intermission

The boy headed home today, his flight out of Punta Gorda leaving more or less on time.  We enjoyed having his company for a week, but classes begin for winter semester on Monday and he has things to do. 

This was the least busy I have ever seen this airport -- somehow neither of us read the signs and he went through the Pre-Check line -- and it was so quiet nobody made him go back to the regular line.  Thunderstorms rolled through this afternoon, and tomorrow will be another day. 

This is 2020

The calendar rolled over again, as it does.  Our time with the Grandson is counting down, and we are trying to fit in all of the traditional places and activities.  There are sooo many of them, though!  Yesterday TJ and I took in a movie -- it was a New Year's Eve tradition for a number of years, but I'm not all that comfortable driving after dark any more, much less on New Year's Eve, so we modified it to New Year's Day.  Knives Out was the name of the movie -- it was mildly entertaining, but not terribly memorable.  Still,  it was an outing.  Last night we Facetimed with the Girl back in Michigan for the season premier of Dr. Who on BBC.  She only has internet in her apartment, so we set my ipad up in front of the TV here aimed at the screen and she watched it on her phone.  Oddly, this is something of a tradition too.  We've used Facetime and Skype over the years to watch all sorts of things "together."

Today we checked off the Peace River Wildlife Center from our list, as well as Ponce de Leon Park.

Another warm and humid day, with the sun too hot for comfort.  But we channeled our inner mad dog and/or Englishman and persevered.

Part of the boardwalk through the mangroves is closed, but we got as far as the pier along the channel.

We stopped at Port Charlotte Beach on the way back to the house (no photos) and swung by the gelato shop -- a recent addition to the list of traditional activities.

Two scoops for me, three for him -- so a walk over to East Spring Lake Park was in order.

We've checked enough things off the list that we both agree that it's been a successful effort.  One more full day before he packs up and heads back home for his second semester of school.  It's been a busy week.