Myakka River State Park

 My neighbors are also my good friends here, and a big part of the reason I stay through the end of April is to do some things with them that we have talked about but haven’t had time to do.  Venice Beach was one, a road trip to a fairly dark sky place to watch shooting stars (they were probably fireflies, but whatever), free pie Monday, the list goes on.  Wednesday we got up early to do some bird watching and alligator sighting at the Myakka River State Park, near Sarasota.  It’s a great spot.  A few photos, all of them taken by my next door neighbor who has a great camera and more camera skills than I have ever had.

Delivered unto Caesar

 There must be a better way to do this than the way I am currently doing it.  Flying back to Michigan to organize and pay state and federal taxes, then returning to Florida for two weeks to close things up there sounded like an okay plan 4 years ago — Ah, well.  I’ll figure it out.  It’s been a busy winter in Florida, so a few quiet weeks there actually sounds pretty good.  

I spent some time with my grandkids and daughter over the weekend.  I had missed the girl’s birthday earlier this month and hadn’t seen her house since she’d done some painting and actually moved in.  She has a sign hanging on her living room wall, a gift from her step sister.  It made me laugh.

Random photos out my back doors.

April…. What comes after March.

 Time scrams.  March was challenging, but my time, my space and my life are once again mine.  Life lessons learned, proving that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  The lesson, by the way, is “be careful what you volunteer for.”  Self inflicted, mostly.  Moving on…..

I’m still in Florida, my final return to the northern ocean is planned for early May.  I will also do my little commuting trick and return north for a week to do taxes and take care of some things.  Take one of my bikes in to the shop, stuff like that.  See some family.

There is a sketchy plan for a bike ride in the works, something to mark the milestone birthday coming up this summer.  Measurements likely to be in metric units.  Yesterday I took a longish ride, in two parts—stopping at the house to refill my water bottle and change my layers as the day warmed up.  Felix just has one water bottle cage.  Felix?  An fx3 from the Trek shop here.

Orange bike bling, pedals and water bottle cage.   At the new resort in town, a fancy place for tourists.

A longish ride, requiring something like 3 naps to recover from.  Overall, successful for a ride of that length this early in the year.  Previous long ride was 17, about 3 weeks ago.

Sunset through the bougainvilleas.

Weird Week

 Sometimes I use this blog to record things that I want to remember, lest time blur my recollection of events.  This week has been a strange one, I’m sure there are lessons I can take from this, though it’s not immediately clear just what those are.  One of them currently feels like “I’m too old for this.”

Also, if one is using diet and exercise to control a serious disease, and one is not watching her diet all that much, and she doesn’t exercise—at all, she isn’t really controlling her disease.  This has not been a fun week, as one of my guests has spent the week in our local hospital with the flu and very low blood oxygen levels.  How she will get back to her home in Michigan is still unknown as I write this.  

The Girl in Florida

 She arrived Thursday, with time enough left in the day to get to Fisherman’s Village for a late supper.  It’s a short visit, but we’re doing most of the traditional stuff.  It’s good to have her here.

Today we will try for Gasparilla Island, tomorrow she heads back home.

March is off and running.

 I’m getting ready for more guests at the southern ranch.  My beloved granddaughter arrives Thursday for a long weekend, she will overlap with 3 of my friends and neighbors from Michigan.  The usual suspects (L and J) and a recent widow.  It’s less of a strange mix than it sounds — we’ve all known each other for decades.  My house, which feels plenty big enough for one person, will be stretched to its limits, I suspect.  I also predict that this will be fine.  Meanwhile, Florida provides interesting stuff outside.  A few photos.

Last night, around 11 pm, there was a launch of 4 astronauts to the space station from Cape Kennedy.  I watched it from my neighbor’s dock.  My neighbor took this photo and in spite of the light pollution, it was quite visible from here.  Very cool.  And while we were waiting for lift off, we were visited by a dolphin, right next to the dock.  Also cool.

Said dock visible in the background.  Said neighbors are on the dock, but blurry.  As it should be.

Jake, a blue heron.  Possibility a great blue.

A dolphin sighting a few nights ago, also from the end of said dock.

Sunsets have been cloudy this week, but are clearly moving back to the north rapidly.

Gasparilla day

 The grandson and I visited the island today.  It was a busy place, as usual.  We walked the beaches, had lunch at Miller’s Marina (old name, but I don’t care), and enjoyed the day.  It’s a tradition, and we’ve been trying to get in as many as we can for the short time he’s here.  Here are a few photos.

The South Beach Restaurant is being rebuilt, slowly.

Blackened grouper Po’ Boy, with sweet potato fries.  Tasty.

Marking Time

 Since returning from Arizona I have been playing catch-up with all sorts of things.  Rest, biking, walking with the girl next door, laundry, sunsets and so on.  Next week my Grandson arrives for a visit, just a long weekend, but still good stuff.  Meanwhile, a few photos to prove I’m still here.

Arizona Time

 February arrived, with new things to focus on.  There was a bike ride on a rail to trail over on the Cape Haze peninsula with a couple of my Michigan neighbors, followed by  a short trip to Arizona to visit a friend and hang out with a couple of old friends.  Time has flown by.  A few photos to mark its passing.

January in a few photos

 After spending the first week of January in Michigan, I expected to be able to resume outside activities when I got to Florida.  Other than a couple of bike rides, it hasn’t worked out that way.  It’s been near constant rain this past week, with winds and thunderstorms accompanied by much below normal temperatures.  And somewhere I picked up a cold virus, making activity even more challenging.  My guest from the Tundra arrived on the 12th, as scheduled, so that’s been a bright spot.  We shoehorned in a few outdoor excursions, and she’s been a good sport about it.  She’s been here several times — so a movie instead of a beach walk seems mostly okay.  But still.  Anyway, here are a few photos from the last week.