My contribution to the medical profession in town..

Went to Flagler Hospital at 0730, and both my tests were done very quickly and pretty much on time! Had a doppler scan of the cartoid arteries,, and then an MRI on my back to see about this withering of my left leg stuff. Go back to the neurologist next week for follow up.

Stopped by McDonalds for a quick breakfast, then drove over to Hastings DMV to get the stickers for the house tax renewal. Talk about sticker shock!!! The rates went up 40% or so.

Blind Sided......

Saturday afternoon, we went with Dan and Kippy to the Epic and saw the movie Blind Side, with Sandra Bullock and of all people, Tim McGraw. Actually it was a pretty well done movie, and there is a lot of talk for Sandra as an Oscar candidate for the movie. I would say, go see it.

Thanksgiving cornucopia of stuff.....

In the last 3 or so days, we have been out three times, and stopped everywhere, and bought some stuff for the house for Christmas, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and Dan and Kippy's and gone to the flea market, and just ran around. Fortunately, the weather totally cooperated, its beautiful and sunshiny 70 degrees just now. Lots of football over the weekend, Clemson lost, A&M Lost, and a good game coming on today with the pros.

Yesterday, we and about 1500 others went uptown and visited the annual St Augustine Art Association big tent show and saw lots of upgrade arts and crafts, but bought nothing- they did have a nice piece of yard sculpture for $3500 that I lusted after, though.....

Tomorrow, I'm off to the hospital for an MRI and doppler artery testing, early.

Happy Thanksgiving.....

Happy Thanksgiving to all. The weather broke, and while it's a little cool, (61), it's sunny. Remembering just now while watching the Macy's parade the trip we took with Brandon back when he was about 4 into to city to actually watch the parade. We even drove in, and found a parking space! Us and about 2.5 million folks watched that day, even though it was raining. Better to watch from the comfort of our couch in the living room! We'll be headed on over to the Kingston's at around 1 today for what I am sure will be a beautiful dinner, then tonight is the Texas/Texas A&M game from Arlington.- Go Aggies!

Nice Pond catch

Garrett Mollway, a visitor from the Orlando area, was out out back door about 1:30 this afternoon and landed this nice big mouth. He said he had landed a 10 pounder before.... Hmmmm maybe I better take up fishing....He followed the rules, and released the fish back to the pond to be caught again one day perhaps...

Busy Monday

Tonight, we headed on downtown to stop and eat at the Village Inn with the Kingstons, then went to the second in a series of events leading up to St Augustine's 450th anniversary celebration, which will be in 2015. Tonight was a very interesting presentation about Don Pedro Menendez, who was the big Spanish Hotshot of the day.

Tom, the powerwash dude, came a day later than originally planned, since it rained yesterday, and got the house all spiffy clean.

Sunday Sprinkles

As I said below, we've got rain for pretty much the first time since we got back on Nov first or so. Not a cold rain at all, its 73 degrees outside, just a left over rain from the big storm that was supposed to be almost a hurricane when it hit the Texas coast last weekend. Think it will clear up later, but also thinking the 3 pm appointment with the power washer for the house is probably not going to happen.

Our Sunday morning routine now.... Up at 0830, out to McDonalds for breakfast, over to Wal Mart for groceries and assorted have to haves, then Publix for what we didn't get at Wal Mart and our Sunday papers. It started to sprinkle just as we got to Wal Mart, and is raining more steadily as this is written. First time since we got back, almost a month.

Winter Wonderland last night

We joined Dan and Kippy and 10,000 of our closest St Augustine friends last night for what they call the kick off of Winter Wonderland, which is advertised as the lighting of some 200,000 Christmas lights downtown. We got to town fairly early, about 4:15 or so, and wandered St George Street first. I finally managed to find the flag pole hardware I've been looking for for almost a month at the flag store, so that was good, now I can fly my South Carolina state flag outside the house. We ate at a nice restaurant, then walked St George Street and headed over to the square and looked at the vendors, then the ceremony lit the place up. Stopped by McDonald's on the way home for milkshakes and coffee and pie and icecream, and then home to crash.

Sunday, the powerwasher is due to clean the house, then a busy Thanksgiving week next week. I also have an appt with the nurologist to see about my back and shrinking leg stuff, and we have another in our series of Passport events for St Augustine's 450th birthday celebration coming up. Only thing missing is the family. This will be the first time we haven't been together. Must be retired now....

Hornets loose in Upper State

The Ware Shoals Hornets season ended last night as they lost to Williston-Elko, 44-20. They end up with a 9-4 season, which is really remarkable considering the talent we had this year. Next year may be a long season for Coach Murdock and the guys- we'll see.

Golden Lion and Bingo

Ran down to Flagler Beach, stopped by Bulow Plantation to visit the motor home, it was in good order. We ran the motor and generator for about a half-hour. Then we headed on over to the Golden Lion for lunch.

Came home and crashed, took a nap, then went with Dan and Kippy to Bingo. Good crowd, donated our $6.00 to the cause. Dan won, but had to split with 4 other winners!

This afternoon, we're heading uptown for the annual Christmas lighting ceremony, and plan to eat dinner on St George Street also.

Sunrise at Coquina, Off to Bulow and Flagler Beach today

It's another beautiful Florida day today, a little cooler due to an incoming storm system, but still super. Shot the sunset this morning as I went out to get the paper before heading up to the Liar's Club for coffee. We're heading over to pick up Dan and Kippy and head down for our monthly trip to Bulow Plantation to visit the motor home, fire up the generator, inspect for varmits and then head on over to the Golden Lion for lunch. Life is good, real good.

The Ahina is back

Our little Ahina bird has reappeared at the pond... Missed the little guy- He's been here for about two hours now, just observing the pond, waiting I guess for some fish to swim by.

Daytime Shuttle Launch - A Billion dollar shot into space!

Had a great view of this afternoon's latest shuttle launch from the front yard- Blast off is about 75 miles away, I believe.... We all had a great view. Beautiful day today in Florida, currently 73 degrees.....

This was just as the main engines were about ready to quit, according to Frank, our resident astronomer. Quite a site!!!!

Local Afternoon Excitement

Was just out walking Buster when I noticed what appeared to be a "lady in distress" down and across the street- put the dog back in the house and went over, turns out our neighbor had fallen and suffered a pretty nasty gash on her leg, and she had some other possible medical issues as well. We got EMS/fire rescue called, and they responded and wound up taking her to the ER. Don't think she has life-threatening injuries, and I was certainly glad to render assistance, my old law enforcement officer training kicked right in.

Getting ready to head back out to the street for the 2:28 launch of the space shuttle. I am told we should be able to see some of it..... got my camera this time- watched a night launch last time, it was spectacular!

Saturday night at the Gamble Rodgers Benefit Concert

Went with Frank and Kathy Schmidt to the Benefit Concert for a fellow named Gamble Rodgers, who was a local talent who died a few years back when he was trying to save a fellow who was swimming here in town. He was apparently quite a musician and songwriter. We spent 3 hours at Flagler Auditorium listening to some very talented folks play. The music was a mix of bluegrass, country, hillbilly, and folk. The last group was a trio of lady singers and they were our favorites. Very very talented players and beautiful singers. The annual festival will be when the Hartmans are in town next May, perhaps we can go visit while they are here, it will be on a Fri-Sat-Sunday downtown.

This morning we made a quick run to the Publix for papers, the flea market for nothing, and to Home Depot to return some excess grout from the tile job.

We are both totally wiped out, and have and will be napping for most of the day I expect.

Tiling job done!

Here's the new main entrance to the house, it had vinyl on it before, so we have the new brown tile at the entry.

Here's views of the master bath, the color is washed out, cause the battery in the camera was almost out, but you get an idea anyway of the style it was done in. Bette decided to take out the old white subway tile backsplash and put in the accent tiles, and it came out pretty nice, I think.

Other views to show the feel of the job. The guys worked two full and one half day on the project- really took their time, and did lots of custom cuts to make it come out as well as it did. They will be doing other projects as well!

Saturday morning at the flea market

We met up with the Kingston's this morning at 0930 at our new McDonald's, then headed on over to the flea market to stroll- found some super looking blueberries and blackberries, and Bette found a mirror and cuticle stick, guess we needed those too. Came back to check on the tile dudes, they are finishing up the bathroom job this morning.

Return of wildlife to the pond, eeewwwww.

Here is the first critter we've seen visiting the pond since we've been back, turned out to be a turkey buzzard, who was lunching on a smaller egret who had passed away. He's been sitting out there for the last half hour or so systematically devouring his dinner. He/she is part of a larger flock we have seen nesting in the woods across the pond last February, I'm guessing. Hopefully, we'll see prettier animals soon.

Bingo tonight!!

Headed tonight over to the grand ballroom with the Kingstons for our first night of Bingo. Actually looking forward to it. I know I know, old fuddy duddy retireee games, but I'm walking over, not going over in a wheel chair, and I still have full contenence. Besides, it will be fun to see some of the folks we are getting to know, now that we are getting out!

The tile dudes have been busy all day, custom cutting the counters in the bathroom and grouting and as a special bonus, we got to install a new garbage disposal in the deal. I kept saying ours was ok, Bette finally won out. She's on her way to Home Depot to get a piece to finish the installation, a tail end, whatever that is. It never ends. Hope we haven't bought a money pit, but she can find ways to spend it, I swear. And we haven't even got to the new windows she is insisting on yet.