Friday, September 24, 2021

Lesser Summer

Everyone feels the excitement in the air, or a better way to describe it might be, drier air because my friends, we have finally reached the date of what I like to call "lesser summer". Yup, in most parts of the country,  when late September arrives, it is called Autumn or Fall depending on where you come from, but around here when the weather app on your phone shows high 80's for the next ten days, well we know that lesser summer has arrived.  And not a moment too soon as far as I'm concerned! 

Having said that, after spending the better part of summer indoors, I should be the last person to complain. But with the changing seasons, I, too, have been changing. If you know me well, you know that I love watches, specifically the Skagen brand, and after not being comfortable with anything on my wrist for nearly six months, I've begun wearing my watches again, making me very happy indeed. As well, I've been getting out more such as Tuesday morning when I hopped in the MINI early to photograph the cows on Judge Road. Exciting stuff, eh? 

For me, I just like to document Orlando before it is completely covered in concrete. As you take this shortcut to the Beachline or airport, there is a large undeveloped piece of land on the North side of the road where cattle usually run free. Instead, the normal area is now for sale, and they seemed to have been moved to a new pasture.

Seemingly not for long though as this is also happening on that stretch of road.

Following that up with a stop in another pasture area on Conway Road where I came across two donkeys,

along with a small horse of some kind.

It was a little smaller than the donkeys, with a mane completely covering his face.  Any ideas?

Filing under the category of everything having a silver lining,  rain poured on the night of the Harvest Moon, however, with the big tree now gone, I saw it before dawn from the front porch.

Not that we like the tree being gone, but looking for the good in everything sure helps keep a person on the right track mentally.

Speaking of looking for good, there is nothing good to say about Neil dying from Covid last Friday.  While it is true vaccinated people are getting Covid, the chance of serious illness seems to be small as was the case with David who is now perfectly fine. Amazingly, Michelle remained virus free. Talking to Patti the other day I said, imagine this: "You and I are having a conversation on our front porch and you are perfectly healthy but unvaccinated. (she is) Three weeks later, after suffering horribly, you are dead." That was Neil in a nutshell. His family now joins 53,000 other Florida families mourning the loss of a loved one to Covid. For now the cases are going down, thank God, for how long is anyone's guess.

Not only am I now wearing a watch again, I am sewing as well. Because my left hand still is not perfect, some motions are difficult but, by now, we all remember the mantra...motion is lotion!

The dress making went smoothly enough, however my attempt at making a little pouch went awry. Quite a number of years ago, I came across an estate sale, while on my bicycle one day, that was a sewist dream come true. Especially if said sewist loves vintage anything. By golly, here is the post from 2014 detailing that find.  Remembering that I'd purchased a bunch of zippers, I found the perfect match for the estate sale Lily Pulitzer fabric. Woo hoo. The peacock blue zipper was far too long so I cut it to size. All going well so far, until, like a dummy, I unzipped it to make the other side of the pouch, pulling it right off the tape because I forgot there was no stop any longer!!!

For anyone who has a curious mind, here's a bit of history on the zipper, specifically Talon zippers, the above which was from 1970. Imagine, it was packaged for 51 years and then I went and ruined it!! Try as he might, Bruce could not get the tab back on. Boo hoo! Fortunately, thanks to the woman who collected more sewing supplies than anyone could ever use,  there are more zippers where that came from. 

Bruce has continued helping Mary this week, putting in shelves and hanging her beloved stained glass panels in her kitchen window that required him to scrape the popcorn ceiling off, followed by installing a piece of wood to screw into. How exciting that the existing window seat cushion matches them beautifully.

Yesterday morning Bruce and I went to Demetree Park where I feel very comfortable walking on the wide sidewalks that ring the small lake. In a nod to the changing season, the Cypress trees are beginning to change color.

It is a very quiet park with the lake one of the ones that the city of Orlando stocks with fish, thus, while I walked, Bruce tried his hand at a little fishing.

While standing on the dock I could see him waving me over and wondering what he wanted I moved as quickly as possible. Good call Mr. Peck.

In one backyard that abuts the park property, they have chickens and a very loud rooster.

As we were returning from a visit to the other small lake adjoining the property, we found more ducklings in standing water amongst the Cypress trees.

I had to wonder what that mother duck thinks of her lone yellow duckling. Isn't it a cutie? Of all things, returning to the car, I heard a bird noise, looked up and there was Pileated Woodpecker doing what woodpeckers do, this time on a telephone pole. 

Eventually it moved around the pole and I was able to witness how they hang on with pretty darn big feet and claws.

Because the weather was fine (!), we drove over to nearby Lake Underhill park, another stocked lake near Bill and Fallon's house. 

As young people we used to swim in this lake on hot summer days before air conditioning, not to mention the addition of a highway running right through it! Standing on one of the two docks, I saw some young Gallinules with their parents swimming in, what to our eye looked to be icky water. Darn folks for throwing trash in the lakes! This little one came across the floating bottle nosing it forward before swimming around it.

From there it was but a short drive to Joe Kittinger Park on Crystal Lake, a small park we've driven by countless times without visiting. 

In the shadows of the 408 highway, the park is a tribute to Viet Nam war veterans with this fighter plane having been used and piloted in Viet Nam by Colonel Joe Kittinger. As is so often the case, every place we visit has something new and unexpected, in this case loads and loads of dragonflies. Just as we were nearing the car to leave, several were perched in the bare trees. 

I've seen blue, pink and green dragonflies before, but never one like this. Thank you Google because now I know this one is called a Red Saddleback Dragonfly. Super neat, right? 

In other news, I've returned to pickleball wearing my old shoes that served me well before I bought the new pair that, well, we all know what happened while wearing them. David urged me to throw them in the dumpster right away, although since they are new I thought about donating them to Goodwill. Aghast, he said, "do you want to give someone else bad karma?" Perhaps he has a good point. 

This morning I played with these ladies who are graciously putting up with my new learning curve!

your friend,


Gail





















Thursday, September 16, 2021

An Adventure Every Day

 It began the same as any ordinary trip to Costco. Manned with our list, we managed not to go too crazy with items that were not listed and headed to the checkout. Actually, I arrived at the checkout a few minutes before Bruce as unbeknownst to me,  he'd stopped to look at some shoes. Leaving the store I said, "honey, if you think you need those shoes, go back in and get them and I'll take the stuff to the car." Although I am healing, as you know, the process has been slow and my hand and wrist remain weaker than I am accustomed to, thus I emptied the box on the ground, put the empty box in the back seat of the car and proceeded to re-load it. See, I'm learning to adapt. At the same time, a dog appeared, running around the car parked on the other side of the lane we were in. To tell you the truth, I thought it had jumped out of the car the woman was loading. Not so--it appeared from nowhere. Another woman noticed the dog as she was getting to her car, but it took Bruce to get ahold of it as he was coming to the car.

 Now what? 

Bruce retrieved a rope from our car, attaching it to the collar. By now I had the good sense to get my camera out of my purse.

At the same time, the second woman and her companion came over. We are all looking around for someone looking for their dog. No one in sight. The dog tag had a phone number connected to Animal Control, who when called gave Bruce the name of the owner along with his phone number. As he had a hold of the dog, Bruce called out to the other Good Samaritan who then called the number. Are you with me? I know it sounds crazy when I type it and believe me, it was crazy while it was happening. The "owner" told the man he'd given the dog back to the Pet Alliance a month ago. Our collective opinion was that it had escaped the facility which is only 1/2 mile away. Made sense to us, so with me driving and the sweet dog on Bruce's lap, we drove over there only to discover that the Pet Alliance was closed.

Thus we walked across the street to Animal Control where we waited for someone to come outside. The dog was beautifully behaved, never once barked or tried to get away, and as Bruce stood by the door, folks were coming up wanting to take the dog off his hands. 

Momentarily we were tempted, but seeing those paws, we were both pretty sure that she would get far larger, too large for us. Not to mention those nails would kill my hardwood floors! Anyway, it was a repeat of the phone conversation about the owner who'd returned the dog. It's too convoluted and frustrating to relate, but eventually we got back in the car,

and the dog laid quietly on the floor beside Bruce's feet. Sorry for his knee in the picture! We drove around back, a big garage door was opened and we found ourselves surrounded by workers and cages. It was absolutely surreal especially seeing the crematorium. Here we were, minding our own business, buying baby aspirin, orange juice and kleenex and now this? 

Driving home we were both pretty shaken by the experience, in part because of what seemed like incompetence by the staff.  Nevertheless, once home with everything put away, as I was making tuna fish sandwiches, I asked Bruce if he thought Costco had an overhead speaker and I wondered if we should have gone inside to ask? Of course hindsight is 20/20 and the consensus amongst us at the time was the escape story, but still. He immediately called Costco, learning that indeed a young woman had come looking.  How does a 40 pound dog that was so beautifully behaved end up running around a parking lot anyway? Passing along the location of the dog we thought that was the end of the story.

Imagine my surprise when Bruce called on his way to church this morning, to tell me he heard on the radio that the Pet Alliance burned last night!!! There is good and bad news in this report. Apparently all dogs are safe, but let's hope the second owner came and got that sweet dog before the fire. 

Quite the story, huh?

If that were not enough for yesterday, David called around two in the afternoon to tell me he had a low grade fever and a headache. You guessed it. Buying an at home test, wearing a mask of course, it took no time at all to show that he had Covid, not just the first test, but the second as well. A little later I learned that two folks he'd been around over the weekend had mild cases as well. He's been so darn careful for so long he was way disappointed. This morning he was already feeling more like himself and he credits being vaccinated for that. 

Today could not have been more different.  It began with a wonderful sunrise reflected in the high clouds over the lake which lasted for all of about a minute. Speaking of the sky, am I ever disappointed I missed the launch last night! I've seen loads of photos taken by friends and it looked spectacular.

Bruce took off early to head to his job. Oh wait, it's volunteer work he does! Anyway, that's why I was up as well. I went over to Demetree Park for a walk and saw the usual suspects. What did surprise me though is that the Cypress trees are beginning to change colors. Can Autumn be far behind?

Of course it can....this is Florida!!

As I was walking along a man passed me on his bicycle carrying a bag of bread. Apparently he must do this regularly as a huge flock of Ibis began following after him as if they had been waiting. Why people feed bread to birds, I don't know, as I'd always heard it was bad for them? Apparently, according to this article,  it is a controversial subject.

What I think we can all agree on is it is far better to visit a park with your shirt fully pulled down rather than with a big belly hanging out. I missed the shot of his front, but believe you me, it was not a pretty sight.

On my drive home, I decided to pop over to the peacock neighborhood and was not disappointed because there were a fair number of young peacocks roaming around, well actually staying close to their mothers.

Then, this afternoon, I thought I saw the otter swimming in the afternoon which is rare. Grabbing my camera, the otter had disappeared, but I did see this beautiful Green Heron along the shoreline.

Seeing a Green Heron out back is about as rare as finding a beautiful dog in a parking lot, so I was very happy indeed. Note the top of the head while in the water because as it turns out, as I creeped closer, it flew into the nearby tree and lo and behold the green crest came out.

Isn't it pretty?? 

Our friend Mary, wanting to move downstairs, bought a place a few buildings down from us on the lake. I told her how much I thought she'd love living on our little lake as she is also a nature enthusiast. I told her the sunsets can be wonderful as it was on Monday morning.

And, of course, when we get very lucky, the owls will make their presence known. 

I told her about egrets, kingfishers, red winged blackbirds, the annual cormorant and pelican invasion, all manner of herons, and of course ducks and ducklings. What, pray tell, is there not to like?

Monday morning I arrived for my therapy appointment on time as I've done for the last few months. Except, the fill-in receptionist said I did not have an appointment. Last week, Tammy, the regular receptionist was out of town and because she's the one who has made all of these appointments for me, probably would have noticed that she needed to add more. So, I left, promising to use my hand as much as possible. The old, "motion is lotion" idea. Bruce, being the good guy that he is, had already gone to Mary's new place to help her with some things and I joined them. While the outside of the buildings look the same, it is really amazing to see how creative people are on the inside. Having been in many units by now, I can safely say that the remodel done by the previous owner is very unique.

The place has been totally updated and between that and her fantastic view, Mary was sold.

We ended up spending most of the day helping her, Bruce organizing her outdoor closet on the porch while I was in the kitchen opening box after box of dishes. She and Ellen had mostly already decided where to put things allowing me to follow their plan. My goal was to have no boxes in the kitchen before leaving and I am happy to report, mission accomplished. Not only did Bruce do things at her new place, he fixed a few things at her upstairs unit she is selling. She is probably six or so years older than we are, not to mention in fantastic shape, but doing this kind of thing by yourself can be pretty overwhelming. We were happy to be of help and I was overjoyed that I had two working hands. albeit one weak, to participate. 

And how did my hand hold up? Not too bad. Plus, my shoulder is moving much better, allowing me to raise my hand above my head without pain AND put my hair in a ponytail by myself. Now that, my friends, is progress.

Oh, and guess what? After returning from the park, I accepted Bruce's invitation to go to the courts where we spent about an hour and a half hitting balls. Although it has taken me awhile to figure this out, I decided to wear my old shoes to play, leaving the nearly new shoes I wore when I fell in the closet. After how well things went this morning, I'm convinced that this step will help me regain my confidence. Or so I hope!

How about you? Adventure stories welcome!

your friend,

Gail

Sunday, September 12, 2021

A Tree Falls and Much More

Indeed, much has happened since last I wrote, some good, some not as good. Perhaps a good place to start is with the finished sun room. which turned out so good in my opinion.

I really have tried living with dull wall colors but it just is not in me long term. While I can appreciate the neutral look in others homes, in ours, it just doesn't feel right. Having been known to overdo it on occasion, I chose this color instead of something new. Introducing another color might have fallen into the overdoing it category, so in order to it to feel more cohesive, Sun Bleached Ochre it was.

When I think back on it, when we bought this place and were in a hurry to get it ready before our move, the painter stipulated that I could choose four colors only. For the life of me I can't remember why, but in our haste, I agreed to it. The dining room wall was meant to be a little wow factor in an otherwise sea of neutrality. Continuing the wow factor just makes sense. Four years later, three of which we've lived here, the kitchen, both bathrooms, and our bedroom have all received new colors with only the front bedroom remaining. I'm thinking the sage green from the bathroom might just work when that room receives its makeover. Should you have missed the last post of Camera Crazy,  the before of the room is documented there. 

Speaking of the front bedroom, things are looking mighty different in there since Thursday. Oh my goodness, they are. So here's what happened--Bruce has been working on a project at the church involving the preschool classrooms. In order to protect the front of the low bookcases he was tasked with covering them in a hard plastic which I'll show you in a sec. It must have been Tuesday morning because that's not a therapy day, he asked me to come along to "help". Not that I'm much good at that these days, what with my clumsy hand, but I agreed nonetheless. He began the process by cutting out notches to fit around the shelves using a hacksaw.

Initially my job was to apply the tape, but not having much strength in my left hand proved to be a handicap and he took that job over as well. I did, however, get the tape ready by tearing strips. While difficult, I kept repeating in my head the words of my first therapist Darlene, "motion is lotion" which helped me complete the task. 

So what does this have to do with Thursday you ask? Well, he went solo on Wednesday afternoon to do another room, leaving the tape on for the glue to dry overnight. While he was doing that, drumroll please, I got my sewing machine out and used it! Rarely do I leave a project unfinished but this small quilt was one of those that just hung around for maybe five years? After hand quilting it, I'd run out of fabric with which to bind it so having purchased some after therapy on Wednesday morning, I got the job done. Not with ease but perseverance.

Unfortunately everything is difficult for me these days, but a girl can hope that won't always be the case.

Back to Thursday morning, Bruce left the house at 6AM to remove the tape before we were meant to leave to watch Bill in the tournament, the date which had finally arrived. Seeing him off and getting the newspaper from the front porch I was freaking out because in the light of the lamp pole, I saw the owl perched in the open right in front of me!! Seriously it was but feet away. Being the silly goose that I am, I took it as a good omen for Bill. Don't ask me why, because it sounds so crazy, but that's what I was thinking. I was also thinking that I needed to get my hair washed so I drug myself indoors. Once that task was over, I walked back into the kitchen and realized something was amiss. And what was amiss, pray tell? 

If I've been asked once, I've been asked ten times, "how did you fall?" I'm old and I just did. The same could be said of this massive oak tree that fell out of the blue. 

While we are heartsick, no one was injured and there was little property damage. The quality of the photo is terrible due to the lighting conditions at that time of the morning.

By now it was around 6:30 and I texted David who came down to see for himself.

He's talking to a neighbor who had planned to leave for work until he realized his car was behind the fallen tree. The little puff ball in the foreground is David and Michelle's beloved Gracie who turned four this weekend. So, it missed that young man's car, scratched another one a wee bit, and missed my parked car and did not block Bruce's because he was at the church! How's that for a blessing? Calling Bruce, I told him to come around the other way because there was no getting through from his usual direction. We missed all of the rest of the story because we spent all day and into the night at the tournament. Apparently, a massive crane arrived, using the space where I'd moved my car which is a story unto itself. Connie had to go into our house, get keys to the MINI, and move my car in order for them to have clear access. Sadly, instead of the magnificent shade we enjoyed before, it now looks like this.

And that, my friends, is why the front bedroom and our porch is now bathed in light. Oddly enough, it was earlier in the week that I mentioned to Bruce that soon I would not be able to see the sky in front of our place, between that massive oak and our Jack in the Beanstalk tree, which continues growing as if it was part of that fairy tale. 

Whew, time to drive to Lake Nona for the tournament. Meeting Fallon in the parking lot, we found Bill and learned his first match was to begin a little before 9. And what a match it was. When we saw his opponent our hearts sank a little as he was a pretty big guy.

He might have looked intimidating, but he was such a nice guy, complimenting Bill on some of his shots.  In three grueling games, Bill was the victor in the two out of three format. Did I tell you it was hot? It was. Did I tell you Bill had been fighting a cold for several weeks ahead of this? He was. 
A short time later we saw him again and I asked him how tall he was. 6'1 in case you are wondering. During our conversation we learned that not only was he an All American for Penn State, he also played for the Atlanta Falcons for ten years. Seeing him again later, this time when Bill was with us, he cheered Bill on for his next match. I told you he was a nice guy.

Playing singles is a pretty tough way to enjoy pickleball, but there seemed to be no shortage of players enjoying doing just that. (This is but one side of courts with an equal number on the other)
It must have maybe 15 minutes later and Bill had another court assignment. His opponent could not have been anymore different, and proving that you cannot always judge a book by its cover, Bill lost in two games.
Jose was smooth as silk on the court and proved it on his way to winning the Silver medal later in the day.

Because Bill lost to Jose, he was moved to the losers bracket meaning he had a long ways to go to win a medal. After a three hour rain delay, the games began again in earnest. He played one fellow and won handily in the game to 15. By now he was worn out, sweating and breathing with difficulty. We learned that the games just keep coming whether you are up for it or not. He played another fellow, this time working harder to win. By the next game, he was pretty well worn down, playing well, but ultimately lost, and that was that.  Needless to say winning more would have been exciting, but for a first time competing in an athletic event since his teens, we are all super pleased. Unlike Bruce who did not find playing in a tournament to his liking, Bill is ready to do it again.

Friday we decided to head back to watch the pros play in center court. Over the last year we've watched matches on YouTube like crazy, so having the easy opportunity to see them in person was pretty much a no-brainer.  Pictured on the right is Ben Johns and Simone Jardim, the top ranked woman and man in the sport. Ben is doing a between the leg shot.
All of the pros are former tennis players that have switched over to pickleball for one reason or another. That would be Dekel Bar and Vivienne David on the left who were actually warming up on the court of Bill's last match! He had to ask them to move! You can see how close we are, but you can't see is how HOT it was. Oh my goodness! An excellent experience for us aside from the heat. 

Some fans getting their picture made with Jesse Irvine who graciously posed and kept smiling as the person fumbled with their phone.
Proving that pickleball is a game for all ages, we learned from other spectators that the woman on the upper left is 80 years old!
Something else we did last week was the drive at Lake Apopka. While we saw very few birds, as it is not migration season just yet, we did see an astonishing number of alligators including two different young ones.
Because of all the rain we've had of late, the water was high with so many gators! How many did we see? 48!
When Matt and Tom visited we went out there so Tom could see his first American Alligator in the wild and we saw plenty, but 48 is a new record for us.

In other news, Bruce's friend is still in ICU fighting for his life. I know I sound like a broken record but good grief, get vaccinated already! I continue to be amazed at people's reluctance. 

your friend,

Gail



A Week Ago Tuesday