Yet Another Camera

As if I don't have enough of them on my table right now! Bruce was looking for something in his old work bag and found a point and shoot Panasonic camera, one made in Japan before all of the manufacturing went to China.  Just like the original camera he gave me for Christmas back in 2006! Actually not just like it because we knew it was newer than that, just how new was the question. 

Looks like it is brand new, right? It was hard to know because, try as he might, he could not find the battery charger, however, with the magic that is Amazon, I was able to order a suitable battery charger. About four days later it arrived, and it was time to see what we could see.

For starters, it was made in 2011, so despite its advanced age, because Mr. Peck is far more careful with his gear than his wife is, you would never know that it is 11 years old. Secondly, post-full charge, we were treated to some fun photos from a long time ago, beginning with ones Bruce took of his Yardhouse project in South Beach. There was a photo of our living room when the thrones were new. If you are new to this space, the thrones are the brown and white chairs that I just had re-done.

Gosh I wonder what I did with that rug I loved so much! Along with the above photo was one of the sunroom where Bruce had his desk. Looking back at it now, I can't believe that he let me paint it that color scheme. Seriously, not one of my best ideas.

The shed that Bruce built without plans, just an idea in his head. He and Bill beat up a concrete driveway in the front yard leading to the adjacent gate and turned it into a floor.

So many, many projects over the years that we did to make that house our home. On occasion, I miss the yard, but then I remember just how much work it all was. The pool too! The giant palms were always dropping seed pods that ended up in the pool cleaner.

Bruce is still at it, working on Bill's house. Talk about so many projects! The latest of which is the new fence that he and Bill worked on together. It is 96' feet of board-on-board and way more work than it looks. Over the years of working together on his house, Bill has learned a lot from his Dad, one thing of which is when to let Dad take over as he is here, making cuts in the fence to house landscape lighting. I will say that Bill did a whole bunch by himself, including all of the painting beforehand. He used his birthday money to buy the paint. Have you seen how much paint costs these days? As with everything else, the price is shocking.

The hours Bruce has spent working on that house are likely more than he had time to do on ours because he was always working, working, working. More often than not, that meant 80-90 hours of week, much of it out of town, getting up crazy early for flights all over the country. Thus, retirement is sweet for Bruce. Finally he gets to pick and choose what projects he works on! Hurray!

That said, his work life has made our retired life comfortable, so neither of us have any complaints. A crazy thing happened recently involving a letter that came in the mail. Said letter was cryptic to our eyes, but after a phone call he learned that we have nearly $40,000 for health care costs, including our Medicare Part B, that we knew nothing about. Now that was the very definition of a surprise. 

So, back to the baby camera....it works beautifully! Super convenient to carry around in my purse just as I did with my original camera. I took it the courts the other morning and was delighted with the results. A few weeks ago a new friend, Shirley, gave me the History of Pickleball to read. Wait, I've already told you that, but I did not show you what the cover looks like.

The paddles were originally made of plywood in a garage, whereas now paddles can cost over $300! For the record ours are not that expensive, but you get the idea. In a crazy happening, one of the women pictured in the above book has begun playing with us while she is in Orlando. She knew the founders and played on the original court in Bainbridge Island, Washington. 

Trying out my newest/old camera. Technically it is Bruce's old work camera, but what is mine is his, and the other way around!

I took it down to the lakeside pool to check out the absence of a huge oak that was taken down last week, adjacent to the fountain.

I am mourning the loss of that oak tree which provided a bit of shade during parts of the day. Once a large limb fell down, it was determined that the tree was not safe, and when you live in a community you just have to accept that things will happen that you don't like.

It also came along when we went to Lake Davis to check on the cygnets. We were not disappointed, although it is somewhat surprising that there are only two, albeit a very cute two.

Here's a close up of their cute faces.  (not taken with the baby)

On the other hand, this one of these ducklings was taken with the baby camera.

The moral of the story is the best camera is the one you have with you, something I learned a long time ago that most people have now discovered with the advances in mobile phone cameras. 

From there we drove over to the nearby wetlands park looking for more ducklings. We came up empty in that department, but we did see something very curious. From afar I thought the heart was carved into the tree, 

however, on closer inspection, 

but of course, it is a cat burial site! Not something one comes across everyday in a public park.

Usually once a week Bruce meets our friend Keith for lunch at Johnny's Otherside near the house, located on the corner of Michigan and Ferncreek. It's been a while since I was there; Friday I joined them  and was surprised at how much they had updated the place with new paint colors on the outside,

and on the inside. It's a popular local restaurant that is nothing fancy, just comfortable with decent food.

This would be Keith who is listening intently to one of my dear husband's stories.

Have I told you that Cynthia is roping me into helping her with the church flowers once a month? She and her current partner made Sunday's beautiful arrangement.

Cynthia has more faith in me than I do, but with her partner spending the summer months in Maine, she had to ask somebody for help!

Every Sunday Bruce wants to go out to lunch as has been well documented in this space. I know it sounds silly, but I am not as enthusiastic as he is in this department because, more often than not, I am disappointed for one reason or another. Unfortunately, when we tried going to Dubsdred it was full, so we ventured down Edgewater to find something else. Well we found something else, but I'm hesitant to recommend it. Called Thai Farm Kitchen, it has been open for a few months. The patio was very attractive,

drenched in bright red paint, done very well, I might add. The owner was super friendly, there was a singer, and there were very few customers. Our server was very, very attentive.

One thing, and I hardly know how to describe this, but the table, pictured above, had a finish that caused everything to stick to it, including glasses and flatware. Eventually I asked for additional cloth napkins and we used them as placemats. Maybe the food was too authentic? We won't go back.

While on the subject of food, another photo on the camera was this one of our kitchen following the massive paint job we did on the cabinets.

Paint job? It was far more than that , and I have a blog  post to confirm that! Actually there were many blog posts as it took us three weeks to transform those knotty pine cabinets into something more modern. While I am perfectly content in my present kitchen, there are a few things that I really miss, one of which is a real exhaust fan. Secondly drawers, I had a lot of drawers! Plus, Bruce had added lots of pull out drawers, say for my cooking pans, in the cabinets under the stove. Lest I forget, I very much miss my wall oven. 

I suppose though, life is full of trade offs, don't you think? It is how you adapt that counts, or so it seems to me. Seeing the pictures of our former home, I am feeling very nostalgic, however, shoot, if we had stayed there, we might not have ever learned to play pickleball! 

your friend,

Gail