Miscellany Tuesday

Good morning all! While I've a few more photographs from the camping trip, I will warn you up front that there will be lots of meandering today.

Bruce mixed it up a little this year as to where he put the skeleton, our lone Halloween decoration.

Say hello to the Hunter Moon from last week! I say our lone decoration because I happened to drive by a house that goes all out and probably has been featured in Camera Crazy in the past. What they have done this year is so mind boggling it took me four photographs to get it all in. It does make a person wonder, if the outside looks like this, what could the inside of the house look like.

Here's the rest of the front yard if you can call it that.

The driveway has more,

with the ladder there, does that mean they aren't finished with that clown house? Finally, adjacent to the front door they've done this.

It also begs the question, where does one store all of this? Seriously unbelievable in person.

As a cleanser, after all that craziness, let's take a look at this beautiful sunrise from a few days ago. For months during the summer, the sky was blah, but now, oh my goodness!

How did we get so lucky to have such an outstanding view from nearly every window? 

Before beginning this post, I spent some time on the phone with the office of my first orthopedist. Complaining bitterly I was. In the last week a bill, dated 5/10 for $129.00, came in the mail. Ordinarily I pay any bill as soon as it comes, but this one just rubbed me the wrong way. Rummaging around in my blog I re-read the posts from that time period and I just got madder and madder thinking how he ignored all of my complaints, brushing them aside, and telling me to "push through the pain." Had he actually listened to me and wondered why it hurt me so much, perhaps he would have discovered that I needed something else aside from platitudes. After discovering that Dr. Patel had to re-break my wrist during surgery because it had not healed correctly, I somewhat felt vindicated, however, that does nothing to change my outcome, does it? My wrist will never be right again. Remember how excited I was to be going back to wearing my watch again? Because my wrist is no longer flat, no matter how tight the watch is, it slides off to the side making it difficult to be very functional. Sigh....

Back to the camping trip, we began our drive home by heading straight into Tallahassee where we drove by Florida State for the first time since Jonathan's graduation 15 or so years ago. Because the traffic was so heavy there was no stopping when we drove by the capitol building. Those awnings are really something.

It almost looks like a Palm Beach resort rather than a state capitol! Continuing on 27, for quite a few miles, the forest floor alongside the highways were filled with Goldenrod which was so beautiful! We may not get changing leaves, but seeing so many, many wildflowers on this trip was nearly as good.

Following a stop, well we kept the car running all the while, at a potential future campground, Bruce decided that if we wanted to get home before dark, which we very much did, he'd have to get on the highway. Well that was not in the least bit fun as we stopped multiple times along the route due to traffic.

Because we rarely face any traffic, I was going crazy. Getting on the Turnpike was nearly as bad as we sat and sat while the sun sank lower and lower, actually glowing on the back of this truck. How about that advertisement on the back? 

Truckers, or the lack thereof, are wreaking havoc all over the world. Because I will read this again in the coming years it should be noted that everywhere is facing staff shortages no matter what they pay. This morning I went downtown to the library about 9:15 only to discover a taped sign on the glass saying that the hours were 10-6 and closed on Sunday. Since when? Calling them after 10:00. I learned that it is a result of Covid and being short staffed.  Covid, Covid, Covid...please go AWAY!

We returned on Friday night, yes after dark, and on Saturday night I did something I've not done in years and that is drive at night. Because we didn't want to chance the battery dying I drove the MINI to a celebration that Michelle had put together for Fallon's graduation. Meeting at Armandos, we waited for Bill and Fallon to arrive and when they did we all did the surprise party thing..

If ever I wanted a photo to turn out this was it, and sadly it is poor, however, in spite of the poor quality, the emotion is there AND Bill is smiling in a photograph!!! Only our family will get this, but believe me, it is pretty much epic.

That is Fallon's mother to her right. A great time was had by all and I managed to drive home safely only to then go to Michelle and David's place and do something else that we had not done for years and that is stay up until 2:00 in the morning! Woo hoo!

Before leaving we purchased a new piece of art at the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival where only Florida artists exhibit. I'd seen this man's work before, admiring it then, and admiring it now,  especially when I learned that the one we bought was painted with Covid as the inspiration. Thinking it would be look better with a frame, Bruce built one over at Bill's house, doing the finish work out back.

The artist from Longwood, does not title his pieces, instead leaving it up to the purchaser. As such, I'm titling this one, "Love in the Time of Corona".

Since last I wrote we've had another interesting day trip which I'll get to next time. In the meantime, something happened this morning that made me so happy. I came across a post from June 2010 when I wrote about how our friend Steve was just beginning dating a woman named Barb who we hoped would be the one! She cried when I shared it with her this morning because indeed she was the one, and they have been happily married ever after. Did I tell you Steve was in his late 50's and never married before? She's a special lady, that's for sure.

And that my dear readers is why I love having a long time blog when I can relive those real time memories and share them with others. 

your friend,

Gail

It is My Job to Notice Things!!

Wednesday, after dropping Cheryle home after our trip to Costco, where regular gas was only $2.88/gallon by the way, I noticed hundreds of these fuzzy balls in her driveway.

They even outnumbered the fallen acorns, which is really saying something. Imagine my surprise the next day to come across this in the Orlando Sentinel. If you click on the link you'll learn more about them, including that they harbor baby WASPS! Who knew?

Meanwhile in her backyard the Plumeria tree has a gorgeous multi-flower bloom.

It goes without saying, well wait a minute, I'm saying it....anyway, the fragrance is just as marvelous as the appearance.

The other day I remembered that my Panasonic has some settings I've not explored for some time, including a retro setting, which I used to photograph Sunday's market just to change things up a bit.

I tried it around the house after making a pumpkin bundt cake.

You know what we've had for breakfast today!

Yesterday, on my way to pick up some prints, I was compelled to turn around after driving by this scene. Honestly, a truck as tall as a house?

Apparently they put the giant out front, reserving the side driveway for the mini car? There is just so much that contradicts in the above photo that I had to document the sighting. You just never know about folks, an old VW owner with a truck half the size of a house? What are these giants called anyway?

Furthermore I noticed this on a residential fence near the corner of Virginia and Bumby.

Occasionally when people discover,( usually by my telling them,) that I've been writing a blog for nearly eight years, their first question is "what is about?" Well, anything that you can think of? Seriously, I never really know how to respond. Any ideas?

I've got a few clever Halloween yards to show you!

From across the street I did not even see the skeleton in the hammock! This one, while not so clever, holds interest as well.

Our daughter-in-law joined the Junior League of Greater Orlando this year to be more involved with our community. To tell you the truth, she is the first person I've known to be a part of this organization which once held the reputation as a place for debutantes. Do debutantes still exist? Anyway, that reputation is a stereotype that has been shattered around here. Thus, because everyone else in the family were participating in the Halloween Hustle, Bruce and I decided to join them for the 5K on Thursday evening. We met the gang at a field adjacent to Lake Baldwin. Our niece Katie, and my sister Lisa, as we waited for the race to begin.

Katie is the pro in our family, having run in both the Paris, and New York City, marathons in the past. Lisa, while not on Katie's level, also has experience running, whereas you already know that neither Bruce, nor I, are runners, however, we can walk, and walk we did.

There was a good sized crowd out to raise money to combat childhood hunger. The weather was absolutely perfect with a slight chill in the air. I didn't hear the first place winners time, however, second place was 17 minutes and something. We managed to walk it in that time PLUS 40 extra minutes! Afterwards we went to Gators Dockside for food and drink where a good time was had by all.

The great thing about having such a long running blog is multi-faceted. One feature I see, but you don't, is a place where I see what posts people are clicking on for whatever reason. I'm oftentimes amused at the key words that people type in that bring them to my blog. Then there are the titles I see that people are reading. I, too, can search, and most recently I did a search for unusual acorn drop which I knew I'd written about before. Sure enough, I discovered one in 2010, a month or so before the coldest winter we've had in anyone's recent memory. I would link to that post, however, I've discovered another post that I'd obviously forgotten I'd written, although looking back, it was pretty good, AND, without a single photograph, if you can believe that! Written before helping Jonathan and Alissa with their move from Chicago to Austin. As to the cost of gas? I recently found my notebook with the log--I was pretty darn close--$79.00. (By the way, I never include a link that I don't find worthwhile. :) )

So, that's what's been in my radar for the last couple of days. What's been in yours?