Choose Your Own Title

Over the years, I have been known to be very enthusiastic about things that I like. Take for example the time that Bruce bought me an Oreck vacuum cleaner after seeing some infomercials while he was on the road for work. Unlike me who needs mostly silence while I am writing, Bruce used to always have the television on in his hotel rooms while he was catching up on email, which means he saw a lot of products advertised. Anyway, the Oreck replaced a super heavy Kirby so I was ecstatic, telling  everyone I knew about what a great vacuum cleaner it was, and still is for that matter. Thus, my enthusiasm for pickleball follows my usual pattern of over excitement, according to some. My darling son-in-law is bemused at my behavior, teasing me during a lengthy facetime call with he and Matt the other afternoon. I did my best to convince them to turn on the television during our conversation so they could see what it is all about to no avail. They were somewhat skeptical that it was even played in England, however, it did not take long to discover that it is not only played in England, but get this, there was a charity pickleball tournament held at the Wimbledon Racquet and Fitness Club. It is no surprise that they have their own Facebook page! With a little more sleuthing on his part, he discovered that 10/10/20 is World Pickelball Day. While I am not nearly as athletic as some ladies, I am improving, and that is good enough for me. In the meantime I will continue to tell anyone who will listen what a fun sport it is to play!!

Before I delve into a little field trip we took this week, I have some better news on Cris's condition. He has begun to eat a little and they have lowered his oxygen levels. As you can imagine, we are applauding these baby steps. Jessica, as young and fit as she is, has not had a totally smooth recovery, however, she is mostly improving every day. While the cases in Florida seem to be leveling off somewhat, we now have a major storm in the Atlantic that everyone is watching. What next? Locusts?

A few days ago, don't ask me what day because they are all the same to me, we went to Bok Tower, an outdoor activity not on a court! It is so blazing hot, it's not the best time to do that sort of thing, but I was dying to get out of the city. Located in Lake Wales, or near there anyway, we began our journey, once again on Interstate 4, this time in the opposite direction.

This section is in much better condition than going East and with the theme parks drawing so few visitors, driving through that area was a breeze. We read in yesterday's paper that Universal has seen a 94% decrease in visitors!!! Gosh what will the future hold for our region? It is so scary.

Back to the trip, getting off on Hwy. 27 we mostly followed it there, arriving around 10 in the morning, meaning it was already close to 90 degrees.

Masked, we handed over our $30, and drove the one mile to the parking lot with orange groves flanking the roadway.

 Immediately I was captivated with the tower of Caladiums.

Under the covered portico, there was this cool display of insect catching plants, sometimes known as Venus Fly traps.

 A beautiful motto to live by greeted us as we made our way to the tower.

It is a fairly short walk that for those who have mobility issues would generally be made easier by a tram that was not operational due to the virus.

I'd taken my walking stick because we planned to do some walking while there. Here is a crazy photo that I took by accident that includes it. That my friends is not why I'm including it here though; it is to show off the new Lily dress that fits and was super comfy in the extreme heat!

So here we are beside the reflecting pond which is pretty, but man that gold door steals the show! For the most part people were totally great about social distancing aside from the group of students on the other side. That said, I'm not judging them because I don't know their situation.

The Koi were quite interesting and seriously active, particularly when someone is willing to drop the food right into their mouth.

While we have visited here a number of times over the years, I feel like this time is the first that I really noticed the intricate detailing in both the stone, and the pretty colored metal. At 20 stories tall this was as close as my zoom would allow.

Did I mention it was blazing hot? Of course I did, don't I always moan and groan about the heat? It was getting to Bruce, so he laid down for a rest.

 As to the details, of which they are numerous. this sundial features the zodiac. Dedicated in 1929, just seven months before the stock market crash, here's a link with some very interesting facts. 

 The carvings were done by the same sculptor who did the Atlas at Rockefeller Center in NYC.

The stone work is so beautiful and while I admired it, I was soon blown away at the sight of these giant water lilies, that I now know are named Victoria, growing on the reflecting pond.

With the carvings fresh in your mind, imagine the details of these beauties that look as if they have been carved, rather than grown in water.

Aren't they simply astonishing? I read that in a botanical garden near Gainesville, they grew some that were eight feet across!! Finally a super cool blooming succulent.

There is an onsite restaurant selling sandwiches that we took advantage of under the covered outdoor patio. Sharing a sandwich, we spent most of the time chatting with an 80+ year old couple that live nearby, visiting weekly for lunch and a shared bottle of wine that they cork to take home. Very nice folks even if the woman said tennis players look down on pickleball players! Ha ha.

Closer to home, Bruce had to trim the tree the other day because it is already outgrowing the provided space. It broke my heart watching him cut off the beautiful branches so I saved some of the fronds for the house for however long they last.

Our new neighbor Sherry took advantage of a BOGO at Publix, sharing a dozen roses that were gorgeous. Even though the sunny yellow blooms were fantastic, for some reason I thought of Maureen and we dropped the vase off at Westminster Towers and I mean that literally. I handed them off to a security guard assuming he would deliver them, and by golly he did. Maureen was ever so excited when they gave them to her after a 24 hour quarantine. I only recently learned that we could do such a thing. For those interested, she sounds better than I've heard her in a long time. So, good news on the Maureen front, and we shall hope for continuing good news on the Cris front.

We are working on a new puzzle I ordered, and I do mean we, as Bruce joined in early on. Once it is done, I'll show it off.

 Limpkins live on a diet of Apple Snails.

The drought from earlier in the year is mostly a thing of the past, with rain coming most afternoons. Followed, if we are lucky, with a rainbow. Aside from the rainbow what is interesting about the photo below is...can you guess?

Should you have guessed an airplane you would be correct. Why so remarkable? While travel is picking up somewhat, it is still down over 60% and I suspect even lower numbers of arriving passengers since those numbers were published.

And yet, in spite of it all, there is still the rising and setting of the sun every day to be grateful for.

We shall see what the next couple of days brings. If I were to have any say in it, nothing happening is fine by me. We welcome rain, just not too much. 25 mph winds is more than enough too.

Closing in on 2,000 blog posts, a decent title eluded me this afternoon. Any ideas?

your friend,

Gail

Holy Cow, it is August already!!

The Calendar May Change But....

Yes, the dates on the calendar may change, however, around here it is hard to tell one day from another. And while I wish I could bring good news about Cris, he remains in critical care for the foreseeable future. I take that back, he has not worsened which is somewhat good news. So far they have tried all sorts of things without much success. They've just started him on something new so perhaps that will be the one that will put him on the road to recovery. At the same time that we've all been worried sick about Cris, I've just learned that a very faithful reader of Camera Crazy is quite ill, however, her situation is a familiar one to most of us. Cancer. I'm heartsick upon learning that news. Her name is Barbara, and she is in a lot of pain, and could use our collective prayers for comfort. 

Let's begin our pictures with a bad one. It pains me to post it, but one of the main reasons I blog is for documentation of life and sometimes that doesn't turn out as I hope. At least it shows that it happened! Yes, the other morning, there were two owls and my pictures are horrible. I took this a few days ago and only just saw it this afternoon. Boo hoo! It is my practice to take a bunch when something like this happens, however, the owl on the left flew off within minutes of my spotting them. It is a good reminder that even someone who has a camera in their hand every day still takes crummy pictures.

 Here was Mr. Bruce working on the pickleball rack in his makeshift shop. Isn't that rug so fun?

Here's a funny story that some folks have already heard. Michelle and David gave me a Lily gift card for Christmas. It is well known that it takes me forever to finally use a gift card, but a few weeks ago seemed like the time to finally pull the trigger. To make a long story short, I ordered a dress online, it came and was child sized and then it sat here for nearly two weeks while I pondered my next step. Finally I decided to take it back to the store at The Mall at Millenia, a decision not made lightly as I've been to Publix and Clemons and that's about it during the last four, or is it five months? Apparently, I'm not the only one who is having trouble with venturing out. I parked at Bloomingdales and the next photos are for documenting what it is like during the surge in Coronavirus cases here in Florida.

This gave me pause. A beautiful store, I've since read that Neiman Marcus is one of the many retailers filing for bankruptcy during the pandemic.

You may not be able to read the sign that says they are open, but you should enter from the street side, unlike Vineyard Vines that is open only for orders.

The Apple store in this mall is normally teaming with people. Not only were there no people aside from the one woman, there were no products either. I've been in here on numerous occasions when busloads of Brazilians are in line, having flown in to shop. Not happening these days.

They were so happy to welcome customers back to Kate Spade, but I'm guessing they did not mean little boys in masks as their target audience.

And what could be more sad than this? Well, obviously lots of things, but still. BTW--there was no need for the signs as there were no people!

 Guards were in attendance but hardly anyone else was.

 The beauty department at Bloomingdales is also normally packed with shoppers.

So, I went to the store, held up the dress because the girl would have had to put on gloves, and we sorted it out.  I'd ordered a medium and while the hanging tag said that, the inside of the dress said, XXS. No wonder! Silly me for not thinking of looking inside. I left with nothing as it was not in stock, but while I've been sitting here typing, the new dress arrived and it is cute as can be. My mall adventure took me through Bloomies, and on to Lily and then back again. There was not the least problem finding my car in the parking lot.

I'm looking out the window right now and this fellow is on a branch within easy sight. We have so many hawks around here that can be heard screaming at all times of the day.

I finally got to working on the quilt again and the sewing was made all the easier because I found a fantastic podcast to listen to called Missing in Alaska. Absolutely fascinating to learn about two congressman, one the speaker of the House, who disappeared in the mid 70's and have never been found! We'd played pickleball with the group for hours and while they went out to lunch, I was the curmudgeon who wanted to stay home in order to social distance. I've been asked how in the world  Cris and Jessica got Covid-19 because the only time he'd left the house was to go out to eat on Father's Day. Well, it's a mystery, but if staying home from restaurants will help, I'm all in and that is coming from a family that owns a bunch of restaurant stock. Speaking of restaurants, during the pandemic we've had outside food maybe four or five times. While I was typing this I thought, maybe it would be a good night for Chinese food so we made that happen. I should not have bothered as it was not very good. 😦

After practicing pickleball this morning with Patty, Yvette, and Connie, we were more than ready for the swimming pool after lunch. Our Mama duck is still on her nest. The other day Gayle did a search and learned that Mallards stay on the nest for 28 days, something I was clueless about, so presuming we saw her early on, it will be short of two weeks until the eggs hatch.

One thing that has been a real blessing during the pandemic is Bruce has had loads of time to read novels, something that was in short supply during his demanding career. We both took a book to the pool, reading in the shade and enjoying the refreshing water until such time as the clouds began to gather. I read a neat thing in yesterday's paper about the mountains of Florida. Say what? Although we don't have any mountains, they compared our towering clouds to mountains. I must say, they are pretty great even though they aren't real mountains. The rain across the lake moved right over us, producing tremendous thunder and lightning, lasting for quite some time. Strong enough that I shut off my computer for a while as I don't need any problems with it. Recently Dave and Michelle's huge television suffered that fate.

So this is life inside our little Lake Pineloch Village bubble during the pandemic. All of our sons are still working from home, the cases are going up, with seemingly no end in sight. That said, I know that this too shall pass but when? That is the question of 2020, and I don't think I really want to know the answer.

your friend,

Gail

Pickleball Crazy

A few days ago, I opened the back door to see what I could see, something I do most every day because, well, you never can predict what will be out there. Knowing me through this blog as you do, that is surely something I need not even write. At any rate, aside from the beautiful sunrise creating shadows across the lawn, I spotted an owl. Naturally, I got my camera.

That little blob in the middle is from condensation on my camera lens, something I fight every morning when I take the camera from the air conditioned space out into the morning humidity. Once it was clear, I walked right over to the owl, talked to it a bit and watched as it watched the water, waiting for something, I know not what. Eventually she/he took off and I watched the path, finding her in the ligustrum tree. (males and females look so much alike it is hard to tell unless they are side by side in which case, the female is larger)

Such a beauty, although I would not want to get too close to those claws! Needless to say, it was a good start to a routine morning. We are up early so as to eat and be ready to be on the court by no later than 8:30 if possible for our practice session.  There are numerous articles on the web about how pickleball is addicting and that is for a reason. It's hard to get enough pickleball in spite of the pandemic, or in our case, the heat. We are mindful, before you get worried, that we are in the midst of a global health crisis, so we keep our distance and wash our hands. That serve that was eluding me? I'm making some improvement after watching an instructional video. I was so fired up that we went to the court on Sunday evening, having played for hours in the morning where I was dismal, and on this occasion I had Bruce take my picture, something not seen often in this space and for good reason--I am much better behind the camera than in front of it!

As you can see we play on tennis courts with the yellow lines representing the size of the pickleball court, a good thing for older folks especially because there is a lot less ground to cover. You would think that with the size of Orlando, and given the exploding popularity of the game, there would be dedicated courts in the City Beautiful. You would think wrong. So, on Monday morning we took a drive using the still, seemingly forever under construction, I-4!! As you can imagine, I was not the one behind the wheel because I have refused to use it for years now. In an aside, I got a text from Jackie who asked if yesterday was the day we left Vancouver in 2018 and I had to refer to the search engine on this blog for confirmation. Firstly though, I had to look at the calendar as I rarely know the date anymore! I found the last blog post from Vancouver here, should you be interested to learn she was about right.

Anyway, back to the dreaded Interstate 4...

Normally we would have avoided it at all cost, but Mr. Peck was in a hurry to arrive at our destination. In lieu of camping due to the heat/pandemic, he is obsessed with pickleball so we went to see where people play the game on real courts in Daytona Beach Shores. Yeah, Orlando has none and DBS has ten. And before you think it is only an old folks game, that is a myth. Sure, loads of retired people play it, but increasingly young people are taking it up because it is so FUN. And how was it that we had first hand knowledge of this place? Here's the scoop---a couple who live here have a place there too, and in fact, Leslie of said couple, taught Greg to play on what I think was their first date. Long story short, they introduced it to our community going so far as to pay for the first court lines in order to get folks to play on the underused tennis courts. Is this too much information when you could care less? I hope not because we are so very grateful. Us and about twenty other new players here at Lake Pineloch Village! So we found the place and were so impressed. Forgive the shadow as I took this photo from over the fence.

All kinds of folks were out having fun. Looks super nice doesn't it? In a first sighting of something like this, I imagine it is because it is a beach town? Rather than hand sanitizer, it is sunscreen!

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the play and chatting with a few women who were so nice, one having been to Greg and Leslie's wedding last year! Small world, huh?

When it became too hot we found a spot to get on the beach just to cool off. In a first, we only took one towel and the bag containing my camera. First Bruce went out into the water,

returning to tell me the waves were pretty big. Well, while Nancy was visiting she went to Ormond Beach to see a friend for the day. All was well until such time as she was caught in a RIPTIDE that nearly drowned her in very shallow water and she is a good swimmer. Normally I'm a big fan of playing in waves but this time I was a little gun shy so two trips into the water was enough for me.

Plus, while at the courts, Linda told us about a place about five miles down the road in Holly Hill with a new and exciting pickleball facility. Talk about fantastic!

Wearing our masks, Ryan toured us around as if we would become members. Below we are in what they are calling the loft for watching the action from which I took the photos.

They've only been open a week, however, it was over a year in the making through a partnership between a private couple and the city of Holly Hill, which I imagine is quite small. And yes, eight of the 24 courts are covered!

 Yup, a city of 12,000 people! The couple at the bottom of the photo proved that looks are deceiving.

As it is, our courts work fine but it sure was neat to see an actual court devoted to pickleball. Lots less chasing after balls! As I mentioned, there are more and more people joining in, once they give it a try. As such we needed a paddle rack which I will tell you more about in another post.

And here is Leslie with Bruce as her partner. His concession to the heat is a headband to keep the sweat from his eyes.

There are pickleball courts in Orange County but they are way out in Winter Garden which does not surprise me in the least. Winter Garden responds well to their citizens wants and needs as I discovered while doing the market out there. This morning we went to see what their courts were like and soon after walking up we were greeted by the nicest guy you could ever meet, Doug who told us all about how they got the courts, who plays and when you can play for free unlike Pictona where there are daily fees or memberships available.

Our skill set is still not up to the players that were there but we did get on one of the unused courts for about 30 minutes to see what it was like. We learned that some folks out here use their own ball when they serve, thus only their hand touches it. That seems workable when the space is so small. It was crazy hot, but before we left Winter Garden we went to a park along the Lake Apopka shore.

 I spotted one baby alligator and while pointing it out to Bruce, he spotted another!

As you undoubtedly know, Covid 19 cases in Florida are surging, although from what I've read, it is to be expected as the virus looks for new hosts. I am reading a novel right now about the end of the Civil War and the raging cases of yellow fever. I should mention that is but one aspect. Anyway, as I was reading I was thinking they were referencing cholera but I was thinking wrong. Yellow fever is entirely different, producing a horrible hemorrhagic death. A virus, that took them a long time to figure out, caused by mosquito bites, countless people died and still do for that matter, mostly in Africa. It took nearly six years to develop a vaccine for it back in the 1930's. I know there are some science minded folks that read this blog that perhaps might be interested in this fantastic website that shows the timeline for vaccines of all the major diseases. It was there that I learned how yellow fever affected the building of the Panama Canal, among other things. I guess the point of all this is that life is pretty awful right now and of course, very close to home with Cris still in ICU, having received one transfusion of convalescent plasma yesterday, but it won't always be. Let us hope that some super smart scientists will develop a vaccine for Covid-19, which, by the way, does not carry the same ring as Yellow Fever, sooner, rather than later. Six years? God help us!

Our new way of living on display at the park.

Stay safe my dear readers! And learn to play pickleball the first chance you get!

your friend,

Gail