The Cat Manual

Monday March 5

I rise this a.m., and despite going out for breakfast, I still make a pot of coffee and have a bagel (half with cream cheese, the other half with peanut butter) to tide me over until I can make it to "Marti's Family Dining." I have to do a little "prep work" on the condo to make it a little more presentable, including a kitty litter change (I do this every Monday anyway), making my bed, clearing the sink of dirty dishes, and getting rid of the clutter on the counters and kitchen table.

I do a quick email exchange with Carol to make sure we are still on, and it's a go. I leave the condo a 8:45, leaving 15 minutes to spare before my landlord, Heather, arrives for her showings (she has two separate parties looking at the unit).

I arrive at Marti's before Carol (no big surprise there). The place is jumping with locals ... lots of grey- and blue-hairs ... so so I secure a table and start drinking coffee, which is a decent brew for a family restaurant type place. The menu is your standard fare of the type you would expect. Nothing fancy, but the menu stresses that omelets are made with three eggs, and the waitress tells me that both types of their potatoes (hash browns and American Fries) are made here from scratch starting with whole potatoes. (Some places use precooked, presliced packaged  potatoes, which are just awful). The menu also states " 'Y'all' is spoken here," which is cute.

Carol arrives in about 20 minutes, saying she drove around in a couple of circles trying to find the place. It's set a ways off San Carlos on a frontage road, so it's easy to miss until you know the place. So we each order the same thing: a Denver omelet, but with Swiss cheese added. She has hash browns, I have Am Fries, and we both have rye toast. Decaf for her, regular for me. The whole bill comes to $17, which I think is very reasonable. I leave a $20 bill on the table and call it a deal.

We are close to Fort Myers Beach at this point, and Carol informs me she would like to go to the beach and hunt for more sand fleas.The suggestion, I assume, is that she would like me to go along, but I demur. It's a little on the cool and cloudy side today, and the beach is simply not beckoning. I'm feeling like a bike ride to check out this park that Heather has been raving about, called Lakes County Park. There are supposed to be nice bike/pedestrian trails in the park, and there's a concession stand for drinks and snacks.

So we part company, saying we should get together perhaps for one of two "cruises" which depart out of Fort Myers. One is a gambling cruise where they take you far enough out into the Gulf of Mexico to be in international waters, so they can legally run a gambling establishment. It only costs $10, and for a little extra, you can buy a buffet to go with it which they serve on the boat as well. The other cruise is the "Key West Express," which costs $146 per person round trip. They whisk you to Key West in the morning, and return at 5:30, and you can spend the day touring Key West without having to drive there. Or, as many people do, you can stay overnight in Key West, and catch the boat back to Fort Myers the following evening.

I head back to the condo, and search google for a suitable way to get to Lakes Park on bicycle, and find they have a bike/pedestrian accessway to the park off Summerlin Road, which is a better and closer way to go than using the vehicular entrance to the park, which is on Gladiolus Drive. It turns out to be an easy ride, and I also make mental note that Summerlin would most likely be a better biking option to Fort Myers Beach than using MacGregor Blvd., which is the way I have been going up until now. The bike/ped path along Summerlin is wider, and set farther off the highway, and has fewer intersections and almost no driveways, just a few that are into strip malls. Summerlin Road has an interesting story. Twenty years ago, the road did not exist. It was built as an alternate road to connect Southwest Regional Airport with the popular tourist destinations of Sanibel, Captiva and Fort Myers Beach. Prior to this, the only route was MacGregor Blvd., and traffic was simply becoming impossible. So they built this new highway, and because it crosses some major highways that already existed, Summerlin created some rather interesting and complicated intersections, some of which involve overpasses, "fly-overs," and so forth. Anyway, being a new road, they could plan better for a bike/ped path. You take it all the way to San Carlos Blvd., and then traffic becomes bumper-to-bumper again all the way to the beach, but at least you avoid five miles or so of so-and-go traffic on MacGregor.

Anyway, I digress. The bike ride to Lakes Park is pleasant, and the park is beautiful. I wish I had ventured here earlier. It's very scenic with lots of winding bike/pedestrian paths that meander alongside (and over) lagoons, ponds, inlets, etc., that are all connected, and are home to waterfowl, turtles and even the occasional alligator. A bonus is that they have this really great farmer’s market here every Friday, and I will check this out on Friday.

I take my Kindle along with me, and read the book that (niece) Kris has "loaned" me, "The Cat Manual." The book (more like a booklet) is fairly short. I read it in one sitting. It is written from the perspective of a cat, and is FOR cats. The idea being that the author is merely the "translator" and has translated this work, handed down from ancient times, and updated as new inventions are created, such as the vacuum cleaner and the computer. In the "forward" to the book, author Michael Ray Taylor states that he has translated the book for the benefit of human beings to better understand the nature of the cat.I would just like to quote a passage from The Cat Manual that is one of my more favorites, and deals with the belly:

"Bear in mind that only those cats possessed of sufficient belly can experience the full delight of a human belly-rub. Freely offer you ample stomach to willing humans, who will admire its plushness. It is perfectly acceptable, not to mention fun, to occasionally snap all four paws around the wrist of a would-be belly-rubber -- it keeps the humans on their toes."

So anyway, the book was great fun, and thank you, Kris, for lending it to me.

Tonight being Monday, it is "$10.99 Dinner Night" at Big Al's City Sports Grill on Highway 41, so I head over there for a baby-back rib dinner, which is normally $14.99. Part of the reason I am going there is because I am searching for a particular beer for my friend, Amy, which she has written to me about and wonders whether I can "mule" her a couple of four-packs back to Wisconsin. It is called "Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale." There is a liquor store over by Big Al's called "Total Wine and More" which had a store in Orlando, also, which I visited. I figured if anyone would have it, these guys would. They advertise over 2,500 beers in stock at any given time. But no luck. I even had the manager check on her computer. But you should see the beer they have at this place. It’s like the Great Wall of China, only made of beer! I did find a nice liter bottle of rum, though, for the bargain price of $9.99, and bring that back to the condo, as I am craving Pina Coladas for some reason.

The dinner at Big Al's is delicious. A nice rack of BB ribs, served with an ear of corn (which is actually edible!), fries, and slaw, all washed down with an ice tea (you must order a beverage in order to get the $10.99 special price on Monday nights). I've had their ribs before, and they are yummy.

I return to the condo and enjoy the remainder of the evening watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel. I get an email from Heather that one of the parties that viewed the condo this morning wants to see it again, this time with her boyfriend/husband (I'm not sure which) who was apparently unable to accompany her during the initial showing. Since Heather is off to a job interview in San Antonio Texas tomorrow, it will be her mother, Bonnie, who does the showing. I tell Heather this will be fine.

Expenses: $20 breakfast; $5 snacks in Lakes Park; dinner at Big Al's, $20. Rum, $10. Total: $55.

Bruce