Are There Stone Crabs in Heaven?

Picking up where I left off on Friday morning, I accomplished my two goals of buying a real bed, and a small folding table and folding chair to use for eating/working. I bought the bed at  "The Mattress Warehouse" here in town. I got a quilt-top Queen mattress, box spring, bedframe, a deluxe set of sheets, delivery, and set up, all for $350, which I thought was a good deal. It was especially nice that they could deliver it the same day. I don't have a nice comforter for it yet (I'm using a flimsy blanket that I packed with the inflatable bed) but when I get the comforter, I'll include a photo. Anyway, it was heaven sleeping on a real bed Friday night after sleeping on an air mattress the last couple of nights. Abby really likes it, too, and spends most of her time there!

The mattress place was really close to a classic Fort Myers eatery called Mel's Diner, so that's where I had lunch. One of their specialties is BBQ baby back ribs, so I had a rack of those for $11.99 which includes fries and slaw. I asked to substitute a baked potato for the fries, and that was no problem. Curt, if you are reading this, you MUST visit Mel's if you are ever in this area. These were some of the best baby backs I've ever had. Meaty, fall-off-the-bone good, and none of that icky cartilage to deal with like on the larger ribs. Key lime pie for dessert.

After that, I went to the Walmart Super Center on the far end of town and picked up a few things including a microwave oven, cordless floor sweeper, a 4' by 2' folding table, and a folding chair. Nothing fancy on the table/chair, mind you, but functional and desperately needed at this point.

I made it home in time for the mattress delivery people, and set up all my "stuff" from Walmart. I ran the sheets through the washer/dryer, and made up my new bed. What a nice feeling! It was another quite warm day today, high of 85, so I was quite tuckered out again.

Saturday Nov. 8

Had a delicious peeled and sectioned grapefruit this morning, along with a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts and raisins. Colder temps today (mid 60s) and chance of rain. So I used the morning sunshine to shoot photographs for eBay listings, and managed to complete six listings that will trigger this evening. Gotta keep the cash flow going, you know! At about 11 a.m., I took a break and walked a package over to the pack-n-mail place, and also picked up a package there containing some watches for trade from a customer of mine. Also found out there is a "Dollar General" at that same strip mall, so I stopped in and bought a few things, including a pair of bedroom slippers for lounging around the apartment (the tile floor is too hard to walk around in stocking feet).

At about 3 p.m., Fort Myers was now in full rain mode. I packed my gym bag and headed over to the Planet Fitness out on McGregor Blvd. heading toward the beaches. I got entered into the computer system there (transferring from Janesville), and did a two-hour cardio workout, then showered up. My reward for the workout was dinner at Pincher's Crab Shack, also on that end of town. This is one my favorite places from a couple years back when I was here. The stone crabs are just coming into season, so I ordered a pound dinner for $40, which comes with two sides -- I had beans and cole slaw. I picked all claws clean first, then had the waitress bring me a cup of melted butter which I poured liberally over the small mountain of crab meat, and finished it with a spritz of lemon. All washed down with a cold Blue Moon. If there is a heaven, surely they must have stone crab, preferably de-shelled, but I'll take 'em shelled, too. Time certainly won't be a factor. Drove back to the apartment in pitch dark, raining on top of it.

Sunday Nov. 9

It rained all night, and is still raining off and on today, and temps remain in the mid 60s. I made breakfast at the apartment, consisting of home fries (from the half of the baked potato from Mel's), a two-egg omelet with ham and Havarti cheese, 2 slices of toast, and coffee.

With the rain and cooler temps, this was the perfect day to finish my story on Alpina watches for the Jan.-Feb. 2015 issue of Watch & Clock Bulletin. I had the article itself written, but had to process and coordinate all the images (20 of them) to accompany the story. I will email this tomorrow morning to Monica, my editor, and it will be a good feeling to have this done.

I was not able to do any eBay listings today, because there was no sunshine. Can you imagine that? But it does happen. At about 1:45 p.m., I went across the way to the strip mall with the pack-n-ship place because there's a combination restaurant/market there called "Crave" that I wanted to try. They are only open until 2 p.m. on Sundays, and only serve breakfast/brunch. So I ordered 2 blueberry pancakes and 2 of their homemade sausage links, and a cup of their premium coffee. All excellent. Nothing wrong with 2 breakfasts in one day!

From there, I went to Harbor Freight tools, just the next strip mall over, and got a tape measure and a roll of duct tape. I needed these to make a barrier between the washer/dryer and the wall so that Abby does not jump down there again. She hasn't done it since the first time she got stuck there a couple days ago, but I didn't want to take any chances. It's simply too difficult to get her out of there. For the "wall" part, I used a couple pieces of cardboard cut from the Mr. Coffee box. Here's what I ended up with:

 

Not pretty, I grant you, but it should do the job and it should be easy to take down when I move out. Hopefully the duct tape won't take the paint off the wall when I remove it! I'm now at the neighborhood McDonald's writing this blog entry, just to get out of the apartment for a while. Tomorrow, the sunshine is supposed to return, with a high of 78 degrees. I may start combing the craigslist ads for a sofa and chairs, but Sanibel Island sounds awfully tempting, too!

 

Bruce