Bruce's Travels

Dawn and I hope everyone out there who reads the blog had a happy and safe Christmas, wherever and however you chose to mark the occasion. We had a fairly quiet week here, choosing to lay low for the most part, as streets and highway in and around Fort Myers were quite busy with traffic, especially around the malls. Here's a few highlights: Monday Dec. 21 -- Bargains and Lunch Today we went to Miromar Outlet Mall and Gulf Coast Town Center, despite the earlier mention of crowds. I had a $10 reward certificate from Eddie Bauer that expired 12/31, and I didn't want to let it go to waste. The closest EB outlet is Miromar. Also, I was hungry for lettuce wraps at PF Changs, hence the need to go to Gulf Coast Town Center for lunch after the EB stop. I scored big at EB, heading directly to the clearance section in the back of the store. With Dawn's help, I got two pair of dress shorts (plaid pattern) and pullover golf shirt, all for $30 after deducting my $10 reward certific...

Hi everyone! It's always hard to believe another Christmas is about to come and go, yet here we are again. No snow for anyone "back home" but hope everyone is getting into the spirit nonetheless. Dawn and I just finished our weekly grocery run, with menu planning for some fun meals, and we're going out to eat on Christmas day. Later today, we're headed to "Buckets," a Packer-friendly bar around the corner, to watch the Pack and the Oakland Raider square off, starting at 4:05 p.m. Eastern Time. Here's what's been going on this past week. Highlights were a dolphin cruise on Wednesday, and a holiday party for Bruce with his widows/widowers club on Saturday night. Sunday Dec. 13 -- Packers Defeat Cowboys Our trip to Buckets ("Wings and More") bar and pub to watch the Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys cost us $42 (including tip) for 3 beers (for Bruce), 15 chicken wings (shared), and a diet soda for Dawn. Monday Dec. 14 --...

No huge adventures this past week. I think we've kind of settled into a routine ... morning coffee on the lanai, errands, workouts at Planet Fitness, Netflix and/or Scrabble tournaments at night with Hawaiian slack guitar playing on Pandora in the background. Plus, we're maybe suffering a little economic hangover from spending some big bucks on travel plans, which this past week included $600 worth of Key West Express travel vouchers. Here are some highlights. Tuesday Dec. 8 -- Key West Plans, Dinner and a Movie Today, Dawn and I went to Key West Express Marina and bought six of the $99 specially priced round trip travel vouchers aboard their big boat that ferries passengers (no vehicles) between Fort Myers and Key West. Four of the vouchers are for Dawn and three friends that will be visiting in late Feb. They are planning an overnight in Key West. The other two vouchers are for Dawn and I, and we'll be taking an overnight trip there in late January as sort of a "...

Today, we are meeting Karen and Craig, Dawn's friends, for an early lunch at B.J.'s Restaurant & Brewhouse out on Alico Road by the airport. I have five of their watches I got in running condition for them. Most were just batteries, but one was a stem and crown replacement on a lady Movado watch which ran me $40 all by itself to have my buddy down the street at Prestige Jewelers obtain the parts and install them. I'm doing very little watch repair work for people these days, because it's generally a PITA. I'm trying to train all my relatives to simply tell people that I'm retired! But these are good friends, and I know how hard it is to obtain reliable and honest watch repair, especially around this part of the country. Looking forward to trying the new restaurant and catching up with Karen and Craig. A mixed bag this week, due in good part to a couple days of torrential rain that pre-empted our usual Friday outing to the Farmer's Market. But still we ...

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving It's Sunday here, the last day of a long weekend. Lots of people will be driving and flying the unfriendly skies today in their journeys home. We are glad to be staying put here in our "home base" of Fort Myers. Looking back on the past week, here's a summary of our goings-on.  Monday Nov. 23 -- Sanibel Island This was probably our most eventful day. We got to Sanibel at 9 a.m. and started with a leisurely breakfast at the Lighthouse Cafe on the more laid-back eastern end of the Island. I had pancakes and sausage, and Dawn had the "Lighthouse Special" omelet, which has turkey, broccoli, fresh mushroom, and cream cheese in it. From there, we drove to the Matthew-Bailey Shell Museum on Sanibel-Captiva Road, where we had a fun time learning about shells and the two types of mollusks -- gastropods and bivalves -- that inhabit these parts. From there, we took a drive through the Ding Darling Nature Preserve....

Greetings all. We see Wisconsin has had its first snowstorm of the season. We continue to deal with unseasonably hot temps down here, but it looks as though things here will cool off a bit and next week and be normal (mid to upper 70s). We are kind of tired of running the AC all day and night and having to keep the windows and lanai door closed all the time. Well, another busy and eventful week, so let's get started: Saturday Nov. 14 -- A Walk in the Park We did indeed get out to Lakes Park and walked a lap around the "inner track" ... about half mile. Fairly nice day. From there, we did a big grocery run to Publix for deli meat and cheese; and then the Walmart Neighborhood Market for the balance of the list to get the better prices. For dinner, I cooked in and made lemon-garlic shrimp over linguine, and an apple walnut salad from one of those Dole "salad kits" in the produce section. The salad was good, but the other salad kit we bought from them -- pear ...

Hi Friends and Family: Today is Saturday the 14th, and it's an absolutely gorgeous day out here. The heat and humidity have broken, and the high today is supposed to reach 80 degrees, which is normal for this time of year. But it will be short-lived. We are supposed to be back in the oven again on Monday, with high 80s to low 90s. Everyone around here is baffled as to why it has been so warm. There are worse things. It's been a busy week .., but fun busy. I'll pick up where I left off. Saturday 11/7 -- Goodbye Big M Floating Casino :-( I bought the Yamaha Clavinova piano. The folks who had it for sale live in the Reflection Lakes community, a short hop from my place. It was purchased by the original owner as a "mood piece" for a home, and hardly ever (if ever) played. Perfect cosmetic and playing condition. I didn't haggle, and paid their asking price of $600. I called a delivery service, and it will be delivered Wednesday for a fee of $75 We learned...

Hi all: Another adventure begins. Dawn and I arrived Fort Myers Wednesday, Nov. 4. The "great ice maker flood" of September has left its aftermath in terms of mold/mildew smell in the kitchen, and a layer of plaster dust pretty much everywhere else from the drywall being replaced. The wooden legs on the recliner are stained from where the water stood on the floor. The first batch of ice from the ice maker was coated in a layer of gunk. Pretty much everything needs a scrubbing. There is a new cabinet the kitchen, and a new vanity in the bathroom. Both of the old ones were ruined from the water and humidity. We unpacked our essentials, then made a list of stuff we needed, both groceries and cleaning supplies, and set out on errands. We also fetched our mail from the private mailbox place up the street, and I had several packages waiting for me, including a repaired watch, an AC adapter for my Microsoft Surface RT tablet, and my new Amazon $50 tablet computer, which I'm ...

I arrived back in Janesville April 28 (Tuesday) about 3:30 p.m. local time. Figured I should close out this blog series for my "Winter in Fort Myers." Except for the last couple of weeks, the winter in Fort Myers was, in a word, FANTASTIC! I enjoyed myself very much. Lots of new experiences, and great fun enjoying old experiences over again. I felt much more "social" this time around, having connected with two different "meetup" groups, and having a met a very nice woman by the name of Nora through "ourtime" which resulted in several pleasant outings. Meeting new people certainly expanded my horizons and knowledge of local venues. I would be hard-pressed to name a favorite activity, but certainly the Royal Caribbean cruise, the week with Dawn, the little side trip to St. Pete, and the Everglades adventure were right up there. Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel Island, the Lakes Park farmer's market, Big M floating casino (all told, won $475 at the...

Hi everyone. Not your usual blog entry today. I am not aboard the Big M casino, nor is this about my past week's goings-on. The fact is, I haven't done shit this past week, due to catching a nasty cold, the likes of which I haven't seen since returning from my Germany trip a year ago (to the month, in fact). I'll spare you the unpleasant details, but basically I have been pretty miserable since last Wednesday. I've been confined mostly to the apartment, going out only to get some food in tummy or buy some OTC meds to try and alleviate symptoms. I did not go to an urgent care center, because when I've gone in the past, I am told there is nothing they can do. Antibiotics are useless, so basically it’s a waste of half a day sitting in a waiting room with other sick people, and the best you can hope for is to leave with a scrip for a 4-ounce bottle of Robitusen-C (which lasts about a day!) and the usual instructions to rest and drink plenty of fluids. Blah, blah, ...