President's Day

Good Monday to all of you. It's President's Day, another bogus holiday that only postal and government employees get off. Just finished lunch at a place called "Burgercue" which features, you guessed it, burgers and barbeque. Had a lunch portion of their ribs (four joints) with beans and slaw, plus ice tea, with the total coming to $20 including tip. So definitely not cheap eats, but good food. I'm presently hanging out with the other barnacles at Starbucks, seated outside in 75 degrees with tall Pike Market blend with cream and sugar.

The weekend was decent, highlighted by my attendance Saturday at a watch & clock exhibition at the Fort Myers public library, sponsored by a local group of collectors. I saw a couple of interesting watches (pocket and wrist) that people brought in, and gave value estimates on. I spent four hours there, mostly jawboning with other members of the club and getting to know them. The one guy I was hoping would show up, another wristwatch collector, did not come, and I suspect he had better things to do with his time. That's one thing I've noticed with folks around here: with so many things to do, and with such nice weather, people are somewhat vague about commitments. I noticed this with meetup.com. People would RSVP and then not show. "I'll be there" often means "I'll be there unless something more interesting comes along."

Sunday was more or less errands and chore day, with stops at CVS Pharmacy for fish oil capsules, and the Walmart market for kitty litter (Abby gets her litter box changed out on Sundays) and a few other things. Did anyone catch the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special on NBC? I thought I was going to go mad during the Red Carpet preshow with all the inane questions of team Lauer/Guthrie/Roker, so I turned it off. I missed the gem of the evening when Jim Carrey asked them where they were hiding Brian Williams. I watched the replay, and it was literally the show-stopper of the evening. No one had a rejoinder on that one. The best Lauer could muster was, "Let's cut back to Carson Daly." Guess Carrey won't be appearing on NBC any time soon, but it was worth it. Leave it to Carrey to deposit the proverbial turd in the punchbowl.

I know everyone and his cousin was blogging and tweeting about the show during and after, and everyone has their opinions. I thought the flashbacks were priceless and brought back many funny memories. I thought most of the veterans looked haggard and tired ... don't think a lot of them will make it to the 50th. Musical numbers were a mixed bag. I had to hit the mute button on Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed." Ditto on Kanye West. Rap isn't my thing, and hearing it performed by someone lying on their back didn't make it sound any better. And what was that little slut Miley Cyrus doing there? Her sphincter-twitching rendition of "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" surely had Paul Simon (who looked like hell, by the way) hurling in the Green Room. That's four minutes that could have been better spent, that's for sure. (Where was Massive Head Wound Harry when we needed him?) But all in all, it was great fun, and I stayed up for the whole thing.

Friday the 13th was spent at the farmer's market and Fleamasters flea market as usual. I bought a hard copy of Randy Wayne White's novel "Night Vision." Started reading in in bed Friday night. And realized about 15 pages into it that I read it already! Don't you hate it when that happens? That one will be going back to Chris the Book Guy next Friday, and I'm sure he'll let me trade it in on something else.

Thursday (Feb. 12), I was back aboard the “Big M” casino ship. A little nicer weather than last time. Calm seas and sunny skies with a high of  70 degrees. Breakfast this morning was at the Sunflower Café, off San Carlos. It abuts to a shopping center being torn down, and I found out that morning it’s going to be another Walmart Supercenter, which I believe will be Fort Myers’ fourth such store. Anyway, the Sunflower is the restaurant where your food order is prepared so quickly that time moves backward and you get your food before you have ordered it. If you want your eggs over easy, it’s better to order them over medium. I guess if you order them over easy, they arrive raw. (Sister) Dawn, I didn’t get a chance to take you there, either, but it’s like a big Greek family restaurant on the order of the “Omega” in West Allis. The cruise was fairly busy, with about 150 people on board (including a bus tour) and I won $114 at the craps table ... my first $100 win aboard the casino. Surely I will endure a spanking next time.

Tuesday (Feb. 10) I spent a day at FM Beach with a woman whom I will call “Rona” in case she doesn’t want her real name used on the blog. I met her on “ourtime.com,” a dating site for over 50 that I’ve been on before. I debated whether or not to put my dating exploits on the blog or not, but in the end I decided what the hell, because it’s all part of what I’m doing down here. It was a helluva windy day, and only 69 degrees, so it wasn’t exactly an ideal day for a beach walk, but we managed to do about a mile walk, and then headed over to the Gulfharbor Grille for drinks and appetizers. We were together for about 3 hours, and talked about doing an airboat tour of the Everglades in a couple of weeks. We’ll see if that happens. The day was pleasant enough; we seem to have a few things in common. She’s retired and for fun (and sometimes a little income) she is a shell artist and painter, and dabbles a little bit in home decorating. She's originally from Ohio, but has been here a long timel and knows the area real well and offered me some tips on different things to do and places to go. But I don’t see her as the type who would want to spend any time in Wisconsin. But that’s OK. At this point, I’m looking for women with whom I could see myself being friends, rather than judging them right off the bat based on whether I could see myself married to them. So I’m not necessarily lowering my expectations, just adjusting them, if that makes any sense. So we’ll see what happens.

Wednesday (Feb. 11) was tamale day at La Casita, so I enjoyed a couple of delicious tamales (one chicken, one pork) with pinto beans and rice. I don't know why more places make them (and why this place only makes them once a week). They must be labor-intensive or something.


I am getting a little more prepared for the watch show in Kissimmee in about a month. There will be two shows there back to back, so it looks like I’ll be spending about 3 days/3 nights there. Plus, I’m spending three days in St. Petersburg to get try and get a feel for that city as a possible wintering spot. I booked a private room in a home near downtown on “airbnb.com” which will be my first time using this website, so I’m interested to see how this will work out. I get the run of the house, full kitchen privileges, and a private bedroom and bath, all for $60/night. If you want to see the place I booked, you can view it here. I thought a residence would give me a better “feel” for the city versus a regular hotel/motel room. My next door neighbor will look in on Abby again.

That's all for now.

Bruce