Sunday, November 22, 2015

Update Nov. 14-21

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 Gorgonzola -- was better. Meanwhile, Dawn struggled with the healthcare.gov website, and finally made her selection of a Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan here in Fort Myers that will run her about $125/monthly with tax credits. She'll finish out the year with the COBRA plan offered through Great Lakes. It's still all kind of "great mystery" because she still doesn't know who the providers will be, though it's a sure bet it will be through the Lee County Health System, since they are the dominant player down here.

Sunday Nov. 15 -- Green Bay Packer Day

Dawn has been suffering from Packer withdrawal since we left Wisconsin Nov. 2, so we found a local pub just around the corner from us ("Buckets") which airs the Packer games and watched the game along with about 20 other fans. We got there about 12:30 to secure a booth for the 1 p.m. kickoff, and proceeded to order food and drinks. By the time it was over, we had ordered a Reuben sandwich (for Dawn); a small cheese/sausage pizza (for Bruce ... the pizza by the way was sub-par, necessitating a continued search for decent pizza down here); a half bucket of chicken wings with celery and bleu cheese dressing; and four bottles of Michelob "Ultra" beer. The food/drink tab came to a little over $50, and all to watch the Pack get beat (on their own turf no less) by a bunch of hacks from Detroit ... a city forced to declare bankruptcy in 2013. I'm no expert, but the Packers looked awful. The Lions had not beaten the Pack in Lambeau since 1991, but today was their day. I will say it was a nail-biter up to the end. The Pack's botched field goal at the end was the icing on the cake. Dawn and I will need to adjust our "food strategy" to lessen the impact on the wallet. The strategy by the other fans seems to be sip on soft drinks/beer up to the half-time, then order the food.

Monday Nov. 16 -- Car Insurance, New Nike's

Dawn decided on State Farm for her car insurance, so we went to a local agent. He turned us loose on a new admin associate who proceeded to falter through the quote process and came up with a package that will run her $409 every six months, versus the $285 every six months she was paying in Wisconsin, so about $21 more per month. This is about right, based on what I've heard about car insurance costing more in Florida. Mostly because of something Florida requires called PIP insurance which covers bodily injuries to people involved in the accident, no matter who is at fault. Certain states require it, and Florida is one.

After that, we went to DG Chinese Restaurant (in the same strip mall at State Farm) and dined on Dim Sum, including steamed pork dumplings, Terryaki beef skewers, and shrimp spring rolls. All delicious.

From there, we went to the giant Miromar Outlet Stores in Estero, just south of Fort Myers. I went to the Nike store and got myself a spankin' new pair of running shoes ... the "Pegasus 31" model ... in royal blue with a neon green inner liner and soles. Holy crap, there were about 50 different athletic shoes from which to choose, but a very nice lady at the store steered me toward these, and they are totally worth it. Great support and comfort to replace a sloppy pair of "Sketcher's" that I absent-mindedley bought about a year ago that turned out to offer almost no support. Support is a good thing. Dawn didn't buy anything, except for an iced coffee that we each bought at a Starbucks later in the afternoon for a pick-me-up. We got in a very good walk, as we traversed the outdoor mall from one end to the other and back again.

Tuesday Nov. 17 -- A Costly Glass of Wine and a Martian

Tonight is "dinner-and-a-movie" night with the Southwest Younger Widows/Widowers meetup group, and tonight we had dinner at "Cirella's", an upscale Italian bistro in Estero, where I paid the world record price (at least for me) of $11 for a glass of house-brand Pino Noir during supposed "Happy Hour" because the PN was not among those happy-hour priced! This is the deal ... many places rig their Happy Hours so you need to ask precisely what's on sale versus what's full price. So lesson learned. For main course, I ordered the Lasagna at $18, which was some of the best I've had in recent memory. So all in all, a good meal, and good company. Keep it perspective, I guess. For the movie, the group went to see "Missing You Already," a chick flick in which one chick dies of cancer, and I had absolutely no interest in seeing (had enough cancer, thank you very much). So I opted for "The Martian" which has been on the screen for a while, but I didn't get a chance to see before leaving Wisconsin. Because I had read the book, I really wanted to see the movie, and I thought it was AWESOME! Very true to the book, and Matt Damon turned in a fabulous performance. Ice cream afterward. A very enjoyable evening.

Wednesday Nov. 18 -- A New Apartment!

We got a tip from my former landlord, Heather, about a condo unit for rent at Summerlin Trace, off Summerlin Road at Lakewood. Great location ... right across from the back entrance to Lakes Park, and a couple miles closer to the beaches than our current location. The property owners -- John and Kim Regets -- met us at the property, and we fell in love it. After a little negotiating, we got the place for $1,250/month (completely furnished)with a $500 security deposit, and our lease will start April 1. Here are some photos:








The rub will be getting out of the current lease before July 15. I am hoping the current landlord will work with me in releasing me from the lease early. I have offered to help by showing the current apartment to prospective renters.

Anyway, we are very happy about this, and celebrated by going to Pincher's Crab Shack, were I had a pound of stone crab and Dawn had deep fried scallops.

Thursday November 19 -- Seminole Casino

Now that the Big M casino ship is no longer in business, I thought we might check out the Seminole Casino in Imokalee, about a 45 minute drive east of here. We arrived about 11 a.m., did a walking circle of the casino to check it out, then had lunch at the "First Street Deli," one of three eating establishments in the casino. We each had a mile-high deli sandwich, me a corned beef and pastrami combo Reuben sandwich, and Dawn a corned beef on Pumpernickel with Swiss and cole slaw. Both were delicious. From there, we each played slots, because there were no $5 gaming tables; the minimum was $10, and this is too rich for my blood. I won $16 playing two different slots, and Dawn lost just shy of $20, so it was about a wash between us. It was interesting to drive to Imokalee to see the vast difference between a seaside city (Fort Myers) and a landlocked one. Not a whole lot going in in Imokolee besides the casino. Big agricultural town with lots of fruit/vegetable pickers. Businesses with bars on the windows, and bilingual signs everywhere. I'll let you use your imagination. I don't know that we'll be back, but good to know there's a casino nearby if we get an itch to play slots.

Friday November 20 -- Farmer's Market and Fleamasters

Per tradition, Friday is farmer's and flea market, and we arrived Lakes Park about 9 a.m. for breakfast and commiserating with my group of buddies from the bicycle club. We had a few good laughs with them. After that we stopped at Chase Bank; we both had a little business to do. I had to obtain some additional "counter checks" because I forgot to bring the checkbook from Janesville. From there, we went to Fleamasters. Not much on our shopping list today, but I did pick up a book from Chris the Book Guy, and a battery for an Accutron 214 watch that I will sell on eBay. We also had lunch in food court ... I had a gyro platter, and Dawn a Nathan's hot dog. On the way out, we grabbed a 10-pound bag of Indian River ruby red grapefruit which I prepare for our breakfasts by peeling and sectioning the fruit so we each end up with a bowl of perfect skinless sections. Takes some time, but it's worth it.

Saturday November 21 -- Writers Club, Workout, Steak Dinner

Today was the monthly meeting of the Gulf Coast Writers Association, and we had an excellent guest speaker -- Charles Sobczak -- who spoke on writing about nature. He is not only a writer who has sold close to 100,000 books, but also also a naturalist who is very versed in the wildlife of southwest Florida with an emphasis on birds and reptiles. He is also concerned about global warming. So his talk was a very engaging mix of the writing and publishing worlds, along with pictures of wildlife, and he included some of his recent trip to Australia, which makes me want to go even more! I got a chance to meet Artis Henderson, who writes a weekly column for the "Florida Weekly" newspaper that I really enjoy. A lovely gal who lost her husband in the first Iraq war and wrote a memoir entitled "Unremarried Widow" that ended up on the NYT Bestseller List. Anyway, a most enjoyable morning.

From there, went to Planet Fitness for the second workout of the week (I also went on Tuesday), and then came back to apartment and collected Dawn for a steak dinner at a neighborhood pub called Buster's. One of their nightly specials they run on Saturday/Sunday is a one-pound sirloin steak dinner with all the trimmings for $11.99. I had enjoyed that dinner there many times during the 2014-15 season, but this evening it was not so good. The steak tasted like it had been brined in a salt solution to tenderize it. While certainly edible, it was overly salty, and we each brought back half our steak, and I think what I will do with it is chop it up and use it in a shepherd's pie. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Sunday November 22 -- Groceries and Another Packer Game

Today I am updating the blog, and the plan is to make a major grocery run, and then head back to "Buckets" for the 4:25 Packer game against the Minnesota Vikings. We had a good rain shower here in the morning, and now the sun is out.

That's all for now.

Bruce & Dawn

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. OK, I must have done something wrong because I see this note. Anyway, I was thanking you for doing the blog. Curt and I saw the Martian too and enjoyed it. I also said that I want to put Christmas lights on my bushes, but have to wait until the snow melts, probably by Thursday. That's it, have a good day. Karen

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  3. When I read your blog, you make me hungry. You guys are gourmands. So, you're back in Florida, and sister Dawn has moved to Fort Myers, too. Nice for both of you. Will you be sharing the condo in Summerlin? And dropping the apartment in Janesville?

    Winter arrived last week in Eagle Harbor with crusty snow and cold temps. So, El Nino has been good to us. Winter's about three weeks late.We're working on arranging everything for three months on St. Pete Beach January until April 7. We're closing the house and shutting down utilities, so we are boxing things that can't freeze to store at the neighbors with the proviso they can use whatever goods they can.

    Hope to see you and Dawn when we're down. Gene

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    1. Hi Gene and Pegg: Good to hear from you and glad you find the blog interesting. To answer your question, Dawn and I will be sharing the condo at Summerlin Trace. But I will only be there for six months out of the year. I'm still too attached to Wisconsin to give it up. I enjoy the milder temps and the change of seasons in Wisconsin. Just don't like the ice and snow of the winters that gives me cabin fever. I also stay healthier here in Florida during the winter. Fewers colds, flu, etc. So this is the "plan" for the foreseeable future ... six months Wisconsin, six months Florida. The best of both worlds!

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