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 -- Scheduled Maintenance for the Prius, Date Disaster
Started the day with a haircut for Bruce at Doug's Barber Shop on Cleveland Ave. It's an old-fashioned barber shop, and the cuts are $11. "Dawn," (no relation to sister Dawn) is my regular barber there, and did a nice job making me look as good as can be expected.
From there to the giant Toyota dealership here in FM where I had them perform a 30,000 mile maintenance on the Prius, which ran me $317, including a 10% discount that my service rep, Graham (really cool guy from Ireland) gave me because the paperwork took longer than expected. In addition to oil change and tire rotation, I had a basic inspection/service of the air-condition system, and something called an "Induction and Throttle Body Service."
I had their courtesy driver take me over to "Miller's Ale House" on Colonial at Metro Parkway for one of the best burgers I've had down here, along with a pint of "Kona Big Wave," a craft beer brewed in Kona, Hawaii.
The afternoon was spent at Planet Fitness. At 6:30 p.m. I had a short first date with a woman named "Tammy" with whom I'd been corresponding on plentyoffish.com. We seemed to get along well on email. But when we met at "Bahama Breeze" for appetizers and beverages, I could tell within the first 15 minutes that it wasn't going particularly well. Sure enough, in exactly one hour, I got the old "I have to pick up someone at the airport" excuse, and she bolted like a scalded dog, leaving me to pick up a $39 check. Sure enough, the next day she sent me the "you're-a-nice-guy-but ..." email. I have, in fact, put my POF account on hold; there seems to be little interest among the female population down here in meeting a male member of the snowbird species.
Tuesday Dec. 15 -- Special Breakfast
I was craving something special for breakfast, so I had purchased a basic Krusteaz cinnamon coffee cake mix, and added dollops of ricotta cheese and frozen blueberries to the batter, and baked 'er up. Fantastic! And enough leftovers to make a couple of desserts with vanilla ice cream. I am simply not getting any slimmer down here. I work out, bike, and walk. But then we go through pints of Ben and Jerry's coffee heath bar ice cream like they are crack cocaine, and I am whipping up Paul Bunyan-sized breakfasts. So there is just no progress on the weight loss front, I'm afraid.
Dawn and I went shopping at "World Market" today to fill a giant wooden salad bowl with various potables to give away at the gift exchange at my upcoming holiday party, which you will read about a little further down. I bought cookies, crackers, jams, popcorn, herbal tea, and a lovely free-form coffee/tea mug, and all-told had about $30 invested, which was double the suggested $15 spending limit, but what the hell can you buy for $15 these days? Besides, I'm sure other guests will exceed the $15 limit because most of the people in the widows/widowers group do not look like they are hard up for money!
The other cool thing was that I booked tickets for Dawn and I on a dolphin cruise for Wednesday with a company called "Adventures in Paradise," which has several different cruises that they do in and around San Carlos Bay. The tickets were $25 each, for a 90-minute guided tour. Should be fun.
Wednesday Dec. 16 -- Dolphin Cruise
In the a.m., Dawn when and got her oil changed at "Scotty's," an independent garage not far from us. $39.95, and they took good care of her and didn't try to rip her off.
In the afternoon, we went on our dolphin cruise, which departs from a dock at Punta Rassa on the mainland and cruises along the Punta Rassa channel and eventually out into the Gulf of Mexico for about a mile. We were a group of about 15 on a pontoon style boat that holds up to 25 people. Our tour guide, Mike, was very informative, talking about the ecology of estuaries and the importance of mangrove (which is everywhere) to the ecosystem. Mike wore a sleeve around his neck and face for most of the trip, and Dawn finally asked him what it was, and he said it was to protect his face and neck from UV exposure. Apparently, we learned, there is an entire industry springing up around UV-protection wear that is sold to fisherman, highway construction workers, etc., who must work out in the sun all day. Special fabric is used that filters UV rays, and it saves workers from having to smear on sunscreen all the time, which has its own bad side effects. Interesting.
Anyway, we saw many dolphins, perhaps a dozen in all, that appeared to be concentrated into two pods. One of them actually leapt out of the water about four feet into the air, right in front of our boat. Hard to get pics because you had to have your camera ready at the precise moment, but here's one:
We also saw lots of birds, including a HUGE flock of white pelicans that gather every year on one of protected islands in the channel. They are the first birds to arrive for the winter, and they are the origin of the term "snowbird" as it applies to seasonal residents of Florida. It was a fun time, and Curt and Karen this is one of the attractions we plan on taking you to.
Unknown tourist at right |
We also saw lots of birds, including a HUGE flock of white pelicans that gather every year on one of protected islands in the channel. They are the first birds to arrive for the winter, and they are the origin of the term "snowbird" as it applies to seasonal residents of Florida. It was a fun time, and Curt and Karen this is one of the attractions we plan on taking you to.
Friday Dec. 18 -- Rain Day
Today, we had a big rain day, especially in the morning, which forced us to cancel our weekly Farmer's Market day. Instead, we had a large breakfast at I-Hop, mostly because Dawn had a $25 gift card there. The breakfast was OK, in that sort of generic Perkins-Denny's-I-Hop sort of way, but nothing fantastic. I went to a Starbucks in the afternoon in search of a muse to get going on one of my writing assignments coming due soon. I did make some progress, drawing energy from the other Starbucks barnacles gathered there, working on their laptops with earbuds firmly planted.
Saturday Dec. 19 -- Holiday Party
This evening was my big holiday party with the widow/widowers meetup group, hosted by Charlene at her home in the "Cascades" community of Estero. There were 28 guests in all, of which only 7 were guys, the rest females, showing the propensity of guys to kick the bucket first. We had games and prizes. Beer, wine, and spirits flowed. My goody basket/bowl made a huge hit at the gift exchange, and I ended up with a $15 movie gift card at a cinema-plex in Naples, which is a 48-mile round trip from here, but Dawn and I will go and combine various other activities in Naples (perhaps the zoo?) to make it a worthwhile trip. And the food --- oh my god the food. Everyone brought a dish, including one guy who brought about 10 pounds of beef brisket cooked in Jewish tradition (not barbecued) slow roasted, sliced, and served over egg noodles (optional on that last part). It was delicious. And then there were meatballs, deviled eggs, cheese/sausage platters, fruit trays, veggie trays, shrimp platters. Trays of desserts set up in a separate room of the house. We had seating inside, on the lanai room, and outside on a patio, and it was a beautiful night, around 70 degrees with low humidity and a nice breeze. It was, I thought, a perfect evening, and I had more fun than I thought I would because I don't feel I typically do well in large groups of people. I think it helped that everyone in the group was single (i.e., widowed) and I didn't feel like the odd man out at a party (like most I attend) where everyone is married. I got home from that around 10:30, having spent five hours at the party.
Sunday Dec. 20 -- Food Hangover
Had a horrible night sleeping on Saturday night ... woke up in the middle of the night with raging heartburn. Simply too much food and drink. Woke up with queasy stomach, which more or less lasted the day until about dinner time. Managed to slog through the day, which included a trip to the two markets we frequent to do our weekly grocery run. By 4:05, we were at "Buckets" for the Packers/Raiders game, and by this time I was finally hungry and so ordered a brat with sauerkraut, and had three beers during the game to wash it down. We were of course happy to see the Pack win over the Raiders 30 to 20. But we both agreed with one commentator that if the Pack expects to make it through the playoffs (they are assured of at least getting there at this point) they need to sharpen their offensive game. Listen to me talking football! Dawn seems to be pulling me into the Packer arena whether I like it or not.
Monday Dec. 21
Well, sorry that the blog update is a day late, but I really wasn't feeling at the top of my game yesterday, so I let it slide until today. Wherever you all end up over the Christmas holiday, Dawn and I wish you safe and happy times!
Bruce & Dawn
Always something doing down there... the dolphin trip sounded enchanting.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to read your letter, even when it's a more typical week. As to the date, don't fret. Sometimes just when you aren't looking, someone comes along. I still wouldn't give up on the "date" website. At most, you're out a lunch. And that widow/widowers club may lead to a relationship.
ReplyDeleteAlso good to see you are writing. Who you writing for?
We're in the final throes of packing. Take care Bruce and Dawn. Hope to see you this winter. You friend, Gene
Looking forward to that Dolphin Cruise. Karen
ReplyDelete