Update April 19

It's a gorgeous day here in Fort Myers ... we've really lucked out with the weather lately. Dry (not humid) in the mid 80s during the days and lower 60s at night. Perfect for sipping coffee in the lanai in the morning, and for taking walks in the evening around sunset. Things are winding down here for me; I'll be back on the road to Janesville, WI, in a about a week.

Still, some fun things to report, as Dawn and I continue to squeeze the last drops of fun out my time here.

I can report that we had a good time and three good meals out of Dawn's food box that arrived from "Hello Fresh" on April 9. Dawn did all the prep and cooking, so it was nice to have three nights off from preparing dinner. Our surprise favorite was the zucchini crusted chicken, served with Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and green beans. Didn't realize you could use zucchini as a "crust." You just have to shred it and use a towel to squeeze out as much moisture as you can. Coat the chicken in olive oil, then spoon on the zucchini, to which 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese is mixed in..

Don't know if any of you have tried these delivered fresh meals. A number of companies are doing them, including Blue Apron (which runs ads on TV), Home Chef, etc., in addition to Hello Fresh It's good, creative food for sure, but the boxes are expensive (typically $70 for three meals for two people) and there are literally POUNDS of packing material which have to be thrown out or recycled, including four large ice packs per box. You can only store and/or re-use so many ice packs before they fill up your freezer. And then, the meal ingredients are kind of wasteful. For example, the recipe for the mashed potatoes required 2 tablespoons of milk. So they sent a half pint carton! Meanwhile, the olive oil to coat the chicken breasts was not included. Luckily, we keep olive oil around. But not everyone does! Any way, we appreciated the gift from Dawn's friend, but we decided not to subscribe to any of their "plans." We're creative enough to do our own meal planning, and $70 will typically buy us enough groceries for a week's work of at-home meals (about 10 meals) with the balance of the week's meals eaten out. I would be interested in hearing from others who have tried this and/or still doing it.

Pool Party

This past Saturday (April 16), my meetup.com group of widows and widowers held a "Whacky/Tacky" pool party at the community pool of one of the group leaders. Participants were encouraged to dress accordingly, and yours truly did his best to join in the fun. A clothing trip to Walmart resulted in nearly head-to-toe orange, including swim trunks, orange socks (which I had to dye), orange-framed sunglasses (accomplished with orange duck tape), orange sandals, and ball cap. The only thing not completely orange was the Florida style shirt, with streaks of orange in it. Here is a still shot from a video that someone at the party put together:

Another picture:

It was great fun. There were about 35 at the party, including other people from the Cascades community where our group leader lives. There was live music (a duo performing dance music), and a buffet line of food. In addition, our little "sub-group" of widows and widowers had our own snacks, beer, wine, and cocktails.

Circus, Circus

Yesterday (Monday April 18) we decided on a whim to visit "The Ringling" in Sarasota, about a 1.5 hour drive north of here. Mondays are free admission to the Museum of Art at the Ringling Estate, and of course we could walk the grounds as well, including the fabulous "Ca' d' Zan" mansion of John and Mable Ringling. We arrived at the complex at about 12:30, watched the short orientation video, then headed off to the museum. The museum is not what you might expect, ala lots of circus and clown art, but rather a collection of fine European art collected by John and Mable during their many European visits.  Heavy focus is on masterpieces of the 17th and 18th centuries, many works by Rubens, Veronese, Velazquez, and Gainsborough. Many of the paintings are huge, mural-size works, with the scale of the various galleries to match. There were other objects on display, including furniture, earthenware, sculpture, and a really nice and interesting display of about 30 pocket/pendent/decorative watches from the 18th and early 19th centuries. These early watches were each individual works of art, which each piece of the movement made by hand. Emphasis back then was more on decoration than timekeeping ability, and only the rich could afford to carry such a timepiece. I could not take a picture of these because of low lighting, and flash was not only prohibited, but being under glass the pictures wouldn't turn out anyway, To my disappointment, no pictures of the watches were available in the gift shop, nor any mention made of them on the website. It appears that watches were merely a passing fancy of John Ringling for a time.

Our day ended on the beautiful terrace of Ca' D' Zan, the Ringlings' mansion.

We were not allowed entry to the mansion because we didn't pay owing to the "freeebie day" at the art museum. Likewise, we did not tour the circus museum, separate from the art museum. On days other than Monday, you pay a $25 admission fee and get to tour everything on the grounds, so we will return another time and do the whole enchilada. All in all, a very fun day, and I highly recommend this to anyone traveling to or near Sarasota. The story of the five (of seven) Ringling Brothers (born in McGregor, Iowa, and raised in Baraboo, Wisconsin) who started the circus is fascinating. It's hard for us to imagine that once upon a time the Ringling Circus was truly the "Greatest Show on Earth," a phrase which the company still uses to this day, by the way. Each of the five brothers was a multi-millionaire. The mansion that John built cost a staggering $1.6 million to build when it was completed in 1926. That's a lot of 10 cent admissions to the circus!

So long for now.

Bruce and Dawn