Florida Oranges

Dawn and I have noticed that, for the second year in a row, the local oranges aren't very good. They're dry and pithy and kind of sour ... not like the sweet, juicy oranges we remember. So I did a little investigating and found out that the oranges (and indeed all the citrus crops) here are being devastated by a bacterium (singular of bacteria) that is spread by an insect no larger than a grain of rice. The bug is the Asian citrus psyllid, and the disease is called "huanglongbing" or more commonly "tree greening" down here. Yep, it's a gift from our Asian friends, and the bacterium is so devastating to citrus crops that in 2003, the United States classified it as a bioterror weapon. At first, affected trees produce off-color, mis-shapen fruit that have an off- or bitter flavor. Eventually, the trees drop their fruit prematurely, and both trees and their fruit are useless.

The Florida Dept. of Agriculture has been keeping its eye on this disease since 1969 when it was discovered, but it's only been recently that the disease has taken a significant bite out of the citrus -- and particularly the orange -- industry. Just this season (2016-2017), Florida predicts a 26 percent drop in the orange harvest compared with last season. That's a fourth of the crop, and translates into 1.8 BILLION pounds of fruit!

So if you do the math, the disease left unabated (and there's no cure for this, at least one that's economically viable) could kill the industry that made Florida famous in four years. One long-term possible solution is to plant 20 MILLION new trees in the next few years, and hope the disease runs its course. But newly planted trees (if they are started from seed versus grafting) can take up to 15 years to produce fruit.

In the meantime, California and Brazil (which grows more oranges than anybody incidentally) can pick up some of the slack, but the disease is gaining force in those locations as well.

So expect to pay more for fresh oranges, and that glass of OJ in the coming months and years. As for the immediate effect on Dawn and I, we are not buying the local Navels, which are the only oranges in season right now, nor are we shipping them to anyone. The Honeybells (hybrid between navels and tangerines) will come in January, followed by the Valencias last. We'll see if those are any better. Meanwhile, the grapefruit are still very good, as well as the lemons and limes. And the fresh OJ is still very good, but expensive ($5 for 1/2 gallon) because I suppose they have to squeeze more oranges to get the same amount of juice.

OK, on to what's been happening this past week.

Friday, Nov. 11, Veterans' Day. I'm happy to report that the snafu with my bicycle was a minor one, requiring only that I turn the handle bars 360 degrees to relieve pressure on the front wheel brake cables. This was the coolest thing to happen to me all day! I had turned the handle bars around by mistake when loading the bike into the Prius from the bike shop yesterday. 

After a breakfast of thick cut bacon and my made-from-scratch buttermilk pancakes, Dawn and I walked a lap around Lakes Park. We skipped the Fleamasters flea market today. We drove to the Gulf Coast Town Center, which I call the "Bermuda Triangle Shopping Center" because it is so big and confusing, and once you enter, it seems impossible to exit. Anyway, there is a place there called "Massage Heights" where you can get a great price on a one-hour massage ($60) if you enroll in a program where they deduct $60 monthly from your checking account. I enrolled in the program, got a tour of the facility (nice, but no locker room/shower), and scheduled my first massage for the following Wednesday.

We then had lunch at one of the many eateries at the shopping center called "Miller's Ale House." We have eaten there before at another of their locations, so we knew the food was good. Their daily lunch special was fish-n-chips for $5.99 which I must say was the best bargain I've run across so far this season. Dawn had a make-you-own burger with bacon, bleu cheese, and mushrooms. Everything was delicious.

Saturday Nov. 12. This morning, we cleaned out the fridge and threw out lots of old stuff, including four bottles of salad dressing. We also re-arranged the shelves into a more logical pattern that would allow for better use of space. We needed to do this because we went to the Walmart Market and bought $90 worth of groceries for a meal plan that we mapped out for the coming week. We were able to get everything in the fridge and freezer with room to spare. In the afternoon, I took my first major bike ride of the season, traveling north on Gladiolus/Six Mile Cypress Parkway from Lakes Park to Daniels Parkway, a distance of 4.5 miles each way, 9 miles total. It was a beautiful ride, and the bike performed flawlessly. For dinner, I made hot beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and gravy.


Sunday Nov. 13. Breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, home fries, toast, and coffee. I went to Planet Fitness for a workout while Dawn did some errands. We rendezvoused back at the condo, and decided to go to Fort Myers Beach. I clipped a coupon from the Southwest Florida Weekly for a free cocktail (when you buy lunch) at the Sunset Beach Grill. I had a Fuzzy Hurricane (yep, peach schnapps in addition to gin and rum) and Dawn had a strawberry Dacquiri. These were normally $7 apiece, so the coupon saved us $14. For meals, Dawn had fish-n-chips (great) and I had a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs (so-so). We lingered a while to listen to a male/female duo singing vocals to pre-recorded sound tracks. They were actually good, and the guy (who looked like a bouncer) did a solo rendition of Michael McDonald's "Minute by Minute" which I thought was especially good. From there, we walked down to the Lani Kai Resort and each had a rum-n-diet Coke on the rooftop bar, six stories above Fort Myers Beach. Lovely. For dinner, I prepared lemon-garlic shrimp over linguini and tossed salad. In the evening, I went on the healthcare.gov website and renewed health coverage for 2017, this time signing up with Mercy Healthcare in favor of DeanCare. This hit a major snafu later this week, but I'll get to that in a moment. For the time being, I was elated to be saving nearly $70 a month from what DeanCare was providing.


Monday, Nov. 14. Back to work for Dawn. I had a banana/strawberry smoothie for breakfast, then walked a lap around Lakes Park. I decided to hit the Market Square shopping center, which contains a Barnes and Noble bookstore and a Cost Plus World Market, two of my faves. I spent about an hour at  BN, but did not buy anything. From there, was trying to find a cafe called "Crispers" for lunch, which my GPS indicated was somewhere in the parking lot. I had no luck finding it, but was getting mighty hungry so settled for a couple of items from the deli at a Super Target store, and ate them along with an iced latte at the Starbucks cafe inside Target. Not the best fare I've ever eaten, but it it cured the low blood sugar shakes. From there to the World Market where I spent $44 including some decent silverware (knives, forks, spoons) because the silverware provided by our landlord sucks, though god bless their hearts for trying. It's like trying to eat with slivers of metal, like they were stamped out of old cookie sheets or something. Oh, and I found the Crispers place at the far end of a strip mall that is part of the Market Square complex. Looks kind of like a Panera Bread, so I will give it a try next time. For dinner, chicken quesadillas and tortilla chips with salsa.  For dessert, I jury-rigged an orange crunch cake in an effort to duplicate a cake by the same name offered by the Bubble Room restaurant on Captiva Island. Yellow cake mix with orange juice substituted for the water. Icing is a blend of half buttercream frosting, half cream cheese (an eight ounce brick) with about 1/3 cup orange juice concentrate mixed in. In the middle of the two-layer cake is the crunch part made with sliced almonds, brown sugar, and butter, heated in a pan until everything melts together and gets crunchy when cooled. A little frosting goes in the center to act as glue to hold the crunchies in place. Assemble, frost, refrigerate, then serve. It was AWESOME.


Tuesday, Nov. 15. Did some errands in the morning with the Prius, including a stop at the post office to mail a copy of my book ($49.95 in the old checking account ... KA-CHING!) and an early lunch stop at the new Normal Love Chocoloate Cafe located on McGregor Blvd. by our old 'hood. Had a chocolate pecan tart that was awesome along with a cup of coffee. Ran me $10, but totally worth it. If you're going to blow your sugar/carb budget, this is the place to do it. Bike ride day. I rode Six Mile Cypress Parkway to the southern trail head of the John Yarborough bike trail, and rode it to the southern end at Colonial. Eight miles each way, for a total of 16 miles. I think one or two more trips like this, and I'll be ready to do Fort Myers Beach by bicycle, which is roughly the same distance, but includes a heart-thumping climb up the Mantanzas bridge, which I usually walk. Stopped at Sun Harvest Citrus on my way back for a five pound bag of grapefruit. For dinner, make chicken Parmesan, and rainbow sherbet with shortbread cookie for dessert.

Wednesday Nov. 16. Today is the farmers' market at Lakes Park, so I rode my bike over and had a nice breakfast of bagel/egg/sausage sandwich, fresh fruit and coffee. Then, to the Bermuda Triangle Shopping Center for my first massage with "Jill" at Massage Heights. I hadn't had a massage in over two months, so this was a welcome treat. I got the full body, with concentration on neck and shoulders. It was wonderful. I scheduled my next appt. on Dec. 13 with "Lynn," just to try someone different and compare. Had a nice lunch at PF Changs in the same shopping center. Chicken lettuce wraps, and an eggroll. Delicious.

Returned to the condo, and got the boom lowered on me by Mercy Health Care, which I am now calling Mercy-less. Some bean counter from their finance department emailed me to inform me I am not eligible for coverage because of my half-year spent in Florida. I must be in Wisconsin at least nine months of the year to be covered by them. So back to the drawing board on that one, and likely back to DeanCare again, at a nearly $100 per month increase in price over last year's coverage by them, and nearly $70 more a more than the Mercy-less plan. Can't deal with calling healthcare.gov right now. Made dinner instead of beef Stroganoff over egg noodles, and broiled Italian zucchini sticks (great way to prepare zucchini by the way, recipe HERE) and for dessert the rest of the orange crunch cake. Dawn and I played Scrabble and cribbage in the evening out on the lanai. Also, we received some GREAT news from Kim and John Regets, our landlords. We told them we wanted to renew our lease here at Summerlin Trace. They replied and said they would rent to us for another 12 months beginning in April at the same rate ($1,250 per month) as last year. This was a very pleasant surprise (and helped to offset the bad new about the health insurance), because I have been reading that rental rates have been going up in the Fort Myers area due to a rental shortage as more and more people are moving here, both for the winter season and year 'round. 

Thurs. Nov. 17. Weighed myself this a.m. Down two pounds from 261 to 259. My goal is to shed 40 pounds while down in Florida, and if I can maintain this pace, I should make it. Trying to eat healthy and get some form of exercise every day among biking, walking, swimming (pool at condo), and health club. I'm not going crazy with juice fasts or anything; just trying to eat healthy, go light during the day, but have a nice dinner with Dawn, and absolutely no evening grazing, which has always been my downfall.

Called healthcare.gov this a.m. and the lady I talked with terminated my contract with Mercy-less, and enrolled me in DeanCare once again. Once I got the email notice confirming enrollment with Dean (about 15 minutes after hanging up the phone), I went on the healthcare website and made my first month's premium payment of $171.68. We'll see what Trump and Company do to Obamacare, but in the meantime, I'm covered, baby!
Today's gameplan calls for a workout at Planet Fitness, and tonight is chef's night off, as Dawn and I are having dinner at 6 p.m. at the University Grill. I have been cooking dinners for nearly a week solid, which has yielded some great dinners, but also big cleanups in the kitchen, with Dawn on KP. I feel as though I am keeping the spirit of dear old Dad, Howard R., alive, whose kitchen messes during our childhood years of the '60s and early '70s were epic, including a pork chop episode that required the services of the Madison Fire Department.  

Bye for now,

Bruce