Casinos, COSTCO, Cold, New Car

Hi all:

Been meaning to update the blog, but a nasty cold has caught me unawares, as the old phrase goes. I guess it wouldn't be a winter stay in Florida without an end-of-season cold. (I've gotten one of these almost every year that I've been down here.) Started Sunday 3/26 and by Tuesday I was in the thick of it. Nasty stuff, I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say it's really knocked me on my ass. I'm still not out of the woods, but feeling a little better and by next week should be in good shape.

It's been a busy last few weeks since my last update March 15. I've been to casinos, a live theater production, a really nice first buying trip to Costco. And just a couple nights ago on April 3 I helped (sister) Dawn lease a new 2017 Toyota Corolla.

Let's get going. On March 18, Dawn and I attended the annual Ft. Myers Reading Festival, usually held at the Harborside Event Center, but this year held outdoors at adjoining Centennial Park because the event center is under construction in conjunction with the new $60 million Marriott hotel being built onto the center that is scheduled to open Feb. 2018. We were a little concerned that the weather would be too hot, but we had a beautiful day. Author signings were set up in two park pavilions, while author lectures were set up in large tents. There were no "big name" authors here this year, but instead some really interesting lesser known authors. We latched on to a couple, Dawn found Colin Campbell, while I discovered Craig Pittman. Campbell's book, "One Big Dog: Free Days with George" is about Campbell and his 130-pound Newfoundland and how they turned each other's life around. If you like "Marley & Me" and/or "The Art of Racing in the Rain," you will love this book.

Dawn, Colin, and George

Craig Pittman's latest book, meanwhile, is titled "Oh, Florida" and is a collection of the wild and wacky tales of Florida over the last 100 years or so. Pittman is a serious environmental reporter for the Tampa Bay Times, but is also a collector of the offbeat stories that permeate Florida culture, like the teen who tossed a live alligator through the driveup window of a Loxahatchee Wendy's in October of 2016. While Pittman's book is laugh-out-loud funny, the stories are often grounded in news of a more serious nature. Favorites causes of his are the loss of habitat for Florida's wildlife, and how runoff from Lake Okeechobee is ruining Florida's beaches.

On March 22, Dawn and I went to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater for a production of "Anything Goes," originally performed in 1934 and revived numerous times through the decades. It's filled with wonderful tunes (music and lyrics) by Cole Porter, including the title song, along with "I Get a Kick Out of You," "It's De-Lovely," and more. For the meal, we had a delicious buffet with carved pork tenderloin as the protein highlight (also fish and chicken); a full salad bar, and a separate dessert buffet with many treats.  Here we are having post-dinner coffee:

The two lead characters in the play are Billy Crocker and Hope Harcourt, both ably played by Conner Robert Fallon, and Allison Fund. But we thought Christina Tompkins, playing the character "Reno," stole the show, along with a shout out to Theresa Walker, who played "Erma," flapper gal girlfriend to one of show's gangster characters. The play's director managed to work in a few local-libs, including a reference to Mel's Diner, a local eatery, which brought laughs. They even got the orchestra involved in a gag about Mrs. Harcourt's (Hope's mother) missing Yorkie, which was eventually found in the ship's swimming pool.

Mrs. Harcourt: "What was Cheeky doing in the swimming pool?"

Orchestra (in unison) "The dog paddle."

(Rimshot off the snare drum to the cymbal)

All in all, much fun. There is nothing quite live theater.

On March 27, Dawn and I drove the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Fla. Dawn took the day off without pay to have a little fun and do something with her brother. We were supposed to go on a bus tour to South Beach (Miami Beach) to visit the Art Deco district, lunch at Lincoln Mall, and boat around Biscayne Harbor. But we were on a wait list for that, and unfortunately an opening never occurred, so we drove to the casino on our own. We had breakfast and lunch in one of the casino's eateries (The Blue Plate). We gambled some. Dawn lost $25 in the slot machines, and I came out $60 ahead on Blackjack. We also walked the casino perimeter to look at all the rock-n-roll memorabilia, which was fun. All in all, a pleasurable day together.

On March 28, I made my first buying trip to Costco. (Niece) Kris facilitated this by purchasing a $100 Costco cash card on my behalf. This allowed me entrance into the Costco store as a "Class 99 member" meaning I am here as Costco's guest with certain limitations on member benefits. So this is a nice little wrinkle in the system that allow a "casual shopper" like me to visit the store occasionally. Anyway, I started off in the store's cafeteria, which was doing quite a booming business. I got an Italian sausage sandwich that I swear was about 9 inches long. Damn thing looked like a horse cock. Served on a nice Italian style hard roll, smothered in steamed onions and sweet peppers. I got a self-serve soda to go with, and that had unlimited refills. All for --- drum roll please --- $3.59. This would easily be a $7-to-$8 sandwich anywhere else, and you could figure a couple bucks for a soda. So right off the bat, I am $6.50 or better to the good. This I paid cash for and didn't use the cash card. Next, I went shopping and bought the following items:

Biggest savings was on the crabmeat. This is fresh (not frozen) jumbo lump crab, which I use to make crab cakes. And I'm not talking those shitty crab cakes like you get at Red Lobster that are mostly filler. I'm talking big ol' Maryland style cakes with chunks of crab big as your thumb nail, and just enough bread crumb and egg to hold it together. This pound of crabmeat would have cost me $36.98 at Publix, which is the only other place I know that has it. Next biggest savings was on the zip loc bags. I now have 216 quart size freezer bags, enough to last me at least a couple years. The cashew clusters were a bonus because I know Dawn loves them (I do, too) but I don't know the savings on those because there's no comparable product anywhere that I know of.

In any event, I figure I saved $61.45 on products that I know I will use. I've already made a batch of crab cakes for Dawn and myself, and they were fu**king great. Granola bars (98 of them) are Nature Valley, so I knew ahead of time they'd be great, and they last forever (darned near). The maple syrup (1 liter jug) will be awesome, I know. I love pure maple syrup on my homemade buttermilk pancakes, and I also use as a sweetener on oatmeal.

Best of all, I have $38 and change left on the cash card for another visit. And, Kris can recharge it for me when I get back to J'ville. So, in the immortal words of Arnold Schwartzenegger, "I'll be back" to Costco. Thanks, Kris.

Dawn has been talking "new car" ever since I got down here last November. So on April 3, we took advantage of the last day of Toyota's "1 for you" sale on purchases and leases. We went to AutoNation (the big Toyota dealer in Fort Myers) and got her into a three year lease on a Corolla at $205 per month with $1,400 down plus her 2005 Chevy Malibu, for which the dealer allowed $550 trade in value. In addition to many nice refinements (AC, Bluetooth, power windows, etc.) the white-with-grey-cloth upholstery Corolla has many nice safety features, including backup camera, collision warning with automatic braking, and "smart" cruise control, which automatically slows down the car if you get too close to a vehicle in front of you. We had a pleasant sales experience for the most part, until we got to the "finance guy." I have always found it bizarre that the car-buying process involves two steps. During the first phase, the salesman (or woman) makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and wonderful about buying this new vehicle. Then, the "F&I guy" (or gal) sits you down in a separate office that has all the appeal of a police interrogation room and proceeds to scare the shit out of you about all the possible things that could go wrong with the vehicle to the point where you start to wonder if you should have bought the car in the first place. In Dawn's case, the imaginary monster was "excess wear and tear." She needed to guard herself against the possibility of being assessed excess wear penalties at the conclusion of the lease. He eventually wore us down. But back at the condo, I looked into the company that administers the policy (Safe-Guard Products International of Atlanta, Ga.),, and the reviews were unanimous: The whole outfit is a sham. So we are in the process of cancelling the policy, under a veiled threat of giving AutoNation less-than-favorable reviews in the usual Internet venues, plus with Toyota Corporate.

But in the meantime, Dawn has a spanking new vehicle with enough AC to freeze the testicles off a brass monkey. It is a quantum leap forward from the 2004 Chevy Malibu which, God bless it, ferried her safely through city and highway lo these past 12 years. Here's a couple of pics of Dawn with her new car:

Well, that pretty much brings things up to date. I should also report that my UW Credit Union credit card was hijacked. Their fraud department picked up some charges being made in New York City, so they called me on the phone to confirm. So I'll be getting a new credit card here in Fort Myers in about a week. Just wanted to mention this to everyone to be ever vigilant with their credit card and keep a watch on charges. I have no doubt this occurred as a result of using my credit card for online purchases. Price of admission I guess.

I'll be hitting the road north on the 24 of April, just 19 from the time I send off this message. I've decided to go up through the Mississippi Gulf for the first time and take a more leisurely pace home because I will not have (cat) Abby in the car with me, but am instead leaving her with Dawn for the next six months. This is to accommodate a trip to Australia in September with (sis-in-law) Julie. This way, I won't have to find someone to look after Abby for the estimated six weeks it will take to complete this vacation.

Bye for now,

Bruce