Today is Lou's Birthday

Got Lou his favorite lunch, Five Guys Cheeseburger and fries. Had a lot of paperwork to do today so I didn't get out of the shop until after 3pm. I had been eyeing a store that sells cheesecake for a while; The Better Cheesecake. Stopped in there and picked out a yummy looking raspberry cheesecake that was just the right size. I made Lou his favorite homemade tacos for dinner and he had just enough room for a piece of cheesecake afterwards. He thanked me for not making a big deal of his birthday. Funny how birthdays become more of an annoyance than anything after a while. He did get a call from Lois and I know it made him very happy. It made me happy too.
A trip to the dock watching the tropical storm bring dark clouds from the south so I didn't stay long. The tide had been so high that there was still flooding on the grassy area at the shoreline. I had to pick my way through high ground to get to and from the dock. I got to watch the clouds swirling above me as the storm moved in. It rained hard for a while, but nothing big.

Sunday Afternoon Drive

We woke to a phone call from my Kate. It was after 9:30 am, she wasn't jumping the gun, we were being slugs! Got the lowdown on her latest wedding while I made my coffee and put the electric kettle on for Lou's tea. So fun to know she is happy and having fun! After our usual morning bacon and eggs (for Lou) and gluten free waffels (for me) breakfast we decided to head out to explore the area east of Tampa. We drove over to Plant city and stopped at the train station. It started to rain while we were there, but for me it only added to the experience.

A Thursday Holiday!

We both slept terrible last night. I was up till after 3am and Lou got up at 1:30 and didn't sleep much afterwards. It was a good day Not to do too much work. Dana and Nancy had invited us to go with them to a Ray's Baseball game today. Since Lou wanted to get a morning's work done before we went, they picked me up and we went to breakfast at a local coffee shop/diner type of place. I had eggs and grits (yes, I have become a southerner!) We then headed over to the shop picked up Lou and Dana and Nancy got to see the shop for the first time. We got to Tropicana Field in plenty of time to hear the National Anthem.
The Rays ended up behind by two, but we got a bit of excitement in the bottom of the 8th inning when Rays had a grand slam and added to their anemic 2 points already on the board. (doesn't that sound so like an announcer?)
I was going to blow off T Tapp tonight, but thought it would make me sleep better to go. So I did and it was a good workout. I started working out with my weights again last week and doing my old routine in tandem with T Tapp and I feel a lot better in my torso and tummy. I also started to get out and walk more often. I have been steadily losing inches. I have a dress I wore to Katie's High School graduation that I would love to wear again. I took it out and have it hanging in a place where I can see it every day to remind me of my goal!
Got home from T Tapp in time to get in a dock visit before the sun set. Spied a flock of Ibis heading towards me and snapped a photo just in time. "No see 'ems" were biting me terribly so didn't stay out too long.

Everything has a story!

I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner the other evening and I started thinking about what Lou and I had brought into our marriage and how we have incorporated it all into our daily life.
Lou's cutting board is the larger one. He thinks he acquired it upon returning to the single life in 1986. He says that he probably picked it up at the grocery store when he realized he didn't have one. I had large ones similar during my previous life, but they were either lost to the division or sold at a garage sale. I use my little paddle style cutting board often. I bought it when I was 19, sometime shortly before I went to live in Tucson in 1974. I stayed in Tucson about 18mo. working at The Broadway dept store as the basic stock manager, I had my own office and pager number (you know that chime you would hear in dept. stores) for about 6 months before they eliminated that position and made me Men's Furnishings Mgr. It is the job that made me dislike shopping.

Pink Clouds and a Half Moon

I always wanted to write a book entitled Pink Clouds and a Half Moon...just haven't gotten a story to go with it yet. I saw pink clouds and a half moon tonight as I sat looking at the sky from my favorite bench on my favorite dock. The moon was high in the sky and at first I couldn't see it. When I looked further south and saw the filmy pink clouds I started searching for the moon. There was cotton candy and mashed mango clouds interwoven with the lower silky gray rain clouds. I had seen the moon on the weekend and it was a sliver of a moon so I knew it was close to being a half moon by now, but I couldn't see it yet. Then the wind blew the lower gray clouds south and behold exactly what I was looking for; a half moon to go with my pink clouds. There must be a depression around Puerto Rico that is affecting us since the wind was quite brisk tonight. No manatees, but a hovering osprey that I watched until he dove in for his dinner....saw that little fish fighting for his life in his talons. Off behind me in the shallows, a great blue heron landed in the fishing area of a snowy white egret and displaced him to another spot on the beach with a throaty squawk. The energy that comes off the water when the wind blows like that is so attractive to me! I feel more alive in the wind when I am on the water. Don't know why, probably those negative ions tickeling my primeval brain.

Seven Years of Marriage!

Wow! We have been married 7 years as of tomorrow July 19th. It has been a wild time. If you had asked me on our wedding day where we would be today I would never have guessed this would be our life. It hasn't all been perfect, but it has been wonderful and I am honored to be married to my Lou! We celebrated with a night out. We had a couple or restaurants in mind, but we decided to stay local and go to Cello's right here in Safety Harbor. They only take reservations, they only accept cash, and they do not offer alcohol, although they will provide glasses if you BYOB. Had a lovely filet mignon and shared a piece of key lime pie. Fun to dress up. Sat out on the dock (of course) later as the sun set. The breeze was lovely after such a hot day.

Friday night we also went out! Jeanne (my T Tapp instructor) came over with her husband Lloyd. We had some margaritas; blended by yours truly and some of my famous nachos. Then we walked over to Main St. for 3rd Friday celebration.....street fair night in Safety Harbor. The couple of dress shops that Jeanne and I went into were a lovely respite from the heat, and this was after 8pm! We ended up in Taste, a cafe/wine bar listening to a very good singer and guitarist combo. Since we really were on our "first date" with Jeanne and Lloyd it was a good place to get to know each other better and it was a blast. Seemed like we got along famously and had a lot of similar interests. Jeanne sent me a text Sat. morn to that effect too. We feel like we are no longer strangers in a strange land. They both came from Brooklyn about the same time we came from California.

Today is lazy day again! Sunny and warm again and wishin' we had a boat, but that will come in time.
A nice chat with Kate this morning added that extra love to my day.

Old Bull Manatees

Last night at the dock....it was after 8 and that pink/blue air was growing more intense. I always watch the water for movement; fish jumping, dolphins, or manatees. I got the manatees last night. It seemed like a group of three old, slow moving bulls were hanging out together, feeding on the bottom grasses. Since it was only about 2 feet deep I could look down into the water and even in the diminishing light I could see one big guy cruising just below the surface. His back was severely scarred from props that have hit him over the years. His breathing noise was at a minimum and none of them hardly moved the water as they slid under the dock and around the adjacent calm waters. I figured they had learned how to be stealthy from a lot of years of practice and that is how they have survived so long. The manatees I usually see are playing wildly or doing what manatees do to communicate, so they are quite visible even from a distance.