Catching Up

Wow - it's been a while since I last let you know what's been going on with us!  Well, to be honest, not a whole lot of exciting things have been going on.  A lot of the usual:  unpacking, doing errands, watching movies on Roku - you know.

There was one space where my back decided to spasm (probably from a bad night on the too-hard bed) and sort of put me out of commission for 3 days but I've recovered from that, and then there were the other three days where our internet connection went out; mostly because an incompetent (or lazy) Tier One technician at our IP company screwed things up royally.  But as you can tell, that too has been remedied.

We did have an interesting trip one day to Ocala, which is not many miles north of here.  See, because we know we're going to be busy unpacking for the foreseeable future and won't be taking any RV trips we decided to take Great A'Tuin up to Happy Trails RV Service to have it cleaned and winterized so we can store it safely for a few months.  Happy Trails works out of a charming RV park in Ocala (actually, MOST RV parks are very appealing and pretty) so up we drove one afternoon and found the place with no trouble.

Most oaks around here are covered
in Spanish Moss

Inside the RV Park

They guided us to the back of the park where they do their servicing, which was really woodsy and pretty.  We sat there for a while just enjoying the sunshine and moss-covered trees, and our conversation with the service people eventually turned to animals, as it usually does with us.  One of the guys there told us a story of how he was doing some repairs for a lady who complained that her refrigerator had stopped working and she couldn't figure out why.  He eventually got up into her ceiling just above her fridge and found the reason she was having trouble:  A squirrel had climbed into the roof and not only chewed up all the wiring but had used it to build a nest and give birth to three babies.

This baby and its siblings were only about
3 weeks old when he showed them to us

The mother had left so he adopted the little things, and had them in a soft-sided pet carrier which he brought out of his truck to show us.  Apparently they had just recently been born because he told us they were still fur-less when he took them.  Now, being used to having him handle them, they were pretty tame and happily tolerated my petting their soft little heads.  SERIOUSLY cute!!

Well, Al and I were told that the servicing of the RV would take about three hours so we asked them to ferry us over to the nearby Marriott Residence Inn that we had observed on our way to the park so we could grab a bite to eat and generally be out of everyone's way.  They did us that favor and it was only then that we noticed that we had been dropped off at the back of the building.  Al had not worn his knee brace (it tears holes in his trousers) so we had to figure out the shortest way to get to the front door, and I "ran interference" for him; discovering not only the front door but the fact that their dining room was 1) only for residents and 2) not open until 6pm anyway.   Great.  Leave it to Marriott. No WONDER I'm still loyal to Hilton - THEY would've fed us!

Anyway, as good luck would have it there was a Holiday Inn & Suites next door, so we wended our way through their shrubbery and into the hotel, where we spent 2 peaceful hours in the lobby reading the complimentary USA Today, napping and generally people-watching while we waited for their restaurant to open.  This restaurant, called SKY, is an Asian-Fusion place that my brother-in-law tells me used to be in The Villages but apparently didn't meet with favor in that neighborhood.  It certainly seems to do well in the hotel - but of course restaurant prices in hotels are ordinarily outrageous, and this place was no exception.  We each had one beverage (Al's involved alcohol) and we ordered 3 hors d'oeuvres off the menu and the bill came to over $40!  Whew!  Happily though, the hors d'oeuvres were incredibly wonderful!  VERY sophisticated, gorgeously presented, completely delicious!  It's website boasts that Sky has won the Golden Spoon award for the last two years, and I can believe it!  Go take a look at the presentation of some of their dishes and you'll see how beautifully they're done: http://ocalasky.com/PhotoGallery.htm 

Anyway, that certainly kept us busy and happy until Happy Trails phoned to let us know they were done and on their way to pick us up.  They did a wonderful job on the RV, too so all in all it was a wonderful day!

I'm happy to report to you that we've found the time and place to take care of ourselves - I mean a salon where we can get our hair and nails taken care of at last!  I think I hadn't had a manicure or my hair done since October so I've been looking pretty scraggly.  It was very wonderful to finally have my hair done, and by someone who really knows what she's doing!  I haven't liked my hair this much for longer than I can say!  Yeah, it's trivial but you'd be surprised how much better it makes you feel to finally make the time to get these things done.

Like servicing the golf cart we "inherited" as part of the sale of the house.  This was a far less exciting adventure since the guy came to the house, pulled the cart out of the garage to where he parked his van, checked out the little thing, gave it a drink of water (in the batteries), added air to the tires, and pronounced it in acceptable working order.  I have to admit that the cart, being 15 years old, does look a bit on the scruffy side and Al and I briefly discussed having it updated somewhat but that's a bit far down the road.  The back of it is fitted for carrying golf bags, since the previous owners were avid golfers, so since we're not, we're thinking about replacing that setup with either a back seat or grocery storage or that sort of thing. Then again, the nearby grocery is NOT accessible to us by golf cart, so maybe a back seat would be the better choice.  See, the Villages, being wide-spread over 3 counties, has built golf cart access roads pretty nearly everywhere, which is why we find them in every desirable parking space throughout all three counties.  On the other hand, Spruce Creek South (the development in which we live) is rather self-contained, and the Villages doesn't want to share their lanes, so our carts can only go as far as our own golf course and the one local strip mall which is affiliated with the development.  Only road-approved golf carts can go on public roads and ours certainly isn't one of those.  Golf cart wars?  Nah - I think not.  Golf cart discrimination?  Well, maybe...  We actually haven't taken the thing out for a spin yet but one of these days we're going to go tooling around where we've found a cart lane marked "Nature walk" which seems to skirt the perimeter of the golf course.  I'll take photos...

I think I've mentioned that we have a Florida room attached to the house - an enclosed patio that consists mostly of windows.  Well, I had noticed that a lot of the screening in the room has tiny little distresses in it, and I had wondered what had caused it.  I found out just the other day when I went out there to read...

The former owners had provided a
perfect highway up onto the roof!

Cheeky little thing didn't seem to
care that I was 2 feet from it!

Yup.  Squirrels.  Ubiquitous grey squirrels.  Two of 'em danced up and down on the screens while I was standing right in front of them.  They peered interestedly in at me for a while but my being there didn't seem to faze them in the least.  Now we also know what's making the patter of tiny feet on the roof.  I suppose it's a step up from the raccoons we once had in the attic in Chatsworth but raccoons don't chew on wires, whereas we KNOW that squirrels do.  I just hope they can't get inside.  In fact, for a little while during the Loss Of Internet incident we wondered if squirrels were to blame but luckily it wasn't the case.

In the interim my Snow-Bird neighbors Susan and Stan showed up at our door bringing a lovely live plant and a happy welcome to the neighborhood.  I have to say, my immediate neighbors all seem to be very lovely, kind and friendly people.  Everyone here waves if you pass them by and even the people you meet in stores or in a queue are very friendly.  I don't know if it's Southern Hospitality or a population of seriously happy people or a combination of both but it's really quite wonderful.  Best of all, they all seem very sincere in their friendliness.  Yeah, it's really lovely.

Anyway, the last adventure we've enjoyed lately was a brief but joyful meeting with my niece Toby's in-laws; two lovely Iowans we met at Toby and Cliff's wedding the other year - the sort of people who you INSTANTLY feel like you've known your entire life!   They have a time-share property south of here and had come up to attend a photo show with which my sister was involved.  Al and I met them at the photo show (which was really great, by the way - a presentation of amateur photographers' works, some of which were seriously wonderful!) and all six of us drove down to a lovely Smokehouse/Grill a bit south of here where we enjoyed a really good meal and even better conversation and laughter.  The restaurant was quite full by the time we were finished but we were having such a good time with each other the wait staff had to keep coming back and look smilingly at us to remind us they had people waiting for tables...and finally, with many hugs, we left and each went in a different direction.  They'll be back later in the month and will be staying here at the house with us, so we've even more reason to get the place unpacked some more!

That's the news up to the minute.  The only other item of note is that we've discovered that Rover is trying to eat through several of the softer perches in the big cage so I've got to go hunt down a place that carries long manzanita perches...these won't last too long at the rate he's going.  Well, two of the perches (that came with the cage) are soft wood, so they're like a snack to him but he's even making progress on the manzanita...just like in the cartoons we used to watch...he doesn't realize that once he's bitten through the perch he's going to plummet to the bottom of the cage.  Luckily it isn't that far...hmm...now who carries long perches...got some Internet research to do...

Oh, and this Thursday is my birthday!  I'll officially be 62 - old enough to collect Social Security! (the first check is expected in April).  Still too young for medicare though - darn!  I've got to take some time to figure out what I'd like for a gift - oh, that's right - I'm sitting in the gift and unpacking boxes into it!

Well, that's about it for now.  Once again, my thanks to our friends and family who keep in touch via phone, email and Facebook.  Keep calling and posting and emailing!