Happy 2009 ( January 1, 2009)

I feel I almost have a totally clean slate to work with for 2009. I know I dropped my camera yesterday by accident, but it should work OK. I tried it out and everything seemed to light up like it should. There were plenty of photo opportunities yesterday which I did not realize at the time. I was suppose to have a go out to lunch with my mom and neighbor Laurel. Laurel ended up picked our trip out on the water taxi. We ate at "Down the Hatch" restaurant which is at Ponce Inlet. I had a breast of chicken sandwich with french fries and onions. I thought the breast was going to be fried, but they brought it out to me grilled. I didn't complain. The onion slices were on the sandwich with tomato and lettuce. This made me very happy. Mom had a smoked fish dip with crackers. She also got a small cup of vegetable soup. Laurel had the grouper sandwich with fries and chips. She could not eat all the fries and chips. I helped her eat a lot of her fries and chips. The waitress brought me a small dish of honey mustard sauce which I dipped my french fries in. It gave the fries a tangy sweet and sour taste. All three of us thought we had all the time in the world before the water taxi came back to take us back to the starting point of our journey which was the Marine Discovery Center. I even made a couple of trips to the ladies room and still had time to visit their gift shop after eating. I didn't buy any of the souvenirs. They weren't quite what I had wanted to purchase. I would have bought a coffee mug if it had said "Down the Hatch" but I couldn't find any that had this writing on it. The only authentic logo stuff were tee shirts and golf shirts. I had plenty of shirts at home. I didn't need an extra one. The water taxi started out a bit rocky even before the engine was turned on. The boat rocked from side to side like a teeter totter. I was asking to myself " Where is the motion sickness medicine?" The boat straightened out once the motor was started. The boat cut through the water nicely at a slow speed. When the speed increased, it was like a saw cutting through wood. It cut the water with jagged cuts in a forward motion. The intensity of the views on the ride to our lunch place and back were beyond the scope of a camera. There were several sand bars near the North bridge created by the low tide. The pelicans hung out there in small groups of four. The pelicans would yawn and stretch their wings as to build their muscles for later flights. The houses were the size of four mansions stacked together. This all started after passing through the North bridge. The money stemmed from buying one of these homes. The taxes which had to be paid. The maintenance to the outside of the homes and the cost must be like sending a man to the moon. It would cost more than what my last job was paying me. These were the types of homes you would expect California to have. Florida is a different story. Our economy is not as rich. I would recommend an afternoon like the one I had yesterday.