The cooler weather is here

I went outside to retrieve the paper and I noticed a small difference. It was a bit cooler. The stars were out sparkling in the night sky. The thoughts of the devastating earthquake and tidal wave temporarily left my mind. The thoughts returned when I came back into the house. The lasted I read is the people of American Somalia will get some aid through our country. The President declared it a disaster area. I hope American Somalia is able to rebuild and somewhat return to the beauty that was known to the world. This is a picture of a couple riding a bicycle build for two. I don't see many people riding those types of bicycles. Mom and I had hamburgers for lunch yesterday afternoon. The evening was leftovers. Today, mom plans on making chili to go with the cooler weather.

Cool Weather tomorrow morning

Someone sent me a video of a toddler having a temper tantrum where ever mom was located in the house. When mom would move the toddler would pick himself up and move to where mom was in the house. The toddler would fall down on the carpet crying and rolling on the floor. Mom would walk right past and the whole thing would start up again. This video probably will be play again and again while the kid is growing up. It may even be used as a bargaining chip to get what the parents want from the kid. If the video was used back when I was growing up like it is used today, I would feel two inches tall. I am looking forward to the cooler weather.

Monday morning

Out taking pictures of the shrimp boats on the water off of New Smyrna Beach, I keep thinking I was seeing the same shrimp boats. However, the closest one turned out to be red in color and the one I took a while back was blue in color. It seems the sailboats stay on the Inter coastal Waterway and the shrimp boats occupy the ocean. The shrimp boats remind me of proud peacocks staking their territory. They fan their nets out like a peacock would fan out its feathers. I wonder how much catch do they really take in? Do you think they supply the local seafood restaurants? How long do you think they would stay out on the water?

Sunday is here

Television shows are quite bad early Sunday morning. Hopefully they will improve later on. I am listening to something on television like"Ferris Buller's day off." It doesn't challenge the mind at all. Yesterday on the "History Channel" there was a show on about this science group doing DNA testing on some artifacts that were in connection to the death of Hitler. This group got a DNA sample from an old sofa and part of a skull that was claimed to belong to Hitler. However when the lady scientist examined the skull DNA she determined the skull belonged to a female based on the gene factor. I took this picture because this guy actually caught the fish. Mom went over to a wedding which was on the other side of the park. It was a Scottish wedding and they had someone playing the bag pipes.

Consumer of crushed ice

I may be dog sitting for Howard. His two little ones Raisin and Holly will be a guest for about four days. This is a picture of Howard holding raisin the dark dog and Holly the light one. These two dogs love Howard very much. Hopefully they won't miss him too badly when he leaves for his trip. The reunions are always glorious for both the dogs and us. Mom and I are like the grandparents. We love them when they come and glad to see them go. I am really ready for the cooler weather the weatherman promised for next week. Can you believe 66 degrees? Today in sunny Florida, it feels like someone turned the oven on and the temperature keeps going up. Even the top of my head gets overheated when I hang out the clothes on the clothes line. I am a big consumer of crushed ice. Our refrigerator has this feature and I just love it.

How to spend an afternoon?

I thought I could feel a ting in the air. A tingle of cool in a sea of heat. This could be motivated by the weatherman saying a cold front was moving in our area next week. I also feel I am extra sensitive to any changes out of the ordinary. I guess by next week the weather will either by different or more of the same. Dinner tonight was lump crab cakes from the "Ocean Seafood" place next to CVS. Mom also fixed a salad with croutons and cut up pineapple for a fruit. Lunch was a big mushroom Swiss hamburger with grilled onions, Swiss cheese which was stringy, lettuce and tomato. Plus, I had some fries and a diet coke. Mom paid for lunch and we went to the resale shop run by the pink ladies called " The Pink Door." We ended up with shorts and pants for me. Also, I bought a fake pearl necklace and a sea shell necklace. There is a treasure chest of clothes and other items at a cheaper price then a department store.

A story with a different twist

It seems that Nivea Wylie was sedated from an operation and not in a coma like I was originally told. Nivea's son James has been offering my sister what ever she can get, because he is looking to get rid of the property as quickly as possible. Nivea may still recover. She is showing signs of improvement according to my sister. I am not sure what are the improvements? Mom told to explain Sean Michael from yesterday's blog entry which I kind of thought I should have done. Sean Michael is the grandson of Nivea and was of Skag. However the divorce may have changed the relationship between Skag and Sean Michael. Sean has moved out to Texas with his mom who is Nivea's daughter. I do like the picture of this sunset.

Remembering the Wylie family

My sister's neighbors " The Wylies" are about to be no more. Skag and Nivea recently divorced each other. Skag moved back to Montana and Nivea has terminal cancer which she is now in a coma and is not expected to recover. Glendon was offered stuff out of the house , since it was up for sale and the items would be going anyways. When my sister calls, mom and I will get the details on what was offered and how things are being handled. In this picture sits Skag Wylie and Sean Michael. Skag was always close to Sean Michael when he was living with Skag and Nivea. This was when Sean Michael was alot younger. In this picture, Sean Michael is older and living with his mom. Sean Michael was kind of the glue which held Skag and Nivea together. I always had regrets of not having more pictures taken with Skag and Nivea. The one memory I had was when we all went to "The Jockey Club" in Ocala. The Jockey Club was a fine restaurant eating establishment with a fancy view of the horse farms and piano music to entertain. I know we have pictures someplace which was prior to digital cameras at least for me. Skag had a fancy workshop and Nivea had her own sewing apartment. She was a serious seamstress who made wedding dresses and party dresses and what people needed to be made. She even sewed mom some light weight cotton shirts, so mom could keep the sun off of her arms. Skag had a simplistic countryness about him. He helped my sister out with repairs and even helped her bury a horse. On the other hand, Nivea was the outspoken Spanish mom who could cook up big fancy meals at holiday time when Glendon, mom and I would come over to visit. Nivea had her own opinion about the way things should be and she let you know. Once the place is sold, it should be a lot more quiet and not as lively.

Reflections on the water

I applaud the guy who makes it back to the workforce. This young man with a grown son got a phone call from his former boss calling him back to work. He is a welder by trade and makes 27 dollars an hour. This is over three times what I made when I worked and I didn't even get medical benefits and he does. He also gets to work on the Cape and see what goes on behind the scenes when a shuttle goes up and comes back from space. He is pretty happy to have his old job back and both mom and I are happy for him. Mom thought this would make an interesting picture. These are cloud reflections on the water.

Cell phones are everywhere

I guess you can never spend enough time on the cell phone. I see people bring them to the beach and talk while with the other ear listen to the splashing of the waves against the shoreline. I have even seen and heard them used in the commercial restroom stalls. On the way home from my sister's place, we stopped to get some gas and a bit of lunch. While I was in one of the bathroom stalls, I could hear the lady in the next stall talk about custody of the children. I figured it must be a messy divorce she was going through. My mom heard the conversation as well as anyone else who walked into the restroom. Lunch was leftover spaghetti and a little sugar free jello with some cut up fruit. I don't know what dinner will be like, but mom talked about getting a pizza. She wasn't in the chicken mood.

Enjoying Monday

Even thought it is a couple of hours before daylight, the raccoons are out rummaging through some one's garbage. Fortunately, the garbage here is tied with cords over the top of the can,, so the raccoon won't have any luck breaking into our trash. We got a coastal passing shower last night. Both mom and I were glad to see the rain come here. The grass has been so dry. We could stand to use some rain. Today will probably be leftover beef stew for lunch. We also have leftover jello along with a few strawberries. I wonder what the sea captain is tossing his fishing nets out for? Is it shrimp or some rare fish popular in a seafood restaurant?

Sunday is here

The beef stew came with lots of vegetables, peas, cut up potatoes, celery and beef stew. We also had buttermilk biscuits that I heated up in the little toaster oven on the porch. Mom had cut up cantaloupe. I had to eat the chocolate pudding and save the cantaloupe for later. I got some evening pictures. This is a sunset picture near the South Bridge. It still is pretty warm over at the beach. The weather hasn't cooled down yet. I am so ready for cooler weather. Time also had rushed by so fast. The ten o"clock news is on and it is near time to retire for the night. At least, I don't live in Tavares where the water has to be boiled.

Saturday stuff

Delilah, what a name for a Burmese python. This snake is 18 foot long, over 300 pounds and eats six rabbits a week. How can someone keep a snake like that for years? The owner has to pay a fine and then plans to give the snake to an education place. I hope the story slithers away. This is a shrimp boat traveling at dusk. The light on the boat may have added to the distortion of the picture. Dinner this evening was scallops and tomorrow will be beef stew. I don't know what will be for breakfast tomorrow. I assume it will be an egg dish because we have so many eggs from my sister Glendon.

Friday

I used a turkey egg last night to make some tapioca, which I finished up this evening. It made the tapioca real thick. Today the picture of Glendon's rooster"Golden Boy" was hung on the kitchen wall. It looks so real. It also blends in well with the colors of yellow, white and green pattern on the wallpaper in the kitchen. We are in a dry phase. Maybe this weekend we will get a passing shower. I had chicken for dinner.It came from Food Lion and I got a dollar off because it was Friday.

Prepare for rain this weekend

The weatherman promised rain this weekend. It has been very dry over at the beach. The lawn guy stirred up a lot of dry grass and told us to water it. We had the well water on last night to at least pack the dry dirt down. It seemed like most of Glendon's plants were growing real good. She does not have a garden. She let the big giant weeds take over and she told mom and I ,she would take a weed whacker when she wanted to plant some vegetables again. I don't know what roof top this is , but I thought it looked interesting next to the sunset. If I were to use my imagination, I could say it looks like a pyramid in Egypt or a very large sand dune. Can you believe only six more shuttle flights until it is gone forever? I still can not get over us going backwards in time to the rocket launches. Isn't it time to change the way we travel into space? The shuttle was the next step. The step afterwards, I guess may be commercial planes or spaceships which look like alien ships that run on nuclear energy.

The turkey and the eggs

It is bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning. Mom brought home a bunch of eggs from Glendon. I was going to fry one up this morning. In answer to Lew's question on if turkey eggs taste different. I can not notice a difference. If someone cooked up both a chicken egg and turkey egg. They did not tell me which was which, I could never guess. The female turkey does not gobble at you. At least this one does not gobble. This one honks like a goose. She hangs out at the back door waiting to eat the leftover cat food. She also tries to takeoff in flight when she follows you in the yard. It is fun to watch her wings flap. She is like oversized plane that can not get off the ground.

We are home

Back from our trip to Williston, Florida. We are pretty tuckered out for the day. Glendon my sister gave us alot of eggs to eat and share with the neighbors. She says "one turkey egg equals two chicken eggs." We will share the turkey eggs with the neighbors and they will love it. Plus, mom got some Williston peanut butter for our neighbor Carol who took care of watering our plants. Our neighbor Laurel called us on the phone when we got back and our other neighbor Pauline left us a message on the answering machine. We have no animals to give our leftovers. However, it is still nice to be back home.

Here in Williston

I am working on a different computer that doesn't allow me access to the pictures. I can not figure out the trouble. I am in Williston on my sister's computer and when I go to get some pictures it knocks me off the blog site. Mom and I did get here safely and I did take lots of pictures of her horse Gator. He is very photogenic. He also loves to be brushed and loves the attention that Glendon my sister gives him. The weather has turned very wet, damp and gray since mom and I arrived . Mom and Glendon are out visiting someone who use to work with my mom in Orlando years ago before mom worked for the State of Florida. This lady is named Susan Rudder and she will be happy to see and talk with my mom about the times they worked together for East Coast Migrant Head start Project. I was fortunate enough to stay here and watch Bonanza. The last episode was about a ghost town named Martinville which Little Joe was named sheriff. I got some good cat pictures of my sister's cat. I especially like the closeups. This is sure different not to have a picture to write with. This will change when I return to New Smyrna Beach.

Will it be a rainy day?

Will it be a rainy day? Will the shuttle be able to land or have to stay in space another day? Maybe they will try for California? It will all be revealed in time. Speaking of time, mom and I are planning to travel to my sister's place in Williston and will be there over the weekend. I think plans are to come back to the beach on Tuesday of next week. Mom and I had a big plate of spaghetti last night. I offered the leftovers to our new neighbors, but they turned it down. They had plans of going out to eat. I was even going to offer it to Laurel our other neighbor, but she was going out to eat. The solution was mom decided to freeze the spaghetti until we come back next week. She said "it would keep alright." I think it froze up nicely. I hope it unfreezes just as nice. I got a lot of shrimp boat fishing pictures last night. They had their nets cast out into the sea. The lights on the boat gave the picture a ghostly pirate feel. The pictures looked like something out of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Meeting our new neighbors across the street

We have new neighbors across the street. Their names are John, Emily and Baby Madison. Mom says John works in Orlando at Florida Hospital. Emily the young mother stays home with Baby Madison who is going through the teething stage. Emily knows about the baby orajel to place on Baby Madison's gums. This should make for less screaming on Madison's part. Baby Madison is a big baby with big blue eyes. I haven't taken a picture of them yet. I guess I would like to capture all of them together as a family. This picture is leftover from the last family that moved out of the rental house. I did not miss the family as much as the light they kept on all night and the limo that graced their driveway. Emily is a small frame young lady who seems to be swallowed up by the huge size of Baby Madison. My one hundred dollar question is why do so many young mothers have babies attached to their hips? After dropping the DVDs back at the library, I notice a few mothers with babies attached to their hips walking inside to attend some sort of function designed only for them.

Middle of the Week

It seems like the peak when it is the middle of the week. I just haven't figured what kind of thing is at it's peak? I found some pretty flowers to post on my blog entry. I don't remember when the picture was taken but it was nice to have the picture. I watched "America's got Talent" last night and the Opera singer "Barbara Padilla" was on for the final act which was about ten to eleven o'clock last night. She did a rendition of "Ave Maria" sung in Latin. She was dressed in a yellow evening gown with a big long yellow train.
She made every word of the song seem so easy to sing. However, I know this is not the true nature of the song because Latin is not easy to sing. I know she will be in the finals. The show to get rid of some of the acts is on tonight. I don't think it will be hard decision on who is to leave. Some did not live up the performance of their previous shows. I will be curious to see who got through besides "Barbara Padilla" the opera singer.

Day after labor day

I took the DVDs back to the library today. On the way back, I stopped behind the old Winn Dixie hoping to capture another view of an American Bald Eagle. This was as illusive as hunting for a picture of the hummingbird. Alas, the orange honeysuckle in my backyard has been so trimmed back, I don't think I will see another hummingbird for a good long time. Before pulling into the entrance of the old Winn Dixie, I was on Atlantic Avenue where I could observe the Osprey towering over the roads like Gargoyles spying on each driver. I actually saw one follow me with his eyes. He also had his wings spread out in a heated attack mode. I realize it was just the heat and this bird is constantly looking for food to eat. This is the life of a predator bird. I wasn't lucky at catching any eagle picture or a interesting picture. When I arrived, I saw the local police car parked behind the old Winn Dixie. When I placed my purse in the trunk and pulled out my camera and placed the strap around my neck. The police car disappeared. I figured the policeman had better things to do. This is a picture of a grill going home. I went home after a fruitless quest of taking more pictures of the Bald eagle. This was replaced by air conditioning and television.

Labor day beach fun

I had a roast beef sandwich for lunch and roast beef half sandwich for dinner. Dinner also included: cheese, Ritz crackers, onion, tomato and roast beef. The wind was blowing off the coast. The pelicans were speeding by too fast to get a good photo shot. The Breakers restaurant was grilling up a lot of hamburgers. I could smell the grilled smell of freshly cooked hamburgers. There were quite a few young ladies on the beach with tiny bikinis. There weren't too many hamburger vendors on the beach. They were leaving the beach, when mom and I went to look at the ocean. The ocean was a murky dark green color and the swimmers did not mind swimming in the North Atlantic. No, this wasn't the clear blue waters of the Bahamas, but it was the beach. Labor day ended with all the beach people going home with good memories of a happy day at the beach.

Happy Labor Day

The cell phone calls on the weekends has been my way to reconnect to my past. My friend Dick who can not get out of his place has the world's worse roach problem. I feel for him because when I lived in Oakland, we dealt with roaches, snakes, and whatever undesirable creature that needed to be buried or destroyed or both. Dick also imagines himself on a tropical island in the South Pacific with beautiful Polynesian dancing girls. Dick imagined Georgia, Lillian, Gloria Lopez and me all in sarongs (Dorthy Lamour) type dresses. Dick has a cat named Aloha. She is a very important part of his life. She is his companion. This is a very old picture of Dick and I at the Indian Pow Wow held at the" Orlando Fair Grounds" every year. I called my my former boss "Georgia Linderman" and wished her a happy birthday. Her birthday was September 4, 2009. I also talked with a family from Oakland which I have kept in occasional contact, since moving to New Smyrna Beach. The weekend is over and the cell phone is staying recharged for the next phone call which should be early this morning.

Off to a good Labor day start

I placed a picture of a baked key lime pie on the blog entry which I haven't had in ages. Last night's dinner was a mixture wok of steak strips, cut up carrots, onions, cut up potatoes and cut up celery mixed together in a stir fry. Mom and I both agree the steak strips were a bit tough. Mom said she would have cooked the meat first, if she had it to do over again. What a luscious dessert the key lime pie was to eat. I can remember the sense of taste when it was freshly cooked. It just melted in my mouth. Yesterday, I did the Lew thing about getting DVDs from the library at the suggestion of my mom. I got three and one I watched along with my mom last night. The one I watched was on space chimpanzee's and how they were treated during the space program. The movie was kind of an eye opener to things I did not realize were happening. Before the astronauts went into space, the chimp was tested to make sure everything was people worthy. The chimp in many of NASA's experiments had to give up their lives, so the data could be collected on why an experiment did not work. The two main chimps featured were Ham and Enos. Ham went up before Alan Shepard and Enos before John Glenn. Enos only lived a short time afterwards, but Ham lived almost thirty years. The history of Ham was he liked to ham things up, but Enos was less sociable. The two remaining videos are "Murphy's Romance and Killer Bee's." Enjoy the labor day weekend!

Saturday morning

It was a little hard to think when I woke up too early to drink coffee. Speaking of hard times, what do you think of the female bank robber? It took her fifteen minutes to mustard up the courage to ask for money. Is this a sign of the hard economic times? When does the word "Jobs" translate into "Going to work?" The way I knew we had a good economy was when I worked a forty hour work week and had money left to spend on the movies. My sister" Glendon" puts in a full day of working with the horses at the Vet farm. I think I will try and get a little sleep for activity later on.

Friday is here

It is Friday, September 4, 2009. My former boss Georgia has a birthday today. Mom sent her a birthday card through the mail. I am sure her family will do a lot of celebrating. The coffee this morning is real smooth. It puts a positive start on the day ahead. I got a picture of the lifeguard standing up in the lifeguard chair. It looks like the tide was coming in. I did see a couple of jelly fish behind the old Winn Dixie where people fish. I tried to take a picture and the jelly fish bobbed underwater. Mom got a big bag of frozen blueberries , so we can have blueberries with our cereal this morning. We both also have half a banana on the cereal. I also heard on the television an offer for a free small box of Honey nut Cheerios and a small box of Kashi cereal. I think you have to write the company to get the free sample.

The Claw

I guess animals and birds and people are use to routine. The group of pelicans in the picture seems to be use to traveling in formation down the coast. Today was garbage day and by surprise "The Claw" from the garbage company attached to a truck was by to pick up the neighbor's tree trunk that had been in the yard for the past week. It also picked up the garbage of tree limbs next door and the tree limbs placed along the street down the road. It was cool to watch. The back of the truck went slightly up on a small hydraulic lift, then the claw went into action clasping at the tree debris and placing it in back of the truck. When the truck left the street seemed so empty. The lady who had the tree trunk in her yard has a bare spot outlined by high grass that really needs mowing.

Afternoon thoughts

Lunch was very good. I got tired with the show "Gunsmoke." The actor Victor French was on and he was some sort of big shot in the Calvary that was drunk and stayed in a state of rage. My neighbor across the street is going for a car ride thanks to her mom. Debbie, my neighbor has made a remarkable recovery from a stroke. She uses a walker, but gets around pretty good. Mom went grocery shopping at Publix. They are having a buy one get one free sale. Mom is buying eight pieces of fried chicken is $4.99. I figured that would be nice to eat and no preparation work to be done with the chicken. This picture was taken on the 27Th. beach entrance at their park. I first went to the old Winn Dixie where I took the eagle picture and there was a guy with his fishing pole , but no exciting bird to take a picture shot. The waves down at the beach were kicking up. I just heard a helicopter down at the beach probably going up and down the coastline. I saw a guy at the park on 27Th. who was very reflective in his feelings as he looked over the ocean of endless water. The water goes on to the horizon line and then seems to disappear. I know this isn't the case based on the trip, I took to the Bahamas way back in 1989. It just felt like a skip across the lake.

Time to eat lunch

Mom is making hamburgers for lunch. The sun is out after a morning shower. Mom says the humidity is over 200 percent. A loaf of bread we had in the house was thrown out because it had molded. Mom gave me a hamburger on a muffin and said "Here is a baby hamburger." Time to eat.

Wednesday evening

Dinner was some sort of beef stew with cut up potatoes. Plus, a couple of beef ribs on the side. Dinner went down real nicely. We didn't have any pie to eat. I did get some chocolate which was sugar free and had raspberry filling. Plus a vanilla filling and a dark chocolate square. This square chocolates came all in one package from CVS and runs about four dollars. Mom took me to the park on the North end of the bridge which has two fishing piers and a direct look at the North bridge. It is like being in center ring at a circus. There is a front row view of the bridge when it raises and lowers to let the boats pass underneath. Also, we get to see the pelicans pass over the bridge and come to the park and over my head. This usually happens so fast, I can not grab a camera shot of the pelican. The direction of the water was flowing Southwards. Mom told me the water usually flows North to Jacksonville. The wind was cool at the park and I could feel the coolness on the back of mom's shirt as I touched it. We finally went home and turned on" America's got talent."

Tuesday events

Yesterday, I took mom's car and went out to the place where I had taken a picture of an Eagle. It was behind a building that use to belong to Winn Dixie. Winn Dixie moved down the road and left the building to the Republican party local branch headquarters. Plus a local MRI scanning place and a Outback Steakhouse on the other end of the building. I did not capture any picture worth keeping. The only bird flying overhead was a lonely seagull. I did capture the bugs that bite you all over and no one can really see. They look like tiny gnats. I also was bugged by a grandmotherly looking lady whom happen to be a Jehovah's Witness. I looked at her track of redemptive material for a minute or two and disposed of it in the near by trash can after she left. so I wouldn't have to get rid of it at home. The sky had greyed up. Plus, the weather was hot and muggy. The best place for me was at home. When I got there, I made a series of crackers, leftover turkey, cheese and topped with onion. I ate the turkey treats and fell asleep on the couch for an hour. The rest of the day was spent at home along with the television for a constant companion.

Sympathy for California

Are other states sending firefighters to help California out with their fires? I would think there would be a lot of people leaving California for some place less affected by the weather. I was told by my Uncle Perry that Squim, Washington was the best place to live. The temperature does not change much and there isn't usually anything happening like a hurricane or earthquake. My Uncle Perry had a house in Squim, but he was in poor health. When he passed away, I don't know if the property got sold or not. When we had bad fires in Florida, we had help come from other states. I know a lot of Floridians including me were grateful to have the help and the people from other states were very hard workers at ending the fires.