Creatures of the deep

Tuesday to Friday, Feb 6-9, 2013

Dunedin, FL – Swirling fins, razor-sharp teeth, brilliant colours, bulging eyeballs, spineless blobs – these were just some of the amazing and varied sights we enjoyed today at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. Sea creatures large and small floated past our eyes in the well-appointed tanks, and we even saw birds of the Florida wetlands in the section describing the wildlife of this region.

The drive to get to the aquarium took us about 40 minutes, and our route took us over the Courtney Campbell Causeway which we had driven across on our way here from Orlando. We were much closer to the shoreline as we traveled eastward and to my surprise I spotted the fins of several dolphins in the water quite close to shore! There are cruises around the bay offered by the aquarium, but we got our dolphin sighting for free before we even got there.

Fawn’s sharp eyes provided another bonus; she rode by on her bike this morning to give us a coupon for the admission fee that saved us over $20, since January and February are seniors’ appreciation months! Not only that, but we were treated to a free pastry and coffee or tea on our arrival, which helped us tour the facility and miss the lunch-hour crush in the cafeteria. It was great fun looking at sharks, rays, barracudas, seahorses, sea stars, eels and jellyfish – especially from benches set out in front of a huge expanse of glass that we could look through in comfort at some length. It was also fun watching the reactions of visiting children when they spotted some especially unusual specimens.

We’ve had a good week, with outings to various shopping malls and restaurants, and pleasant get-togethers with John and Fawn and other guests in the park. On Tuesday the four of us went out to Carrabbas, an Italian restaurant chain we discovered last year, for a delicious meal of minestrone soup, lasagna, ravioli and cannelloni, as well as hot crusty bread and ice cream with caramel sauce and pecans for dessert.

Fawn and I signed up for craft class this week, where we made cancer bracelets. We had kits with stretchy monofilament on which we strung Swarovski crystal beads in colours to represent the different types of cancer – teal for gynecological cancer, black for melanoma, and so on – with spacers of frosty or clear beads. We first went around the table to hear how cancer had affected our lives or those of friends, and it was amazing to hear how many people have battled the disease, including some of those present. The toughest part of the craft was putting on the final bead and crimping it with a special tool; more than once we were groveling on the floor for beads when the crimping job failed to pass muster!

Overnight last night we had some wind and rainy weather, which twice got us out of bed to turn off the Weather Band warning system on our satellite radio! We really didn’t need to know about four-foot swells on the gulf and the need to find a safe harbour when we were snug in our bed! Finally, we figured out the Mute button and got a restful sleep at last.

Parties and prizes!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Feb. 2-4, 2013

Dunedin, FL – I won at Bingo tonight! I won $60! So there’s a shopping spree in my future, I guess! What an exciting feeling, shouting “Bingo!” before anyone else and netting a nice sum. It makes up for all the “oh, well”s I sighed last Monday for sure.

The social scene at Dunedin RV Resort has been a-buzzing lately, with a Tiki keg party from noon to three around the pool on Saturday to start with, complete with hot dogs, hamburgers and live music. Quite a few people gathered for the event, bringing their lawn chairs and, in many cases, their sweaters. It was a funny day, weatherwise; in the sun it was beautifully warm, but as soon as you got into the shade it felt quite chilly. So a lot of people were shifting from one to the other as the afternoon progressed.

Sunday, being Super Bowl Sunday, meant more celebrating; this time it was a pizza party on John and Fawn’s street for which Fawn was one of the organizers. Fawn and I were out together Sunday morning (more on that later), so we hit a couple of stores to pick up snacks at bargain prices while we were out. We had also helped find some joke prizes the day before to add to the fun.

There were 42 people in all who came, bringing desserts, relish trays and other contributions. All the picnic tables from people’s sites were lined up on the side of the street, which they closed off at both ends, and Fawn’s co-organizer Tom and John cruised in to the cheering crowd with their carload of pizzas to start the festivities. A good time was had by all, and there was no shortage of good food for everyone.

The prize for the male contestant who threw a Nerf football the furthest was a set of tiny golf clubs for tabletop play, and, for the female winner, an Old Maid card game. The unisex prize, for the person who successfully lobbed the football into a laundry basket, was a squishy ball with rubbery hairs and a blinking light inside. And the winner – after elimination rounds – was Fawn! Yay! She got the best prize of all!

When everything was tidied away and people had dispersed to go and watch the game, Fawn and I took Algarve for his evening walk and looked back over a very full day. We had gone out, the two of us, to the community “Kirk” up the street that morning to hear a speaker named Don Piper. He had been killed in a car crash in 1989, and then, 90 minutes later as a pastor friend prayed over his dead body, came back to life again. I had read his book “90 Minutes in Heaven” a couple of years ago and was glad of an opportunity to see him and hear his story first hand. The huge turnout indicated that quite a few others wanted to do the same, and his excellent presentation was well worth hearing. So was the magnificent organ that provided the musical elements of the service.

We are looking forward to some warmer temperatures as the week unfolds; we’ve been waking up to 55 degrees or so the last few mornings. Not that we’re complaining! Haven’t seen a snowflake in weeks now!

Family time and movie time

Thursday, Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 1, 2013

Dunedin, FL – Linda is a cousin of Val’s and John’s who has an apartment in St. Petersburg, and yesterday the four of us went to have lunch with her. We bundled Algarve into the truck with us, and he clearly felt his space had been invaded when he had to plant his head and front paws on Fawn’s lap and squeeze his tail against my side in the back seat! But Linda made his presence a condition of our visit so we couldn’t leave him behind.

It’s been several years since we last saw Linda and we were both surprised by the resemblance between her and Val’s mother Laura. We lost Laura almost eight years ago, but yesterday we looked into her eyes again and saw her lovely smile in Linda’s face! She is the daughter of Laura’s brother, so it stands ro reason, but it still seemed uncanny.

The wonderful spread she served – sausages, sweet peppers from the skillet, olives, bread, salad, cheeses, homemade salsa and pickles – was generous and delicious, and family stories began to flow with the wine. Childhood escapades, holiday gatherings, funny incidents, family history – the conversation covered all these and more as the hours flew by. Before we knew it, Linda was heating up homemade ham and pea soup and cutting more chunks of crusty bread for supper! The stars were already twinkling overhead when we headed back to Dunedin, with promises of future visits here and back in Canada to strengthen family bonds even more.

A chilly morning dawned today, but clear and sunny to usher in February (already!). Two days ago we were sweltering, but this morning we were glad of the furnace for the first half hour of the day. On the agenda today was some bargain hunting at a local outlet store and a movie in the afternoon.

Les Miserables, and its tales of slavery, poverty and injustice in the early 1800s in France is not exactly a fun experience, but the film is extremely well done, with excellent performances by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway among others, and powerful redeeming elements. Fawn and I both remarked afterward that a hot cleansing bath seems very appealing after seeing so many grimy faces, blackened teeth and dirty fingernails! We were glad to finally get to see this movie, having heard good things about it. It’s been nominated for at least six Academy awards.

Algarve the dog was beside himself with delight to see us come home after our outing – but he’s the same way if we’re absent for any length of time! He certainly knows how to make a person feel welcome.

Games, galavants and guinea pigs

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Jan. 28-30, 2013

Dunedin, FL – Twice today our RV radio has turned on automatically with wind warnings for boaters on the gulf. Weather alerts are a feature of the radio but they sometimes catch us by surprise, like when we come back from doing something and hear voices inside the RV before we open the door!

The palm trees have been blown inside out all day today, but it was still sunny and quite warm. We have started using the fitness room at the park, which offsets some of the good eating we’ve been treated to here, and keeps us limber.

It has been a relaxing couple of days, with truly summer weather (I think we hit a record warm yesterday of about 82 degrees). On Monday morning I joined the throng of park residents at the weekly morning coffee meeting, where newcomers are welcomed, upcoming events announced, anniversaries and birthdays celebrated and jokes shared. There’s even a live band (musical residents who play anything from violins to drums and glockenspiels) who entertain everyone as they grab coffee and a donut and find a place to sit.

Fawn and I were back there again after supper for Bingo night. Having only experienced Bingo here at this park, I have only an inkling of what it must be like in the big halls, where prizes run into the hundreds. Players come with Bingo daubers in various colours tucked into separate pockets of their special tote bags, in which they also carry little mascots to place in front of them, or whistles they blow whenever the caller says N44. The concentration is keen as the cards fill up and people look for that one special call that will give them the prize. I did a lot of dabbing and hoping, but I didn’t do any winning. It was good fun though, and afterward I helped Fawn wipe down the tables.

We went for a drive yesterday with John and Fawn in their big red truck. The pelicans were still perched on the piers by the gulf waters, and ospreys screeched from their high perches on Bay Shore drive. Hibiscus flowers nodded in the breeze in people’s gardens and bikers glided along the Pinellas Trail. Down by the marina, boat owners hosed down their yachts and seagulls scrounged for bits of fish they might have washed loose. It was so pleasant to see the world go by from the back seat while John took us around!

To escape the humidity and wind this afternoon, Val and I went to the movies. We saw Silver Linings Playbook, one of the films in the lineup for the Academy Awards. We always enjoy seeing the chosen movies before Oscar night, and this one had some very good dramatic performances.

Our evening entertainment was making our own quesadillas on the quesadilla grill that John and Fawn received as a gift. Stacking a tortilla with salsa, peppers, chicken slivers, onions, olives and shredded cheese, topping it with another tortilla and squishing it between the hot plates of the grill kept us all busy, as did adding dollops of sour cream and more salsa, and eating the molten result. We were glad to be of service as guinea pigs for the new appliance, and declared the experiment a great success!

How to survive winter

Saturday, January 26 and Sunday, January 27, 2013

Dunedin, FL – Clear, sunny skies have beamed down on us and even though we’ve been here for several days now, we still find ourselves exclaiming over what beautiful weather we’re enjoying. It’s delightful!

Saturday was laundry day – at least for me; no-one else came near the laundry room the whole time I was there. Not that I was complaining – it was better than the time in Las Vegas when there were more launderers than machines and people started fighting and throwing each other’s clothes around! I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!

Our plan for later in the day was to invite John and Fawn for supper at our place, since it seemed warm enough to eat outside. Having four inside our tiny home on wheels is virtually impossible, so this looked like a good plan. We got extra steaks and veggies, and picked up a nice dessert. We called John from the store to invite them over and he accepted immediately, so we were surprised when, a bit later on as we chatted with them at their place, Fawn invited us to join them for supper – they had steak for the barbeque! Apparently there was a miscommunication. However, by this time the sun was setting and a fresh breeze was making us think that dinner al fresco wouldn’t be as appealing as it had seemed earlier.

No problem; we offered to bring our food over and do it at their place instead. One of the other campers, Willem, pedaled by on his bike and John and Fawn hailed him over to meet some fellow Canadians (us). He was temporarily on his own at the park, so we suggested he join us for supper. After a meal of delicious steaks, salad, potatoes, fresh green beans and tiramisu for dessert, Willem declared he had been on his way to buy a steak for his supper and that tiramisu was his favourite dessert, so we were delighted to have made his day as well as his acquaintance.

Today was girls’ day out as a group of us drove to St. Petersburg, just south of Dunedin, to attend a matinee performance of the musical Nine to Five of Dolly Parton fame. It was presented by an amateur community theatre group, and I was surprised to read on the program that all the music and lyrics had been composed by Dolly Parton.

We enjoyed the story of 1970s life in the typing pool for women who were underpaid and overworked under the thumb of a heartless boss. It was fun to see the 70s clothes and typewriters, and some of the actors had excellent singing voices too.

The lot of us – about 20 women from the park – then descended unannounced on a local Perkins restaurant, where the staff pushed several tables together into one large one in a separate dining room for us, and then juggled 20 different orders, some of which changed more than once before being finalized! We all enjoyed our meal and plenty of laughs as we covered every subject under the sun.

The sun had actually set before we got back, but a big orange moon took its place, rising through the palm fronds above the park and closing the hibiscus flowers for the night. This sure is a great way to pass the final days of January.

Guys’ day out

Thursday, January 24 and Friday, January 25, 2013

Dunedin, FL – Val was up at five this morning to be ready for his pickup to go to Orlando for a car show and auction with his brother John, Cam (the real car enthusiast) and Tom. The sun was just hinting at an appearance on the horizon when they drove off, and I rolled over and went back to sleep.

While the boys admired vintage cars, lovingly restored with gleaming finishes and meticulous care, and attendees were bidding for more four-wheeled prizes to add to their collections (one person had 58 cars in his possession! A bit more tricky to store than postage stamps!), this snowbird was checking out the stores!

There are so many big stores in the area, filled with stock that we never see in Canada, or, if we do it costs a lot more. My first stop was Jo-Ann, a craft and fabric superstore that’s a creative person’s dream. It was fun just browsing through the store and looking at all the different ways one can express oneself, whether in yarn or clay or beads or wood or whatever. With Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Easter all on the horizon, there were all sorts of red, green and pastel items on display, and all at 30 per cent off. Despite all the temptation, I was just there to look, so I actually got 100 per cent off.

We were out yesterday with John and Fawn looking for hardware items in a couple of hardware stores – and even there, Fawn and I were entertained with colourful banners, kitchen items and even jewelry – in a hardware store!

Our other source of entertainment yesterday was a delicious supper at Panera Bread, a franchise in these parts that offers delicious soups, salads and pastries at very reasonable prices. It’s John’s favourite place to eat out, and we could see why. I had cream of tomato soup, crusty brown bread and Fuji apple chicken salad, with blue cheese and pecans and crisped, thin slices of apple. Everything was fabulous, including the shared wedge of coffee crumb cake Val and I had for dessert. We do miss Tim Hortons, but this place is one we wish we could take home with us.

The car show was a big event, Val says, and he enjoyed seeing all the different vehicles people had brought to auction off. His favourites were the 1940s station wagon with real wood on the sides and the robin’s-egg-blue 1957 Chevrolet with whitewall tires. I think, after the two-hour drive each way plus the show and the early wake-up, Val will sleep well tonight. Me too.

No pressure!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Dunedin, FL – If grocery shopping, going through the carwash and reading don’t get you excited, you can excuse yourself from reading today’s blog! On the other hand, if you intend to read each entry faithfully, this one won’t take you long.

For people enduring minus 40 windchill factors in parts further north, this morning’s reading of 54 degrees F on the RV thermostat will sound pretty tame, but it was the coldest we’d seen so far, and we were glad of our puffy, warm duvet. We don’t run the furnace overnight – it tends to be noisy and we really are warm enough under the covers – but Val did the honours this morning as the first out of bed by firing it up. It only takes a few minutes before it’s quite comfortable, so guess where I spent those few minutes.

Just up the street from the RV park is a newly renovated grocery store that wasn’t available to us last year, so after breakfast we drove over to have a look and to replenish our supplies. It’s very well stocked with everything we really need, so we won’t have to go far to get whatever we want. With the perishables stowed away, we headed over to the club house for Soup ‘n’ Sandwich day, and enjoyed a lunch of delicious clam chowder and grilled cheese sandwiches.

After lunch we strolled over to the fitness centre, having signed a waiver and acquired the entry code, to check out the equipment. It’s step one in our preparations for a regular fitness routine like the one we have in our basement gym at home. Step two will be actually using the treadmill and other equipment, but that will have to wait for another day. Today was booked solid!

The afternoon excitement consisted of heading over to the do-it-yourself car wash for a thorough clean-up, inside and out, of our little blue Honda FIT, followed by a rubdown by hand back at our site by Val while I did the inside windows. Now it positively sparkles!

After all that exertion, it was time to kick back and relax. I actually got through a couple of chapters in my book, and Val did the same, but he covered fewer pages, because I could tell that reading had been superseded by horizontal meditation not long after he headed off to the bedroom. It was a most refreshing afternoon.