Sunset with the Stevensons

Hi Everyone -

Hope you are all having a good week.

We had a fun and action-packed weekend as Jimmy and Michelle came down to visit us - just for one day and the night, but it was great to see them and catch up.

The day started with torrential rains and a tornado watch, but eventually it cleared up and got nice enough for us to venture out and find the sunset.

Of course, we had to take Jimmy to Jimmy's - a rooftop bar in Clearwater Beach.

Love this pic!

Jimmy kept lurking behind us...:-)

And watching the sunset over the ocean is always nice...

Jimmy even got us all T-shirts to commemorate the evening.

 

We also went down and walked along the Pier, Michelle stuck her feet in the sand, and we headed out for a late dinner.

Later, we tried out the hot tub, Glenn and Jimmy jumped in the (freezing cold) pool, and we all ate cupcakes. A good time all around.

Sunday ended up being a very nice day and after the Stevensons headed to the airport, Glenn decided to go on a bike ride while I took a nap.(Don't judge...all the cool kids were taking naps...)

Glenn rode on the trails over to the Causeway, through Safety Harbor's Bayshore Drive, and took some nice pics along the way.

He also got a beautiful view of the sunrise on his way to work this morning. Not a bad Monday morning commute.

So that's it for this edition of the blog. Take care and stay warm...Spring is on its way!

Chalk it up to a nice weekend

Hi All -

It was another wild weekend here in Florida. I'm not sure if you saw it on the national news, but my first story is a sad one. Saturday morning, around 4 am, I woke up suddenly when our power flicked off and on.

In the morning, we discovered that a small plane had crashed onto McMullen Booth Road, less than a mile from our house, and hit the power lines as it was going down. Sadly, the pilot was killed - his teenage daughter and her friend are in serious condition in a local hospital. They had flown all the way from Chicago and were less than 6 miles from the St. Petersburg airport.

The highway was closed for the entire day as the FAA came down and investigated, which caused some huge traffic backups.

Anyway, a number of less dramatic events took place on Saturday as well. Glenn was walking around the pool with the leaf blower, blowing tree debris off our screens, when he slipped and fell on the bricks, ripping up both knees and his forearm pretty badly. Fortunately, as a trained as a dek hockey nurse, I was able to put him back together.

The bandaged version doesn't look nearly as bad, but trust me, he was a mess.

Mo says, "Are you okay?"

 In other news, you'll be happy to know that we got a new "hurricane-proof" garage door installed on Saturday morning. This should lower our insurance rates, and the new door will supposedly stand up to 160 mph winds.

You can see the steel reinforcements on the inside.

Glenn continues to force me to go bike-riding, so after the door was installed, we headed to Honeymoon Island State Park to take a ride. We found a nature trail there which was aptly named "Osprey Trail", because I have never seen so many ospreys in my life.

 

Their nests were everywhere too - we probably saw a dozen osprey. You can't really see from this picture below, but in the very middle over the white tree trunk is an eagle's nest - which had two eagles and two chicks in it.

It was a pretty nature trail, but at times we were pushing our bikes through sand or trying to ride them across flooded areas, which was a challenge.

Forunately, before we started, Glenn noticed that my back tire was virtually flat, which was probably why I had such a hard time pedaling on my first ride. He fixed it for me.

Here's another critter we spotted on our ride. A fearless armadillo.

It's hard to see his head and cute little ears because he was snuffling around for bugs, but he was cool. He looked like a little dinosaur. Neither of us had ever seen one before.

After our ride, we took a little stroll over to the beach.

 

On Sunday, we went to downtown Safety Harbor, where they were having their annual "Chalk Fest" and arts festival.

It was pretty cool. We also walked down around the grounds of the Safety Harbor Resort and Spa...

All in all, another action-packed weekend in Florida. Time for a nap.

Deuce seems to enjoy his bed more since he made a slight modification...

Hope you are all happy and well! Talk to you soon!

Trains, Bikes, and More!

Hi All -

Sorry, my recent bout with corneal ulcers delayed my last post by a week, so I will now try to catch you up on our adventures over the past two weeks.

First of all, I think we've told all of you that our house is bordered in the back by railroad tracks. This has turned out to be a blessing, as we have no neighbors behind us and a very private backyard. The train only comes a couple times a week, and usually it is just a couple cars and is gone in a moment.

We actually think it's kinda fun when the train comes.

So in case you were curious, I grabbed the camera the last time it came through.

Here it comes...

Here it is...

And there it goes...

I know. Pretty cool, right?

So the weekend before last, we took the dogs on their first walk through Philippe Park. We've been here a few times now, but here is the history if you are interested.

That's right, folks. He introduced the grapefruit to Florida. Woo!

Anyway, it is a beautiful park.

 

The dogs enjoyed it thoroughly. Here, Deuce was entranced by another dog and not participating in our photo.

Later, Glenn and I went back to Dunedin for a mediocre dinner with bad service in a beautiful setting. Probably watching the sunset was not a great idea, as my eyes were bothering me at the time, but we had a nice time.

Glenn took this picture of our reflection in a window. I'm sure the folks eating inside were amused.

Ok - enough of our shenanagins!

So this past Saturday, our new homeowner adventure involved us learning how to / attempting to change the burned out light bulbs in both the hot tub and the pool. Even now, you may be asking - do you need to drain the pool and the hot tub? How do you avoid being electrocuted? The answers are "No" and "Very carefully."

Done and done. It took at least three hours, though, and Glenn had to get in the freezing cold water and  I was pretty sure he was going to kill someone during the process. I don't know why. Deuce and I were being very supportive.

That night Chad and Lisha came over for dinner and Deuce stole Glenn's steak off his plate, to everyone's horror and amusement. We have no photo documentation of that, you'll just have to believe me.

Also, for fans of the blonde dog, here she is after apparently getting into some trouble of her own.

What?

On Sunday, against my will, Glenn insisted that we go to Kmart and get ourselves some bikes. I am not a very gifted cyclist, but I relented. I have to admit, I felt some childlike excitement when I found my perfect cruiser.

Ain't she a beaut?

 

 

Here's Glenn's sportier model.

We took them out for a ride on the Pinellas Trail, which is a great walking / biking trail that goes all through the county. Still, I had to take lots of breaks...my legs were sore.

So I guess that's all the news that's fit to print. Hope you are all doing well and that you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Love ya!  :-)