Hell of a way to start a trip....

We were up early and packing the car...... then things went wrong.  Not terribly wrong it turned out, but not the way we wanted to start our trip back to Wisconsin.

Before I get into the gory details, a small disclaimer.  If you hear this story from Brian, it may sound a bit different.  He likes to "color" his stories to, as he says, make them more interesting! 


Back to the story.  We were packing the car and Brian asked me to start it to let it cool down.  It was still hot in Florida, no surprise there.  So, in a hurry and not thinking I jumped in the car, started it up and started to back out of the garage.  Problem was, the rear hatch on the car was still open.  Luckily, I had thought to open the garage door though.  That didn't really make me feel better when after moving the car less than a foot, I heard a terrible sound - metal on metal.  Hit the brakes and I immediately knew what had happened.  Before I could even shut the car off and get out, Brian had heard the noise and came running from the house.

So, what did happen?  Well, first you have to know that garage doors in Florida have to be hurricane proof, able to withstand 155 MPH winds by code.  That means they are made of metal with large, pronounced "ribs" on the back of them.  When I backed the car up with the hatch open, the edge of the hatch caught on one of those ribs.  Since the noise scared the crap out of me, I stopped very quickly, but not before the car pushed the garage door down about a foot.  Now that I think of it, the garage door opener is probably what saved me, the car and the door from a lot more damage.  When the door was pushed by the car, the emergency release popped, unhooking the door from the opener.  If it hadn't, the door wouldn't have moved and more than likely damaged the hatch on the car, not to mention the door itself.

After a few choice curse words, we calmed down and saw that there was really no damage to the car or the door and I figured we could just reset the opener and miraculously every thing would be fine.  But no....  we weren't, or I should say, I wasn't that lucky.  The little bump must have been enough to pop something in the opener, or just enough to to twist the track, because when I tried to run the opener again (after getting the car safely out of the garage), it would only run a few inches before the opener would stop and just "click".  More choice curse words.  So, I unplugged it and we made a safe, if quiet exit from the house.

Brian of course found all of this extremely funny.  He had an evil little grin on his face for quite a while after we left.  To his credit, he knew how upset  I was about it and kept quiet.  But before we had even gotten  50 miles from the house, he was on his iPad, telling everyone about my little adventure!  It was nice that at least someone was enjoying the day!  But he made it up to me by arranging to have a new opener installed, all with the help of his iPad and cell phone.

Hell of a way to start the trip home!  But we made it.  Got home at about 10:30 PM on Thursday night.  Max took it all in stride too as you can see by the picture below.

Eating while going 70 miles an hour down the highway.  That's Max.

Packed and Ready to Go

Well, maybe ready to go, but with mixed feelings.  It's always nice to get home, but the getting there is a bitch.  The drive seems to be getting longer every time we do it!

We've had a lot of fun this trip, got a lot done at the house, and sweat a lot!  July is not usually a month we plan on visiting Florida, but since getting the house in April and wanting to spend time here this winter without having a lot of work to do, we made an exception.  Still plenty of little projects to do, but the big one - all the painting - is done.  No more glow in the dark orange, Pepto pink, and faded peach!

So, tomorrow we will be on the road.  Should be home late Friday.  Hope it will be a bit cooler in Wisconsin than it has been in Florida!

Out for a Golf Cart ride

Sunday was nice (but HOT as usual) and so after having brunch with Frank and Jim and Frank's cousin and his partner, we took a little tour of The Villages on good old Blanche, the golf cart.  Acting like tourists we know, but what the heck.

We've taken a lot of pictures of the inside of the house, so here is one of the outside.  We have gotten the landscaping spruced up a bit, but we still need to do something with the entrance.  Would like to get some shutters for the window and maybe a new front door.  Something a bit more welcoming.  House is a bit "too" white!

This is one of the many, many golf cart trails throughout The Villages.  Sort of hard to tell, but to the right of the path, in the "dip", is the entrance to one of the many tunnels that allow the carts to go under the streets where the car traffic is.  This one is very close to the town center, Lake Sumter Landing, so we use this one a lot.

 

One of the many golf courses throughout The Villages.  This one - haven't the slightest idea what the name of it is - is on the way to Colony Plaza, the closest shopping center to where we live, so again, we travel this path a lot too!

Max

Florida seems to be agreeing with Max.  He has had far more good days since we have been here than bad and as you can see, is taking life pretty easy!  He is not thrilled with the heat down here, or the strange texture of the grass (or what Florida calls grass - if it were growing in Wisconsin, we'd kill it!) but all in all has been a real trouper.  We have a bit of a hard time getting him to get out of bed in the morning though!

Shop at your own risk....

Once again, we were out stimulating the economy.  Frank and Jim told us about a place called "Dockside Imports" in Leesburg.  Leesburg again.  That was the site of our little adventure trying to find the Comcast cable TV store.  But we worked up our courage and headed out.  It was actually pretty easy to find and was an interesting store.  We found some things that we really liked, but at the same time, there was some serious ugly in that place!

The best buy of the day was the bamboo plant we got for that empty corner of the living room.  Getting it out of the store and into the car was a bit tricky though......

Missing Wisconsin

Raining here today - nothing like what we heard WI, especially Milwaukee got last night - and so we are sticking close to home.  Did take Blanche out for a ride to Wal Mart and luckily got back to the house before the rain hit.  But I find myself craving a good cup of coffee.....  The Pinecone might not be a classy place, but damn they got the best coffee!

The Villages

Okay, so by now I'm sure that everyone might be getting a bit tired of hearing about all of our little projects.  So here are some pictures of The Villages.  It really is a beautiful place and they take great care of it.  I can't imagine how many gardeners and maintenance people they must have.....

Downtown Sumter Landing

Johnny Rocket's on the corner of the square

Street leading away from the square in Sumter Landing

How every one gets around in The Villages!

Entrance to the Lake Miniola Community Center

Lobby of the Lake Miniola Community Center

Doesn't everyone keep their printers in the closet?

Tuesday's project was to put an outlet in our Master Bedroom Closet.  Why, you might ask?  Well, we needed a printer down here but didn't want to have it sitting out in the living room by the desk.  Let's face it, no matter how great a printer may be, they ain't pretty!  We bought a wireless one (which works amazingly, by the way) and then thought, the closet would be the best place for it.  Only problem was, no electricity......

So, we decided to tap off an outlet on the other side of the closet wall.  The small hole was our best guess, the big hole was where the outlet eventually ended up.  That was after I had to wire it twice.  You know how it is, do something in a hurry and you end up doing it again!  Brian caught me thinking the whole thing over in this shot.....   should have thought a bit harder and then I wouldn't have had to do it again!  

Polo Friends

On Monday, we had lunch with two new (well not so new, but I'll get to that in a bit) friends we have met here in The Villages.  We met Sue and Phyllis at the first Polo Game we ever attended.  Hard to believe that was almost a year ago already.  They were sitting behind us and got a kick out of our confusion about the rules.  The most confusing part for me was that in Polo, once a team scores a goal, they change goal posts!  A team would score a goal, then immediately turn and head, hell bent for election, to the opposite goal!  Then of course they had to explain the whole, "divot stomping" thing to us too.  They were very nice, funny and patient with us and when they heard we were thinking of moving to The Villages, they gave us their email addresses.  Between then and now, Brian has emailed them with questions several times and we always got a prompt and friendly response.

Now that we are official "Villagers", we invited them to have lunch with us at Two Jays.  It was nice talking to them face to face rather than through email.  They are a couple of fun loving ladies though.  Always keeping busy and they both have a great sense of humor.  They gave us even more information about the ins and outs of Village Life.  

Florida Morning

This morning I was sitting out in the screen room and even though it was warm, it was just a beautiful day. This was the view this morning.  Not a bad way to start the day.....

ID Day

Today, our friends Frank and Jim came over to visit.  Our plan was to do a little shopping and then have lunch.  At the last minute we decided to stop at the Villages Closing Office and finally get our Villages IDs.  Sounds simple, huh?  Well, after we filled out the paperwork, we had to have our pictures taken for our IDs.  After they took Brian's picture, the machine jammed up.  We all had a good laugh out of that and even the people at the office were teasing him about "breaking the camera".  My picture printed out fine (lousy picture of me though - way too much of a close up!) but for some reason they couldn't "finalize" Brian's.

The guy taking the pictures was very nice, but he couldn't get the printer to work so they had to call Shirley.  We have had the pleasure of meeting Shirley before.  She has let her job go to her head.  Oh hell, let's just say it, she's a bitch.  She tried several times to get the printer to work, at one point dropping the roll of laminating film and I had to bite my lip not to laugh as it went rolling across the floor!

But after several tries, they got it to work and so now we are officially VILLAGE PEOPLE!  With our new IDs we have complete access to all the golf courses, pools, rec centers, etc.

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After all that fun, we had lunch at Johnny Rocket's and then went shopping.  Not much luck at the first place, but the second - Kirklands - was a gold mine.  Since the housing market is especially lousy here in Florida, every home decorating place and furniture store are either closing or having really big sales.  Got a few few things for the walls and center pieces for the dinning room table and coffee table.  Here are some pictures of how the place is shaping up!

Pink No More!

It almost killed me, but finally there is NO MORE PINK in the house!  Last night I finished painting the master bath.  I really like the color we picked, but it was strange....  before all the horrible pink was gone, seeing the two colors on the wall at the same time made me not like the new green.  But when I finally got rid of all the pink, the green looked much better.  Thank God.

Looks like bad Neapolitan Ice Cream!

Much Better!

On Saturday, Kane's Furniture delivered our new kitchen table and desk.  It was so hot....  I felt sorry for the delivery guys.  They were soaked and looked beat but then, they were young so I suppose they could handle it better than me!  Then we took Blanche the Golf Cart for a ride to Wal-Mart and to Steak & Shake for supper.  It was still warm out, but with the sun down and the breeze the cart kicked up, it wasn't too bad.

Aside from Painting....

We have done some other things than paint while we have been here too.  We have been out stimulating the economy with some shopping, I hung a new ceiling fan in the guest bedroom, hung a lot of drapes.  And of course we have managed to eat a lot!

 

I need to tell this next story before Brian does because he got way too big of a kick out of it.  He likes to twist the stories to, as he puts it, "make them more entertaining"!  

Since there is no Pine Cone down here for us to hang out at, we have settled on IHOP.  They have good food, great coffee and the best onion rings either of have ever had.  But they also have pancakes.  Pancakes with everything.  I swear when you go to the john, every fourth piece of toilet paper is a pancake!  So, I wanted breakfast the other day and I asked if I could possibly get eggs, bacon and hash browns, without pancakes.  I wanted toast instead.  So, the waitress flips the menu over and says, "I'll give you the Senior Quick Breakfast....."  Brian broke out in fits of laughter, since he knows how I feel about getting older.  I think the poor waitress thought she had really insulted us.  But she made a point of telling us that she was trying to do me a favor by letting me order from the "Senior Menu".  Brian of course did not take it that way!

Today, we are waiting for a furniture delivery.  A kitchen table and small desk for the living room.  Then I'm sure it will be off to eat, what who knows.....  I still have lots of painting to do.  The Master Bath and the guest room.  I don't really mind it, but I tell ya, it was a lot easier 10 years ago!  Maybe I am ready for the Senior Menu!

Painting

People do a lot of different things on vacation.  Some like the beach, or fishing, or theme parks.  Me, I paint!  :-)  And I have made some progress.  Here are some before and after pictures we took.  (Have to apologize for the damn "spots" on some of the pictures.  I think my trusty camera is finally dying.)

Before......

After....

Before....

After...  (You can still see a bit of the lovely pink in the bathroom - yuck!)

Comcast and Chocolate

Today was our first full day in Florida.  As usual, our DVR took a poop.  It seems like every time we leave Florida, when we get back, either the cable or the internet aren't working.

So, we called Comcast and survived the long and frustrating call tree, talked to a technician and after him telling me to do all the things I had already tried, he said we needed to swap the DVR.  Sounded simple, but since they didn't give us the correct directions to one of their 'stores', we spent over two hours driving around some of the seedier parts of Florida.  But we got a different one (new is a word Comcast doesn't understand) and then went to meet our friends, Frank and Jim, for supper at Lone Star.

That is where the above picture comes in.  I was so tired and frustrated from chasing all over Florida to get a new DVR that I thought I deserved a treat.  What I didn't know was that it was big enough to feed at least four people!  But I gave it a good try.  Ended up bringing half of it home.  Damn it was good though!  Brian was more restrained and ordered a much more sensible sized dessert.  But it was nice to see our friends again and thank them with dinner for all they do for us when we are not in Florida.  They look after the house here as if it were their own.  Ate too much, laughed a lot.

Tomorrow if I have finally digested all the food I ate, the painting will begin!

Traveling

We have driven to Florida countless times and every time, it seems to be a bit different.  This trip could be summed up by two words: CONSTRUCTION and HEAT.  Illinois is always a joy - takes like 7 hours to go from one end to the other - but this time we got the extra fun of almost constant Road Construction.  And they don't mess around when they start ripping up the roads.  Signs like "Road Construction Next 46 Miles" where common.  Hell, not common, but constant.  46 miles, 52 miles, 38 miles.  Luckily, the longest delay we had in Illinois was maybe 45 minutes.  Now in Georgia, we had one that lasted almost and hour and a half, but there weren't as many.

Now lets talk heat.  The second day - Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia - the temp the car was showing was 99 degrees!  It would fluctuate down a few degrees at times, but stayed at 99 most of the time.  We stopped about half way through Georgia for lunch at a McDonalds.  We always park in back so we can let Max stretch his legs before we go through the drive-thru.  We got out of the car and the heat hit like a hammer.  I thought Max was going to drop dead and the tires on the car explode.  But we pushed on!

We stayed over night in Cordele, GA and the heat didn't let up.  On the road again on Sunday, when we crossed the border into Florida it started to rain hard and the temp dropped 22 degrees, from 98 to 76, in a little over 2 minutes.  The rain didn't last, but neither did the cool temps.  It was back up to 92 within the hour.  But we made it!  Got to the house early afternoon on Sunday and it was great to stop and relax.  Max did really well on the trip but he too was glad to find a 'not moving' spot to relax on.  He hit the couch and stayed there most of the rest of the day.  After a trip to the store for supplies, we all enjoyed a good night's rest after the long drive.

Bartending for the CPA

Heat, Tractor Pulls, Mosquitos....  Another interesting night volunteering for the Council for the Performing Arts.  This year, like last, the CPA manned one of the beer selling stations at the Jefferson County Fair.  And as last year it was a success, but unlike last year, it was HOT and HUMID.  Very hot and humid.  Rained pretty hard for a bit but that did nothing to ease the humidity.

Then there were the mosquitos.  Hundreds of them.  And every one of the bastards where hungry.  The humidity and bugs took some of the fun out of the night, but still I think we both enjoyed it. Most of the fair goers were in good spirits in spite of the heat and bugs.  Did I mention the damn bugs?!

The theme for the fair this year is "The Year of the Pig".  Not sure if they were playing off the Chinese calendar or not.  I don't pay much attention to fairs or the Chinese calendar for that matter.  But the people seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We were under the grandstands where the Tractor Pulls were going on.  Loud!  The constant smell of diesel smoke in the air just added to the ambiance.  Like the fair, I'm not sure I get the attraction to pulling tractors, but hey whatever floats your boat.  And the CPA can use all the money we can earn.  Like last year, we should make over $1,000 so it was worth the work.  They are going to do it again on Saturday night, but with any luck me and Brian will be - finally - on our way to Florida!

Once we got home, we were reminded again that we are not 20 years old anymore.  6 hours on the uneven ground under the grandstand and the heat and bugs.....   we hit the showers and then it was butt to couch.

Count Down To Florida

After a lot of false starts, it looks like we are actually going to head to Florida this coming Friday, the 9th. The new house still needs a lot of work; still have several rooms to paint, windows need dressing, guest room needs a bed and Steve needs a coffee pot!

We are going to take a little more time to drive down than we usually do. Will stop more often so Steve can exercise "the clot" and Max will need a few more stops now that he is getting older. Brian will be well entertained on the trip. He will have his GPS and also his new iPad so he can surf the net and try to beat his personal best at Backgammon.

With luck we will arrive at The Villages mid-day on Sunday, the 11th. Stay tuned for updates on the trip!