Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Roof Work---Not

Monday

Raining this morning when I got up and pretty wet all day long.  Just spent the day reading and catching up on blogs and email.  I did a little cleaning and relaxing.  Then headed into spend the evening with Alexus as Elizabeth was going to be out learning to knit.

I spent some time online with Dish getting some channels activated that were included in my package.  This is the third time I have called and finally feel like everything is set up the way it should be.

I am still waiting for the ice blow to be delivered for the roof.  Also hoping that the weather holds off so I can get up on the roof before it snows and install them.

Interesting time with Alexus two surprises.  The first was a FaceTime call with my grand children out in Alabama, a nice surprise.  The second was the well apparently running out of water at Elizabeth's.  First the septic now the well.

Tuesday

Lots to do today so of course I slept in until almost 9.  After breakfast and a quick movie "127 Hours"  I headed to court.  Spent a couple hours up there and then home.  The UPS truck brought the sealant, screws, and ice blow.  Now I need some decent dry sunny weather.  Waiting for Bonnie now.  Then we are off to WW.

Went to WW gain some its been a fun couple of weeks, but I need to get serious again.  Elizabeth and Alexus came to the house, they have no water again.  Someone did come to look at it and I think they are going to fix it tomorrow, maybe a bad pump.  So they got showers, did some wash and had supper with us.  I went over the Visa bill and set it up to be paid.  Then a little TV and now I am headed to bed to read a bit and then get a good nights sleep.

Wednesday

The sun was peaking through the clouds when I got up this morning, maybe I can work on the roof.  Made my breakfast and the sun was shining in my eyes.  Read a few blogs and it was dark in the living room.  Hey its snowing out there goes the roof work.

Then the phone rang and I had to head to court to sign some paperwork.  I was up there a couple hours and then home in the cold rain.  Nothing but a trace of snow and sun is still forecast for tomorrow.

Elizabeth has water again tonight but nothing has been fixed yet.  Her boiler cuts off it appears when there is no water pressure so now she has heat back again.  Hopefully they will get someone that knows what they are doing to look at it.

Well thats it for today.  Thanks for checking in.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving Day

Thursday

Got up early today knowing it would be a long day, but a a good day.  Bonnie made the Waldorf salad and baked the squash and we were off to the first of two dinners before noon.

First dinner was with our family in Java Village.  We had about 15 family there.  Several were with other family in Pennsylvania and Mississippi.  But we still had a nice spread of food.
Lots of great food
The smoked turkey was great and the Apple Pie the best ever.

Then off to Elizabeths for a couple hours and an attempt at a little nap.

Then we headed for John and Sandy's friends of Elizabeth's from her church that we also know.  They had a couple other families over for dinner and again delicious food and desserts.  We even watched a little football and played Pictionary on the Wii.

Finally headed home around 10pm, and now time for some rest and sleep, after I dry the towels.

I trust you all had a great Thanksgiving day and enjoyed time with your family.

Friday

Where did Friday go.  Here it is Saturday and I need to catch up.

I was up my normal time and started the wash.  Read my blogs and email and some on my book The Help.
Around 10:30 I gave Alexus my GD a call to make sure she was up as we were going to the movie.  She wasn't.  Called again at 11 and told her I would be there in 20 minutes.  When I got there she still was not dressed.  But we did make it in time.  We saw Happy Feet in 3D, I could actually see the special effects this time.  Cute movie and I enjoyed it.

Came home after dropping off Alexus about 3pm and Bonnie was already home, its usually after 4:40.  But all is well she just was able to come home early.  I spread some stone and fixed the ruts out front where the water running off the road damages the driveway when it rains hard.

We had good Thanksgiving leftovers for supper and watched a movie.  I read a little but was tired so was in bed shortly after 11.


Saturday

Today proved to be a pretty laid back day.  I got up early and was surprised that Bonnie got up soon afterward, Saturday is her day to sleep in.  I read some email and blogs and then finished reading "The Help", I enjoyed the good and since we have a free year of blockbuster movies I ordered the dvd.

As I headed out to go up to court I snapped this picture of Bonnie hard at work on a family scrapbook.


She had an appointment with a printer to get copies made so she is putting on the last few finishing touches.

I spent a couple hours at court and then came home and took the winch off the tractor.  next step will be putting on the snow blower and checking it out for winter.

The rest of the day we watched some movies and read.  All in all a pretty easy Saturday.

Sunday

Just a normal Sunday here.  Up early for church and we were treated to a good skit by the drama team with an excellent message.

A new star debuts
Once we got home Bonnie and I moved some furniture around and then it was movie day.  We watched two movies with time out to watch the Bills almost win.  Pretty simple day for us.

Thats about it for this week.  Thanks for Checking In.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Goodbye Time-Warner Cable

Monday

Shortly after I finished breakfast Chris showed up with my new DISH satellite antenna and receiver.  While he installed the antenna outside I disconnected and removed the cable box and DVR.  I had already run a telephone line and network cable into the media center.  I also had a pull string that we would use to pull up the new coax cable from the antenna.

New Dish Antenna
So with the outside done Chris hooked up the receiver and DVR.  He also hooked up a sling adapter so we can watch our TV on a computer or iPhone when we are not home.  The whole install went well.  The only glitch was getting the programming all activated and set up properly.  But I think that is all taken care of now.  So far so good.  I spent most of the evening figuring out what all the thing will do, I sell have a lot to explore and learn.

Tuesday

Lots to do today.  I had to take the cable box up to Batavia and turn it in, 50 mile round trip.  I did get a call from the Time Warner retention department saying they could cut my bill in half, which is what I did with DISH.  To LATE!  Then down to Flying J to fill up my truck.  Followed that with a trip to court to catch up on paperwork.  I spent a couple hours there and then headed home.

Stopped at the end of the driveway to read the electric meter that is out by the road.

What reading do you get?
Back home I put up some curtain rods for Bonnie, collected the trash and cleaned the cat litter box.  Started to read my email just as Bonnie got home.  I gave her a quick lesson on the new DISH system and then it was time to go to WW.  I went out first and took the trash out to the road.  It has started to rain and is freezing in some areas.

WW went well with all the eating out in Florida I only gained 1.2lbs.  Elizabeth made homemade beef stroganoff for supper, with homemade chunky apple sauce.  Both were delicious.  We watched Hawaii Five-O together and then we headed home in the rain at 33 degrees.  Sure am glad the motorhome is inside for the winter.

Hope to read a little tonight, I have The Help on my Kindle that I got for 21 days from the library, so need to get it read.  More tomorrow

Wednesday

Got up this morning and it was still raining.  I heard it raining hard last night several times.  When I checked the rain gauge it said well over an inch of rain has fallen overnight.  No outside work today.  It even snowed for a while this morning but did not stick.

I did install a new toilet seat for Bonnie, and ordered Snow Blox for the roof to stop the snow from sliding off the metal roof.  The snow is damaging the gutter which I noticed when I was cleaning the gutters.  Plus with the DISH antenna where it could get damaged it was time to put them up.  They are already on the back roof and the garage.  They I rearranged the cables in the media center so it is a little neater now.

I spent quite a bit of time reading The Help and hope to finish it soon and then see the movie.  Finishing up the evening putting some solar lights together for Bonnie and watching Survivor.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  I like this time of the year as we pause to Thank our Creator for all He provides us, and to be around family and let them know how much they mean to us.

Have a great time together with friends and family, we have so much to be Thankful for.

Thanks for checking in.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Nice and warm in Florida while it snows in Buffalo

Thursday

Got off to a nice slow start this morning, slept in till 8.  Then had a leasurly breakfast and read the paper.  We made it out to the pool after 10 and it was a bit cool.  But the hot tub and nice sunshine made up for the cool breeze and it was comfortable.

Hot tub time


We came in about 1pm and nothing here really for lunch so had a nice bowl of Blue Bell ice cream.  We have a boat ride and then a show planned for the rest of the day.  Dinner will be sandwiched in there some where.  There is not a cloud in the sky today.

Nothing here at the condo for lunch so I had a bowl of ice cream.  Then we headed to old St Andrews for a late afternoon cruise of the bay and to try to spot some dolphins.  Here are a few pictures of the trip.

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Captain Hal



Might have lunch here tomorrow

Had some grouper here for dinner

Went back to the show at Gulf World

Two Elvis's on stage
We had a good day, learned lots of history on the tour and the Legends show was their last of the season and was very good and lasted almost 3 hours.

Friday

After a late night I slept in till about 8:30 this morning.  Nothing really on the agenda for today so taking it easy.  We decided to go back to Bayou Joe's and give them a try for lunch.  So we went on restaurant.com and printed out a coupon.  Then punched it into the GPS on my iPhone and headed over there.

This is the backside of the building

Nice table on the water
Wow what a great time and great food.  Our waitress was from Collins near home and we had a nice chat about Western NY.  I had the Oyster PoBoy and Sharon had the Crab cakes.  I had a piece of Key Lime pie for dessert and a Brownie for Sharon.  Its not going to be pretty at WW next week.  While we were there the same boat we cruised on last night pulled up with a new group.

That's Joyce from NY on the left
After lunch we headed on done the beach to look for a geocache.  We looked a while and finally found it.  Also got to visit with an RVer who was letting his dog swim on the beach we were parked at.  He was also a geocacher so he helped us look, but we found it after he gave up.

Then we went over to the city park, where they are busy decorating for Christmas.  We walked down to the water.

A beautiful sunny day
Then we walked back through the park and spotted this 4 headed Palm Tree.  Supposedly the only known one.


We looked for another cache in the park but joined the list of those that did not find it.  It was getting late in the afternoon, it gets dark here at 4:45pm.  We were both still full from lunch so stopped and picked up subs from the WinnDixie for later tonight.

Spending the evening watching a couple movies and hopefully getting to bed a little earlier.

Saturday

Well its our last day here and it is overcast and raining off and on.  So not a bad week.  We went out for a while today and Sharon did a little shopping at the Christmas at the fairgrounds show.  I walked around but did not see anything that interested me.  Then back to the condo and watched some TV.  We filled the car up with gas so we are all set to head to the airport in the morning for our 7:30am flight.  We plan to ear dinner here on the resort the same place we ate the first night.

We checked into our flights on line and the front desk printed our boarding passes.  All we have left to do is pack the suitcases and run the dishwasher when we leave in the morning.

Sunday

Not much to say about today.  We got up at 5am and were on the way to the airport at 5:30.  The GPS tried to take us to the old airport but we ignored it and made good time and were almost 90 minutes early.

We had our boarding passes but had to check luggage.  Long line only 2 Delta employees working.  It took forever.  No line at TSA security lots of people working there.  Delta and Southwest are the only two airlines that fly out of here so it is a small airport.  Our flight was all boarded when we go to the gate and had to wait a bit for the people in the line behind us checking luggage.  We got away just a few minutes late and into Atlanta a few minutes early.

My flight to Buffalo was on the same plane just a new flight number.  Sharon was just a couple gates away.  Both of our flights left on time and got in early.  Bonnie picked me up and I went to Getzville to the Chapel with her as she had a meeting for the mission trip in January.  She had a sub sandwich for me and I had a book to read on the iPad and some podcasts to watch.  The Chapel is also decorating for Christmas and I watched Frosty being put together.

First the belly

Chest and head next
 Lots of people doing a lot of decorating.  Finally we headed home, with a stop at Flying J for gas, even used my RV Frequent Fueler Card.  Thats about it for this week.

I had a great time with my sister and enjoyed the weather.  I did not enjoy flying and the hassle that goes with it now a days.

Thanks for checking in.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Swimming with the Fish

Monday

First full day in Panama City.  Sharon had signed us up to go swimming with the Dolphins today.  We got to Gulf World Marine Park at about 9:30.



We then proceeded to see the shows Sea Lion,  Birds, Dolphin, and Sting Ray.




Slapped the ball with her tail

In between shows we visited most of the exhibits.  Just after noon we had a bite to eat and then watched the reptile show.  We walked over to where we were told to meet for Swimming with the Dolphins.  Megan met us there and took us to the class room.  We (Sharon and I were the only ones in the group) learned all the basics about the Dolphins and watched a video.  Then it was off to the locker room to get into our swimsuits.  Up to the pool area we went.  Its the same pool the Dolphin show was in.  We met our trainer and into the water we went.  Our Dolphin was Brenan, she is about 30 years old and is retired from the Navy in San Diego.  She also has a young baby.  But she was great, very well trained.  We got to pet and stroke her, you could tell she enjoyed it.  We learned how to get her to do some of her routines and jumps.  Also got to give her a big hug.  Then the real highlight was to be able to hold on to her dorsal fin and go for a ride.  Just like they did on the show FLIPPER, I used to love to watch that show.

She was very gentle

I think she liked me

Shaking hands with my sister

A great big hug

Splish Splash


We watched the last Dolphin show of the day and then left for the day.

High jumper


We decided to eat on the way home.  A quick check on my phone using the app YELP showed that we were close to Firefly which was highly recommended.  So we decided to give it a try.  The food was really good and we were in time for the Early Bird Special.

Started with a nice salad


Back to the condo to download pictures and update the blog.  Wow a busy day and its pretty late, more tomorrow.

Tuesday

The coffee I had at dinner last night kept me awake until 1am, but I did go right to sleep once I got into bed.  I started reading "The Help" and got about 4 pages read once I laid down.  I got up around 7:30 and had some breakfast and read some email and blogs.  Then Sharon got up and we finally left here around 11 to check out Panama City.  We stopped at the city marina and looked around a little.


Christmas decorations are already up


The it was off to find Los Rancheros for lunch we had a restaurant.com coupon.


The food was good, it was hot and there was plenty of it.  I forgot to take a picture until after I had a couple bites.

Burritos Mexicano

Chile Relleno
We decided we would go to the movies for the afternoon and decided to see J. Edgar.  We had some time to kill before showtime so went for a little walk on the beach.  We looked for shells but they were mostly all broken and small.


There is about a 3 foot drop off in the sand here.
The movie was over 2 hours long and it was almost 6:30 when we got out.
We decided to grab a sub for supper and so we tried FireHouse Subs

Firehouse Subs

We took the subs back to the condo and they were really good.

Time for a little reading and TV as the internet was out for a while, but now its back so I can get this updated.

Wednesday

We had a slow morning with not much planned today, so we walked over to the main building and talked to the concierge for about 45 minutes.  She was very helpful and pointed us in the right direction for the day.

Our Villa is in this building, there are 2 buildings 80 villas
We went over to the wreck building (they spell that way) for lunch.  Hot dog roast with the proceeds going to the children's miracle network

Our pool
We got a call shortly after lunch that there were a couple other people who wanted to go on the airboat ride and so they were going to go ahead and have the 1/2 hour ride.  So we jumped in the car and headed for the dock out near the airport.


Captain Richard (from Akron, NY) readies the airboat
 We rode along side the marsh grass instead of going through it as it is full of dried seeds that would fell the boat.
Marsh Grass

One of the Egrets we saw

Headed into the marsh
We made several stops and Captain Richard would talk about the marsh and what we were seeing.  We were in a rush as a nasty line of thunderstorms was moving into the area.  We had a few sprinkles but the wind and rain held off until later.

We then headed for a diving museum.  The Navy's diving school is near our condo and a lot of the equipment at the museum came from there.




This is almost 50 years old and was one of the first, they are getting a grant to restore it.

A very nice collection

Knot board with some fancy work on it

A deep water explorer
We headed for the beach road and Sharon did a little shopping.  Then it was off to Shane's for an early dinner.

Shane's
Great ribs

Can't eat like this all the time!
Great food and we had a coupon.  Then we headed back to the condo, stopping just to pick up some ice-cream for dessert.

Wow its Wednesday already so I will get this posted.

Thanks for Checking in.