A Snowbird in Paradise

My friends and family know that I have been on a quest to loose extra pounds since my 70th birthday. I anticipated the new wardrobe I would have to buy, but I am not done loosing, yet. Do I buy nice things only to have to give them away when I loose the next size? Or just buy cheap clothing to "see me over" and get the good clothes when I reach my goal. I chose to buy a few better pieces. My son has an acquaintance loosing weight, too, and she is a size bigger so it will all pass down to her IF we both continue toward our goals.

Well, to my surprise, there are other strange effects to loosing weight. My shoes are too big. I had to buy new ones half a size smaller and narrow. There are cuter styles in the smaller size. I wonder where this will end?

I am cold! The cold in Michigan was not as unbearable to me when I was heavier. This year I kept myself wrapped in an electric afghan covered with a small, fluffy quilt. Even in Florida I have been snugged down in the quilt every time the temperature dips below 50 degrees. I didn't notice the cold as much when I had that layer of insulation I lost this year.

Meanwhile, I am struggling to back get on the loosing track, but it is hard with all the wonderful places to eat in Florida. We have company rather often and we want to take them out. Finding appropriate items on the menu is nearly impossible.

Maybe not Adventure in Paradise, but interesting just the same. I have never been in the Rockies, only flown over them a couple of times. After just a week in Florida I flew to Salt Lake City, Utah for a 5-day meeting with Digital Scrapbooking friends. The air quality in the city was really poor, with a brown haze between us and the mountains. A friend who brought her car, took 3 of us up to Park City so we could get up close and personal with the mountains. Most of my photos were taken from the car with my little Canon Digital Elph which has an anti-shake feature.

It was another cool evening by the lake, after a day of work. There is so much to do when we first get down here. The plants grow non-stop for 8 months, a phenomenon when you are used to plants dying back in winter, or disappearing altogether. Three truckloads of prunings and weeds have gone to the dump already with one more area still to be cut back.

Then there is the deck! That was a new task for us; removing black mold or mildew from the textured beige cement of the pool deck/patio. For the last 6 years I have painstakingly power-washed the whole area complaining that I can't do that much longer. It takes two days of inch-by-inch work. This year I talked to someone at Home Depot and discovered Chlorox Outdoor Deck and Patio cleaner. So much better!!! Pour it on, scrub it in with a long handled patio brush, hose it off, and VOILA! Clean! We need to get the third gallon of the stuff and I will be done working only about an hour or two a day. Funny thing, is back home we would probably hire this done.


The Osprey we have been watching (or two or four) treated us to a fly-by last evening. He/She circled overhead so close!!! I need my tripod, though. It is hard in the evening to get sharp photos at a distance.


We have been concerned about the health of the lake since the algae-bloom killed most of the fish two summers ago. The active ripples of fish and turtles in the evening tell us the lake has come back. Still no sight of the small alligators we KNOW are there, but that will come with patience. Meanwhile, a fisherman in a boat near our seawall yesterday said he has been taking two-pound bass from the lake this year. I texted the news to my son-in-law who would fish every minute of their 10 days here at Easter. He has taken fish from the lake...NICE ones, but not since the hurricanes and the fish-kill. Maybe this year!

...at least that is what "they" said. I didn't read it for myself. I always wanted a photo of the Full Moon through a palm tree. I used to draw that scene when I was in high school, doodling on my notebook. It was about 6:30 in the evening and the sky was bright blue a few nights before the official Full Moon but the shot was what I wanted.
The neighbor said he had seen the moon a few nights before, rising over the Indian River Lagoon between us and the beaches and ocean. So about 6:30 two nights later we drove down to the Rotary Club pier and boardwalk to wait for the moonrise. I should have looked up the time on the web because we had about a 2 hour wait. I can't complain, though. It was warm...I was in a short-sleeved blouse; the lagoon was beautiful; the tide was out; and there were shore birds to watch. A great blues band was playing in the outdoor bar across the street. I told myself that it doesn't get much better than this.

Our neighbor came down with his camera, too, and we waited as it got darker and darker. We noticed clouds around the spot we guessed would be the moonrise. then we THOUGHT we saw a lightening of the clouds. Suddenly there was a sliver of orange below the clouds, which had lightened from the rising moon.

Once again, as we drove South for the winter, I wondered if we had seen it all or if we would find ANYTHING new.

The weather was JUST turning nasty as we left the lower part of Michigan at 6:00 AM Tuesday. Had we waited even another hour we might STILL be there. Sleet through parts of Ohio, ice on the car (but not the roads) through the rest of Ohio, heavy rain and fog through the Smokies, and rain into North Carolina to visit family. Yes, not the best drive we have had, but the alternative behind us was storm after storm at home. By the afternoon of Day 2 we were feeling the warmth, seeing sunshine, and celebrating Florida!

After stopping for another family visit, we finally arrived Home-South after dark. Our neighbor came over and brought us up to speed on community and neighborhood happenings. By bedtime I felt completely at home.