New Year, New Start, Past is the Past

The "Past is the Past" unless you live in Hurricane Country.  The boat above was nearly capsizing a good month after the last Hurricane hit our area in October.  Luckily for this boat owner, the tide came in, the boat leveled out, and some kind soul moved it out into the channel and it has been fine ever since.  Perhaps it was the owner who did this...that, I just don't know.
 

But this other boat ended more like an episode from Gilligan's Island.  It beached itself up along the shore, and has remained that way for the past three months.  (It is the furthest boat in the picture).  Two years ago there was a boat that had capsized...all you could see was the hull since the mast was under water, turned on its side.  It took 8 months for it to be cleared from the channel.  My guess is, when we leave in a few months, this boat will still be where it is.  Perhaps they are waiting for the next hurricane hoping it will move itself back into the channel.  Some times the past can't remain in the past, not here in hurricane country.  FEMA moved many folks out of the housing they were providing up until last week...these folks can't get out of the past...their every day living is just HELL!  "FEMA, we are here to help until your three months run out", seems to be their motto.

When I last left you, we were planning to spend Christmas Day at Marcia's brother Mike's house.  Well, a UTI took that plan away...one of the many issues you face when you have MS.  So, I went to Jallo Wine and Spirits, a fairly new store that opened up about 4 miles from us.  It has a lot larger offering than the local liquor stores have.  Easily found a bottle of Ouzo, a bottle of Johnny Walker Black, and these two gems pictured above.  Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout (for Marcia) and Cutwater White Russian foe me.  My sister Sandy turned me on to Cutwater last summer...especially their Espresso.  They did not have Espresso, but they did have the White Russian...which is a flavor I was interested in trying.  

So our Christmas Day was filled with cooking a Bone-in Ribeye Roast, a Christmas toast with a shot of Ouzo, and a Oatmeal Stout for Marcia with dinner, while I enjoyed my White Russian.  A box came with four each, and we enjoyed one each day for the next three days after Christmas too, along with one enjoyable evening with Johnny Walker over Ice in coffee cups, because we did not have any glasses...well, Amazon has fixed that, so we now can (and have) enjoyed Johnny Walker, over Ice each week, in an appropriate glass.  I would show you that the bottle is still 2/3rds full, but you all would probably think I just went and bought another bottle...so I will skip that, and you will just have trust me.

We did make it over to DeLand to see Marcia's other brother and his wife Caryl for New Year's Eve.  Hoping that the Booms and the Bangs would be less in their area than ours, but it wasn't.  However, I gave Indy a couple of Thunder Wonders, and that worked just fine.  We 'camped' in their driveway for the night, and had no problem with traffic getting there on Tuesday, and getting home on Wednesday.  (We actually left Monday, stayed in a Cracker Barrel for the night, and arrived Tuesday around 10 am.)   We had a very enjoyable time there.

I celebrate the New Year with my final IRS payment of our quarterly taxes.  I ALWAYS take a picture of the envelope before I mail it, and as I mail it...just a good idea, in my opinion.  Yes, I could get a PIN and send it electronically, but I try to keep the good ole Post Office in business each year, so I put on my "Forever Stamp" (bought four or five years ago) four times a year, and send it out.  The 5th stamp I use each year is to send our yearly tax statement out...so you can see, I am single-handedly keeping the USPS in business.

Finally, there is yesterday...  Above is Indy having her Inaugural Hot Dog while watching the Inauguration.  Need I say more...  The past is the past, this is a new year...let's hope it is better for everyone.
 

Christmas Time, Blog Time, HO Ho ho

 

Before Christmas is Thanksgiving...before Thanksgiving is my Birthday (sometimes it falls on Thanksgiving).  So for Thanksgiving, we enjoyed a nice, boneless leg of Lamb dinner, complete with different veggies and a large sweet potato that we split in half.  The nice thing about the Lamb, it lasts for another 4-5 meals, so I put a third of the cooked lamb into the freezer.  And what about my birthday?  Pizza from Pizza Hut.  Not that the "Hut" is the best pizza, when you have not had it for nearly 5 years, it tastes darn good!  Now we have had various low carb pizzas over these past 4-5 years, but they just are not like a real pizza.  I "almost" had a Lou Malnati's legendary Chicago deep dish pizza shipped, but I just could not justify the cost...so Pizza Hut was it, and it was good.  And what about Turkey???  We got a bone in Turkey which I made Turkey Soup out of...that lasted four to five days!

Of course, with Thanksgiving being over, we now have to prepare for Winter in Florida.  That included getting rid of an ant farm which suddenly showed up outside our front door.  

Although I could have called the HOA and they eventually would come and take care of them, I hit them with TERRO ant bait, which took out the sugar ants real quick...but the majority of these ants were not sugar ants...more like Little Black Ants, and you need a different TERRO for that...but I did have Amdro and it did the job, except these little creeps kept moving to areas nearby.  It took about a week, but they are now under control.  The difference between these two type of ants is that the Sugar Ant seems to climb up and down walls, power cords, drapes...they just get into anything and everything if you don't control them.  The Little Black Ants seem to stay along the ground...which means poor Indy's food bowl was their favorite place to go.  Let's just say that we are prepared for Florida Winter now, no ants inside for well over a week now.

Since we arrived home from our California trip in late September, I knew it was time to put the HHR back into the shop again.  Once we got back home, it started right up...which lasted about 5 seconds then died.  I figured it might have had water in the gas due to the high humidity and the one tropical storm that it endured while we were gone.  After two shots of gas additive and a few hundred miles of driving, it became apparent this was not the issue.  The Camper Van needed an oil change, and I decided that would be first.  Then the first hurricane, Helene, hit the area, and although we did not have issues, others around us did, including massive power outages.  So I held off (procrastination) until two weeks later when Milton hit the area and caused even more damage.  Although I had an appointment to get the oil changed for the Camper Van, that had to be canceled as we headed north to get away from Milton.  By late October the community was getting back to normal, as close to normal as it could be with debris piled up along so many roadways due to the damage that Milton and Helene caused...so I did get the oil changed, and that was blogged about in late October.  By early November I got the HHR into the shop where it stayed for nearly a week.  $1,700 later, it is like we have a new engine...but the check engine light was still coming on due to a sensor in the Catalytic Converter. So I put an additive in and started driving it in 2nd gear as much as possible to get the RPMs up there as if it was on the highway.  220 miles later, before the second treatment, the light turned off.  I put the second treatment in and continued the high RPM driving for another 30 miles, filled up the tank and started driving it normally again.  It has been another 200 miles, and all is well.  The HHR has over 170,000 of driving miles, and another 120,000 miles being pulled behind three different motorhomes, included up to Alaska and back, so it has seen its days for sure.  But we love our HHR, which we purchased a month or so after we got married in 2011...it was originally bought by a rental car agency in 2009, so we are its second owner, but it has had multiple drivers.  Overall, it has run very nice for us until a couple of years ago.  This time I think we have it fixed.

Which brings up to up to Christmas.  Christmas Day we are going over to Marcia's brother Mike's house.  Christmas Eve I will cook a Texas Ribeye, with Baked Potato, Veggies, and our favorite seasonal dessert, Cranberry Orange Marmalade Sauce over Rebel Ice Cream.  (2 - 12 oz bags Cranberries, 1 cup Splenda Brown Sugar, 2 cups Sugar Free Orange Marmalade, 16 oz baked chopped Walnuts, 4 tbl Lemon Juice.  Cook Cranberries and Splenda Brown Sugar mixed well in a standard 2 Qt. 8″ x 11″ glass baking dish for an hour, covered, at 350 degrees, stirring once half way through.  Add Orange Marmalade, nuts and juice, stir well, cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.)  A half cup serving has 4 net carbs, the ice cream has 2-6 net carbs depending upon flavor (Rebel is our favorite brand).  We also put a couple tablespoons over our Hot Oatmeal in the morning.  It is YUMMY!

We hope all of YOU have a wonderful Christmas Holiday, and remember just what it is we are celebrating for. 

 

Three Weeks Later…Eating Sherbet?

Home in Holiday / Tarpon Springs area, FL

Well, it LOOKS like Sherbet…what it really is something Marcia came up with on her own, although others have made a variant of it with names like Jello Cream Cheese Fluff.  She mixes two small containers (or one large) of sugar-free Jello with 2 cups hot water and 1 cup cold water, mix and put in the Refrigerator until it sets.  Then she puts 6 oz of cream cheese, cut into small squares (to mix easier), 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, and the set Jello in the Magic Bullet and mixes until it is well blended.  Then pours it into a large mixing bowl, and uses her immersion blender to get it to fluff up more, then back into the fridge.  An hour or two later, it is ready to eat.  WOW, this stuff is GREAT, and it is nearly carb free!  The serving you see above is a bit bigger than our normal serving.  When she makes it, we both get 3-4 servings from the batch.  One ounce of Cream Cheese has less than one carb in it, according to the label.  She puts in 6 ounces, and that makes 6-8 servings…so essentially, each serving has less than 1 carb.  The Jello and heavy whipping cream have no carbs.

Skruffy wants to show off our new dishwasher.

This is the quietest dishwasher I have ever heard…and my sister and Arny have a very quiet one too.  There are two drawers, and you can wash one while filling the other, and then start it when ever you want.  So you can wash one drawer or both drawers at the same time, and it does not matter which one you use first.

    

There is only one set of controls, all on the top drawer.  The first button will light up the display (so will opening a drawer).  The second button will select which drawer you want to wash, pictured with the white rectangle above the button. In the bottom two picture above, the “Fast” is for the upper drawer, and “Rinse” is for the lower drawer.  The third button selects the type of wash you want to do…46 minutes fast wash is what she likes to use, it does not dry…she likes everything to drip-dry.  The bottom drawer is set for a 15 minute rinse.  The manual says that you should run each drawer at least once every week or two, other wise you open up the drawer and let it sit until you get back from your vacation.  So we just run a quick 15 minute rinse once a week or so for the bottom drawer…typically with nothing in it.

    

    

Above you can see the other types of washes.  All types of washes are available for each drawer, and you select the type by pushing the button right under the numbers.  You can also push the second and third button at the same time to make changes to the length of time of some of the wash choices.

The last button starts the washer.  You can use either liquid or granule soap in the dispenser, or if you use the solid squares or balls, you can put them in a special holder that sits above the silverware holder.  You add a liquid rinse aid, and when it runs out, a small light right by the soap dispenser will light up telling you it is time to add more.

I really like our new chair.  It was easy to put together, took me about 40 minutes.  It is also very quiet when it moves, but there is a hum when the massage is running. 

    

It is time for a new hose for the motorhome, and heard about this neat new hose, it has been around for a couple of years.  It has real good reviews, and it will be much easier to store.

In looking over Black Friday Week on Amazon, I came upon this neat little speaker.  It is bluetooth, connects to our Kindles, is solar charged (or it can charge via a standard phone charger), and also connects to a phone.  Sometimes we are traveling on a Sunday and we want to watch/listen to our church service via the Internet…but the sound is too weak.  This will be perfect.

Heard about Verizon’s new “no contract” Prepaid Unlimited Data plan, $65 per month if you autopay, and a new aircard/Jetpack for $49 (one payment only).  Right now our 40 gigs of data runs us $150 per month…and we are locked into using that aircard for 5 more months…but we are NOT locked in at the 40 gigs.  But that 40 gigs is a promotional price…once we let it go, we can’t get it back at that price, which is normally $300 per month.  So we got our new prepaid Jetpack today, and if it works for the rest of the month, I will drop our 40 gig plan down to 1 gig, which will run us $30 per month…and in May, drop it completely, saving the $30 and the $20 monthly connection fee.  Also, since this plan is unlimited…we hope to be able to drop our house connection saving another $100+ per month.  The only shortfall with this prepaid plan is that is subject to deprioritization on congested towers. 

This is “US” going all out on Christmas.  Yep, this is the extent of our decorations…we love it.

This is our Christmas Tree, with the presents underneath it.  Wish I could tell you who the presents are for, but when my sister sent them, there were no names on them.  Heck, knowing her, they are all for Bubba and Skruffy.  Wish we could sneak Bubba in here for Christmas, but alas, we don’t want the HOA coming down on us now do we….

Well, that pretty much covers the past three weeks, and above is the total decorations that the Condo does for outside….nice that they light up the pool and cabana area, it is a nice touch…but they won’t let anyone put anything else outside, but you can put stuff inside your windows.  Christmas Eve is a week from today and we plan to head to Brooksville to visit with Marcia’s side of the family…and this time I plan to take my camera to share that and the rest of our Christmas with you all.  Until then, be good so Santa “MIGHT” stop by where ever you are…

PS: Posted this using the new aircard…went just fine.

Getting Ready to Head to Florida

Sister’s House -- Citrus Heights, CA

As Santa makes his rounds tonight, we have been getting prepared to our departure on Tuesday to head back to Florida.  Tire pressure system totally functional, all 10 tires (6 on motorhome, 4 on car) needed some air due to the colder weather…with Arny’s huge compressor in his garage, that was easy to do.  Started up the engine today to let it warm up a bit, added a quart of oil, a few ounces of antifreeze, and  between the motorhome and HHR, nearly a full gallon of window cleaner solution.  Emptied our waste tanks today, stored the blue tote in Arny’s shed, and filled up the fresh water tank.  Had a few things which I was able to load into the HHR, and just a few things to load on Tuesday.

Last time I saw all three of my kids together was when this picture above, which included mom and dad, was taken at the Elephant Bar and Grill in Emeryville, California in September 2015…that was nearly 28 months ago!   Well, it just so happens that all three are in Sacramento, with their mother, for Christmas.  Plans are that on Tuesday we will have breakfast together before Marcia and I take off for Florida. Mom, Dad, and my sisters Patti and Sandy plan to be there too, but unfortunately Michael’s fiancé Anna will have to work.

Tonight Mom, Dad, Patti, Charlie, Parker (the last two are her dogs), Sandy, Arny, Euleda, Marcia, Skruffy, Bubba and I all had a relaxing, easy and lite Christmas Eve dinner of Arny’s pulled pork over bread or salad, along with Marcia’s lemon shrimp.  Tomorrow all of us, along with Patti’s daughter Ashely and her boyfriend will gather again for a traditional Christmas Petit Jean Ham dinner and gift exchange.  Nothing like Christmas with family, and I love Petit Jean Hams from Arkansas!  48 hours from this post and we should find ourselves in a rest area along I-5.

4 Days of Christmas

Skruffy scored with a new blanket from her Aunt and Uncle back in Sacramento.  Bubba, well he got a bunch of treats…but the diabetic old baby got babied with this nice fleece blanket.  She knew it was “hers” very quickly.  Can’t wait until Bubba comes over for a visit and finds that “she” has her own blanket now.  Bubba’s blanket is ten years old, falling apart, and he loves it to death…along with his backup beach towel that we use with his blanket.  Glad the post office came through and got our package to us in time for Christmas…and yes, there was a little something for Marcia and I too...and we sure appreciate that!  We sent another Arkansas Petit Jean Spiral-Sliced Smoked Ham for the family dinner at Arny and Sandy’s house.  We hope to be there for Christmas next year to enjoy one ourselves with them!  On Christmas Eve we did head to Brooksville for the Theodore Christmas Eve gathering, and then came home and watched our church service over the Internet.

   

Around 11 am Christmas Day we decided to go for a bit of a drive, going over to see Marcia’s son John first..  Next stop, the Sponge Docks in Tarpon Springs to see what was open.  Most shops were closed, a few were open, and two restaurants looked to be a bit busy.  It is nice that they decorate many of the sponge boats, and have the large Christmas Tree near the Fisherman’s  memorial.

    

Then we scooted over to the Dog Park, which is not far from the Docks, where at first Skruffy was all alone…

Then Max arrive, and they had fun playing together.  Of course, Max can run twice as fast as Skruffy, but she is much faster this year than last now that she has shed a few pounds…Diabetes and Pancreatitis does that to you…and we have been good about keeping her weight down.

Then these two larger dogs came…one of which should have been in the large dog area (the other side of that distance fence…it was empty), and the other could go into either.  Well, these two just surrounded Skruffy, but she held her own.  The larger one got into a small squabble with Max, and we decided to leave.

Not sure if Skruffy is saying good bye…or telling that large dog to go to the other dog pen…either way, I knew it was time to leave, even though another small dog was arriving.

Next we traveled back over to Crystal Beach, where there were only a handful of people, and a great skyline for taking pictures.

     

Nice calm water, cloudy sky, some birds…yep, it was a nice day at Crystal Beach.

      

Always birds at Crystal Beach...at a wonderful Christmas Day high of 78 degrees, around 74 degrees while we were out.

     

Such a quiet, relaxing place.  We stayed for less than a half hour, enjoyed the view, and then we headed over to the local mountains.

You didn’t know there were local mountains near us in Tarpon Springs, now did you?  Bet you did not know that there were huge dinosaur looking creatures there too…like this one in the middle of the picture (above).

Ok, so it is just those rocks in the middle of this picture…but when I saw it through the camera as Marcia was taking pictures it looked like a mountain…so I had her take a few close up pictures.  It wasn’t until we got home and on the computer that I saw the little Gecko there on the rocks.

After our drive we got home, got the roast into the oven, and rested until it was ready 3 1/2 hours later.  (240 degrees, slow cooked).  We also had some shrimp (which is also what we took up to Brooksville the day before).  I cleaned the shrimp tails, and Marcia lays them out on top of sliced lemons, melted butter, sprinkled with select seasonings, and cooked for 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven, pull out and cover for 5-10 minutes. Yummy!  

Monday we had a relaxing day at home, except for when I went over to the RV for its Monday morning start up and battery recharge.  On the way there, my sister sent me a text to say that mom had fallen around 5:30 am Pacific time, and they were in the Emergency Room…but four hours later she was headed home to the assisted living place with no broken bones, and little memory of the fall. 

Today (Tuesday) we had lunch with Cousin Mary, who we see often while here in the Tarpon Springs area.  Mary is around 85 years old, lives alone, and her and Marcia are cousins.  Mary’s sister passed away a couple of weeks ago…met her sister’s son for the first time at the Theodore Annual Christmas Eve get together on Saturday.  

And with that, you now know how our four days of Christmas went this year.