Brrrr…

The whole idea of our trip, the central theme, was “avoid the heat”. We had decided that after 5 years of summers in Florida that we would do the opposite of what the snowbirds do…we sunbirds would go North for the summer. The problem with Florida isn’t really the heat as much as it is the consistency, here…let me show you our current 10 day forecast.

Now I’m pretty sure that I don’t have to go to meteorology school to forecast the weather for Florida in the summer. When it is that hot for that long a funny thing happens…the water heats up. Ok that was sarcastic…it’s not funny. The pools and even the ocean get up to around 90 degrees. Picture yourself arriving at the St. Petersburg beach, sun shining, waves crashing and you set off on a run to splash into the cool, soothing blue water only to find that you might have just dunked yourself in a tub of pee. Sorry…there was no better way to put it.

Now this is more like it.

This is a spot on the creek that we found slow moving water and water that was over 6 feet deep…and get ready for it…58 degrees!

We had a blast playing in the creek and checking out the cool waterfalls.

I even made a couple of friends.

These butterflies followed me for about half an hour…Sam giggled the whole time.

Rainy days and Fridays

I’ve been reminded that I kind of promised to post, like, every day, so here ya go.

Jen is doing better. Her heart “issue” and “tissue” is 50% regenerated. She’s a bit disappointed not to hear that she is 100% back to normal. I think the rest of us would be surprised to hear that she was ever 100% normal. Keep thinking good luck thoughts and hopefully she can put this behind her soon.

Dad seems to be doing fine back in Orion. There is some rumblings of shoulder pain and a cold, but heck, those almost sound like normal issues.

I wrote this whole long thing about it being rainy and not liking the rain today, but it kept getting goofier and goofier as I typed. In general I find rain the more annoying of the weather conditions.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I like the idea of being congratulated on my arrival. I think this is one of the few “holidays” that makes sense to me.

In preparation for the celebration of my birthday I am going to the library. Rumor has it that I may be receiving the gift of reading time tomorrow. Good thing I read fast. Wish me luck.

Oh, the long and dreary Winter! Oh, the cold and cruel Winter!

Ok, so it’s cold. People in Florida are really starting to get weird about it now. It’s been about 3 weeks of “Florida cold” weather, at times around 32 degrees or so, and these people are actually starting to get mad. At first they all think it is cute and when they get together for conversation they trade the old “Boy it sure is cold huh?” and then eventually someone says, “Yeah, I’m glad it doesn’t last 3 weeks”, or “Nothing like they are feeling in Chicago”. Now it’s like “What the #$%^& if up with this weather?” You know who is really mad though? The nudists. I wrote an post about Land O Lakes, FL being the “Nudist Capital of the WORLD!” a while back and those people are freaking out. First, there is no way that their wardrobe can withstand this kind of weather. I think they usually just stay inside when it is cold here and figure that it will pass. Second it is causing some of them to re-think their lifestyle choice. I’m pretty sure I saw some of them buying NEW clothes the other day at the mall and I hope they don’t get too attached to them…it could cause a second recession here in Land O Lakes. Pray for us.

Brrrrrr

So I wake up this morning and after I poke my head outside it appears that a cold front has come thru. In Florida this is the equivalent to the first day of spring. We spend the first few days of Summer, back in February, getting excited about hot weather. Then we spend the next 7 months running from the car to the house to the pool. Winter in Florida is what it is all about. Today it is starting out at around 60 degrees with a high of 75. Just when I’m baked and ready to move. Here comes winter. Oh yeah…and end of hurricane season.