Sometimes, We Vacation from our Vacation-Life

Greetings from Inverness, Florida.

For those of you reading this in the future, in this week in time, the Republican primary elections are underway.  Donald Trump vs Nikki Haley are in a race to be the nominee for the Republican candidate for President in 2024.  

Birders are talking about an absense of the normal amount of birds at their feeders.  Someone said an unusual circling of red-headed ducks was observed over the Mackinaw Bridge in Michigan.

The period of inflation following COVID has slowed way down to almost normal levels, unemployment is down to about 4%, and the murder rate is down.  That is all good news.

In Florida we have had a long stretch of colder weather and cloudy skys.  

When the sun came out today with temps in the 50's 60's and 70's, we were very happy.

The picture below was taken on a ride on a day when the temps were between 45 and 55 during our ride.

We were pretty bundled up with long underwear and layers.  We joked that folks up north, experiencing the bitter cold of subzero temperatures, would be in shorts and a T-shirt if they arrived in Florida that day.

We biked through it all, and Steve told me we biked 147 miles in seven days last week.  Not bad for a 70 year old lady with screaming sciatic problems.  (More on that later.)

Here is our bike group this morning.  We still look bundled up, but like I said, it was a more normal temperature day for January.

Speaking of the weather.  We had rain and wind one or two days.  My garage/kitchen Clam screen tent did not survive.  It was tough to throw it out, so much of it was still good.  But it had a couple holes in the roof and I was tired of being concerned about it in storms.  I packed it all up and put it next to the trash bins.  My neighbors tell me that someone in the park picked it up and took it home.  Good!

I had been storing some stuff in it.  I figured out what to purge, and what to store at Steve's. The bikes I put in the back of my truck (my new garage).  And some stuff I am able to store under the purple canopy.  It works, it is simpler, I now have more space in my "yard".

When Steve and I were in the Everglades in November of 2022, and we first were thinking that maybe we were a couple, I told him I would need 3-4 days on my own each week.  This wouldn't be an every-day together kind of relationship if we moved forward,  I told him. He said he was ok with that. 

That is the way it is going right now, and I like it.  I spend 4-5 days at his place when we have things going on in the evening together or just because it is cozy together.   Steve is very kind and accommodating to my quirky need to just get up one day and say I am going home and will be back on such-and-such day. 

The periods of absence, I think, keep me happy and grateful.  I still can't believe that a man this smart, generous, kind and talented continues to choose to be my romantic and adventure partner. (And can I?? Am I allowed at 70 say this?  He is sexy.  Yes, he is sexy!)  (I hope you aren't going "EWWWW"!  Lol.)

I never could have imagined such a miraculous thing outside of romance novels.  I am blessed.

I still spend two or three nights at my place in a week.  I say "nights" because I am rarely home during the day.  I go to exercise, the gym, PT, shopping, biking, visiting.   

Travel Plans

Steve and I are making a packing list for our trip to St. Croix, Virgin Islands.  Two couples, friends of ours who live in Steve's Florida neighborhood, had rented a house on St. Croix and it had an extra bed and bath so they invited us to go and pitch in 1/3 the costs.  Pretty cool.  

We fly out of Florida on Saturday, February 27th.  We will be there seven nights.

Neither Steve or I have been to the Virgin Islands.  When I mention where we are going to other travelers, they light up and tell me we will love it.  The water is crystal clear, the snorkling is wonderful, they say.  

With all the cold weather, we haven't done much kayaking or star gazing.  I am looking forward to doing  both in St. Croix on the ocean there.

I am exploring going to Costa Rica for a week in March.  Then in April we fly to New York for the total eclipse of the sun.  

Summer plans are made, but the reservations are interesting.  Some places let you make reservations 11 months in advance, some only let you make reservations three months in advance.  I mark up my calendar with dates to make reservations.

Sciatic

I have dear friends with broken toes and sprained ankles and knees and hips and shoulders that require surgery.  Folks with big health problems, cancer scares and cognitive issues.  So making a big deal out of a bit of pain down my legs seems silly.  It goes away sometimes too, so I am very lucky.   

The good news is that I have been referred to PT and I have had three sessions so far.  The therapist says that the damage to my spine is minor and the pain should go away with pysical therapy.  I am still hurting, but I get twelve weeks of sessions.  So there is time to build the strength and flexibility and movement habits to stabilize the spine where the sciatic nerve emerges.

Last time I had sciatic problems in the right leg only.  It was in 2018.  I finally got PT perscribed in late 2019.  It helped a lot, for a long time.  But this fall it started to act up again.  And though I started up the exercises again it didn't seem to help.  I had been lax on the maintenance exercises. 

Steve has been supportive, he urged me to take the time to take care of myself, do the exercises, lay on the heating pad, take the anti-inflamatory.

Most the time the pain doesn't stop me from doing stuff like riding bike, visiting with folks, and cooking.  But it does take up a lot of time trying to fix it.

Still, I will not say, "Don't get old."  Instead I believe that getting old, so far for me anyway, is a blast.

Drowned Phone

After Christmas we went camping on the east coast.  It was cold but wonderful. Christie and Mark, the neighbors that invited us to join them on the St. Croix trip, joined us in their camper for a few days.  They like to do a lot of the same things we like to do.  Listen to music, walk and bike and kayak and look for wildlife and birds, and drink beer and play corn hole.  

There is a lot of natural area preserved around Cape Canaveral.  We explored the area and saw lots of flocks of roseate spoonbills, huge flocks of coots, brown and white pelicans, ibis, wood storks, egrets... we even observed a reddish egret.  

I would share pictures with you, but one day, we went kayaking in a canal where we saw pelicans and several pods of dolphin.  We watched the sunset.  It was awesome.   As I was getting out of the boat (yes, I should have secured my phone first) my phone fell out of my pocket into the salt water and instantly died.  RIP.

I lost all the pictures.  They weren't very good.  But Steve got great pictures.  Maybe I will share some of those with you next time.

We spent half a day shopping for a new phone at a Verizon store.  Then we kayaked out to bird island where we had heard there were four flamingos.  This is unusual for them to be so far north, the theory is that they blew north during a storm or hurricane.  We got to see them!  What fun!  I did not take my new phone in the boat with me but Steve got pictures.

Other News

My granddaughter is attending online college classes.  Yay!  She is currently aiming to be a gradeschool teacher.  My son is still driving a flat-bed truck across country.  Last I heard he was stuck at a truck stop for a few days as the temps dropped to minus 40 and the snow was blowing causing drifting and white-out conditions.  Arg!  Can you imagine being stuck in the little living quarters in the back of one of those trucks for more than a day?   He is quite  the determined worker.

You?

What have you been up to?    If you comment at least give your first name because this program is naming everyone "Anonymous" and I can't always tell if the comment comes from a friend, an acquaintance, a fan, or someone I might meet in the future.  

I very much enjoy reading your emails or your comments.  Thanks for trippin' with me.

Update

While I was writing this, the results of the New Hampshire primary are in.  Trump won.  A man with over 90 indictments has won two states so far in the Republican primaries.  That is what is happening in 2024 in the USA on planet Earth in the Milky Way.

And they found a huge mass of ice on Mars.  Enough that if it melted it would cover the whole planet in six feet of water.