The Calm After the Storm

Right now it is Monday afternoon.  Hurricane Isaac has passed by us and is headed toward New Orleans which is not good at all.  We were very lucky, Isaac decided to head toward the west so we got a little rain and wind, nothing worse than other storms we have had this summer.

The silver lining is we both had the day off, the negative is we don't get paid when we stay home.  Kids were out of school, not a lot of traffic and really no damage that we could see.  Some folks did put up plywood and hurricane shutters and it appears they are still inside sitting in the dark.  If they are still in there tomorrow, we may have to let them know its okay to come out.

Front Yard before Hurricane Isaac came thru.

So thanks for the concern, we are fine and still have some Hershey's left.  We're looking forward to the weather forecasts getting back to their normal "sunny and hot" routine.  At least they don't get that wrong.  Usually.   Margaret

Front Yard at its windiest

PS - let's all send some good karma to New Orleans - last thing they need is another hurricane!!!

Waiting for the Storm. And Waiting.

We are in the middle of our first hurricane since we moved permanently to Florida.  The news people have been watching the hurricane move closer and closer for about a week now and since there is basically no other news, that is all they talk about.  "The eye of the storm has moved five feet closer.  Now its only 5,554 miles away."  "Buy lots of water.  Make sure your toilet works.  You'll be drinking lots of water."  

Now you may wonder why I can be so cynical but I have been thru this same thing many times before on the opposite end of the spectrum.  How many times did we have warnings piled on top of watches which I still can't keep straight, why do they both have to start with a "w"?  All I know is that they both are bad.  And they make for great news.

Back in Minnesota when a blizzard was coming we were told to stock up on heating fuel, snacks and blankets and stay off the road.  Here we're told to fill up our cars with gas so we can drive somewhere even tho no one is clear about where that is and so all the gas stations conveniently raised their prices.  And since the threat of losing electricity is very real we didn't want to buy much for the refrigerator or freezer.  So we will be eating lots of Hershey's samples and popcorn. 

All the plants from the lanai moved inside.

Its about noon on Sunday and right now we are waiting, it is getting windy, alittle rain, we moved everything that could fly into the house and we wait. I may be eating my words along with my Hershey's samples.  Stay tuned.  Margaret

Its On the Books

First of all, I am really trying to keep up on my blog but I think the heat makes me lazy.  Before I know it the week has gone by and the blog is swimming around in my brain and it just stays there. So, I got some friendly reminders and that's what it takes sometimes.  So keep after me!

Since Gary brought all of our stuff here in July, we have been working on getting all of it put away.  This has sucked.  This house is about half the size of our Minnesota house and there is very little storage.  And I have lots and lots of books.  I like books, I read lots of books and I never get rid of them unless I double up on one.  And these books have never been in any kind of order.  That's probably why I double up on them.  But that was all about to change.  I just needed a place to put them.

After searching thru Craigslist for bookcases and checking some of the local stores, I thought the best plan was for Gary to build the shelves. Since this was my idea, I thought I should at least supervise.  I sat on the couch giving orders and Gary turned on the table saw.  He couldn't even hear me.  How these shelves ever turned out is a miracle.

The shelves fill one whole wall in our bedroom and Gary was afraid there wouldn't be enough books to fill them.  I told him not to worry, if there isn't enough, I know where I can get more.  And they're in order.  All the doubles are gone.  I gotta go read now.  Margaret

Sundays and Walmart

Our five year old laptop computer is junk.  We hated using it.  Sometimes it worked but mostly it didn't.  When you hear stories of people throwing a computer out the window of a moving car, I understand why.

It was taking up to half an hour to start up and then had to be turned off two or three times before we could actually get the screen to come up.  Once the startup screen came up, we had to shut it down another three or four times to get it to hook up to our internet.  So, after about two hours, we could finally use the computer. Then it would lock up.   Gary was getting tired of it and I just didn't use it.  But he needs a working computer for his job.  I just use the Ipad.

So on Saturday we stopped at Walmart.  First of all, this is not a good idea.  The last place you want to be on a Saturday afternoon is Walmart.  But we found a laptop that was the latest and greatest and it was on sale.  And if we waited til Sunday we could get a $100 gift card along with the sale price.  Problem is there was only one left in the store so at 5:30 on a Sunday morning we went to Walmart.  This may be the best time to go to Walmart. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghrDIQ-K8mg

The one and only Ultrabook computer was still there and after waking up the clerk, we were able to pick up our new computer on sale and our gift card.  We'll be going back there early another Sunday morning to use that.  Margaret

Miami Beach

We are no longer home owners in Minnesota.  The South Haven house closed on Tuesday, July 31st after signing lots of papers, answering lots of questions and some sleepless nights.  Selling a house is stressful and when you are 1,800 miles away, its double stress and worry.  But we had a great caretaker, Mr. Bill,  who helped keep the house looking presentable, our neighbors, Ray and Kim, kept an eye on the place and our realtor told someone to put up a sign.  Anyway, the house has new owners and we hope they are as happy there as we were.

So we had to do a little celebrating and because my life revolves around ways to save money but still have fun, we had a Groupon for a boutique hotel in Miami Beach and what better way to celebrate than a little over night in another city.  I have never been to Miami Beach and so I was very excited about seeing a new part of Florida.  We had to transverse thru Miami to get to Miami Beach which was wild.  Miami is a pretty big city (over 2.5 million) and there are lots of freeways and overpasses and so much traffic.  Thankfully we had a GPS so we were able to get thru it by listening to a little lady's calm voice as I hung on to the dashboard.

The guys in the back wanted to be in the blog I guess.

Miami Beach is the retro little sister to Miami and there is craziness all along the South Beach area.  Its worth the drive just for the people watching.  There are bars, restaurants, bands, dancing, you name it for a mile or more and we hit quite a few places.  At our age, that means 2 or 3. Apparently the bars never close so our next door neighbors at the hotel decided to stay out til 4 am and then come back and watch the Olympics and being considerate, they thought we would want to hear the score so they turned the volume way up.  Some people just give, give, give.

They don't even have to be real for Gary to check out.

We checked out the beaches the next day for a variety of reasons. This celebration may be coming to an end but there are still lots of places to see here in Florida so will have to sell another house soon.   Margaret

And you thought Mexico only had naughty beaches.