Friday

Well, spring has sprung here in the Sunshine State. Friday was just absolutely like a summer day in the mountains with temps getting close to the 80 mark. The skies were blue and clear with just a slight breeze, just awesome but some how I can almost start to feel the increase in the humidity. Anyhow after the usual wake call without the mechanical alarm clock the feathered one next door was having a crowing contest with something. Fried chicken sounds good at 6 AM.

After the usual quiet time and the bowl of oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries , banana and a splash of cinnamon I pedalled out to the rec for pickle ball. Now it was cool enough I had to wear a long sleeve flannel shirt as I pedalled out but by quiting time at the rec it was warm enough to go without a shirt. We had some terrific play with about 8 players most of which are very good, so it was a wet shirt workout. I weighed in afterwards and I'm still down a little from last week , so I'm still losing to the mark I've set. Its really difficult when we fix as many family dinners as we do and most have bread and dessert plus a potato. This week we will have fixed 4 dinners and went out to another dinner. Yikes, how will I ever lose another 5 pounds.

After pickle ball I watered the gardens and wow is the broccoli heading as well as the 1/2 runner beans are blooming and starting to get big on the vine and the romaine lettuce is starting to ease up but the bib is taking off so we should have lots of greens for salads a while. The beets are the size of tennis balls as well as the Swiss chard, collards and kale are magnificent. Still picking a few tomato's but that cold snap last week with frost set them back. At least I didn't lose any plants.

Well, the kids didn't come for lunch today as Nancy ate out with her Bible study girls so I ate the last couple smoked drumsticks on a top of a fresh salad. Wow was that ever tasty. After lunch I settled in for another good read in the back yard under the oak when all of a sudden I began hearing what I thought was acorns falling and then realized that a flock of robins were using my tree to settle in while they flew next door to eat these black looking berries in this Brazilian pepper tree. Well their dropping look like coal, so I moved out from under the tree without any direct hits. Wow that was close!!!

Nancy came home and did her afternoon walk through the hood while I made another huge fresh salad to take to our domino night in Riverview with our daughter in law, Jill's parents, Brian and Susan. They grilled chicken on bamboo with tomatoes, onions and green peppers, Yumm and Bobby made a rice dish along with brushetta on toasted bread and Nancy made a carrot cake for dessert. We had an exciting 4-5 rounds of double 15 and Bobby annihilated us with going out every round. No one can be that lucky or good but he was, even when I had to play his hand a couple time while he was doing some child adjustments. I began to wonder if there wasn't some "heavenly intervention"???It was a fun time but it took us nearly 2 hours to get there as the traffic was stop and go for about half the distance. Coming back it only took us an hour and we were home by 11'ish.

Well today we are thinking of taking a ride to Oldsmar where the Tampa Bay Downs are to watch the horses run. We have never been there and may even wager on one or two. If you don't hear from us for a week or two you know we won the big race, but since we are novices and only go for the pretty horses I would venture to say we will be back here tomorrow enlightening you with all of our excitement(not), wisdom(not) and witty conversation(not) and boring lifestyle. I sure am getting the planting fever for the mountains as I awakened to thoughts of turning over the gardens and sowing seeds. Yikes, only about 3 months to go!!! LATER