Tuesday

Well today was a most different one from the usual as I started out the morning the usual. Did that make sense??? Anyhow about 6:30 I roll out of the sack and I did my usual quiet time and had my usual bowl of oatmeal with fresh berries and a banana before pedalling out to the rec for some pickle ball. It looked as if it could rain as I rode out and about 1/2 through the play period it poured rain. I thought to myself well I will get wet on the ride home at 9:30 but about 9:15 the rain stopped long enough for me to get home dry. I cut the play short as we were to be in east Tampa by 11 AM to see grand daughter Annsley do her hour of gymnastics and that was about 50 miles away. With the slick roads due to the rain I wanted to get there in plenty of time especially since we had never been there before.

We headed out from the house after I got home and changed clothes about 9 :45. The radio said there were accidents blocking the interstate so we decided to take the cross town toll road to Brandon before exiting onto another major roadway. This morning was the funeral for one of St.Pete's finest officers who was gunned about a week ago by a 16 year old. So sad and he was just about to complete his 25 th year of public service, anyhow we circled around the road blocks which had shut down another major roadway. To make a long story and drive short we made it to the gym in time despite the rain, road blocks and wrecks.

Annsley was awesome for her age and worked hard for an hour along with 3 other little girls who all seemed older by a year or so. Her instructor put the girls through all kinds exercises as well as agility and balance drills with some tumbling moves as well. It was a well balanced hour of continuous movement. Afterwards we met Jill, Bobby, Susan(Jill's mom) and little Gabey at Crispers Restaurant in Brandon for lunch. We had delicious sandwiches and soups and others had beautiful salads. We had a great visit until nearly 1:30 before heading back to Pinellas County via the interstate. We met lots of motorcycle cops from various police departments returning back to their districts from the funeral in St.Pete; luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was shining.

We made a stop at Sam's to pick up a few articles but mainly to get a beef brisket so Tyler could smoke it for Sam's birthday dinner on Thursday as he will be 1 year's old. After getting home Nancy took off to the rec for her workout and I read a little before getting a call from our "mountain mom", Helen. She said the grass was starting to turn in spots as well as the daffodil's are blooming as well. Seems the temps have moderated a little up there but the nights are still cold, at least they had some rain the past couple days which should help with the fire danger but the wind is about to blow her off the mountain. I will enclose a couple pictures of today's gymnastics with Annsley. LATER