Saturday

Well today started out of course with the rooster next door crowing his head off at 5'ish in the morning but I was able to put the pillow over my head and sleep in until 7'ish. We were planning on doing one final(only second time this year) beach day as the time draws near for our venture to the cabin and the week ends will be full with family dinners , birthday celebrations, etc. I called my old friend, Stacy who is caring for her sick dad and  offered to bring her a mess of collards, kale and some homemade blackberry jelly on our way to the beach. Her dad answered the door and he looks a lot better than when we last saw him at the rehab facility. That made our day as we saw the thankfulness for thinking of him on his face.

We got to the beach at Redington Shores around 9:30'ish and the water was just beautiful, very gently rolling waves and a gentle off shore breeze made it comfortable even though in was already in the high 80's. I managed to get a long walk in while Nancy and our friends Dan, Carol and Marie lounged. I ran into an old trooper friend and his wife who I hadn't seen in years but saw him last week at Sam's Club. We chit chatted for some time and got a chance to catch up on some old troopers who had worked with us at the Pinellas station. We exchanged e-mails and phone numbers as he is about to have his 30 years in in July.

I got a nice swim in when I got back to the loungers and then finally Nancy decided she was ready to stroll down the beach. After that we played in the water chasing the Frisbee with Dan and Carol; luckily I was able to get a little bit of a workout. It was close to noon and I was getting hungry as well as fried so we headed home. After lunch I wanted to use some of the left over roof paint on my old garden shed so I took the blower and cleaned the roof of it before painting the entire shed. I was in the shade of the oak so I was out of the sun but still I was getting redder by the hour. It was time to get out of the sun by the time that job was completed. I took the garden hose and cooled down completely.

We got ready around 4:30 to head to GG for a Derby party complete with grilling burgers, fries, baked beans and a salad made with dried Raman noodles, cabbage, etc that Amy made. It was tasty and different. We all decided to pick a horse and place a dollar in the pot for each horse picked and the winner would take all. I picked Bodemister as he was from my home town area of Clark County, Va which is the neighboring county of Frederick where I grew up. He ran a great race but faltered at the end and lost by the horse Amy chose for Sam; Just One More. Sam was the big winner and didn't even know what he won. We then played Phase 10 after the clean up and tuned into the Rays game in the back ground.

We headed home and by the time I was ready to turn out the lights the score was tied and into extra innings; naturally I stayed up to watch the dismal final. We had a chance to win in the 12th but gave up a homer to the A's and it was only our second loss at home for the season, oh well. It was a fun day and Nancy won the game of Phase 10 on the last hand, LATER