Friday Morning

Well Thursday was a very different day with nothing being routine. I awakened early as I had an appointment at the Veterans Hospital at Bay Pines for an introduction into the system. Wow what a beautiful and very large campus with tons of new construction going on as well. I've never been made to feel so welcome as there. If I heard our in take nurse correct a 175 thousand veterans use this facility yearly. While I'm already a partially disabled veteran due to an injury I occurred while serving in Vietnam I never registered to use the facilities in the VA and that was one of the reasons I wanted a veteran I.D. card as well as a new law passed in Florida where your service connected injury during wartime will help with adjusting your property taxes. I have to go back next week to see a primary care doctor for an intake exam.

It had rained on Thursday night and while the temps were in the 80's during the day by Friday morning it was down into the high 50's by mid-morning and windy which made it feel even colder. Thankfully the sun was shining brightly, so it was sweater weather the rest of the day and evening. It was supposed to go down into the 40's overnight and it feels as if it may have reached those lows. One day its beach weather and the next it long pants and a jacket, Oh well!! I got back to the house just before lunch so Amy, Sam and GG came and ate with us. We cleaned up the fresh garden salad along with tuna fish GG brought. Sam and I headed outside to hand water the garden and in the sun it was nice but the wind made it uncomfortable in the shade so we headed inside. Nancy was preparing for Friday nights family supper.

We are going to celebrate Bob's birthday early as he has a commitment on the actual day so he wanted lasagna and pumpkin cheesecake. Well the house sure smelled great with the cheesecake and then the afternoon the tomato sauce with all the fresh herbs smelled even better as well as the Italian sausage added another wonderful aroma. I received an e-mail from and old friend(94+ years) that his daughter and granddaughter were in the north Clearwater area and was leaving Friday to head back to S.C. Well its been several years since I had seen him as he suffers from prostate cancer and other old age ailments. He is still very sharp and lucid and we had a good visit for an hour. It was great to see both Judy(daughter) and Jennifer(grand daughter) and they seem tickled to see me as well. We were once related in another life but as life would have it we all moved on. We were always civil and stay friends despite moving to different areas of the country and I will always be Uncle Butch to Jennifer. She was an infant when we brought her from California across the country to Florida in '73 in a pickup truck with 3 dogs in back. She now has 2 boys of her own in the 10 and 12 age group and now lives in S.C. It was great to visit and share whats going on in our lives.

Well the drive to north Clearwater reminded me that all the snowbirds are here in Florida. It took me nearly and hour to maybe go 15-20 miles. I saw more cars on the road than I see all year in Sparta, N.C. I go back to the house around 5:30 and we decided it was Swiss Chard night. This is the first cutting for this delicious green. If you have never tried it you are in for a treat. Here's how you fix it; strip the center stem and then chop the leaves in bite size pieces, I do that by rolling the leaves and then cutting cross ways, next you cut several cloves of garlic into small pieces and add to a skillet that has 2 to 3 tablespoons of heated olive oil, then add the chopped greens and flavor with some sea salt and black pepper, stir until the greens have wilted down then serve. Utterly the best green you will put in your mouth.

Well we had the Swiss chard to compliment a couple Italian sausages grilled along with spuds covered with fresh parsley. I added fresh red pepper to mind on the plate and we licked the plates clean. After the clean up we headed in to watch Fox News then we turned the Idol on. I headed into the bedroom so I could flip when they showed idiots on the Idol, LATER