Weekend: Friday - Sunday Post Hurricane Milton.

Friday 10/11/24: We had a good night sleep with very few ups and down by Ford. He got up around 5 AM and I got up about a half hour afterwards. After Alyzabeth went to school, I began working on my master bedroom closet. I have clothes I hadn’t worn in a while, and the closet had just become junked up between our winter clothes and summer clothes. I sorted through our jackets and all my tops. I still need to try on my slacks. We ran a little late to Ford’s physical therapy due to my closet cleaning. I did some walking and going through my notes while he was at PT. It is a beautiful day cool in the morning about 68°; the sun came up out, warmed up and everything is finally drying out a little. After PT, we went to VyStar credit union to deposit a few checks and fax information to Larry Bradley‘s stock account (Invesco) that needs to be closed out. Next we drove to Bank of America to deposit the check from TASCO (Larry's HSA).  we went to Publix and picked up a few groceries but they did not have the ground pork I needed for our dinner recipe (Publix did have a BOGO champagne Cava!). 

We stopped at Fresh Market and bought the pound of ground pork there. Once home we walked Ginger, took care of the groceries, went to lunch at Bold Bean in Orange Park.  I wasn’t a fan of this coffee shop/restaurant, but our lunch was pretty good; we would be willing to go back again. Ford said it was one of the best hamburgers he ate; the day was so nice we sat outside on the patio (very noisy with traffic but one gets used to it). 

Our last stop was taking our corrugated cardboard to the Doctors Inlet solid waste satellite (ECC) dump off CR220. It was easy to get to it and the attendant showed us where the cardboard dumpster was. While putting cardboard in the machine, it actually is a huge compactor and compacted the cardboard. 

We drove home and I worked a little bit more on our closet and prepped for dinner, which is the eggroll filling recipe and cooked frozen dumplings too. 

Alyzabeth stayed after school talking to Siyan and then came home. She, Siyan D. and Kaylee S. decided to meet at Green Cove Springs' Spring Park for a few hours to chat and relax - it’s the weekend.

Once home, cooked the ground pork cabbage, onions, carrots, ginger, and garlic, and also the frozen dumplings. We continued watching the first Downton Abbey movie and Alyzabeth and I discussed the toy drive in Ian‘s memory. I sent out a text to a group of OPE parents and hope we can get something started. 

This weekend was to be Liv's first play at UCF but has been postponed due to hurricane Milton. The UCF campus got hit harder than what was expected and we also know a family in Deland that was hit hard too. Also, Madison is still here with Mia, as USF is still closed, Madison‘s apartment does not have power and they have not been told that they can come back yet.

Brandon sent me a thank you text for his birthday card and money (we send a small amount, maybe they can buy a food treat or save it for something later).

Saturday: Slow morning, we slept pretty good, getting better. Ginger had a bad morning, throwing up before she even ate breakfast!

AA took a shower, going through donated clothes to take to the FIHS NHS donation Saturday. Ford and I dove to the RAM market, had not been there in a while. We did not find gifts to buy, did buy micro-greens and jalapeno peppers. 

After walking around for about 30 minutes and enjoying the yoga demonstrations, they had all day we drove to Moon River Pizza. We had our usual Gorgonzola salad this time Ford had half a salad with a slice of tea, Rex pizza and I had the whole Gorgonzola salad.  The salads are very filling. I should actually only have a half in the future. We drove home and I walked Ginger she Peed and pooped and then I went through some recipes trying to do some meal planning. We talked to Billy who motors our yard and discussed pressure washing our home pressure, washing the driveway and that need a weed and feed on our lawn.  I wore my Harris T-shirt to the market and got several nice T-shirt comments. Thank you for wearing it and some thumbs up. We did not see a single mega hat or Trump T-shirt. Course I did not see any other hair walls T-shirt either. I cooked the Alabama sausage as our appetizer for the River House and we enjoyed our happy hour as the weather is still gorgeous. 

Lunch was salads at Moon River (on Edgewood) and took a Greek salad home for AA. 

I cooked some Alabama sausage (Conecuh) for our RH appetizer. Kathy did not come as she, Tom and Lydia went out to dinner, then was going to watch college football. We enjoyed our happy hour including Karrie; the weather was beautiful; we love being able to sit outside.  Dinner at home was nothing special, leftovers including my homemade spinach dip, salad and pizza. We watched the end of the first Downton Abbey movie, I walked Ginger, then ready for bed!

Sunday: I skipped church and had a slow morning, deciding what to do with Carolyn. In the end, I decided to pick her up and go for a trail walk. 

AA decided to stay home and work on schoolwork and college essays. Ford stayed to watch the Jaguars lose in London!

I took our recyclables to Carolyn's (plastic, glass, tin, etc.), then we went to the Castaway Island Preserve. It is totally handicap/wheelchair accessible so knew would suit our hiking abilities! There were a few "lookouts" over the marsh/intercoastal, many signs about island animals and a lovely building (very similar to our Pelote's Island Preserve building) but was closed.

We then went to lunch at Cafe, which turned out to be just okay. The menu includes salads and sandwiches, but we stuck to the breakfast platters. 

Once back at Carolyn's we fussed inside and outside her home (dishes, picking up, sweeping moving her plants and watering them, wiping down the round patio table we gave her, etc.). After cooling our feet in her pool, I drove home.

Our dinner was boring, a salad with micro-greens, cheese and crackers and Ford's home baked bread with butter. We watched a movie called "Wicked Little Letters" on Netflix - Marsha and Carl told us about it; heavy on the swear words (each letter is filled with insults and swear words). It is a mystery with several CRAZY characters, based on a real story. By the end we were laughing and Ford said, "We are now damaged"!!. Too funny. Carl and Marsha thought is was creative writing and hilarious, just had to get past all the bad language. Most of the story is sad so all together kind of made us crazy! The portrayal of the 1920's police force (with one policewoman) was at most idiotic (the men) and the family life tragic. Interesting! 

Monday 10/07/2024! New HVAC System!

Monday 7th: The weeks are flying by. Today began okay, AA said she did not sleep well, I certainly did not, ended up on the couch at 3:00 a.m. Ford is doing better, just having so many movements in bed and getting up a few times for potty break, just breaks up my sleep. We have a Northeaster with some wind and rain, and with Hurricane Milton coming in next few days, the ground must be saturated!

Caught up on weekend news: Joan with Amy at Libby's wedding (10/05/24) and Stephanie on USA Team won in Oregon - 2024 Women’s PGA Cup at Sunriver Resort!

We had our usual morning with Alyzabeth, she now walks Ginger first thing in the morning for her first potty break and we fix AA's light breakfast, usually fruit, maybe piece of bacon, spoonful of peanut butter and/or whatever we have for baked goods. She is not a big breakfast eater at 6 AM in the morning. She had to dress like Adam Sadler today, so she went as kind of a shabby, as that is how he looks in public. He has a ball cap on backwards, T-shirt, baggy shorts, usually basketball shorts which she did not have any. It is homecoming week so each day is a different theme, (later notified of it all being rescheduled) tomorrow on Tuesday is duo or dress in twins, then Wednesday is triples so three friends are to dress alike (supposed to be three of something that makes sense like red white blue or three identical but something that makes sense that three things that are normally together and dress like that).  The football game is Thursday night and parade and then Friday night is a homecoming dance (changed to 14th and 19th). Of course starting Wednesday, hurricane Milton is a category five out in the Gulf between Mexico and Florida. Ford and I got ready, did dishes and a load of wash, drove to his Parkinson exercises. It is still breezy and sprinkling due to the northeaster off the coast. I did walk for about 20 minutes in the rain with an umbrella and then went to the truck and dried off. Did not get a chance to talk to Terri or mom they were both busy.  We went to Walmart and picked up a prescription, then to Publix to pick up just a few items; we don’t really need anything for this hurricane. We have plenty of food. We filled up the truck with gas and one gas can that was empty in our garage that will use on the generator if needed.  Hopefully we don’t lose power, we usually don’t. Back home, walked Ginger, put away the groceries. For lunch, we went to Sonny’s BBQ on Kingsley (OP) for lunch. Once home I made a few calls about Ford's colonoscopy referral but never got an answer. He also had a call from his PCP, which was confirming that he needed an iron pill now that he is anemic. Ford got the generator running and let it warm up quite a bit outside the garage; we are ready if we lose power. Our new little portable air conditioner worked great and kept the house cool. I walked Ginger again just to give her a little bit more exercise, while Ford was running the generator.  I mailed Melissa‘s birthday card today and put the Clay Today Newspaper in Joe’s front doorstep as we do every week. We are having leftover taco soup for dinner and Alyzabeth has Ms. Laurie, her calculus tutor, tonight as she has several tests this week, it is the end of the first grading period.  Tomorrow we will pick up our outside plants and decorations in preparation for some winds on Wednesday. Hopefully it stays quite a bit south of us. 

Tuesday: Today we are watching the progress of hurricane Milton. AA did her routine taking Ginger out to potty and had her light breakfast of fruit and bacon and orange juice. After Alyzabeth went to school, we picked up the house particularly our bathrooms, the kitchen, getting counters, clean, etc. as Donna comes today and I like to have the floors picked up and area so she can clean them all. we left for Ford physical therapy session right after Justin and Jonathan Hart arrive to change out our air-conditioning system. We missed Donna but she arrived a little before 9:30. During Ford‘s physical therapy it was a beautiful day in the high 70's so I walked about 3000 steps while talking to Terri. Terri told me about Sunday’s family gathering for Brandon and Grayson‘s birthday and Christopher having lawyer appointments for his upcoming divorce from Heather. 

We drove back home and talked to Justin and Jon-boy about the HVAC change out. Donna is fine and cleaning our house while Ginger snooped around all the extra people, begging for attention. 

Ford and I went to lunch at Sweet Sensations as we always take home a half sandwich, which will do well for us over the next couple days waiting on this hurricane. Donna finished up the house and Justin texted to ask about us buying a 20 x 20 by 1 filter which we did buy at Home Depot. Justin also cleaned our inside hallway return air grill as he was looking to see if they happen to be a filter there, too, which there is not. We paid the $6800 and we are happy. We have a new system with a 10-year warranty which we validated by going online and registering our new system. 

Alyzabeth had Spanish Honor Society after school and did her volunteer tutoring. We texted with Mia and found out that Madison and her cat, Spencer are here so we invited them to the River House happy hour today.  Our happy hour was only us as Kathy had her son, Thom and Granddaughter Lydia up as they evacuated from Tampa due to hurricane Milton. Then at the last minute Hugh texted that Maureen was not feeling well so they did not come either. It was windy at the river, but it was from a northeaster storm that was leaving our area.  I made homemade spinach dip which Mia and Madison seem to love so they took some home with them. 

We came home and had leftover taco soup and watched another actually the last episode of the Pride and Prejudice, BBC 1995 version. We decided to go to our bedroom to watch the Voice and Alyzabeth went to her bedroom to watch a movie. We plan to go to the First Watch for breakfast with Mia and Madison in the morning around 8 AM. 

Wednesday: Woke up a little after 5:00 a.m. - wish I could have slept in. Ford and AA stayed in bed until 7:00 a.m. We drove to First Watch (San Jose/Mandarin) to meet Mia and Madison for breakfast. It was delicious food, and not crowded at all. Raining from the Northeaster that is hanging around and actually helping us keep the hurricane to our south.

I went to my Dentist appointment at 2:30 p.m. and had my cavity filled, definitely a tired jaw after that, but Staff and Dr. Curt are kind and professional. We grilled hotdogs for dinner with Publix salad after having "happy hour" spinach dip and champagne. Great way to start the hurricane.

AA worked on more college applications, submitting to Bowdoin!

We listened to weather reports and headed to bed. We heard gusts throughout the night, Ford got up a few times and I could not go back to sleep so went to the den couch.

GCS Spring Park Thursday morning:

Thursday: Woke up to Hurricane Milton's winds. By 10:00 a.m. the last outer band was past us. Family checked in: Justin and Leaa without power (both have generators); Marsha has a tree down on the neighbor's shed. We drove to GCS, but Spring Park Coffee shop was closed, so bought a Coke for our "Sunday" drive around town. Once home, we ate leftover pizza, taco soup and AA's pasta salad. We walked Ginger, played with her on the side yard. It was announced/confirmed that there is school tomorrow, Friday.

Ford spoke with Stephanie about the planned family "reunion" on their property; not sure if and when will happen, between Joan's surgery and Ford's battle with hallucinations (he's better now), I think they stopped planning. Nothing for dinner as we ate our lunch late. Still so tired, looking forward to sleeping through the night soon!

Sunday October 6th

Sunday: We all slept in Sunday morning, and I barely got ready to go to church on time. We made frozen fruit smoothies for breakfast as we hadn’t had one in a long time. After church we had a lunch of leftover, crostini, goat cheese with fresh basil and real peaches and a drizzle honey on top. These were the appetizers we took to the River House last night. And I made a fresh spinach dip which we also enjoyed at lunch. Ford had had a large, frozen slushy smoothie for breakfast, so did not have any of these appetizers for lunch. We left the house around three 2:30 in the afternoon as we were going to stop at Ancient City Brewery to buy some red ale or possibly take the generator Hugh gave us to Leaa and Jesse‘s house.  By the time we got into St. Augustine though, we went straight to the Mellow Mushroom on the Island. Jesse got the generator; the instructions and they were happy to have it as their generator is in North Carolina at their cabin. With hurricane Milton coming Wednesday and Thursday they did not have a generator in St. Augustine.  We enjoyed visiting with Marsha and Carl, Cara, and Travis, Pearl, and Miles, Dylan, Leaa, and Jesse they all came to hear Jesse play and it was actually nice meeting up before Jesse began to play so we could visit with him too.

All our mouths were full when Leaa took this picture!

We tried curlers on AA's hair (Leaa gave her a one piece that you twist all her hair on). Hopefully the curls will stay in for HOCO. She tried on her dress, under-garments and shoes and wants to polish her fingernails blue.

Church setting up pallets for the pumpkin patch:

Leaa told us of all the family gatherings planned up thru mid-December. We told her of Ford’s recent lab results of him being anemic. She knew of Justin’s blood issue and she, Liv and Dylan are all borderline anemic (Liv stopped being vegetation as she wasn't getting enough iron).
 It’s been a rainy day and expected to rain on Monday as we have a northeaster going up the coast east coast of Florida.  We drove home stopping at the Ancient City Brewery, but they were already closed at 6 PM. Back at home. Alyzabeth and I watched a couple more episodes of Pride and Prejudice (the BBC 1995 version with Colin Firth). Also, the Jaguars won their game, barely against the Indianapolis Colts and we watched part of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys Sunday night football but it was delayed an hour and a half for rain and lightning.

And in Maine, the family gathered for Grayson and Brandon's birthdays (Melissa's is next):

October 1st! Fall is here! New Peach Crostini Appetizer

Monday 09/30/24 - Last day of September. Parkinson exercises then Ford had his follow-up appointment for his leg imaging.

Our mornings are about the same. Ford is sleeping better, I still am awake a lot, every time he moves. We got AA off to school. We survived without air conditioning. Inside temperature reached 81 degrees. Hoping Justin can trouble shoot it as we know it’s an old unit, ready to be replaced.

Ford went to his Parkinson’s exercises, I walked and talked with Mom. She had a nice time with the family on Sunday at the apple orchard.

Next, we went to Ford’s follow up to his leg/vein imaging. All good will need to wear compression socks to help with circulation. We need to get them at Walmart, it’s a prescribed sock. The appointment ran one hour late. Also, Ford will be referred to a podiatrist. We spoke to Justin and Leaa, they check in more frequently now. We are all still in shock about the devastation from Helene flooding. We ate lunch at the Time Out deli - found out what we had not seen the owner- mother around, she fell and broke her wrist and some other bone. 

At home, I did try to lay down, my back is still killing me from raking on Saturday. So sore!! I got dinner stuff ready - spaghetti dinner with iceberg wedge salad, Texas garlic toast. Mia came over, we walked to Talon’s to visit (in their air conditioning) chatted over iced tea. 

Mia stayed for dinner, she is going on a cruise this Thursday with Madison, learning sign language for cruise ships, she earns CEU. We watched the Voice. I took a shower to cool down, the temperature is now 84 degrees. 

Tuesday: October 1st! Ford had his PT then to Quest for his blood and urine panel.

Tuesday morning was fine a bit warm in our home but it was cooler outside in the morning so we tried to cool down the house. And we ate out on the screen porch for dinner as it was cooler but was not comfortable so we moved back inside.

Our day started with Justin and Jon-boy arriving to check out our system and of course the end result is we need it replaced which we sort of knew. They will work up a price and unfortunately they have a big job at the Putnam county courthouse starting on Wednesday through Saturday so they will not be able to come to our home until Monday or Tuesday. I took Ford to his physical therapy and did a little bit of walking and resting in the truck. After that we stopped back at the house, but Justin was already gone and then to Ford quest appointment. He had blood drawn and a urine test and then we went to Walmart to pick up his new prescription of compression socks to wear on his legs.  We decided to Ford wanted fish for lunch so we decided to go to Corky bells on Fleming Island as we had not been there in ages. Big mistake as they were some large groups already there the waitress was overworked Ford fish and chips were not good. The fish was so thin. It was deep-fried and way overcooked and tough.  My blackened fish tacos were pretty good and came with black beans and rice. We don’t usually go there and now we know why. 

We went to Publix to pick up our ingredients for our dinner of Panzanella. And canned goods for taco soup, which will make later in the week.  Alyzabeth went to the library again for a few hours as it is cooler there and quiet and she can work there without being here at the house during the afternoon heat. We went to the River House. I took the same thing I took last Saturday as I had all the ingredients still the cream cheese, sun-dried tomato spinach garlic roll up pinwheels they are very delicious and definitely a keeper recipe.  Only Kathy came as Hugh and Maureen were celebrating their 69th wedding anniversary with a dinner out. 

Wednesday 2nd: Our morning started with a little bit more sleep than average, but the house of course is warm with no air conditioning. Alyzabeth got off to school just fine. Her knee is still healing with Band-Aids over the biggest scarring where her screws were removed. I took a bit of a shower and walked Ginger and trimmed our back hedges, where some wild branches were growing tall and fixed our lights out on the deck with new clips. The old plastic clips stretch and break and probably the UV light doesn’t help it either. We went to Walmart, Lowe's and Home Depot to find a portable air conditioner not a window air conditioner to use until we get air conditioning back which looks like will be next Tuesday. None to be found! So we ordered one online. Thank goodness the weather is a bit cooler reaching the high 80s but the humidity is lower so our inside house temperature is high, 84°.  We are so lucky that we can tolerate it as Jim and Cliffreda have gone through a terrible time in their little town of Alvarado. They finally got power back at the Fairhaven farmhouse they’re staying at but endured five days with no power no water, and no air-conditioning.  Our plans for Wednesdays is to stay in and work around the house but today we found out Ford‘s blood test came back with him being anemic so we bought iron pills today and also call his doctor to confirm that. So much going on in the world today with the port employees on strike with Iran sending missiles to Israel and the vice-presidential debate last night. The debate last night was a kinder gentler, and both gentlemen were poised but our candidate Tim walls did not seem to send enough punches towards JD Vance, when he was lying so much and didn’t emphasize all the lies that he has told which is created havoc in his own state of Ohio when he said that immigrants reading peoples pets. They actually had to get police officers to escort children to school and try to calm that area it’s horrible what the  Far right wing Republicans that support Trump and his bullying his lies, his greediness, his rhetoric against women etc. etc. etc. 

Thursday 3rd:

Another good morning, it is 82 degrees inside the house, with outside morning temperatures in the 70's we are surviving.

Another usual morning with not much on our agenda. I did some personal correspondence cleaned up some emails and started some laundry. Ford took a shower and did the morning dishes. We drove to his Parkinson exercises and all went well and I walked outside while talking to my mom mostly about all our medical problems. Ford and I went to Publix and picked up food for our dinner which is going to be a type of Alfredo pasta, Primavera and roasted carrots. Once home I walked Ginger and we had lunch of leftovers. I called my cartilage Care, the Macy procedure and found out about how the process works. Since Alyzabeth is over 18 now we have to have her sign a HIPAA agreement so that I can talk to the doctors. 

Ford and I drove back to Publix and had our Covid and flu shots together.

AA continues to work at the library after school, nice and cool!

After Ford and I got our shots, Alyzabeth came home from the library about 4 PM. She had finished most of her homework and continue working on her college applications. She’s applying to some honest programs which require additional information and most she will not hear back until January whether she’s accepted or not. I prepped for dinner which was cutting up bell peppers, onions, some cherry tomatoes to go in the Alfredo sauce, and, of course, boiled the fettuccine noodles. I also peeled and roasted a bag of carrots, with a little rosemary, honey and olive oil. The dinner was pretty good for a meatless meal, and we only have the store-bought Alfredo sauce very rarely.  When we were at Publix, we purchased two of the new special flavors that are only for this holiday season. We purchased eggnog which is one of Alyzabeth‘s favorite flavors and also the apple pie ice cream, which includes bits of apples, pie crust, and cinnamon swirls. We are roasting in the house. The temperature is at 85°, but we will survive. Our portable air conditioning unit will be here tomorrow. AA met with Laureen with her Spanish tutoring session tonight and I took a shower to cool down. Not much else going on. We did talk to Leaa and will visit with her and Jesse on Sunday. 

Friday 4th: Our 39th Anniversary! Separate post.

Saturday 5th: Saturday morning beginning became again very nice. Alyzabeth ended up sleeping in her bedroom, because Ginger did not seem to want to settle in the den with the new portable air conditioner. However, the house was a lot cooler, and even those our bedrooms were far away from the air conditioner, it benefited from the cooler air coming in that way. Alyzabeth did a lot of homework, correcting her government test that they were allowed to do over the weekend and she did some more college application work including hitting the submit button for I think William and Mary, and Stetson and I’m not sure I think she may still have Bowdoin left and Wesley. She said she’s not going apply to Georgetown as they require a person in face or zoom live interview. I told her that she would do fine just be yourself and if she didn’t want to do it, try again as we believe she would love going there for her master's degree. 

Terri sent us a bag of her home grown garlic - love the fresh garlic. I gave some to Leaa and Marsha.

I decided to make a grilled peach Cristini for an appetizer for the River House. It is goat cheese with fresh basil spread on Cristini bread and grilled peaches, diced up and a drizzle of honey on top. Everyone loved it so it is definitely a keeper recipe. 

I also decided to make spinach dip and will take some tomorrow, Sunday to Leaa to have at home.  We went to the River House and with Hugh and Maureen (their son Doug and his wife had just left for airport). They stayed for 2 1/2 days visiting their parents. It rained a bit and supposedly we are getting in northeaster tomorrow and then possibly a hurricane named Milton midweek.  We came home and had taco soup which I had prepared in the morning and let it simmer during the day. 

We decided to watch the 1990s version of pride and prejudice with Colin Firth as AA is studying that book in school. 

October 4th! 39th Anniversary and Ford's Mom's Birthday

Friday: Our morning began with chatting with Terri on the phone over coffee. Ford went to PT.

I took Ginger to the groomers and picked her up during Ford's PT.

We had dinner at Santioni's for our anniversary dinner.

Free dessert for our anniversary - delicious!

Wine was very good.

Chicken Mediterranean:

Ford's Seafood Tutti Mari:

Bread and soup/salad service:

AA tried to get a good photograph - I don't think we got a good picture!

Happy No. 39th! Mia and Madison were on the ASL cruise.