Dad, duck and cranes

Friday July 6, 2012
Quail Run Lot 15
Wesley Chapel, FL

 

Thursday I slog through the heat again. 

Not as bad as Tuesday but definitely not good.  I dread going out.  I wake up at 6am and think of all the excuses not to get up yet.  Of course then I come face to face with the reality that it is only getting hotter as I wait so up I get and out I go.  THANK GOODNESS for books on tape to take my mind at least somewhat off of how hot it is already.

 

We’re taking a road trip in Ruby today.

After a fairly quick breakfast we set off on the hour long drive across Tampa and the bay to my father’s house in Largo.  If you’ve been following along with us then you’ve seen my 91 year old father before.  He has macular degeneration and cannot see much at all but otherwise he’s in amazing shape and still takes care of himself in his own home. 

Today he needs some help with his banking.  Like many elderly folks he’s not terribly trusting so he will only let someone “in the family” help him with anything financial.   But he’s a hoot!!  When we get there I find that he has 25 checks to be deposited.  That’s right TWENTY FIVE.  Some are CD interest checks for as little as 16 cents.  What is the bank thinking??  It costs them way more to print the check and mail it.  I have to laugh.  Interest rates are definitely down for everything including his investments.  His largest interest check from his CDs is $1.27.  He also has 7 ancient traveler’s checks.  Do they even issue those anymore?  AND among the cash he wants to deposit, he has a stack of one dollar bills so tall the woman at Well’s Fargo who helps us with all of this takes them to the counting machine rather than count them herself.  Just too funny, the whole thing.

 

We fall off the vegan wagon at lunch.

 

We get his banking squared away and then he takes us out to lunch where we all have contraband burgers.  A nice change every once in a while for a vegan.  I think this is why David came along actually to get a bacon cheeseburger and fries.  Neither of us ever has any trouble eating the regular American diet the few times we decide to break our self imposed rules.  Guess our digestive tracts believe we are omnivores.  We eat at my father’s favorite restaurant The Farmer’s Kitchen in Largo which is really a sweet diner with great diner food.  We take my dad home and make our way through rush hour Tampa back north to Wesley Chapel.

 

 

When we get back I decide to check the mail. 

We’ve only been here 4 days and few people know the exact address but lo and behold, there is a 2nd Secret Santa present.  The return address on the envelope is just a street and a zip code but when I open the package I’m almost certain I know who sent it and when I check that zip, I know for sure.

 

 

Look at this GREAT ducky key chain.  And if you push a button on one of his wings he quacks as long as you hold the button in and a light shines out of his beak.   TOO TERRIFIC!!    Thank you Roxi and Annie.  This was a great surprise.  I just hope Moby isn’t jealous since this new ducky, to be named Roxianne,  of course will get to go everywhere with me attached to my keys.   Aren’t blogger friends just THE VERY BEST????

 

We have eaten a late and unusually large lunch (diners being what they are) so neither of us is hungry at our normal dinner time. We spend some time on the computers. I’m doing email and reading blogs.  I send a thank you to my benefactresses.   J  David  is dealing with his laptop which has decided to have some aggravating problems.  He spends the rest of the night troubleshooting it, finishes off the leftover Black Bean salad later in the evening and not too long after that we are off to bed.

 

Friday morning NO RUNNING whoopee!

 

 

   It’s like a holiday.  So  I go outside to see just how hot it is and find that it is actually very pleasant if you aren’t running.  Not because the temperature is down but for some reason the humidity is.  So I set up in the anti-gravity chair with plans to do some reading until the heat kicks in.  David goes for a walk.

 

When he comes back he says he’s seen an RV wash/wax/detail company working on a rig in the park.  Hmmmmm  he goes back over to see what he can learn. 

 

I hope it wasn’t something we did.

I’m busy watching our neighbor being moved to a new site.  Dave retired from the military in 1995 and got a job with the DOD here in Tampa.  He works nights Monday through Thursday which is why we have seldom seen him.  He sleeps during the early part of the day and it’s been too hot to be outside in the afternoons.  He also does odd jobs for the park and has been here 4 years.  3 of them in the site next to us but today he’s moving.  Now the problem is they can’t get one of the slides on his Alfa 5th wheel to go back in.  They also have a hard time getting the jacks out.  Apparently he hasn’t exercised any of this in the entire 3 years.     It’s interesting to watch a whole bunch of guys trying to muscle things into submission.  They succeed partly and one of Quail Run’s owners comes up with a backhoe which has a hitch on it and off goes the 5th wheel with its slide out heading for another site in the newer section of the park.   

I’m trying to figure out why they would want to move him out of the shaded area into the newer open area which is more expensive and in full sun.  And why he would want to go if it costs more and his electric will be higher because of no shade.  Am I nosy or just curious?  I’ve been this way all my life.  Questions just pop into my head about everything.

While I’m thinking all of this, David returns to his chair on the patio.  He turns to me and says “well  look who’s come to visit.”  I look up and walking across the street are these guys.  I grab my camera.  No pics of Dave moving but I wouldn’t miss these two.  I’d heard something about resident Sand Hill Cranes here but since I hadn’t seen them in any of our walks or my runs around the park I thought perhaps they were just winter residents.  Apparently not.  I’ll have to go up to the office and get the scoop!  There’s that curiosity again.

 

 

Dave returns a couple of times to get stuff he’s had around his “yard” and then the spot is empty.  It’s about lunch time and I realize I’ve been sitting outside IN FLORIDA in JULY all morning long.  It’s just been wonderful to be able to be outside.  But the humidity is creeping up.  Temperature is only 84 which is a lot better at 12:30 in the afternoon than most places on the east coast. It was over 100 today in both Charlottesville Virginia and Baltimore Maryland.   I guess I’m glad now that I’m not back in Virginia.  Perhaps I’m glad we didn’t go to New England too since they also have an amazing amount of heat and the cost of campsites up there is significantly more than in Florida during the summer.  

 

The thunder starts rumbling about 3:45. 

Thunder talks and threatens for about half an hour but the rain never comes.  Too bad since it is hot and sticky outside.  We’re now paying for that nice morning.

 

 

We get the tires off the trailer and into the trunk of the car and David takes them over to get them swapped out for the new ones.  When he gets back we have dinner and then put them back on the trailer. I actually do help him with this but there isn’t anyone to take pictures of me doing the torquing to 120 pounds with my foot. The whole thing wasn’t all that difficult, just time consuming, and we are glad to have it out of the way.  Now we ONLY have the SRS light and the Check Engine light to deal with on the car.  SIGH………

 

It seems as soon as we get one thing taken care of another shows up.

I’m trying to figure out how we ever had any time to do anything like kayaking or hiking.  There seems to be no end now of problems that have to be dealt with including David’s computer.

 

 

It’s 5 years old which is long in the tooth for a laptop but we aren’t in a position to afford to replace it and he will really have a hard time in the hospital for so long without it to give him something to do when he’s awake but can’t get out of bed.   Today the problems are worse.  He thinks it’s the video and then perhaps the memory but it’s really hard to test anything when the thing hangs up on you or won’t boot up at all.  We’ve got about 3 days to figure out what it is and perhaps another 3 to get whatever parts are needed to fix it before next Saturday when he’s admitted to the hospital. 

Looks like this problem is going to take over whatever else we thought we would get done in these last few days, but that’s life.

By nightfall we have a new neighbor 5th wheel in Dave’s spot.  For summer time, this place is really full.  I’d say close to 200 of its 295 sites have a rig or a park model in them.  Not all of the owners are here so there isn’t a lot of traffic,  but they are clearly paying for their rigs to stay here in their absence.

Perhaps we’ll meet our new neighbors tomorrow especially if we can sit outside in the morning.