Stop Messing With My Clocks

Sunday March 8 and Monday March 9, 2015
Quail Run RV Park
Wesley Chapel, Florida

 

SUNDAY March 8

 

As most of you know I get very grumpy semi-annually when we all, like sheep, jump our clocks forward or backward for no reason anyone can explain to me.   So now it is dark until 7:30 in the morning.  For we morning people that’s a very late start to our day. And for what?   WHY to we do this???  It’s a ridiculous exercise.  I don’t care which one they choose, standard or Daylight.  Just pick one and quit this nonsense.  

With thanks to Kathryn McKinney, the daughter of a friend, who said, “Dear Guvment: Quit it. I don't care that you hand this hour back later in the year. Just stop messing with my clocks”.  

I’m awake at my usual time but of course it is pitch black outside so while I wait for dawn,  I finish reading The Bird Artist.  I’ve tried a couple of times before to read this National Book Award finalist which is over 15 years old now.  This time I was able to just flow right along with this very strange group of people living in Witless Bay, Newfoundland.   I wonder about the name of the town as it seems to describe quite a few of the characters.  But sure enough, it is a town in Newfoundland on the coast.  Can’t say I’d recommend the book but it wasn’t a difficult read.  There’s adultery, murder, two suicides and a mental hospital commitment if you like that sort of thing.

 

Today is a lovely day and we spend it just doing nothing. I read, David does whatever David is doing.   I’m outside; he’s inside.   From my antigravity chair, I watch the birds in the canal enjoy themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I walk and run my 10,000 steps all around the park.  Even with all the streets it takes three times up and down every street.    Other people are also out walking.  These couples seem to have split up into two sets of three.  

On my way I also spot two female mallards in a pond.  I’m so focused on the stunningly beautiful feathers that I cut off the end of her bill.

 

 

 

 

In the evening after dinner I walk down to one of the rec buildings to watch some folks play Mexican Train.  They play from 6 to 8 and when I arrive at 7:00 they invite me to have cake and ice cream to celebrate Ron’s birthday.  Sharon’s birthday is tomorrow so it’s a dual celebration.  I pull up all my will power and decline the sugar overdose but do stay until they begin playing the second half.   The rules they use are a bit different than the ones that came with our game but I like them.   There are 6 people playing at a large round table and they clearly know what they are doing.  There is little hesitation about what to play and lots of table banter going on all the time.   They invite me to come back on Wednesday morning and play with them.   It’s a friendly park.

 

 

 

MONDAY March 9

 

I am wake at my usual time and waiting again for the sun to come up so I can see to go outside.   When I do, I  a cormorant, a pied billed grebe and a little blue heron in the canal.   I love having water right behind the site.  I know Karen does too.  That’s why they moved from their previous site.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We climb up on the roof and tilt the solar panels so Gary and Donna, of Fantasy Car, can clean the roof.   The weather guessers have changed their minds and are now predicting a perfect day for washing and waxing. Cloudy but no rain!   HOORAY!
Panels are tilted for optimal roof exposure, not for the sun.  People walking by seeing us must have thought we were crazy up there.

  

 

Gary and Donna pull up on the dot and get right to work.  They are an amazingly efficient team.   Gary does the roof first of course.  And then they wash the rest of Winnona.

 

 

 

Through the door, I see Donna doing the under side of the mildewed awning which we have cleaned several times ourselves.  But it has never looked this good since it was new.  Well, maybe the last time they did the rig.  This past year was a serious mildew year.  It never stopped raining everywhere we went.   Wish I’d taken a picture of what it looked like before so you could really appreciate how it looks now.  

 

 

These two are serious workers.  They are in and out in just over 3 hours.  The whole thing washed and waxed including the roof and a sealant also put on the roof and all the inside windows washed.   Best $190 we spent this year so far.

 

 

Look at this.  Doesn’t she look happy???

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very interesting taking a camera picture over my head of the awning.  But no mildew anywhere.

 

 

So shiny you can see me taking the picture.  

So shiny you can see the shed in the side yard.

 

 

 

In the afternoon I drive over to Wesley Chapel in the continuing hunt for new throw rugs for the living room.  I love the pattern that we have but they are just getting old and worn.  We need three runners and one small, all matching.  This seems to be an impossible thing to find in any Walmart or Target in a pattern I could live with.  Either the pattern is wonderful but they are out of the runners or they have plenty of the sizes we need but the colors are garish.

 

It’s pizza for dinner again.  It was so good last time David just wants to do it again right away.  I make the dough and braise the kale.  David rolls the dough out, puts on the toppings and sticks it in the oven.   It’s 81 degrees outside, we must be nuts.  But look at this delicious slice.  No oil, no meat, no cheese, but delicious.

 

 

 

We finish T. Colin Campbell’s book  Whole over tonight’s dishes. This book follows his previous excellent book on his cancer research,  The China Study.  These research findings totally changed his outlook and his life’s work.   Why is this Cornell Professor Emeritus’ work not more well known?  Whole answers that question clearly. 

It takes a serious look at the role of nutrition in human health, why the standard American diet is killing us, why nobody seems to care, why we are being lied to about what is good for us and what we can do. 

I’m very glad we had read both The China Study and Caldwell Esselstyn’s Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease first,  as Whole is the natural sequel to these two explaining clearly why this information is not more widely available.  It does an excellent job of explaining why no one is talking to us about the the problems of meat and dairy for our health.   

 

 

 

Not sure what we’ll read next. Any recommendations?