Our American Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday afternoon we headed north towards Leesburg to spend the weekend with our friends Mark and Julie. We went for Thanksgiving dinner at Julie's sisters home in the Villages. Kris was the master chef and made the most wonderful meal.

Dianne likes to stay out of the kitchen but she did brag about the salad bowl they were using.It's the blue cherry off of a cop car she managed to snag about 25 years ago. I think she said it was in Ft. Lauderdale. It happened before they became non drinkers.

She did dish out the deserts after Wayne finally asked if they were saving those pie's  for a later day.

It was a great time. I laughed so much. That family sure knows how to party. The glass which Julie is holding up in a cheers motion is actually her salad dish on a stem which she brought up to drink out of by accident thinking it was her wine glass. She got caught . We all laughed and teased her.

We Looked for wayne's & Sue"s coach in the RV camp knowing our spot was next to them.

It's a beautiful RV park. It was also a horse ranch.

The morning after breakfast was a feast. Ruth made it in the RV .

Next we dragged it across the road to the clubhouse that we had access to with our parking pass.

I set the table and Ruth came in to load the tostadas. They were delicious.

Dianne and Kris came from the villages to join us for dinner. Wayne and Sue finally got up and wandered over. There were lots of laughs.

As we were eating there was a parade happening thru the park. Wayne and I both ran out to get a few pictures of the Show.

These horses are beautiful.

After breakfast we headed over to the villages for a tour.

I could live here. It is a community on 36000 acres of land. That is 52 sq miles. All accessible by golf cart. Three town squares and a population of about 100000 people. They have one more subdivision under construction and then it is over. No more lots are being developed. It felt like a disneyland for adults. Check out   www.The Villages.com

This subdivision has a western theme.

As you walk thru the down town there are many spots to sit and enjoy the afternoon.

A beautiful waterfront.

You don't see signs like this in Canada.

This looks like a boat I should own. A bit of a fixer upper .

The buildings on the waterfront look old but are all new.

Standing in the town square.

I love all the golf carts parked on the road. 

Friday evening we all headed over to Crazy Gators for dinner.

After dinner we walked thru down town Eustace to watch them light up the christmas lights.

It was nice but cold.

Missing a couple of the gang.

We went into a bar to warm up and Santa came in for a coffee. Julie and Jill were trying to convince him that they were good girls this last year but he wouldn't buy it.

It's Another Septic Kind Of Day

The weather was terrible this morning. Blowing and bumpy. Daisy was shaking when I got up. I was afraid she was sick but I think she was just scared. Lots of thunder and lightning as well as big winds.

I had called for the septic dump boat  and around 11:00 I noticed he was at our marina. The lightning has been over for about one hour so I guess he thought it was safe to come out.  He came over to our boat shortly after I saw him and emptied our septic tanks.

After he left I did a rebuild on our septic system. I noticed that the switch that directs the flow of sewage  was acting up last year just before we headed back to Canada. I bought a new switch figuring that it is better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. After all the problems I had today switching tanks to empty them I decided it was time to do the repair. Yuck. Not my favourite job but this is the week for septic.

I couldn't get it back together using the old hoses. They became hard and wouldn't stretch enough to fit on the new switch.

Back to Chapman's Marine for new hose. It became a full day's job. I even missed lunch. 

Not like I felt like eating.

Finished. It works perfectly. I should have taken this picture after I cleaned up my mess. Anyways , I hope this is the end of my septic adventures for this winter. Now , What's my next boat project. 

Like Bruce says , If we didn't like working on them , We wouldn't buy them. 

What else would I be doing with my time.

So after a long day I took Daisy for her 5:30 walk just after her dinner. It's a beautiful evening. 

It's some kind of a sign.

Tuesday's Activity

Stan and Clair are gone for the Thanksgiving week but before they left I managed to borrow their new Bissell carpet shampoo machine. Thanks Guys. It worked great. Took about 1.5 hours to do the entire boat.

I've Always Loved Mondays

We started the day with a nice walk on the beach. 

We have to start doing this earlier in the day. It was about 9:00 and well on it's way to being 87 degrees fahrenheit at noon. Way too hot for a walk. Daisy loves the water.

We gave her a shower and she got a nice rest in the cool grass waiting for Ruth to get some groceries.

I had bought 2 rebuild kits for the toilets last week. One to redo the toilet in our aft cabin and a spare. I figured if one toilet has quit , the other one could be close behind. Guess what. Last night Ruth informed me that the toilet in the forward bedroom had quit working properly. I'm turning into a professional marine plumber. It only took one hour to rebuild this one.

Who is that balding gray haired guy anyhow?

This is a happy sight to me . A working toilet.

We went to dinner tonight with Wayne and Sue. They are picking up their coach which they store at River Forest Yacht Club. They were also with Rose. We are all working our way up to the Villages for Thanksgiving dinner at Sue's sisters place. Rob was going to come with us but he hand's returned yet from helping Captain Bob pick up a boat in Maine. Just as we were about to leave Robert gave us a call to say they were just passing our marina. We told him to get dropped off here and he could join us at the Italian restaurant. 

This is a nice boat.

It took 6 days to get here at $2000. in fuel per day. Bob drives it to the pin. 

Anyways , we had a really nice meal. Great friends , Great atmosphere. My only problem is that I have trouble hearing people talk in noisy environments. 

You would think that as a piano tuner I would hear everyone easily.

Kermit - Hahaha

Ruth spotted this tiny frog on the boat. 

It's a cute little frog. So small. Hard to grab. I gently touched her trigger and she leapt off of the rear door and landed on my glasses. Hahaha. Wish we could have gotten a picture of that.

We lost her for about 10 minutes but then she showed up by Daisy's head. 

Daisy kept saying "WHAT , WHAT, WHAT ".

She finally climbed up the door and positioned herself near the hinge. 

I touched her trigger again and this time she did a freedom leap into the water.

I Love Sunday's

We are starting to get back into our old routine which is good. I hurt my foot a few months ago and have had a hard time walking. It is 75% better and so I am starting to walk some.  This morning we walked to the ocean and back. It takes about an hour. I have 2 piano customers on the go and so then I spent a couple of hours talking to them via email. Next was a bike ride for about 45 minutes down to the House of Refuge. They were closing when we got there so we will do it again later this week. 

This was our reward for our activities.

We went for showers at the hotel after our swim and Ruth walked over to the lobby to exchanged our towels.

 I love Florida.

I wandered back to the boat alone but did have the sense to take this picture of a beautiful sunset.

Once on the docks this boater asked me to help him cast off. What a great boat. So cute.

I don't know why he would want to be leaving at dusk but who am I to question him.

I asked him if he can sleep on board and he said it sleeps two and drinks eight. Haha

A little footnote. I took Daisy for her evening walk and met this guy on the dock. He is staying in the hotel and has his boat on a trailer. He's got his captain papers and is a trucker for his money making job. The little Ranger Tug Classic is a hobby. Nice guy. We talked for about 15 minutes. Very interesting. We meet the nicest people here.

Saturday , Nov.22

It was a quiet day for us today. 

I read the paper  ,  had coffee with the dock master for about one hour and Daisy got lots of walks. 

Tonight we left Daisy at home on the boat and went out for dinner with friends. She didn't care. She's happy.

There were a few people on the dock talking about this Pizza Place. It was good. About a 7 out of 10.

The food didn't really matter. It was about good friends and lots of laughter.