This and That

Me: "Honey, will you take my picture?"

Bruce: "Sure, but you hate to have your picture taken!"

Me: Indeed, but I really want to show off the shawl that Matt spent countless hours creating and it is finally a little cool enabling me to wear it to church. The colors in my dress are so similar! I just won't look at the camera."

Later on I mentioned that perhaps I should have sat on something a little plainer, except it was then that I remembered that there is not much plain in this house! Not that I don't go through spells thinking it should be plainer, however, those spells last but a nanosecond, and I return to patterns and color because, well, I just can't help myself.

Following church, I finally had B drive me by the Habitat house in Winter Park.

Apparently, the Winter Park/Maitland chapter has built 55 homes to date which seems very impressive to me. Note the vertical sticks on the left side of the door opening because, that is one job Bruce and his helpers have been doing for some Saturdays. That, my friends is done by nailing it on the concrete which is no easy task for anyone, let alone an older gentleman. Most Saturdays he comes home pretty whipped and I mean that in a good way.

Because, with the kitchen soon to be in upheaval, we knew we would have to eat out a lot, we skipped our Sunday after church lunch. The weather was quite nice allowing us to have the doors open and cool breezes filled our home. I was super anxious for the Blood Moon slated for a few hours later. I kept going out back and admiring the Wood Ducks, of which there are currently many on our little lake. Plus, I think there is some mating going on!! Excitement ahead.

Saturday night I'd seen the big moon rising at around 5:15, so I kept going out to check. No moon, no moon, and finally a big fat Moon! From 2015, this post during another Blood Moon.

Sunset and clouds occurred about the same time as the rising, however, those clouds eventually rolled away, making for quite the show. Honestly, aside from it looking so huge, one of the coolest things is the bright light.

In our part of the world, the eclipse was set to begin around 10:30PM, a time when you will usually find me fast asleep, however, we watched the football game which kept us up just long enough to see the beginning. Bruce set the alarm for 12:30AM and having slept in my clothes, I went out front to see the Moon turn red. Even B came out to see it which is very unusual as normally his enthusiasm for this sort of thing is pretty minimal. Unlike the last time I saw this phenom, I did not take a single photograph, merely gazed and went back to bed. Amazing, right? That said, there are photos all over the web that would far exceed anything I can do, so it just seemed silly. Plus, I was in the parking lot in front of our place, rather than in a robe in my back yard the last time! From reading this article, I was able to know what I witnessed early the next morning.

 Unless you are an astronomy buff, you will have to check out the article to learn more about it!

For all sorts of reasons, I'd not been able to return to Days for Girls until Monday. How great to see my friends, Susan and Leslie.

Leslie, on the right, is a whiz with all things related to DFG, whereas, I'd nearly forgotten everything I knew. We met in a new place, Summit Church, out on Lake Underhill Road where we had loads of space to spread out. You might note the dog who was there because the man and wife come all the way from Deltona to help out.

Talking to Bruce on my way home, he said he was washing his car and to stop by and he'd do mine too. Very nice that we have a dedicated place to wash cars at the complex.

Another thing that has surfaced in the last week was a tub full of photos that I used to display in various parts of our home. I got to thinking about it and realized that I had either sold, or given away, almost everything that used to do that task. I had shelves in the kitchen, a mantle, three end tables, and room with wide shelves on three sides. Now what? Here's what:

The photo quality above is pretty lousy, but you get the picture, no pun intended!

Taking all of the doors and drawers back to his shop for sanding and spraying, Troy did come on Tuesday, leaving my kitchen looking like this:

With everything in plain sight, Bruce took it upon himself to devise some new storage solutions and off we went to the Container Store to see what we could see. We saw a lot. We bought a lot. On the way home, on Conroy Road, whoa Nelly! We both agreed, we'd almost never seen so MANY birds so close!

Speaking of birds, while showering yesterday morning, I looked out the window and saw several Egrets along the shore which could mean only one thing. Dressing as fast as possible, sure enough, the Cormorants were back.

At the same time, in the blink of an eye, I saw the otter come up for air, something I've not seen for quite some time. Darn if she ever resurfaced. A Great Blue Heron keeps an eye on the Cormorants.

As I approached, this happened.

Being in a hurry, that was that. No telling what I missed, but we had something more important to attend to. Jeff asked if B would change out some lights in his house before he returns from rehab.  Of course! We drove over to his place, off Howell Branch Road, and assessed the situation. Replacing bulbs in track lights, 12 feet in the air is somewhat daunting, however, after a trip to Lowes, while using a six foot ladder, Bruce made it happen. Other lights were either changed, or replaced.  Leaving Jeff's neighborhood, I was surprised to see some Spring Green on one of the Oak trees.

You know how much neither of us enjoys driving in the horrible Orlando area traffic, however, we needed to return to the Container Store at Millenia for a few more things. If you don't live here that will not mean a thing. If you do, you feel our pain of driving from nearly Oviedo to Millenia.  By now it was 2:30 in the afternoon and what I really wanted was a McDonalds hamburger and some fries. A Coke goes without saying. We stopped at the one near the corner of Colonial and Primrose which has been remodeled, however, they have retained the Golden Arches. We go to McDonalds about twice a year, but when that's what you want, that's what you want.

Apparently loads of other folks were feeling the same. Not only has there been remodeling, but taking a page out of Wawa's book, they now have kiosks to order although it seemed to us that despite now having three ways to order, online, in person, or a kiosk, rather than making it faster, it was decidedly slower.

We sallied forth, bought our stuff, and came home to this.

Bruce has re-worked the pantry, moving pans, amongst other things, and in general, things are looking quite good.

We've got a few other ideas cooking for the kitchen which I will show another day.

Before I forget, for weeks now we had these little moths flying around the house, mostly in the living room, but not entirely confined to that space. Slow moving, they were easy to kill by clapping them between your palms. Not ideal, but with no explanation, that's what we were doing. Now, however, I do have an explanation provided by none other than my darling husband. Putting something away on the top shelf of our laundry area, what should he discover but a bag of bird seed filled with moths!! Gross out. Mystery solved.

Lastly, Maureen was quite rude to me the other day causing me to abruptly leave her bedside. I'm working on simmering down.

yours truly,

Gail