Dunedin Causeway at 5:00 a.m.

We woke up at 5:00 a.m. and were out the door at 5:08, headed to the causeway, which opens to the public at 5:00.

These pictures don't do it justice because of the low-light, but the causeway was wonderful. It's a totally different place at this time of the morning. We could hear sounds that we normally don't hear, like the waves lapping on the shore. We saw only three or four people. Normally, the passing cars drown out low-level noises like that. It was so quiet and peaceful, and I swear the smells were more intense. It reminded us both of Cedar Key, that laid back town in the Big Bend region of Florida.

You could see the city lights in the distance of Clearwater.

Luckily, John turned the coffee maker on before we left, so when we drove into the garage at 5:45, coffee was waiting.

We read and had cereal and headed back out for our walk on the causeway. We had two goals or rather one goal for two groups of animals: we wanted Dee Dee to walk before it got too hot for her, and we needed for us to walk before the sun warmed things up too much for us.

We rode our bikes to the Main Beach shelter on Honeymoon Island and locked our bikes. Then we walked back to the draw bridge and back. We caught the draw bridge on the way back. It was 84 degrees at the beginning of our walk and 86 by the time we finished, a little after 11:00. That included 8 miles walking and 9.8 miles biking.

As you can see in the picture, the winds were very light, about 2 mph. It would have been a great day for kayaking or paddle boarding.

I caught this cool cloud moving through the neighborhood. I was trapped inside most of the afternoon doing schoolwork.

We had leftover lentils, rice, carmelized onions, and cumin, topped with avocados and a splash of red wine vinegar.

John leaves for Ponce Inlet (near Daytona Beach) on Saturday to attend his brother's wedding. I'll be staying in Dunedin to care for Dee Dee. It's a 3-hour drive each way, so he'll be leaving after lunch to get there for the early evening beach wedding. It will be very informal and all outdoors.

I talked with Dee Dee's doctor this afternoon, mostly to update him and to hear him talk about options and timing. He is willing to drain more fluid, but not until it is necessary because there are risks to poking needles into chest cavities blindly. He said that she will tell us when it's necessary, meaning that she will cough more, be restless, not eating, and short of breath. We set an appointment for Friday, July 3rd because he plans to be away for two weeks after that. We can cancel it or do something before that if necessary.

John's worried about me being home alone without a car in case she needs immediate attention. But I think I'll be okay. I can call a Lyft if I need to. Some friends have volunteered to be on standby, too.

She's eating well and is reasonably comfortable. I had to hand off my pill-giving responsibilities to John this morning. No matter what I tried, she kept spitting up the pill--after eating turkey, bread, mayo, and cheese. In other words, she might as well have had our lunch. I even tried her favorite dog food. Finally, John came to the rescue and tried bread and peanut butter. The peanut butter (which she loves) sticks to the pill (which she hates). In her conflicted state, she tries to separate the two, but without thumbs and fingers it's really difficult to do, so she swallows both. The other trick is to have an empty peanut butter and bread ball ready to shove in her mouth right after the first. It overwhelms her suspicions and makes it harder for her to find the dang pill with nothing but a tongue and sticky, delicious goo everywhere.