Wednesday

Today's high was 79 degrees, so we opened the windows to enjoy the fresh air and breeze. We went on a long bike ride after lunch, but we kept to a loop consisting of the causeway and downtown--over and over.

Causeway pictures

Pinellas Trail (downtown and Weaver Park)

 

Weaver Park pier

 

On this morning's walk, I saw a dolphin jump completely out of the water, just before I took this shot. There were two of them playing. My timing was off, so I never got a picture of them. It was 64 degrees at 8:30 this morning, and 69 when we finished our walk. It was a nice change. The wind was blowing at 12 mph, so we wore long sleeves. John had his hoodie on all day.

 After our morning walk, we rode our bikes to Honeymoon Island before lunch. There were four surfers in the water waiting for waves.

 

 

 

We had a great salad for dinner and a bowl of chili.

 

Today's routes 

 

Miles biked: 35.63
Miles walked: 8.2

 

I am more than a little concerned over the election, not that Biden won't win, but that Trump will not accept it. It appears that Trump is willing to resort to anything to win. There is no bottom. I don't like the threats of lawlessness and violence. He is a horrible person, totally lacking in any humanity, and a failed leader. 200,000 + Americans dead. We have 20% of the world's deaths from the virus, but only 4% of the world's population. And he lies constantly, about all things both great and small.

I will be voting for Biden and every other Democrat on the ballot. I hope that others will do the same and that together we can save our democracy with an overwhelming rejection of Trumpism.

I long for a time in the near future where I wake up and don't think about the president and what outrageous thing he has said or done.

Tuesday

We got to the causeway this morning just before sunrise.  It was 75 degrees.

We weren't the only ones eagerly waiting for the sun to come up.

 

He was just as focused as we were.

The sunrise spread beautiful colors all around the horizon.

 

 

Then the sun finally appeared. 

 

By the time we got back to the drawbridge, the sun was up as was the temperature. It was now 79 degrees.

 

I did some leaf raking in time for the garbage/recylcing/yard waste pick up.

 

We took a quick bike ride into town before lunch. Then, after lunch we rode to Dollar General to pick up a few items.

Later in the afternoon, after doing some research on dentists for our new (potential) dental plan, we drove around to inspect the top four candidates. Our favorite one is located on Bayshore Blvd. and Michigan, across from the Pinellas Trail. It's close enough to walk to. Tomorrow I plan to call to make sure they will take our insurance (our plan site said they would) and that they're taking new patients. Then I'll sign us up and make appointments. Unfortunately, the state does not pay for dental insurance, but they do make it available as a supplemental option. Navigating the actual appointment in the age of COVID-19 is going to be tricky. 

I read a good article on COVID-19 risk-taking today. It made an interesting analogy to drunk driving. You may be able to get a way with it, but not getting in an accident or not getting caught does not mean it's safe to drive drunk.

Florida's infection rate is spiking after the governor lifted restrictions on bars and restaurants this past weekend. Fauci has been critical of that move, saying that Florida's positivity rate was much too high to make that move.

 

We took a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. The temperature is falling ahead of a cold front. It was 75 degrees on the evening walk. The low will be 66 tonight, and tomorrow's high will only be 80. 

 

We got a text from a neighbor checking on us. She said she hadn't seen us and wanted to make sure we were okay. I told her about our trip to Daytona. It's nice to be missed.

 

 

Today's biking route

Miles walked: 8

Miles biked: 10.47

Monday

 

We rode out to Honeymoon Island today on our bikes after lunch. Then we walked from North Beach almost to the tip of the island. There was a threatening rain cloud coming in from the gulf, so we turned around and headed back. It never arrived, but we played it safe. The walk is about 2.5 miles to the tip, so it's a 5 mile round trip. It takes almost two hours. The blue dot in the center of the screenshot above shows where we turned around.

 

 It was 84 degrees with a 10 mph breeze.

 Yes, it was as beautiful as the pictures show.

We did the entire walk barefoot, so we should be all exfoliated.

 

We had the walk almost to ourselves, which is probably what this bird was thinking.

This group of birds walked with me for a while, staying just a few feet ahead.

The gulf keeps rearranging the island. It's basically a big sand bar, constantly shifting. This tree is a casualty of change.

These roots help to hold the sand, making it harder for the gulf to eat away at this spot of the island.

Humans have added a groin of rocks and metal to try to hold the sand the way the tree roots do naturally. It sort of works. But it's not as effective.

This is a picture of the east side of the island with just this tiny strip of sand separating the sound from the gulf.

 I like the way the sand's washboard-effect feels on my feet. The lines in the sand remind me of lines of text in a book.

 

We walked our usual causeway walk this morning. It was mostly cloudy, but comfortable.

 

 

 

 

We went grocery shopping afterwards. John made a pot of chili while I washed the car and vacuumed out the sand and debris from our trip to Daytona.

We met John's family at a Karaoke bar in Daytona Friday night. We thought there would be outdoor space. We hadn't eaten in an indoor restaurant since early March because of the virus. We had eaten at an outdoor restaurant only once, and that was at 2:00 p.m. and there were only four people, including us.

 

We entered the bar and noticed we were the only ones wearing masks. It felt awkward. It was loud. No one could hear us through the masks. It was crowded, and, of course, people were singing . . . at the top of their lungs along with the designated singer: "New York, New York . . . " and many country songs that I did not recognize. I don't think anyone was even thinking about New York's horrible experience with COVID-19 deaths back in the spring.

We had to remove our masks to drink our ginger ale and eat our burgers. 

It was the same day that the governor of Florida lifted all restrictions on bars and restaurants.

I read an article today about how the U.S. doesn't seem to learn from past experiences with this virus. Infections and deaths drop with restrictions and social distancing and increase when people get tired and relax their efforts, travel, meet with family for holidays without precautions, etc. As Fauci and other experts have argued, it's not that hard to control the disease. Wash your hands frequently, social distance, meet outside, and wear a mask when that's not possible. Experts say we could reduce infections by 90%. The CDC director even said that a mask is more effective than a vaccine will be. Of course, he was later admonished for saying so.

Apparently, we don't believe scientists and don't want to change our ways. As long as our leaders feed that urge, we will continue to see high rates of infection. It's a human tragedy.

I hope we got lucky and avoided infection. I'm not going to do that again. 

 

 

Miles walked: 11.1

Miles biked: 11.72