Monday

 

Little bunny next to one of our hydrangeas and under our stag-horn fern.

I found some time to work on the orange grove painting.

It’s getting there.

Toby had us home all day without a break, so he’s exhausted.

Today was another project day. The a/c register in the kitchen came out again, so I had to investigate and come up with a better solution. I went to Ace Hardware and got some long sheet metal screws, drilled pilot holes, and screwed it in. So far, so good. I can’t believe the original contractor just screwed it into the ceiling sheetrock!

I replaced a motion sensing flood light in the backyard and replaced some bulbs in the other fixtures. It only took two trips and one item return. Now, when a coyote shows up, he will have eight floodlights on him. John picked up some coyote scat while I was working on the lights. 

I replaced a bulb in one of the kitchen can lights. Of course, I had to use the tall step ladder.

I found a sturdier ring to attach Toby’s vaccination tag to his collar. It’s less likely to get caught on something.

It’s amazing how these simple projects took all day, used several hand fulls of tools, and made big messes.

John fixed some spaghetti and pronounced it a success when he said that it tasted like Rosemary’s.

Miles walked: 7

Miles biked: 0

Sunday

Look at all the mangoes on this tree! John says they look like Christmas ornaments. We saw this on our morning Toby walk. There was almost zero breeze, some shade. 

It got up to 88 degrees today. Still no rain, maybe tomorrow. From our afternoon walk, we spotted this family of ducks (background) and this squirrel (foreground) enjoying Lake Saundra.

I did some more painting. I’m remembering that you’re supposed to do the background first, so I need to do the sky next, then water, sand, groves, leaves, oranges, blossoms. I might have to paint over some of this. 

The last painting I did was “Sea Dog” for my sister, and that was back in 2015-16, I think.

Toby got fussy. I stopped to do this blog so he could nap in my lap.

Seems like Sundays will be my day for house projects. I repaired the shower door track from Toby’s freak accident. He stuck his head over the side of the tub because he likes the drama of dropping his ball in there and then retrieving it. When he looked over the edge, his vaccination tag got into one of the channels and found a matching slot where the water drains back into the tub. It was a perfect fit, like a lock and key. He got stuck and pulled and tugged until he managed to free himself. The “S” hook on his tag was completely straightened on one end, the tag still lodged in the track. Only after we noticed that his tag was missing did we figure out the connection between the strange noise and the found tag. Anyway, he tugged so hard, he warped the track, and the shower door wouldn’t close. It’s all fixed now.

I’ve got a good Ace Hardware list for various other repairs.

We ordered a Jets pizza for dinner. They are Detroit style deep dish, crusty pizzas. Square-shaped. We liked it for a change. Ordering by text will get you a 20% discount.

Miles walked: 6.2

Miles biked: 0

 

Saturday

 

 We both slept so well last night after our fiasco of trying to train Toby to sleep in his crate. We walked Toby and took off on our bikes downtown for the market in Pioneer Park. We didn't see anything we wanted there, so we walked down some of the side streets. We found this dog store, called Woof Gang Bakery & Grooming. Lots of cool dog treats and toys.

Toby got a new toy out of the trip.

We saw these statues near Pioneer Park.

 

After walking around for a bit, we found our energy flagging. We were surprised that our good sleep didn't give us day-long energy. We rode further south on the Pinellas Trail to Stevenson Creek where we saw this kayaker and his dog. 

At noon, we got an invitation for a cookout at a neighbor's house. We were tired, but we roused ourselves to go. We got to spend some time in someone's house, see their renovations, and meet another couple who came. We're glad we went.

Last walk of the evening.

There was a duck in our yard this morning, enjoying our newly mowed lawn. 

 

 

Today's bike route to downtown and Stevenson's Creek

Miles walked: 7.4

Miles biked: 11.37

 

Friday

As a result of sleep deprivation, we stuck close to home today. Our efforts to train Toby to sleep in his crate at night have failed. We gave it three nights, each one worse than the one before. We both decided that we couldn’t physically endure another sleepless night. We have been zombies today. After a good night’s sleep, we’ll reevaluate our options.

The point was to get Toby to sleep in his crate in our bedroom instead of in the bed so we could both get a better night’s sleep. Such good intentions; such an ironic result. Last night, John and I had to flee to the spare bedrooms on the other side of the house to get away from Toby’s crying. Toby was the only one in the master bedroom. And there was really no escape from his high pitched whining and “breathy” cries that sound like screams but with air instead of voice sounds. At one point, he escaped his crate, bringing on recriminations about who forgot to throw the bolt to latch him in. It’s really difficult to argue convincingly and coherently at 2:00 a.m. after getting only one hour of sleep.

Today, I did research (I know, too late) and learned that we were going about it all wrong and probably would not find success. But I did learn that it’s very difficult and the process can drive people crazy. The advice seemed contradictory and/or impossible to pull off, at least for someone with our skill level.

Unable to think clearly, much less exercise, I decided to paint the orange grove picture for John. Right now, it’s in the ugly phase not showing much promise. 

Nevertheless, Toby is at least feigning interest.

It’s a start.

Miles walked: 5.4

Miles biked: 0

Thursday

Let it snow!

We rode out to the island Thursday morning to see the beach restoration progress on Honeymoon Island. The piles of sand looked like snow drifts.

The new beach area is huge! Everything to the left of the clump of grass is new sand. The southern tip of the island is gone and has been piped here.

The slurry of sand and water gets dumped in the hollowed out pond. All of the above was under water before the project.

All of this sand is new.

These are the pipes that move the sand from the southern end of the island to the center beach, called Oasis.

All of this sand is new.

It’s an amazing operation.

We walked from BH #2 towards the project, then south on the beach as far as we go.

Dog beach is now considerably shorter than before the sand removal. It’s restored to the way it was before the sand drifted south. Hurricane Pass at the southern tip is now much wider. When the construction barriers have been removed and I can get closer, I’ll post photos.

Your intrepid chronicler near the southern terminus.

The beach south of the project could use some more sand as well, but at least there is a narrow strip.

This is North beach and marks the end of the project. It, too, could use more sand. It’s sort of like house painting: you paint one room and then all the others look bad and need painting.

We stopped to take a look inside at the new souvenir shop that has replaced the old Swim Assets shop. We’ll see if this business does any better. It’s not the best location. There’s nothing else around it, but it is located on the way off the island in case someone wants a souvenir of their visit. It makes more sense than buying a bathing suit on the way home.

We took Toby to Weaver Park and walked towards downtown, as far as the shade could take us.

Last night was night three—and the worst— of  getting Toby to sleep through the night in his crate. He was up at 10:30 and 2:30 for at least an hour both times crying and whining. It’s going to get better if we live through it.

Today’s bike route to Honeymoon Island 

Miles walked: 7.8

Miles biked: 12.13

Wednesday

 Toby slept in his crate all night last night. Actually, I should say he was confined to his crate all night because he had episodes of crying. Even with the crying, I slept better than I have in months. We took him to Highlander Park for a long walk in the shade to try and wear him out for tonight.

It was 84 briefly today. It was a couple of degrees cooler than that on this walk. The humidity was a reasonable 57%. Winds have been mostly light, occasionally up to 9 mph.

The water level in the Community Center pond is very low because of the lack of rain.

 

This morning's causeway walk was nice, about 75 degrees with a light breeze. The bushes and tree bark are covered in sand dust, looking like a dusting of snow.

We rode our bikes and parked at the drawbridge and then walked. On the way home, we stopped at Publix for a few items.

It looks like the clouds are being shaped by the palm trees.

After lunch, I rode my bike to the outdoor gym at Weaver Park. I've been reading on the Internet about exercises for neck pain. The ones I've been trying have really helped, as has my new pillow. It seems like there is an exercise for every kind of pain. That's the difference in being young and being old. When you're young, you seldom have pain and when you do it goes away on its own. When you're old, you have to constantly work at eliminating pain. The last few years at work were actually painful because of the concentration and stiff positions that I had to hold for hours at a time. It feels good to be undoing some of that chronic pain.

The outdoor gym is a good place to do my exercises. I don't use the machines that much. I mostly just use the shade, bench, pull-up bar, and parallel bars.

 It's good to have a designated place, free of interruptions.

We fixed breakfast for dinner: eggs, toast, and cream of rice with raisins.

First draft of orange painting.

 

Today's bike routes to the causeway and Weaver Park via Highlander and Hammock Parks

 

 

Miles walked: 8.5

Miles biked: 11.99