Monday, June 30, 2008

There are some pretty spots around here.....

I live near an area that has been set aside as a wetland. It's the reason we have so many bird and animal visitors. This little backwater is about a mile from my house. During the dry season, it is completely dry. Now it obviously is not. Here's hoping for lots of rain this summer. The aquaifer needs it.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Things may be moving

We have a contract on our house. There is, of course, a hangup. The buyer wants a 100% VA loan. That means that the VA will have their own inspector/valuation specialist evaluate the house. If they think the house is worth what we are asking, then he gets the loan. If they don't think the house is worth it, he doesn't. So we'll just have to see how it appraises. The problem is that there are so few comparable sales that it's tough to value it. Bottom line, more waiting.

It was pretty overcast in Florida today. Took this photo out where there is a way out to the Gulf. It is low tide so the barrier islands are more obvious than usual. Even though it isn't nice, people are out collecting shells. Have a good one.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Boring Me!

Well, I'm sitting here surfing along trying to catch up on the 2.2 million blogs I've bookmarked. It's tough but that's what some of us retirees do! So I'm checking out http://effortlesslyaverage.blogspot.com/ and he's got a test for "How Evil Are You?" Here's where to find the test: http://home.att.net/~slugbutter/evil/ Of course I had to take it! Well, here's the proof:


How evil are you?


Yep, I'm a pussy. Not evil at all. Except, of course, in the eyes of my step-children who I beat and molested at every turn. Hmmm, well, maybe not at every turn; most? LOL No, not really. Really I'm just a softy who longs for world peace and step children who don't require money after they are 30. LOL And a magic formula for losing weight without any effort. (NO laughing matter!)

Recently I figured out that I'd exercised twice this year and six times in December of last year. I was afraid to go back farther! Isn't that an awful statistic? I was appalled. When I was in the Army we learned an exercise routine called "The Daily Dozen". It wasn't considered good; just kind of minimalistic. Guess it is 20 years since I've done it. I'm working on getting back into it now that our exercise equipment is all in storage. At least I've tried 4 times in the last 8 days. Hope it does something!

Speaking of the house - we've countered an offer we received. It isn't what we wanted but we can live with it. Now we'll see if the other people can manage it. Please think good thoughts for us if you can. And regardless, be careful out there, it's dangerous!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Kitty Jail

Whoa! My first screwup!

Don't know what happened but somehow the Blogger software only kept about half of my post! First time I've had anything like that happen. Fortunately, I prepare my post offline and still have the original. Just so you don't miss out on any of my fabulous prose; here's what got deleted. Have a good one!

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Yes! Yet another pointless American holiday who's existance is a boon only to retailers. Gee, I'm looking forward to it.

Actually, it should be a pretty good day. Our daughter is coming up and will bring dinner; a dinner carefully selected so that I don't have to cook anything! Usually dinner might be something for me to grill but not today. She's always careful that on Mother's Day it is something that she and I can do and on Father's Day it is something she & her mom will do. Kind of cute, huh,

Went up to see relatives who live outside of Crystal River on Friday. My wife's aunt was having a birthday so we took them out to dinner. They are only a few years older than we so it's not like the traditional 'aunt' relationship. Had a good visit. The place they like to eat has halfway eatable food but they seem to have never heard of herbs. I had a large piece of tuna; it must have been 12-16 oz (400 g). Unfortunately, it was dry & poorly seasoned. A little sauce and it could have been magnificent. My wife & her uncle both had "prime rib". They serve huge portions, probably 3 lb (1.5 kilo) but, again, unseasoned. Still, they like the place so we keep going back. There aren't a lot of nice restaurants in their area and this one certainly gives you quantity and basically good ingredients.

Happy Father's Day!


It's summer here even if it doesn't officially start for another week. Took this photo of our weather station this morning. It tells the whole story. Not yet 07:00. Outside it is 93% humidity and 74 degrees F (say 23 C). Thanks to air conditioning it is the same temperature inside but only 39% humidity. It's hard to imagine living here without the air conditioning.

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Have a happy day and be careful out there!

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Can it really be June?

The year just seems to be flying by; can it really be June already? I guess we are doing things but wow. It is 93 degrees outside (like 34 C) so I guess our defacto summer has begun. The rain hasn't begun yet and we are needing it. Florida has had a drought for several years; we need our rain.

We've had a couple more people look at the house. Boy, I sure hope someone buys it soon! My wife is driving me crazy. She is worried that it won't sell and we'll have to stay here. She gets herself all worked up then lashes out. This morning, for example, she was wiping off the stove when she just started swearing and banged her hand down on something. When I asked what was wrong, she said she needed some water to clean the stove and had already cleaned the sink so she'd have to clean it again. I mean really, is that a reason to fly off the handle? Jeez!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all well. Every other day I hear about someone with some horrible disease or other not to mention the hundreds of thousands endangered by cyclone, flood and famine. All we can do is keep on but it's an amazingly dangerous place out there. Take care.