Family
A tour of south Florida
My younger son, Frank, is visiting me for 13 days. Yes, he is catching some sun at the resort pool, but he is also seriously looking to leave Massachusetts, where he has lived for 41 years, and relocate to south Florida. His criteria for a new home: It be warm year-round (almost all of Florida … Continue reading
Austin TX for Christmas
I just returned from 3 days in Austin TX. I wanted to spend part of the Christmas holiday with two of Jett’s remaining 3 siblings (who just happen to be two of the people I feel closest to in this world). The plan was to fly to Austin for 3 days, including Christmas Eve, then … Continue reading
Flying to Austin during Omicron
We were all hopeful that we were on the downside of COVID-19. The Delta variant was waning, more people were getting vaccinated, normal life was resuming. I was even able to spend a week on a cruise ship. Then the Omicron variant of COVID-19 erupted. Just in time for Christmas. But I had already made … Continue reading
PCL2 Day 8: Disembarkation and wrapup
Carl and I joined Bobbi and Patricia for breakfast for a final time together, followed by some goodbye hugs. Then we waited for our color (Gold-5) to be called. And waited. And waited. Seems there was a problem with the new facial recognition software in customs. We had been told by our dinner neighbor that … Continue reading
Sparky and Son, movers
I helped my son empty out his storage unit in Ocala last week and move it all to his new rented house in North Fort Myers – a 3-hour trip each way. Add in about 3 hours of loading and unloading the U-Haul truck and what you have is a very long, exhausting day. His … Continue reading
The blog about nothing
With apologies to Seinfeld – the “show about nothing.” Well, a lot of people seemed to like the nothingness of that show, so I will list a few of the “nothing” things that I have done in my first month at my home base in Ft Myers: I got Rusty professionally groomed. He no longer … Continue reading
One year gone
Yesterday was the first anniversary of Jett’s death. I knew it was going to be a difficult day so I didn’t make any plans (except for the 6-month cataract surgery checkup – all good – which happened to fall on the same day). But I wanted to keep busy and, coincidentally, the task next on … Continue reading
TS7 Hop 2 – Saco ME to Hermon ME
135 miles via US 1, I-295 (through Portland), I-95, ME 69 and US 2. Cumulative tow miles: 279. Truck miles: 141. Cumulative truck miles: 285. The extra truck miles were due to refueling. This was another (thankfully!) uneventful hop. The weather was nice and so were the roads. I arrived before 1pm and got set … Continue reading
Florida vacation – Day 5, the long trip back to MA
The final day was a long travel day. Lili and I said goodbye to Tony and departed Ocala at 11:30am. We got to Ft Myers just after 3pm. I gave Lili a 15-minute tour of downtown Ft Myers (which is about how long it takes to see downtown Ft Myers) then stopped for some fast … Continue reading
Florida vacation – Day 4, Universal Studios, Orlando FL
This was the main event of this trip – a day at Universal Studios. It went well. Very hot with an afternoon shower, but many of the attractions are indoors so the shower didn’t really affect us. First let me say that a day at Universal is not cheap. The tickets – even with the … Continue reading