Cooking the NYTimes and Other Assorted Retirement Activities

Don't get me wrong, there are a TON of things I love about Florida.  The ocean.  The weather.  The blue skies.  The seabirds and the Zone 8 foliage.  The view as you cross the Belleair Beach Causeway going toward Gulf Boulevard.  Publix's BOGOs.  Friends and family visiting to make good their escape from the cold.  So many of the people we meet daily. And then there's the Florida legislature. We're here during their legislative session and nearly every day, without exception, the Tampa Bay Times  reports on yet another piece of legislation the folks up in Tallahassee are voting to enact that send shivers down my spine.  To be fair, there are over 900 bills currently being considered and not all of them fall into that category. Two that really got my goat are: 1)  The State Senate voted 22–17 on Tuesday, mainly along party lines, to advance the bill to its final stage: the more conservative State House,  according to ...

We're in Florida until the end of April, returned to the same townhouse we rented last year.  Simply put, we love it here. That's not the subject of this post. Driving down, we listened to a couple interesting books: Educated  by Tara Westover and Bad Blood   by John Carreyrou.  (Click on the link to read Bill Gates' notes about the book.) An aside: if you have yet to discover downloading audible books from your local library, I highly recommend doing so tomorrow, if not today.  You have 3 weeks to listen and there is something quite soothing about being read to (ask any preschooler for an endorsement). We were mesermized by the story of Bad Blood --it  details the rise and fall of Theranos. If you aren’t familiar with the Theranos story, here’s the short version: (from Bill Gates's Gates Notes)  the company promised to quickly give you a complete picture of your health using only a small amount of blood. Elizabeth Holmes founded it when she wa...

We're winding down our two month stint in Belleair Beach, Florida.  During the daily beach walk(s), I've been using these last few days to reflect on our time here. I suppose the best thing I can say is that we're already signed on to return next year.  The place where we've stayed, a townhouse in a small development called Los Caracoles (the snails) that fronts the Gulf of Mexico, has been, as my sister who is a realtor down here calls a real find.   (In fact, on a walk the other afternoon, Hank discovered this snail on the property.) Next year the unit is available for 6 weeks rather than 2 months.  We'll make due.  I can sit on the patio and look out at the Gulf; listen to the waves at night, which have more than once lulled me either to sleep or back to sleep; and in about 73 steps,give or take a few, be on the beach.  We are simultaneously spoiled and blessed. The time, like the Gulf, ebbs and flows differently depending on what is g...

It's a stunningly beautiful day here in the upper Midwest.  Please don't blame the Mothers' Day temperatures in the 70's on global warming.  That would take away all hope that the chance of frost has come and is now gone until at least next September. I've been writing this blog post in my head for at least a couple weeks.  In fact, I had a couple false starts while we were still in Florida.  I think I'm finally ready to get it onto the computer screen (remember when we used to say we were ready to get it onto paper?) In Florida, we rented in a townhome complex in Indian Rocks Beach.  My youngest sister lives there, which is how we found the place.  That factored into our decision to rent there.  We've been there a couple times and had a sense of what the community was like, where stores and restaurants were located.  We both liked that it was a little more laid back Florida beach town, less touristy than other nearby places.  Plus being ...

We're getting ready for the first tick off the BIG list of retirement activities (cf prior blog entries).  Wednesday we're road tripping it down to Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, where we have rented a townhouse for the month of April.  During this time, we will have lots of guests.  Or company.  My sister refers to the family and friends coming to visit as our guests.  Which got me to thinking, because I seldom if ever refer to anyone who comes to our home as a guest.  I call them company. So is there a difference?  And if there is a difference, does it make a difference to anyone? Clearly I believe it makes a difference because I'm writing a blog post about it.  #helloCaptainObvious Being the member in good standing of POEM (Professional Organization of English Majors, from Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion), I turned to Webster's for the definition of these two words. Guest :  a person who is entertained, taken out to eat, ...