Reflections of My Life
We are down to one month (a short one, at that) left here in
Florida, and I find myself reflecting on all the things we’ve done, plan on
doing, and haven’t quite been able to do.
One of the things we had hoped to do on a monthly basis was
take a trip to the beach for a few hours, just to breathe in the salt air, and
maybe dig my tootsies in the sand. We’ve
only done it twice….sort of. The first
time, in mid January, was a side trip to
Indian Rocks Beach (near Clearwater), when we had headed west to visit the
Tampa RV show. After a nice morning of
visiting various vendors (no, not RV!), and being able to find a very small
wallet that I can put in my pants pocket for the days we visit the parks, we
did pop over to the DRV area and chatted with a fellow JX450 owner. From there, we drove a bit more to find a
beach. However, the weather did not
cooperate, and it began to deteriorate rapidly.
We went from sunny to totally socked in, temps plummeted about 15
degrees, wind was whipping up like crazy, and my hope of getting my toes in the
sand were dashed. We did find a nice
little restaurant, where I was able to get my hands on delicious seafood
chowder to warm up.
The other visit was a couple weeks ago, to North Beach in
Clearwater. It was a gorgeous, warm,
sunny day. We ate lunch at a beachside
restaurant, where I was once again able to order chowder – shrimp and crab this time – that we
decided was, hands down, the BEST we’ve ever had. After lunch, we parked ourselves on the beach
in our chairs (no bathing suits, just there for the sun and sand, not the surf)
for about 90 minutes. Toes were squished
around in the sand, and sinuses were quite happy to be purged, if only for a
while, of the ridiculously heaving pollen that is floating all around in this
80+degree weather.
We have one more trip planned for Clearwater, but no beach
time. For anyone not familiar with the
Grapefruit League, the Phillies play preseason in Clearwater, and Tim has been
hoping to get to a game. We’re going to
make it a two-fer, meeting up with my cousin Pat and her hubby John (my Boggs
cousin that we discovered 5 years ago).
They’ll be staying south of Clearwater for a bit, and it’s the perfect
opportunity to get together. Plus, being
Phillies fans themselves, it’s a win-win-win for everyone!
Something we have been doing on a very frequent basis is
taking advantage of our Resident Annual Passes at Disney. We’ve seen and done so much, but there is so
much more to do, not necessarily in the parks themselves. We plan on getting over there as much as we
can in the time we have left, especially once Tim’s work obligation at
Universal is done the first week of March.
They’ve got him scheduled fairly heavily (slightly busy time right now,
what with the winter vacationers from the Snow Belt here), so we can’t do as
much as we’d like in the next 10 days.
I’ve started sewing a little more often once again, now that
Tim is working more and we aren’t in each other’s way in the garage/man
cave/sewing corner. I’m hoping to have a
little inventory of things to sell at a yard sale that (I hope) is going to
take place at the rally we’re going to in Oklahoma early April. No pressure to get things done, but I would
at least like to have some wares to peddle should the yard sale make the cut of
activities approved by the attendees.
Our time here has been somewhat checkered with ill health,
starting with Tim’s cold before Christmas, both of our bouts with the flu, a
cold I managed to catch toward the end of January, and then the allergies that
hit just as the cold was slacking off.
And then there are the dental issues.
I had yet another cracked molar which was going to need a crown, and
then a few weeks after the crown was put in, I developed an abscess near the
last crown I had down in 2017. I am now
awaiting a lovely session with the dentist again so he can perform root
canal. Sigh……….the fortunate thing is
that the dentist (referral to the practice from our friends, Donna and Joe) is
awesome, totally understands my dental phobia, and is calm, reassuring, and
gives excellent sedatives pre-surgery!
One other thing…….Tim is having some dental issues as well, and will
either be having a tooth dug out and refilled, or if that’s not possible, he’s
having it pulled. I guess the plus here
is that we’re getting this all out of the way before we hit the road.
I’ve also been seeing a chiropractor locally. It had been since the end of June since my
last adjustment, and the neck issues that still linger from our accident in
1988 were starting to flare up again. I
also managed to have some sort of spasm in my back that was not improving, so I
took a chance on a Yelp review and found myself a fabulous doctor. I just hope the adjustments can tide me over
until we return in the fall! (Have I
mentioned that getting old is not for the weak?!)
We have a special dinner planned for our anniversary –
eating in France (Epcot, that is!). We’ve
never eaten at the restaurant there, only the patisserie. We’ve eaten in Canada, England, Germany,
Norway, and Mexico (we’ll be eating in Mexico again on the 14th when
niece Sarah and her boyfriend will be visiting Disney from North Dakota – it will
be good to see some family again!). Not
big on Japanese or Moroccan food, and Tim’s taste for Chinese food is limited
to sweet and sour chicken, crab Rangoon, egg rolls, fried rice, and a pu pu
platter. So, France it is, and we’re
looking forward to celebrating something, since Christmas was a dud (flu) and
he worked on Valentine’s Day.
Tim is still working on firming up our travel itinerary for
April and May, but we need to plan out the things we want to do while we’re
traveling. Not sure yet what’s near
where we’ll be in most places, but two biggies to cross off the bucket list are
The Badlands and Mount Rushmore. Other
than that, I’m waiting on Tim to give me some suggestions. As with most things, my bucket list isn’t so
much an actual list, but more whatever pops into my head. In other words, another day in my life with
ADD! I really should write things down
so he knows what I’m interested in……….yea, I’m gonna do that tomorrow! (HAHAHA!)
We’re also trying to give some more thought to our fall
travel itinerary (probably not going to be too ambitious, and just stay east of
the Mississippi, or maybe east of the Appalachians). We’ll be coming back to Davenport next
winter, and then we want to think about where we’ll head from there. Maybe the winter after next in the
Southwest? We also are pondering the
possibility of spending the summer of 2019 or 2020 in Yellowstone. So much to consider, and we have plenty of
time to research that.
I’ll leave you with a little ditty that I heard recently
that took me back to the 60s……….a very sobering ballad that I dearly loved but
forgot about since it never made the cut on oldies’ stations. As the days, weeks, months, and years pass by
ever-so-quickly, I find myself looking back at life quite a bit. This song just
tugged at my heart in a way that it couldn’t when I was but a sweet, innocent
teenager. Enjoy!
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