March Madness

During my last blog, Happy St Patrick's day, I forgot to mention that we went o the Barbara Mann theatre to see Tommy Emmanuelle.

He's a guitar player of renown from Australia.He was terrific. Check him out on YouTube. We actually thought we had tickets at the will call window and when we arrived we were given tickets for Harding. I told the ticket vendor that these were not ours and he insisted they were ours,so we took them. 10 rows from the stage almost dead centre. Well guess what happened? Yep! so.. we had to go to the lobby to straighten this out this situation . 

We were in their system,but we had not purchased tickets. Anyway, we buy our tickets. $40.00 each. and we got to sit almost behind the people(Harding) where we were originally. All was well and we enjoyed the evening immensely.

So here we are during the second week of the U.S. spring break and basketball.

We don't go to the beach(not Fort Myers anyway) and we don't watch basketball.

So what do we do? We fish and play golf,work out and save $1,000 by not going home in March.

Apparently if you come down on a passport, you can only stay 90 days. You have to come down on a visa to stay 6 months. Who knew? So.. we might as well stay right till May when our lease expires. 

I'm still working on that bit of information because that's the first I've heard of it, and every Canadian down here, is here on a passport. But that's the info I received from U.S. immigration.

Anyway back to golf and fishing. Shell Point is now on a new schedule and price point.

After 4pm it's $20(walking) and you can only play 9 holes(we got in eleven.....go figure). I went to the flea master flea market last week and I bought an $18 pull cart. It is now paid for because we went to Fort Myers Country club and we paid $22 and walked. Between Shell Point and Fort Myers I saved $22. I'm up four bucks. I love walking anyways. I shot an 89 yesterday. Yipppeee!!!

George Sarnelli was down here with his brother in law Mike, from Bonita Springs and we had a blast golfing together. I hope we can do at least one more round. George is only down for one month.

I have a new fishing reel too. A Shakespeare big water casting reel,brand new. I picked that up at the flea market too(along with the pull cart). I paid $20. We went to the bait shop yesterday and the exact same reel,used, was $42.00. Score!!!

On Tuesday,Ken and I went to Bowditch beach(without shrimp because the shrimp guy slept in) and Ken caught two catfish. I was skunked. But it was a beautiful day by San Carlos bay watching the ships sail away( hey that's a catchy little ditty. LOL)

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On Friday,Ken and Krista were here last night for a steak dinner. Yummy.

I'm in the middle of a legal issue(so far a friendly paper work) with our gym finance dept. They have us on contract till Oct. which of course is ludicrous as we are leaving in June( I was very specific when the gym manager signed us up) and apparently, they being ABC Financial, are not satisfied with the documentation I provided(that we are actually leaving, so the battle continues).
They want to be  assured that we are moving 25 miles from Fort Myers so there is no competition. Should I send them a map?????

But.. all is good. We pay monthly by credit card. Get it?

Sunday March 23rd was baseball day at Jet Blue Field(home of the Boston Red Sox). They played the Rays and were soundly beaten by the Rays 9- 2. Good  game.What a beautiful stadium. Not a bad seat in the house(and we had shade) easy to get to and $27 a ticket.

Guess what? Too crazy!!! We sat right  in  front of a young couple here on vacation from Caledonia, and they knew Mike Thorne(Hank and John's nephew and Laura Hughe's boyfriend) and the Silverthornes from Dunnville.

Today(march 26th) Rip and Joyce Pearce are coming to stay for a few days. We went shopping to buy fixings for the ribs and we found this. Can you believe it??? Okay, really, who needs 10?

Anyway the ribs were terrific. We had a wonderful visit with the Pearces and unfortunately they could only stay one night. They know too many people here in Florida. They left for Punta Gorda this morning at 1100 am. They did a lot of driving yesterday. From the Keys, to Miami  to Fort Myers. They were ready to party.

Today I spent over 30 minutes on the phone with Direct TV. Abridged version to follow.....(Oh by the way..we had no choice regarding a service provider. It was DirectTV or nothing. Baybreeze has a contract with DirectTV where they agreed, that DirectTV, would be the only "cat on the block"...I thought monopolies were illegal?What happened to competition?)

When we first got here, we had to pay"a one time fee of $299". This is paid back at $5 / month.
This we were never informed of.... because, if you do the math,that's a five year pay back.
So what can they do for us because we only signed a one year contract? At first it was "I'm very sorry there's nothing I can do"..Thanks Jim. May I please speak to your boss?

They can't even give me movie credits.
How many million subscribers never finish their 5 year payback(due to any variety of reasons)
Oh....wait.......I think I see it now!!!!!!!

Ok, then his boss...John comes on and he too is "very sorry, I can see your point". What's wrong with pay backs that fit there term of the contract(ie. 1 yr. equals $22/mo. a 2 yr contract dictates a $12 monthly rebate)
There is a $239 short fall. Finally, he sees his way to giving us a $50 credit toward our next bill. If he can give me $50..why not $239.We're still out $189. I took the $50 because it's a start.

To be continued. I'm going to write the head office. Next (if there is no satisfaction)local news.

From all reports, we are now visitor free for the rest of our "staycation".
We are going to explore more far afield but we are waiting until April when all the "snowbirds" and "school breakers" go home.
It will be cheaper and less crowded.

SYS

Happy St Patrick's day

Well it's been a month since my last  post.
We have been joyously busy with family and friends.
Ulla and Kevin were down for a 9 day respite from old man winter.They were with us from the 19th to the 28th of Feb. They too were blessed with great weather. We spent a day on the casino boat (after a 40 min car ride down San Carlos,to the beach because of holiday traffic)and Ulla won $239.00 playing the slots. Kevin, who is usually lucky, came out on the losing end.
Just FYI according to a local who lives on the beach, the average daily traffic is 6,000 people. During"season" it's apparently 60,000.
On Friday, we went down to Bonita beach enjoying a great ride down past Fort Myers beach. Then we spent a part of the afternoon at Doc Fords enjoying a cold beer waiting for 2pm( when we had planned to meet with Don and Cindy Mayor)(they were down visiting friends too). As it turns out, we were only 1/2 mile from our final destination.We spent a few hours with them and their hosts Rick and Arlene before we headed out for Mexican at Iguana Mia. Wow what great Margaritas. We were stuffed.
It's off to the races. Kevin and Ulla had never been to a greyhound track and we had a ball. We didn't get rich but the rum was only ONE dollar. Sorry Kevin(he wasn't impressed). We dropped off Don and Cindy and took the Fort Myers beach route home.
On Sat.we went out to light house beach and spent a few hours watching the activity on the pier enjoying the sun and surf. This was Ulla and Kevins first Sannibel Island experience.
On Sun. we went back to the causeway and tried our hand at salt water fishing. It was a little cool and breezy. No fish, but Aprille and I did score a brand new BBQ. A Louisiana couple was leaving that day and they couldn't use it at their facility.
The pool and pool table and our own BBQ's got a good work out. Kevin and I worked on a few new songs on the lanai. Nice.
Both Ulla and Kevin are going home with evidence of a "little sun".

Aprille and I went down to the beach to look for a T shirt for Ulla that was being worn by the bingo caller / bar tender on the casino boat. Picture this....ECG lines with a flat line in the centre..." for a minute there you bored me to death"  LOL. No luck though finding it. We looked in every T shirt shop.
We did enjoy a great walk along the promenade and the beach(replete with music) It was the shrimp festival and the activities were in full swing.
Adam and Annette were here for the Spring Break. Again fabulous weather and a great time was had  by all.
On Sunday(after a rest day) we all went to Miami to the world championship of golf(WCG) at Doral.Now Trump Doral. After a slight delay with construction(I hate Miami) and poor directions to our parking lot,we finally arrived a Doral. Fabulous. Up close and awesome. Boy, can these boys hit a ball. We spent six hours there. Who do run into? Jim McGreal and his wife. He is vacationing  right here in Fort Myers.

Then we had to drive home. That's 2 1/2 hours. So... we can't wait to eat. We waited 50 minutes at Longhorns( I bowed to my wife). I'm glad I did. We had dinner for two for $30.00 including appetizers( we got the fried shrimp,Adam and Annette got the desert) and the steak and portobello mushroom chicken were excellent.
I'm glad we shared appetizers and desert.. Thank goodness.A new favorite place to eat.
On Monday, Adam and I head up to Tampa to see the lightning play the Coyotes. What a treat.
We enjoyed music on the concourse, wonderful sunshine, a  great meal of pulled pork and rice and a great kinetic atmosphere.We spent an hour and a half pre-game enjoying the experience. Why can't we do this at home?
Do you know Derrick Brooks? He used to play for the Tampa Bay Buc's . A hall of famer. Adam WAS(used to be)  a fan.
Adam asked to have his picture taken with him and when he saw Adam's team Canada sweater he said"not wearing that sweater" and he RUDELY left the scene disrespecting Adam in particular, Canada by direct inference and his profession in general. Judging by the jerseys I saw, I would estimate one in four people there were Canadians. Shame on you Derrick.This is not the image you want to take to arena football.
No trouble getting other good photos.

We had great seats(at home Adam says they would be $200 bucks) 18 rows from the ice at the face off circle. The game was exciting and we got it all. Last second tying goal after pulling the goalie,and a shoot out. Tampa lost but that was good for the Leafs. I hear we're in a play off berth. Really???
There is No, and I mean No hockey down here unless you pay for the NHL ticket.

At home we have a choice. Drink Molson or don't drink beer. Okay. What's wrong with that picture? Here, what do you think of this?  World of beers!!! Okay so it was $13.95 for a Big Boy Heineken, but I had a choice.

Golf Tuesday(too bad it only turned out to be 9 holes. Last week I got in  13 before dark. This week, 9 holes only...new rule... after 4pm) and Thurs.(we changed our T time and got in the full 18) Super.
Just as an aside...9 holes walking,is $15 after 4pm. Guess who just bought a pull cart($18 dollars at the flea market)
The rest of the week was pool side,pool table,Cornhole(corn bag toss)BBQ, beer, Yahtzee, back gammon, sunshine and quick trip to see down town. Too bad it was only a week.
Oh yea. They too went home with"a little bit" of sunshine.
Okay,it's back to the frozen north. A six AM o'clock flight comes early(that's when Kevin and Ulla left too)
I find it hard to imagine a foot of snow any more.LOL