Slow down the clock

Okay so lets recap last Wednesdays baseball game.
Last night we went to Wendy's and had the first run burger free(we had two tickets). Okay.
I upgrade to a double cheese burger. We each had fries and I had a Coke(the Coke I get for free because I'm a senior citizen.Who knew?). The total bill was $3.16.
So, and I forgot to mention that Aprille and I both got a free baseball cap and nice cotton T shirts for participating in some bullshit marketing survey.
In total we got to see the game in box seats,two free drinks,two baseball caps,two T shirts,and two suppers for $15.16. Pictured below is Hammond Park,home of the Minnesota Twins and supper.

Today is thursday,I started the day with laps in the pool. The water is just perfect now. Then it was off to the gym for the Terminator workout.
Then at 3pm it was time for another round of golf at Eastwood,a Bruce Devlin design. after three,with a cart $25. What a nice track for a public course. The greens are tough to put and the course is well designed to get you in trouble. I think we have to lower our expectations.

Today(Sunday) it's off to Imokalee for the hot air balloon festival. (Saturday was going to be he day but it was a wash). So, as I heard on the news,the festival was 0600 hr to 1200. I left at 930 and arrived at 1030. Guess what? I was too late. The balloon rides were from 6am-8am. All that remained was some hot-dog vendors and kids rides.I was on the inbound shuttle and on the outbound. I was there for 5 min. This is as close as I got to a hot air balloon. What a waste of 2 hrs.

So the rest of the day was a lot nicer. Mini putt at Smugglers Cover. $13.00(each). Really. I can golf for real for just about the same price(with a cart).I asked for a seniors discount too. "Not here, welcome to Florida." I shot a 36 which was 2 under par. "The best I've seen for a long time" says the attendant. The lowest ever recorded was a 31(years ago). Maybe this is my calling. We both got one hole in one.

Okay, now for the best part. Ice Cream. Only $3 for a kids waffle cone and you get 2 scoops.Home made, on site. Does it get any better? I had a double flavoured black cherry and pistachio. Yummy. Aprille had the usual yogurt offering and this time she had strawberry. Just super.

Okay, it's off to the pool with a Ceasar and a vodka and cranberry tonic. TTFN.

Happy Easter

I finally found Easy st. Where was this when I was 20 something?

Sat. April 20th we went to the  Fleamasters flea Market with Bob and Janice,and I got a new(genuine leather)LOL wallet for $4.95. It should have been $8.95 but it was in the wrong spot. Oh well lucky me. I also got a new laptop computer bag for my GoPro camera and accessories for $10. Score.
We then went downtown to wander around the yacht club and area just to enjoy the scenery. Here, by the fountain(actually in the fountain) are Edison,Ford and Firestone.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at the Los Cabos cafe and that became supper. I had a wonderful Chile Renellos. A new favourite so the search is on for Pablano peppers in a can because it it just too much work to make the peppers from scratch(check it out on YouTube...or not) Aprille had her first fish taco meal.Delish!!

On Sunday we went up to Pine Island,to Bokeelia, for a picnic and a nice Sunday drive.

Just to walk out and fish from this pier is $8. Can you believe it?
Right now the preys are nesting and this is he best I could do.

Here's a Frankyism.
We were on the way to Pine Island yesterday,( Bokeelia above) to be exact. En route,Aprille lets out a wet belch. and I respond "if that was a fart it would stain.LOL

Monday the 21st  we went to Fort Myers beach with Nick Casandra and Sebastien Thauvette(he works for Charles Poliquin in Montreal) check him(them) out on the web. World renown fitness guru,strength trainer and Nick's friend. It was just the perfect beach day but busy!!!
Holy. It was the busiest I have seen the beach since we've been here. Apparently it's time for he Europeans now. Our big 6' umbrella was a hit.

Tue. 21st golf at Copperhead for $18 with a cart and range balls. Nice course.I should have bought more vouchers from Dealcaddy.

Wed night we went to the Miracles baseball game. It was $2 for the "ladies" and that includes box seat admission and two free drinks. And... a free hamburger at Wendy"s because the Miracle scored the first run. Free supper on Thurs.
Thurs. 24th. I went fishing this morning(by myself because Ken was under the weather) and one again I was skunked. But it was wonderful just to be out in the sunshine and by the water(Caloosahatchee River) which empties into the Gulf of San Carlos which in turn empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
I did see a Manatee and got another licence plate(Nevada) which now brings us down to needing only 4 more to complete the entire U.S.
No golf today. No definite plans were forthcoming yesterday so we assumed it wasn't going to happen. Tomorrow it will.
Yesterday I was at CVS and you can get(at the pharmacy) 1 1/2 litres of Woodbridge(which is good California wine) for $8.09.  Shit I'll miss that in Canada. But it will cut down on my drinking.
Okay off to the pool.

Nearly a year now?

Now Golf at Fort Myers for only$15. UNREAL.They are officially closing on Sunday to re-do the course. It's a Douglas Ross designed course built in 1931. A nice piece of history.

I'll be golfing Copperhead on Tue for $18 with a cart and free range balls. It's going to be hard to get used to Canadian prices again.

A fellow Canadian neighbour,and workout partner,Nick, has in laws at Kelly Green. Swanky! You can't buy a place in there(a small condo)for under $400,000 and single family homes are over a million.
Get this. A golf membership and monthly HOA/fees(our condo fees) are $2,000 for golf and $1,000 for the HOA..A total of $3,000.
Anyway we got to enjoy the range yesterday(Fri 18th April). Nice. We are golfing with Nick's father in law on Thurs. If he doesn't want to go to Eastwood, Nick says we can go to Kelly Green on his ticket. It's really beautiful. First class.

Most of our furniture is now spoken for. We only have our bedroom and a few items  in the living room to sell. That's a big load off our minds(and our pocket books).

I have rented a U Haul trailer for our trip back home and depending on the drop off, it will be $479 in Dunnville, or $239 to return it to Buffalo. Guess what? My MC is being delivered to Brockport(just outside Buffalo) so we can kill two birds with one stone and save $240. Sweet!!!

There are a few things I have noticed during our sojourn here in Florida that are startling. One is the number of amputees. Thank goodness we are not imperialistic. The second are the number and seniors still working. Apparently to pay for health care or simply existing because there are virtually no pension plans available to the general public. We see 70 somethings still bagging at Publix on a regular basis. Thirdly, and I know I'm being redundant,the number of bad drivers. Really bad and aggressive drivers.

Only 43 days to go Happy BD Aprille

Monday the 7th April, Aprille and I went to downtown Fort Myers,just because. It is really quaint down there. It reminds us of the Distillery district in Toronto. We wandered around just taking it all in and settled for an appetizer(cheese quesadilla) which was just wonderful and we had one drink each(one bottle of beer and a glass of white wine...go figure) at the Los Cabos Grill for only $15 including the tip. A perfect escape.

Tue. 8th.  3 of the BBBC(myself,Pete and Nick) went over the causeway to Sannibel. We were gone for a total of 3 1/2 hrs. That included a walk on the beach for about and hour.
The causeway bridge has a rise of almost 1/2 a mile, and there no trouble going out but I'm glad it wasn't longer on the way back. I made it without stopping but I had to go to low gear.

Anyway,I digress. I had resurrected my GoPro camera(that was initially going to be used on he sailing venture to Guatemala, that never happened, thank goodness for me) but the camera was defaulted to the camera setting and I missed the video. I'll get it next time. I have reset the default settings. I just ordered a new handlebar mount. The one I had "McIvered" is not what I really wanted. I now own a new  pair of cycling pants(the answer is obvious). While I was shopping for pants I also purchased a set of strobe lights for the front and rear of our bikes. I had actually been looking for these for some time now.

Sunday 13th Aprille,Krista and Sandra went to Lighthouse beach for Aprille's birthday. They had a perfect day to celebrate. After a day in the sun, they went to Keylime Cafe for lunch and dessert. Holy.. I'm glad they saved me a piece of pie. Delicious.

While the girls went to Sannibel, I rode my motor cycle to Englewood for the speed boat races. Initially, I was under the impression that they were in Punta Gorda, only 45 mins away. However, that was only the parade on Sat. the actual races were in Englewood. An hour away. Oh well it was a beautiful day.
The first parking/shuttle lot was a hay field and I was told there was plenty of parking near the event.
As I ride through Englewood I saw no signs for the races. I stopped at a lube shop and was informed the were at Placida Beach. As I near Placida Beach I see no signs of any kind. I stopped at the marina. They should know. They did. I was informed he races were at Englewood Beach. Back where I had just come from. Anyway. I do finally get there. It is packed. It looked like a NASCAR event( I'm told there were 80,000 people there). There is no parking on the street.  Valet parking at any local restaurant is $20. So I had a quick look and I left.
On the way home, it is time for lunch. I stop at the Moose Lodge. They don't serve food on Sunday. I'm told the Wing King next door is a good place to eat. They didn't open till 2pm. It is now 1:20pm.

I'm told the Spinnaker Cafe is a great place to eat. It's only 1/2 a mile away.....  It great was great.I had a wonderful Ruben with a cup of chile and 10 onion rings for $8.

Monday,14th, Happy birthday Aprille, I started a new workout routine starting with the "300"routine. That's a routine based on exercising using only your body weight with continuous exertion and a 2 minute rest period(based on the toning techniques used by the actors in the movie 300). Wow. We(Nick and is wife Casandra) only completed the beginners level which is three times through the routine and that was enough.
Later that day,we reserved Tween Waters( a resort located on Captiva) for Aprille's BD.
We had a $35 day pass that included parking and $25 toward anything at the grill. We both had grouper lunches by the pool and it was super.

On the way here, we were in a line of traffic(40 minutes thank you) because of some downed hydro wires
It was worth the wait.
After lunch we went to the beach to "chillax".

Now it's time to go home for a bottle of Cianti Ruffino, spaghetti and meatballs and a big ceasar salad.
A perfect end to a perfect day.
Tue/wed we continue with our new workout routines. Thor on Tue and Terminator on Wed.Thurs. was Wolverine and Fri we did@@@@@@
Check out the routines at neilarey.com.

The count down is on

Only 55 days to go. Wow. What happened to that year?

My motorcycle issues are solved. I booked an air ride transport this morning from Pompano beach to Brockport(1hr from Buffalo) for $376, all in, and that includes free terminal storage for up to 2 weeks. Sweet! Good old Google. This gives an excuse to visit Pompano beach. Never been there. Looks nice.

Yesterday(Sunday April 6) we went over to Sannibel to spend the afternoon on the beach. Holy was it busy.
So we went back to the causeway and this is our view. I don't know if you can see three dolphins frolicking in the bay. It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

When we did get home, we got side tracked from the pool and a little corn bag toss by our neighbours and it was transformed into trying some new libations. Oh well. Change the supper menu. Then when Krista got home from shopping, she and Melissa dropped off our Midori(that's a musk melon liqueur for our new cocktail) and guess what.Yep. It was midnight before we knew it.

Almost heaven weather wise

The weather here has been as close to perfect as I can imagine. The daily highs are in the mid 80's and the nightly temperatures are in the mid 60's with virtually no humidity. Here is the 5 day forecast. I see we will be bothered by rain on Tue. Oh well.

We have been getting snippets of the local weather at home and we see the reality on line when we pay the bills ie. the hydro bill for Feb/Mar WOW!!!

Our tax information is in the mail. Hopefully we may even get money back this year because I had no additional income from the OPP.

I had to buy a new motor cycle battery this week,but what the heck, I got 6 years out of the old battery, that's awesome. I checked with the dealer and it was $135, then I called Batteries Plus and guess what? How's $85. Not too shabby.

I'm trying to find a way to get my MC home. I had no luck with friends and trailers but I did find a freight company who will take it ( terminal to terminal ) which is okay by me as time is not an issue, for $356. Done deal. I'll pick it up in Buffalo.

People( snowbirds)are now on their way home and traffic is again becoming more manageable(at least tolerable). Our understanding is that once Easter is over it will revert to normal. Golf prices will also go down considerably too. Yea!!!!!!Fort Myers,walking, after 330 pm for example...Okay this is ridiculous...$10.50.

Last Sunday, we went to Sannibel Big Arts theatre and saw Island Jazz.perform(a group of 8 talented musicians). What a great outing. It was a band of old vacationers,obviously professionals in their early years,and they played a lot of old standards from the 40's to the 60's. Fantastic outdoor,tea garden venue.

We were going to go to the Barbara B Mann Theatre to see the Million Dollar Quartet( impersonators covering Presley,Cash,Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis) but the ticket prices were(in our opinion) prohibitive. They wanted $83/plus $9 handling fees/ticket. Just a little rich to see impersonators.

On Tue. I went on a bicycle ride for 1 1/2 hours with the BBBC(Bay Breeze Bicycle Club).
I spotted a Utah licence plate. We now only have 5 states to go and we have see all 50. However, Hawaii could be a killer. We need North and South Dakota, New Mexico and Nevada. Good luck with them too.
In what other state could this happen? Oh well, we keep ourselves amused.

The trials and tribulations with DirectTV and ABC Financial continue. DirectTV will NOT give us(lump sum) the $189 remaining on the deposit. I did manage to get $50 dollars off the next bill. Whoopee. They will not give us programming credits either. The deposit is paid back in monthly $5 increments. So...you have to be a customer for 5 years. Nice eh?. So I cancelled all our specialty movies channels and saved over $100. Now I'll work on the last $89. LOL. I'm thinking basic satellite for the last two weeks.

ABC Financial(the managing organization for our gym membership at Around the Clock) is the same too.I was very specific when we signed the contract. It had to be month to month. We were leaving in June. They are asking for unbelievable proof(which I have provided) and still they are not satisfied. Oh well. I've done my bit. Wait till they try the credit card in June.

Then there's FLP(Florida Light and Power) I phoned them to cancel our service on May 29th. They brought up the $220 deposit not me, this will be applied to our last billing cycle and the balance will be refunded within 5-7 business days. Thank you. Wasn't that easy.

Well, Aprille just packed a picnic lunch and we're off to Light House Beach on Sannibel.

Later.