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.

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)

.

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