icicles galore

What a surprise. I went out to the mailbox around four o’clock (the hottest part of the day) and to my surprise there were lots of icicles hanging from the leaves of the grape vine.

The icicles looked like elongated drops of water but when I felt of them, they were solid ice. I was so cold taking these pictures that it made me a believer that we could have icicles here in Orlando. Poor tourists. I am sure this cold weather is not what they expected.

All of the leaves had icicles on them. The temperature in the house is around 70 degrees but the thermostat is set on 75 degrees. The heater of the central air is barely able to hold the house temperature at 70 degrees at 5:00 in the afternoon, I worry about what will happen later on this evening. The big thing on the news is that stores are sold out of electric heaters. The temperature tonight is suppose to go down to the 20’s, but it won’t bother me because I will be asleep nice and toasty under the electric blanket. It is hard to imagine that the temperature will get back up into the 70’s in a few days.
The hot chocolate this afternoon was good, especially with the miniature marshmallows on top. With enough hot chocolate, hot coffee, and hot tea we will make it through this cold weather. Of course, a little hot chili would be nice too. Is that an oxymoron (hot chili)? Have a warm evening and dress warmly the next couple of days. Lew

sleet in Florida?

We had some sleet here in Orlando. I could see the small balls of ice on both of our vehicles. Can you see them on the roof of my truck? They are very small and not very dramatic.

Here you can see the sleet better. It was not exactly beach weather. Just pity the poor tourists who spent a lot of money to fly to Orlando for vacation and this is what they are experiencing. They probably could have stayed at home and seen sleet and ice.

The rain froze into a thin sheet of ice on the truck. You can see it here as a mottles effect in the lower left corner of the above picture. By Monday it is suppose to be much warmer here in Orlando which will make the tourists happy. I can remember going to the beach in cold weather. The water was warmer than the air and so once in the water, I didn’t want to come out into the cold air. The ocean is nice and I miss it. I use to carry a bathing suit and towel in my car and sometimes I would stop at the beach after work. In the late afternoon, most people had left the beach and the sun had heated the water nicely. I use to like to lay in the shallow tidal pools because the water was so warm from the sun. Of course it helps to listen to some Jimmy Buffet music in the CD in the car on the way to the beach. It would definitely get me into the tropical mood. But right now, even Jimmy Buffet music can’t make the rain and sleet go away. But summer will soon be here and I will be able to go to the beach listening to Jimmy Buffet on the way. Unfortunately, I am in central Florida and the beach is on the coast so it is a hefty drive. But Seaside’s pictures are tempting and I will probably say “What the heck, surf’s up”, grab my swimsuit and beach towel and head for the beach, waves, and sand. Stay warm with a nice cup of hot chocolate (and don’t forget the miniature marshmallows). Lew

shiver me timbers

Just when I thought that it couldn’t get any colder, it seemed to be colder this morning. Actually it wasn’t any colder but the frost made it seem cooler. I wrote the word “cold” on the hood of Mary’s car with my finger.

Even the water in the birdbath was frozen. And I don’t mean just a thin coating of ice. It was thick because I wrapped the ice hard with my knuckles and it didn’t break. It actually sounded quite solid.

It is very difficult to see the ice in the picture because the ice is absolutely clear. But it is there and either solid or very close to being solid. Poor birds, they will have to wait for the sun to warm everything up to melt the ice so that they can get a drink of water.

I lightened the picture and if you look real hard you can see the surface of the ice. But it is so clear that it really doesn’t look frozen. I don’t want to complain about the cold weather too much because this is what I had looked forward to during the hot steamy days of August. Besides, we don’t want to scare the tourists away. And at least we don’t have several feet of snow piled up on the ground like those poor folks in Long Island and Utah.

And of course, don’t forget the poor gardenia bush. It always suffers from the winter cold each year. Some of the leaves have already turned black and I am sure that there will be plenty more to follow. But no matter how bad it gets, it always “kicks back” in the spring and send out shoots of new leaves. It as perennial as the .............. (I don’t remember the rest of the saying. Does anyone know the ending?)

"Shiver me timbers." Pirate talk, at least that is what the pirates always use to say in the movies. By the way, I always liked the actor Robert Newton in his portrayal of Long John Silver in the television series of the same name. Whenever I think of pirates, the image of Robert Newton comes to mind dressed up in all of his pirate clothes. Stay warm and enjoy a fun day indoors. Lew

a bad day

This blog is a departure from my usual style of blogs. Let me know if you like it or prefer the old style.


If you should ever happen to have the misfortune to see this falling from the sky, you are going to have a bad day. This is a picture of a Mark 17/24 thermonuclear hydrogen device. It’s explosive force was around 15 mega-tons of TNT which is 1000 timew as powerful as that dropped on Hiroshima. The purpose of the parachute is to slow the descent to give the plane a chance to get away before the explosion. Fortunately the cold war has long since passed and no nuclear conflicts occurred. I am confident that civilization would have been thrown back into the stone age and the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome style of civilization would have become a reality. For one, I like my electricity, going shopping at the mall, and all of the other perks of our modern way of life. I happened to see an old newsreel clip of president Kennedy giving a news conference during the height of the Cuban missile crisis. He said that any attack on the western hemisphere would be considered an attack on the United States resulting in a full retaliatory strike against Russia. I wonder if by “a full retaliatory strike” meant emptying our missile silos? That would have definitely resulted in a nuclear holocaust. I was attending the University of Miami at the time of the Cuban missile crisis and the college campus seemed abandoned as parents around the country recalled their children home. Of course, since I lived in Miami at the time, there was no place for me to go but Miami. But then, why would anyone launch a missile onto a tourist spot with nothing but palm trees and sandy beaches. So I felt relatively safe. I was in the air force reserve officers training corps at the time and got to see the air force base south of Miami which was loaded with planes and armaments. I think that president Kennedy meant business, but thankfully we never found out.

Pardon the pun, but have a “bang-up” day. And try to stay warm with a nice warm cup of Boscoe chocolate drink. (As a child I hated the taste of that stuff and refuse to even try it as an adult.) Behave and be good because Christmas is coming once again in 350 days. (Credit card bills in 350 + 30 days.) Lew

think tropical, think hot

Tammy the cat has found a solution to the cold weather. Instead of going outside into the icy cold weather, she prefers to sit on a window ledge in a nice warm house and look out at the freezingly cold air. I guess that she is what you would call a domesticus felinis because she definitely likes the domesticated life with all of its good food, warm environs, and numerous other amenities that she gets that the wild feral cats outside don’t get.

It is so cold that Mary and I are staying in the house most of the time, venturing out only for shopping or the library. It doesn’t make sense to try working around the yard and end up getting a cold and feeling miserable. The electric blanket on the bed sure does help a lot with the cold nights. But where can I get some Ovaltine or Boscoe to mix in a nice warm cup of milk? LOL. Actually, I didn’t care for either one as a child. What is good is the Carnation chocolate malted milk powder mix. Spoon that into a cup of hot milk and you have really got yourself a treat, but oh my, the calories.

We have a water softener and I have been keeping track of how often I put salt in. I thought that it was around once every three weeks. But to my surprise, it is actually a 40 pound bag of salt once every two weeks. We are on well water which has iron in it and so we really do need to soften the water.

So try being a little hedonistic and turn that thermostat up to a nice comfortable setting and enjoy life. As they say “life is too short to drink cheap wine” or to be cold. Lew

shortcake

Today was a rainy and drizzly day. However, we did get to take down the Christmas lights running along the eave of the house and the bushes. For dessert after supper Mary made a cherry shortcake using cherry pie filling. With the whip cream on top, it was decadent (very good).

Tomorrow Mary and I are going to a large flea market just south of Mt. Dora. Did you know that Mt. Dora was used as a model for the sci-fi novel Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank who lived nearby in Tangerine. We do have colorful names for towns and cities in Florida. Since the rain has passed through, the weather has turned a lot cooler. I will be turning on the electric blanket tonight to make the bed nice and toasty and warm. I wish that they had electric blankets when I was a child but they didn’t exist back then. The best that my mother could do was to put flannel sheets on the bed which helped a lot. But today, with the magic of the electric blanket, I can wrap myself in warmth. Is there anyone who doesn’t have an electric blanket? I think not. Have a warm and toasty evening and during the day tomorrow. For those living in Long Island, Delaware, and Utah, what can I tell you about the cold weather except move to Florida where 68 degrees is considered chilly. Seaside’s blog Turkey Talk has some really good pictures of what Florida is like. Especially living near the seashore. There is always something which is so relaxing about watching the oceans waves break on the shore. I always like the sounds of the pounding surf.

Turn up the thermostat and stay warm with a cup of hot chocolate. Lew

A New Day and A New Year

Happy New Year to one and all. Hopefully this new year of 2010 will be even better than 2009. With the economy starting to turn around, maybe things will start to get back to normal. The strange thing is that with such a bad economy, they are still building brand new big luxury homes here in Orlando.

The picture above is a jigsaw puzzle that I recently did. Because I had really struggled with it Mary put it into a picture frame for me. This way if I want to look at the picture puzzle, I won’t have to reassemble it. I used a special glue from the arts and craft store to lock the pieces together befor putting it into the frame. The puzzle was mounted onto a piece of blue poster board to give a pretty background for the puzzle to rest on. Mary mounted the puzzle for me because she has a much better artistic eye than I.



The puzzle was a struggle because the pieces were small and very thin. Plus they all had a similar shape. I got the puzzle because it was a picture of postage stamps which I like.

The fireworks in the neighborhood started early on New Year’s eve. They began around 7:00 pm and building to a crescendo at midnight. I stepped outside once and the smoke and smell of gunpowder hung like a pall in the air. I thought to myself that this is what it must have smelled like when cannons were used in warfare.

But now the struggle begins to write 2010 onto checks instead of 2009. It takes me a while to get in the habit of writing the new date and just about when I am finally comfortable with it, along comes a new year and the struggle starts anew.

Have a great day and an even greater year to come. I wonder what awaits us all in this coming new year. Lew