It is almost time to head home

Our winter vacation time here in Florida is nearing its end.  When this happens we always get a little bit antsy to head home and this time it’s no different.

 

People are out on a Sunday afternoon excursion

Last week we had lots of sunshine and hot temperatures here in central Florida that had our Air-conditioning unit on the roof working overtime, but then that is what we came down here for. Outside in the shade it felt wonderful to enjoy the summertime like temps and I quite liked sitting there in my chair.

 

Even with great daytime weather quite often we wake up to lots of dew on the grass, the travel trailer and the truck. Combine that with the dust and pollen flying around and you have some smudge on everything incl. the rig. Luckily the occasional rain helps to wash that off, but a good truck wash is needed every so often. 

 

Our local carwash, the “Caliber Car Wash” had a special on last month that we took advantage of. For $10 they offered unlimited carwashes for a month with complimentary vacuum stations, wipe cloths, floor mat cleaning and complimentary air fresheners.  I figured those were the best spent ten bucks for the month. And their location can’t be beat as it is located across Walmart and the Aldi store at the Silver Springs location in Ocala East so while I would go shopping, Benno could meanwhile drive through the carwash. Wish we had that back home!

 

In addition to its free wifi, this RV Park offers free hookup to the “Dish” Satellite TV to which we are connected. Over the past months I have been enjoying watching some channels that we do not have on our HD TV Antenna back at our house, like Pete Nelson’s “Treehouse Masters” on “Animal Planet” and I’m not sure Amazon Prime offers them ether. I shall miss those shows as I got a bit hooked on them. Oh well, back to reality I guess.

 

Previously I said we are passing by horse farms on the way to the shopping centers, but also there are lots of different looking donkeys behind the fences.  I really am a dog and horse person but fond of the donkeys too. I suppose if we had a farm or enough land I wouldn’t mind owning a couple of those sweet donkeys.

 

While I am writing this post we are experiencing a little rain with an overcast sky. I think we’ll pull out tomorrow ;-(

 

Thanks for stopping by again!

 

Today didn’t go as planned but turned out ok!

Todays occasion to celebrate was another happy birthday, but turning a year older is not a so much of a nice thought. Oh well, we have to see it differently and thinking we’re getting younger every day, so there is nothing to whine about unless you are at an age like our grandkids where every birthday is greatly anticipated.

 

Benno surprised me with a bunch of beautiful smelling red roses this morning after his run of getting our propane bottle refilled, and of course realization set in that we had no vase to put them in. I thought no problem and after my shower I took the truck to the Dollar Tree store across the highway to see if they had a vase for me to purchase. They didn’t. However, just a little further down the road there is a Dollar General store where I headed next. Luckily they did have several vases for sale and I quickly found one that would do the job. Back out to the parked truck I could not get it started. What?

 

After several tries with nothing happening at the dashboard I knew this was trouble. What to do? I went back into the store and asked if I could use their phone to call home. Just then I spotted Richard at the cashier who had just finished paying for his purchases there. Richard is a contractor from Texas renovating the TSC store that is next to the Dollar General and he is staying at our RV Park with his travel and utility trailer while doing this job. Richard thought the problem might be the battery connection, but it looked ok. He gave me a ride home and picked up Benno to take him back to our truck with an offer to give us a boost from his truck.

 

It turned out our truck battery was toast. It was still the original battery and had lasted all these eight-years until today and decided to give out right on my birthday when I was driving the truck. A while later Benno returned with our truck and a new battery that he had purchased at the O’Reilly Auto Parts store that is right next door to the Dollar General and TSC store. Boy, how lucky was that?

 

In the afternoon, after consuming each a healthy piece of the traditional birthday cake that we had purchased at the Publix store, we noticed that there was a thunderstorm and rain heading our way that would jeopardize the planned birthday BBQ dinner this evening. Darn, this weather was not in the forecast yesterday and this morning it displayed to arrive for much later in the day. Can the meteorologists not get this right?

 

In the end, after contemplating what our choices were, we decided to eat a bit earlier than planned. Benno quickly rigged up the small portable Weber grill and did the steaks and I only steamed some asparagus to accompany the meal, as we were obviously not overly hungry after all that chocolate. Just in time everything got packed away before the first thunder and heavy rain came down.

 

After all it was a good day and I am grateful for it. Thanks for dropping by again.

  

Too much time sitting around

Judging from my absence of blog postings last month you could say I sat that one out. Yes, I have been lazy I have to admit, soaking up energy for things to come. There was really nothing worth writing about although if you have me going on about world happenings I would have lots to say and please don’t start talking about the gasoline price these day’s. Look at the pictures below. 

 

What a difference in gas prices from our trip of Jan. 2015 compared to now

With the ups and downs in the weather here in Florida we adjusted accordingly. Some days it was just too darn hot (35 C/95 F) outside to sit under the awning, which is black and intensifies the heat even more, or it was too windy, or it rained. However, there were some beautiful days in-between where I was totally content to sit next to our travel trailer reading a book or just being busy with my iPad while enjoying the sunshine. 

 

The dogs got their regular exercise around the park, but the playtime on the huge grassy areas here in our park we had to skip because the fleas are now out in masses and they especially bother “Reggy”. 

 

When we do our grocery runs I always admire the many horses and ponies we see left and right from the car. They are so beautiful to look at but they are very uninterested in me when approached from the fence. I guess I have to bring a gift in the form of an apple to make some friends here.

 

Did you know that Ocala/Marion County was officially named the “Horse Capital of the World” in 2007 and is home to the largest number of horses and ponies, more than any other county in the United States? We are reminded of it by the signs placed throughout the town.

 

I don’t know about you, but I find switching to “DST” summer daylight saving time in the spring very difficult to get used to but I do enjoy the extra hour of daylight in the afternoon. I’m glad we are retired and don’t have any commitments in the morning so I can ease into the time change. Here is a little personal tale about it.

 

When we first arrived from Germany to Canada in October 1972 (yep, 50 years ago) Benno and I didn’t know about DST, or that Canada used it. A few days after our arrival we were invited at a friend’s house for an afternoon tea the day of the time change and embarrassingly, we showed up an hour ahead of time to our grinning hostess who had anticipated that. (5 years later Germany also started using DST)

 

Here is a bit of history about DST: Apparently it was invented in Germany in April of 1916 at the height of World War I, but discontinued by 1919 and reinitiated in 1977.

The info on a website I found about the DST origin are quite interesting:

On April 13, 1916, at the height of World War I, clocks in the German Empire were set forward by one hour to start the world's first countrywide DST period.

Although the small town of Port Arthur in Ontario, Canada had experimented with seasonal clock changes as early as 1908, it was Germany's implementation that sparked a trend that soon spread across Europe. Within weeks, several countries had started using DST—among them the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Russia, and even Australia. The first DST clock change in the United States was in 1918.

However, the initial enthusiasm was short-lived in most countries. Germany stopped using DST in 1919 and Austria in 1921, while the United Kingdom, Ireland, and cities like Paris in France continued to set their clocks back and forth.

 

During the Second World War, the practice of changing clocks again spread from Germany to many European countries. In fact, Hitler’s commanders imposed the measure on many of the countries they occupied—such as Denmark and Poland.

In the Netherlands, the Germans advanced local time by 1 hour and 40 minutes, effectively changing its time zone from “Dutch Time,” which was an approximation of solar time in Amsterdam, to Central European Summer Time (CEST). The Netherlands remained on year-round DST until 1942. From 1942 to 1945, Dutch clocks followed Germany's schedule of DST switches. After the country's liberation, DST was abolished, and there were no clock changes until 1977.

The French initially resisted DST, but by 1941, the country was officially changing its clocks. Some French patriots, however, stuck to the old French time, two hours behind the Berlin-based DST.

So now you know the DST story, although it is still a bit annoying for me. As an example, the DST in Europe is not starting until the 27^thof this Month, which confuses even more.

 

There will be more empty spaces soon

Our campground is slowly clearing out now and many empty spaces appear again every week as people are migrating north or heading home. We have not set a date yet and hope to be spending a few more nice days here in tranquility. 

A little bribe for me to sit down to write the blog

Thanks for not giving up on me, I will try to do better ;-)