buckle-up

There are snobs and then there are wine snobs. Fortunately, neither Margo or myself falls into either category but throwing up a photo like this to capture an important time for us both seemed to be the right thing to do. It’s a season that includes our wedding anniversary, Margo’s birthday and then my own. Enjoying a Penfolds Grange that had lost a little of its “body,” slightly watered down through the years, accompanying Margo’s cooked chicken – with the wine, there was no need for sides – a 1996 vintage bottled in 1997, mind you, and the year 1997 was the year we became engaged.  Around this time of year, we like to plan an escape from the chilly temperatures of the Florida panhandle. When we witnessed the thermometer dropping below temperatures being registered at our old address in Colorado, it was cause for considerable head-scratching. What were we thinking? Familiar as we were with Florida’s Keys, we thought these would be what we would encounter in the panhandle but no, n...

Simply stated, we are back home in Florida but only after having driven 4500 miles. A return trip to Colorado via Ohio. A mix of business – clients and yes, accountants and bookkeepers – kept us on the road at a time when weather is always a consideration. This time of year, given it is winter, it’s best to expect the unexpected. That’s exactly what happened to us midway through our journey. For those not familiar with our geography here on the Atlantic side of the country, the trip to Ohio was a straight shot north up major interstate highways whereas the second leg, our journey took us due west on another Interstate – Interstate 70. Maybe we should make this the sole theme of a future blog posting as we have now traversed its almost 2,200 miles from central Utah all the way to Maryland. After taking care of business in Colorado, it was then a simple journey back down through Kentucky and Tennessee.  Christmas and the New Year are always an exciting time for Margo and me. This i...

It’s raining! How hard can it rain? Walkways are awash and the pool is full to the brim. More than once have we resorted to stretching out the blue tube, the “blue snake” as we call it, and switching to backwash. There is a drain separating the pool area from the covered and, as best as we have seen to date, protected, lanai. Winter has descended and reminded us that we live well above the line separating tropical Southern Florida from the subtropical Florida Panhandle. Yes, it just gets colder when you drive north. We did not realize, or put much thought into, any of this when we built our house, the lanai and the pool and spa (under a “birdcage”) in the Panhandle. For comparisons sake, and for the benefit of my Australian family, the latitude of Panama City Beach is 30.22 North whereas Sydney is 33.8 South (and Brisbane, 27.47 S placing Panama City Beach and Coffs Harbor, NSW, Australia at 30.29 S equidistant from the equator. And we know how much it rains at Coffs, let alone further...

It comes as a bit of a surprise when we tell our friends about the temperatures we encounter primarily living, as we now do, along the Florida panhandle. Having decided on taking up residence in an over-55 managed facility, Latitude Margaritaville Water Sound (LMWS), paralleling the magical Emerald Coast, we are often held to ransom by cold fronts descending from wintery Canada.  To be honest, we didn’t do our research, thinking all of Florida enjoyed the same weather conditions as we have enjoyed in the past whenever we visited the Florida Keys. However, leaving our former home on Sanctuary Drive in Windsor, Colorado, we were apprehensive about how easily we would adapt to the potential of less warmer days. Just as we were initially confused over Florida spanning two time zones – yes, we live within Central Standard Time and not the Eastern Standard Time – the state is split into two geographical zones what else might we would find that would be different:  “Florida has two...

Settling into our new home we were just reminded that it was one year ago when we first walked the lot, talked to our assigned builder and watched the concrete pad being framed. It has happened all so quickly – but doesn’t every new home build seem to flash by more quickly than anticipated. Put it down to inexperience building in Florida, although through the years, we had become fans of the show, 100 days. Then again, this is our house and we inspected every inch of progress almost every day. We rented a cottage for a year after we had taken the decision to build. That was probably among the smartest things we have ever done. It allowed us to drive to the site each day, sometimes more than once. It also justified us purchasing our first golf cart just for the purpose of traversing the two and a half miles that separated our rental from our new home. There is always an air of excitement surrounding any new home build and in our case, this proved to be no exception. Once we had made t...