Phone problems

This is what we have to do to talk on our cell phone at home! There just isn't any reception inside the house. We got a better router and changed phone companies, but still no reception. We wondered if it was because of our metal roof, but similar houses nearby don't have that problem. We think our house is located in a dead zone. If we want to talk on the phone we have to go outside, either in the road or on the back dock.

Doing Disney like a local

Since we are Floridians now, the annual Disney pass is the way to go. We got ours and joined Pete and Donna for our first Disney trip of the season. Once inside we separated because Randy and I were headed to the food section, while Pete and Donna wanted to explore another area. On the way to the food area we paused to take the Spaceship Earth ride. It eased down a corridor banked with automatic figures from time; Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling made me instantly nostalgic for the real thing. And it was funny to see the start of the computer age depicted with tall banks of machines with spinning tape drives and rows of flashing lights, right out of old science fiction movies! During the end of the ride we answered a few questions on-screen, then got a quick slide show of ourselves in the future, doing cool stuff. Apparently everything is better in the future except photography!

Next it was time to do what we really came for - eat!  At the Almond Orchard we shared a serving of Cauliflower Risotto with pulled chicken, artichokes spinach, Parmesan cheese and aged balsamic dressing. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t special, either. Risotto should be creamier and they seemed a bit light on the add-ons. 

No matter, the Scottish booth was nearby, where we couldn’t make up our mind so we got 2 items: Potato Pancake with Scottish Smoked Salmon and herbed sour cream, and Scottish Lamb Stew with Neeps and Tatties. Neeps, it turns out, is a root vegetable called “Swedes”, which is a lot like a turnip. It was OK but the smoked salmon was better.

We snacked standing up, surrounded by the lovely, well maintained grounds. One area did seem to be a little less picked-up, but hopefully that is not a sign of things to come. 

In this area several characters were signing autographs for youngsters. We got a kick out of how determined Rafiki (from Lion King) was to sign his autograph, regardless of having almost no field of vision and big floppy hands!

We walked over to the Rose and Crown Pub for a Guinness, and this time we saw how they get a design in the foam. They pour a glass of beer, set it aside to settle a bit, then slowly add a little more beer, using a very small stream and moving the glass  to create the design. In the past it was Micky Mouse; today it was a clover leaf.

In the French area we watched an acrobat balance on top of 4 chairs, which balanced on top of wine bottles, which were setting on a table. Then we stepped over to the Belgium area for a mini-waffle with warm chocolate ganache and whipped cream. The waffle was light enough to soak up all the chocolate but it was a far, lonesome cry from the waffles we had in Belgium. 

The Japanese area has a couple of gorgeous statues of soldiers on horseback. 

I expected to find more historic displays inside but instead they have a room full of Kawaii memorabilia. Kawaii is the cult of cute that has overcome Japan for the last few decades. Doesn’t interest me; oh, well, at least the coy were beautiful.

Italy was set up to mimic a lot of Florence, which was lovely but we moved on to Spain before buying more treats. The Charcuterie in a Cone caught our attention there, and we were glad it did. On top were a couple of thin slices of Spanish ham. One was Jamón Jabugo , which is my absolute favorite! I haven't had this since I left Spain. Underneath was a collection of olives, salami and hard cheese with with a little vinaigrette.

At the India stand we got Indian bread served with coriander pesto, pickled garlic, and mango salsa. The pesto was a little bitter and the garlic was unremarkable, so the mango was our favorite. 

Then we went to the FastTrack ride. While waiting in line, everyone gets to design a car. Ours was fast but impractical, but when designing a fake car at Disney, practicality is not a consideration. The actual ride was fast and fun, and at the end your car design is judged against the designs of everyone in your ride buggy. Ours won!

We walked to the building with the Soarin ride, which is my new favorite ride. The car doesn’t move much, just enough to enhance the feel of the movie, but the movie screen is huge and we were so close that it felt like we were gliding over the Himalayas, Polar cap, Pyramids, Taj Mahal, the Great Wall, herds of elephants, Monument Valley, and African waterfalls. Air currents and strategically-timed puffs of scents enhance the sensation - it was lots of fun!

That was so good that we went to the nearby “Living with the Land” boat ride, hoping it would be similar. It’s not, but it was interesting. The first half of the ride was normal scenes of animatronics but the second half was about edible plants. I learned that Dragon fruit grows on succulents. 

And they raise fish here - sturgeon , catfish and Tilapia. The catfish and Tilapia sometimes go to the Disney restaurants, but these fish grow so big that they aren’t good for single servings. I learned that sorghum grows like top-heavy wheat. And they grow a big monster of a mellon called Winter Melon. Later a docent explained these taste a little like cucumbers. Here they are grown on overhead trellis and hang down; they look like the pods from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". 

For some reason they like to grow watermelons overhead, too. 

And they grow lettuces, herbs and flowers in tall hydroponic tubes. 

The fluted pumpkins were interesting. According to the docent, the very large seeds inside taste like potatoes. 

About this time we joined back up with Pete and Donna to check out The Nemo ride. It turned out to be just right for little children, but nearby was a large tank with two full grown manatees, busy feeding on full stalks of romaine lettuce. One manatee's tail was almost completely chopped off - he just had a couple of stubs. But he was swimming well and it makes it easy to understand how he came to live here. 

Around the corner were several lovely, smaller aquariums holding a variety of sea life. 

Jellyfish were kept separate, since they are such predators. And the Moray eels were comfortably entwined in their coral home. Most were yellow with big brown spots all over them, looking like sea giraffes. The large groups of coral quivered like they were in a strong wind. I know they are feeding, but it makes them look so much like plants! The big Lion Fish was beautiful, and we all liked the graceful little seahorses. 

Bright red shrimp crawled along the bottom, not bothered by the pretty chocolate-chip starfish. 

We stopped to watch Turtle Talk, then went back to Soarin with Donna because we all liked it so much. Afterwards we took her on the Living with the Land exhibit. By then it was time to go home. It's just an hour away, so we should be able to get here often!

Something to do on a hot day

Randy decided it was time to take out one of the roots from the tree behind our house. The thing snakes under our house like a big ol' anaconda. 

In order to get it out, Randy had to crawl all the way under the house. This is not his favorite thing. 

 What a monster root!

Next we re-tied the tarp over the boat. It made it through the hurricane but lost some ties. And then he took a look at the boat motor. It won't go down. Perhaps one of those big limbs bumped it.

More cleanup

This morning we tackled the remaining tree limbs. Randy cut them up and Donna and I moved the pieces onto the growing stack along our driveway. 

And it was a good thing we did it this morning, because later in the day the park's staff came by and picked it all up!

Later in the morning we went over to Donna's to check out their antenna situation. The storm had broken their existing antenna and it wasn't working anymore. Donna had bought a new antenna; the only problem was the thing needs to go up on that roof. 

With a borrowed ladder and a dose of courage, Randy got up there to see what he could do. 

Since the antenna hadn't been worked for a while, it took a bit of work to loosen it up enough to drop it down low enough to be worked on. 

But it came down and the new one went up. After a little adjustment of direction and it was good to go. So two storm-induced problems fixed today!

Cleanup starts

Have been away from a computer for awhile, so I am capturing what happens now and will work my way back as time allows.

Today we started the cleanup from Hurricane Irma. First things first, and that means breakfast. But since we didn't have any perishables in the refrigerator, we went to Walmart for a few groceries. It turns out Walmart hasn't recovered from the hurricane, either. No bread. 

No eggs. 

No cheese either, and the only milk on the shelves were a couple of gallons of skim milk. But because the shelves were so bare, we could see back into the stock room behind the shelves where there were pallets of milk waiting to be put out. Randy found a nice person who got him the milk he wanted, although they still didn't have creamer. He was able to get enough stuff to fix a good breakfast, and then we started on the yard. 

The flowering plants by the car port have been laying down for a week. We gently straightened them and tied them up, hoping they will recover.

The row of Marigold along the front of the house won't survive. I originally thought they were just bent over, but they were broken. I guess a gust of wind came along the house and tore through them. Nothing to do but pull them up.

Then it was time to tackle the big job: those tree limbs. Several big limbs fell across the back deck and on the side yard.

The amazing thing is that, although the limb hit the top of the boat dock cover and bent the frame in a couple of places, it didn't hit the boat. It completely fill the dock walkway but didn't damage the boat at all!

Nevertheless, those big limbs were a pain to clean up. We started on the side yard, cutting the limbs into manageable pieces and dragging them up to the edge of the driveway, where we hope they will be picked up. Then Randy got out the saw and cut the bigger limbs. 

After several hours our pile had expanded from the end of the driveway to along the edge. Like many people here, we are building a hedge of yard waste.

Next we trimmed some tree branches that had not fallen but looked likely to next time. Randy stood at the edge of the boat and used a pole chain saw to get at them. When they fell, they usually fell into the canal, so then we had to snag them and drag them up on shore.

Not all of them fell into the water: one dropped down hard on the dock walkway and crashed right through. Good thing this didn't fall on the boat! 

Then we started dragging submerged branches out of the canal. There is no way to tell how big a branch is when most of it's underwater, but all of these were big. And water logged. Eventually we ended up with even more yard waste than we had already cut up. So these will wait until tomorrow. Because it's still mighty hot here in Florida.

That was enough to make us hot, tired and filthy dirty. But after taking a quick shower Randy went out to the carport shed to clean the chest freezer. Over the summer our neighbor across the canal gave us fish, and what we didn't eat we froze. The bottles of ice that Randy packed on top of the food before we left kept most of it from thawing completely, but the fish smelled anyway. Randy threw away all the food that hadn't been moved to Donna's brother's freezer, defrosted the freezer, and sanitized it with bleach.

A first look after the storm

We spent the last night on the road in Dothan, Alabama, before starting the final part of the drive. Highway 75 was moving well this time. Several times we saw convoys of service trucks going south.

As we got further south we knew the hurricane had been there by the rows of broken billboards blow to shreds. 

And everywhere we saw piles of tree debris stacked up along the road.

At long last we arrived home! In spite of how much we enjoyed our friends and family and in spite of the reassurances from our friends here, we have been anxious to see for ourselves what it looks like. 

First and foremost, thank God! 

Along the front of the house there was not much damage, except all my marigolds are flopped over. Nothing else was touched. 

Along the side of the house, two of the three big Hibiscus are almost laid down. I think they can be saved.

But looking towards the back, something looked odd....we didn't have a tree there when we left. 

And we don't have a tree now; we have part of a tree. Another part was laying across the back deck.

And the biggest part was lying on the walkway between the dock and the boat.  

Amazingly the boat was untouched! The frame that holds the tarp up over our boat got dinged when the branch fell but the boat was not harmed at all. 

The water in the channel is up quite a bit. County Lake folks came by today in an airboat and sprayed something to control the weeds which were already growing out of control even before we left. 

As to the house, we lost some trim on each side of the house and along the back. 

None of this matters: it is so good to be home!