Tonight is the annual Christmas Golf Cart Parade in our park, and this is the second time Randy set up a cookie and hot chocolate refreshment stop. Last time so many golf carts paused to partake that the line got backed up. This time our neighbors let us set up their driveway, which had more room for impatient carts to scoot by. They also came out to help us distribute the goodies.

 

This time the golf cart drivers did something different - the whole line just parked the carts, then everyone got out and walked up to get their treats! It worked fine, especially when Randy added a little Peppermint Schnapps or Southern Comfort.

 

And a fine time was had by all! 

 

Christmas glow

We decided to put up some outside lights this year; it's the first time we did it here and I think it looks great!

Of course, to accomplish this we had to channel a bit from "A Christmas Story".

 

Another milestone

Today we drove up to Gainesville to see his Oncology doctor again. Since it's been almost 6 months since his transplant, she cleared him to get some of the childhood immunization shots to replace antibodies that the chemo killed off. He got five shots today and will need more in another two months. Since there were so many shots today, nurses Taylor and Ivy decided to double-team him - synchronized injections!

Florida pests

Florida, sweet Florida. Tonight I got "motion at the back door" alert. I thought it was an Amazon delivery so I quickly checked the ring camera on my phone and IT WAS A BEAR!  He (it was really big so I know it was the local male bear) had sunk his teeth into our garbage can and was effortlessly dragging away to the side yard. Randy beeped the truck horn several times to make sure it moved away, then we cautiously look outside. Randy has a dive flashlight which is very bright, and it showed the bear, crouched in the brush along the canal!

The bear had dragged the garbage can way back and completely hidden it in the brush. We watched for a few seconds and it stuck it's head up for quick look before continuing to eat.

We decided to leave him to his dinner. We will get our can back tomorrow...in broad daylight.
 

I'm not saying I'm old, but I am getting a crown replaced, getting knee treatment, and getting cataracts fixed. I'm a coward so this is tricky for me but every medical person I deal with is so kind and sweet about my phobias.

Now the cataract in my left eye has been fixed. This involved more eye drops than I could count and some good meds. They taped my eye open, which was the only way that eye was going to stay open. Every person along the process asked me to confirm which eye was being done; not sure that was necessary since they drew a purple arrow over it! Now, under that arrow, is a wide open pupil.

It will stay that way for a couple of days and it's very sensitive to light, of course. So here I am, protecting my very odd eye from perfectly normal light. So stylish....

Neighborly after the storm

Hurricane Helene passed us by but our neighbors weren't so lucky. During the night a section of their carport roof was lifted up and twisted around, to bang on their house roof. The next evening Randy and Jonathan from down the road flipped it back on to the carport roof and temporarily tacked it in place with screws.

While we were tidying up, Jonathan told me that an hour earlier he had stood in our backyard and watched several manatees in the canal, nibbling on the greenery around our dock. Next time call me!!!

Hurricane Milton comes to town

The approach of Hurricane Milton had us reviewing our plans. We like to leave the state when a hurricane comes to call but it seems less of an option right now, with Randy's health concerns. His entire medical support staff is here and while things can be transferred, it could be complicated. So we decided to ride it out in the church building again. 

This time we were counting on our generator to keep our refrigerator and freezers going; it can easily keep them cold if we rotate it between them. Unfortunately, although Randy had run the generator beforehand, it decided not to run when we needed it. So the day before the hurricane we were looking for trouble-shooting videos and taking it apart. Randy was able to disassemble it and clean enough parts that it started working again - great! Then we spent the hurricane night at the church, sleeping on couches and waking to look outside all night. In the dark there was nothing to see, especially after 3 am when the power went out. 

Next morning we headed home; most of the roads were clear but we had to take a detour around Eagle's Nest road - it was completely blocked by a huge tree across it.

We were happy to see that our place only lost a few pieces of the roof trim. Our neighbors on either side had worse experiences with the loss of an enclosed porch and a carport roof, but their actual houses are intact and they were not home so nobody was hurt.

All we had to deal with (besides helping neighbors) was the loss of power. No internet, no lights, no phone (unless we got in the car and drove into town). The generator did a great job of keeping our food safe. We got Stavros' pizza a couple of time and the leftovers got us through. In the bathroom we had the "hurricane bathroom survival pack" - 5 gallons of water for the toilet, battery-powered candle, and wet wipes.