Can I Get a Do-Over?

Grand kids, son Matt, and son Sam's friend Susan all left Sunday.  What a week full of activity, adventure, and commotion.  Beach, swimming, snorkeling, fishing, kayaking, shelling, boating, eating, drinking, laughing, and as the King of Siam said - etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

We started on Sanibel Island.  I have written about this place before.  I have been going there for over 40 years beginning with a trip there with my parents and first husband.  My sister who was in her early teens, our cousin, Doug, and I accompanied my parents.   The six of us drove to Naples packed in my parents sedan for a one week stay on Vanderbilt Beach.  That meant the trip was really about 5 days of vacation and four driving!  We fell in love with Sanibel.  Beaches strewn with shells, warm shallow water and a low key vibe reminding me of Island life.  I rented there for years, and now have a time share so we have our little getaway in place.  The highlight this year was the Houdini escape of Iggy the Iguana.  Harry transported the bright green little fellow from our motel grounds for the kids in a large drywall bucket (much to my protestations and of course, their delight).  After a couple of days, Matt decided to clean the bucket and provide fresh edible plants.  In the move to the new environment, Iggy leaped from the bucket and made a beeline to probably the only opening in the large screened in porch.  It was like the Shawshank Redemption with an escape that seemed planned for years.  With kids screaming, Matt ran out side to grab him but Iggy took a two story leap to the bushes below and was gone.  Oh, my, the tears!  Matt may never live the guilt down.  Was this an unconscious wish fulfilled?  We will never know.  I have a feeling Matt will receive an overnight box in the mail soon with a surprise inside for the kids from Grandpa (who, by the way, is tons of fun if you are 5 and 8). 

Another highlight was the Perseid meteor showers.  We made three nightly treks to the beach with drinks in hand and on the third night, were rewarded.  I only saw one incredible meteor because I left early being exhausted and absolutely covered in sand.  Have you tried laying on a blanket on sand quietly with an 8 year old boy?  About as easy as kayaking with him and going the wrong direction with other kayakers offering their unwanted advice on how to paddle.  Duh!  Do they think I really wanted to get hit in the head by low hanging Mangrove branches for fun?

We returned to Key Largo where living isn't too shabby either.  We took the prerequisite boating, off shore fishing and snorkeling trips, but for me the best day was taking the flats skiff (it can go in shallow "skinny" water) across Florida Bay to Cape Sable.  Isolated, primitive and at the edge of Everglades National Park.  Strewn with shells also and I gathered Angel wings and even a fishing visor that had washed up - score!  We fished and if you want to see nature in the raw, this is the place.  Dolphins, tarpon, birds, and life leaping and crashing about in such a pristine and primitive environment.  Amazing.  It was a great end to a day that started badly with tempers rising.  The boat trailer lights wouldn't work.  We forgot the kids life jackets.  But once we were launched and hit the nearby World Wide Sportsman store (you can boat up to it!) we were flying at 35 MPH across the open water, and around little islands, with a sky so large and blue it made all bad moods melt away.

The day after everyone left, and in post vacation recovery mode and nursing a bit of a cold which was a parting gift from my darling grandson Jack, I plopped on the sofa after work and dinner yesterday thinking I might, perhaps, possibly, hopefully find something stimulating to watch on television.

Scrolling through the TV guide on the remote it jumped out at me.  Seriously?  The title was "The Man with the 132 Pound Scrotum."  Right there in prime time.  Holy cow.   Take me back in time please.  I want to re-do vacation. 

 I found Jack asleep with his head lamp on.  Another gift from Grandpa.
Why do grown-ups lose their sense of fun?  When did you last go to sleep
with your head lamp on??

Small World Part II

Last June I wrote about becoming friends, through golf, with a woman and that we learned, after a dinner with lots of yakking and wine, that our parents both grew up in Bessemer, PA around the same time.  Recently, she found some yearbooks that belonged to her uncle and brought them to me.  I was able to find my Dad, aunts and an uncle in the yearbooks.  My Dad did not finish high school there because his family moved to North Lima, Ohio but I found his tenth grade class photo.  What was really fun to learn, was that one aunt was Valedictorian, my Dad was his class President and all siblings had scored as top three students in "mental ability exams."  No surprises.  We knew they were all wicked smart.  As a side note, my friend and I now teasingly call each other "cousin".  Her mom was best friends with one of my Dad's cousins.  I have to dig out the family tree.  And what is really funny, is that we are both as identically ditsy as they come.

Our Uncle Gerald, at the bottom, was faculty.  Three other siblings, my Aunt Betty, Uncle Lester and Uncle Clifford were not in these volumes.

Simple Pleasures

After hearing about the Boston Marathon bombing, and subsequently learning that an 8 year old boy was killed while waiting for his father to cross the finish line, I had to fight the sensation that I get when I am sinking into despair and sadness.  My own grandson, Jack, is 8 and I had just seen him that afternoon via Facetime out in his garage on a warm spring day, inflating his yard inflatables (yes, he is obsessed with them and has been for years) because he was supposed to be organizing and putting them away.  He had on a yellow short sleeve t-shirt and would stop his activity of blowing up a 10 foot high Brutus Buckeye, the mascot of The Ohio State University, only briefly enough for me to see the "shiner" he accidentally got when his eye collided with his friend while goofing around on the bus on the way home from school.  Those are the memories I want in my head.  Not the thoughts of a family dealing with unbearable grief over the loss of a child because of the act of some horrifically confused and disturbed individual.

I remembered that earlier in the day before I had heard of this most recent senseless tragedy,  I had taken a photo while golfing, of a little wild flower that was growing all alone near where my ball had unfortunately gone into a water hazard.  My golf game often suffers because of my lack of focus and my need to be constantly seeing what bird, or tree, or cloud formation is nearby.  This little beauty was new to me and  I was struck by the absolute perfection.  The contrast of the pale pink with the orange outlined yellow and the swirl stamen just thrilled me.  I thought of the Chinese philosophy of Yin and Yang.  The opposites that are in nature and in humans.  The good and the bad.  And I was grateful, once again, for the beauty that surrounds me, friends and family that nourish my heart and for nature for soothing my soul.

Air Plants

This is a Tillandsia cyanea - Pink Quill Bromeliaceae.  AKA an air plant.    Most of the year it is thin green leaves.  Period.  Then, it sends out this insanely fluorescent pink "thing".  Not really a flower, because after you have viewed in awe the gorgeous pink "thing", suddenly when you are ambling around the yard you notice it has produced an insanely fluorescent purple flower, also.   Many surprises come with tropical plants.  It seems the hotter the climate the more insane the foliage.  Maybe it is Mother Nature's gift to balance the critters, snakes and other bizarre critters that also share the climate.  Alligators.  Sharks.  Poisonous Lion Fish.  Fire Coral.  Crocodiles.  Rat Snakes.  Scorpions.  Poisous Bufo Frogs.  Etc. 

Keys Kreep

I often write about the Sea Dell and have heard many times that I should write a book about the events that occur with a motel.  In general, the Florida Keys attract all manner of good, bad and ugly.  There is an attitude here that is very positive about acceptance and allowing individuality which I like very much.  I have met many interesting and bright people who seem to follow their dreams and interests.  And those interests generally involve a love of nature and the beauty that lies over and under the water.  And most of our guests, from all around the world, are wonderful and lovely people.

However, on the down side, the Keys do attract an inordinate amount of people who seem to be escaping the responsibilities of life.  Perhaps because it is the furthest south you can go in the Continental U.S., it is almost like as escape route from reality.  Or, because of the accepting manner and party atmosphere, there seem to be a higher than normal number of "deadbeats" - those people who do not seem to want to comply with the norms and rules of society.

Recently we ran across a real con man.  He came into our lives as a renter for one of my son's properties.  Upon meeting him, I was very impressed by his clean cut looks, and articulate manner.  He had a very plausible story about why he and his wife and two children needed a place on such short notice and he agreed to do work on the rental in exchange for the first months rent.  The agreement seemed perfect, because neglect of the property due to my son's absentee landlord status meant either we hired someone or this nice gentleman would do the work.  I was so "conned" that we never considered doing any sort of background search.  Lesson learned - it is imperative before you rent!

After the first month, Harry went to visit the property to see what had been done.  Most of the promised work was incomplete and the tenant had a multitude of excuses.  However, what Harry also discovered was that the tenant had 6 dogs and birds - all not mentioned on the rental contract.  In  fact, Matt had been repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to get that missing page of the contract from the tenant.  Now we knew why.  When Harry returned to place a license sticker on the mobile home, he spoke with the wife about the pets.  Later that day, Matt received an email from the tenant and the story had been distorted to Harry screaming at the wife and the neighbors were witnesses to his abuse.   A few days later when the rent was 5 days late with every conceivable excuse other than the birds ate the rent, Harry decided to hire an attorney to do the eviction because his gut told him this tenant was going to be trouble.  And boy, was he right. 

In early March, when the eviction notice was scheduled to be posted, Harry drove by the property to see if the tenant was still at the property.  In fact, the tenant was outside with a moving truck.  Harry drove past, turned around and went home.  Later that day a police officer showed up at our door.  My mean 68 year old husband had, according to the tenant and his witness wife, punched the 35 year old tenant in the jaw and the tenant had called 911.  Harry had to show the police offer his knuckles!  The next day, the situation got uglier when the same Sheriff showed up with a restraining order, claiming Harry had not only punched the tenant, but was stalking his wife and kids, and had last month driven by and tried to hit the tenant with our car.  The County Prosecutor threw out the punching allegation (neighbors who were outside at the time corroborated that they had not seen or heard any disturbance) but the restraining order has to be addressed.  As I am a witness to counter some of the lies, I am happily attending the hearing.  Of course, the tenant will not appear so it will be thrown out. 

In the meantime, the tenant was evicted and when we went to check out the property, found that they had literally trashed the place.  We had to pay someone to haul two large truckloads of animal feces and urine stained furniture, mattresses and belongings out to the transfer station.  And, found moldings, walls, floors, doors, etc. deliberately damaged.  A baseball bat was lying in the living room and all flooring had been pounded and broken.  It was so filthy and disturbing that our lawyer contacted children's services to check on the well being of the two children in this couple's care.  Because, after the fact, we learned that the tenant had been evicted from their previous rental and that property manager said that this renter was the worse they had encountered ever, and felt the man was possibly abusive to his wife and children.  And, that he had also trashed their rental to the tune of $10,000 worth of damages.

So, we will file for damages for Matt, which of course he will never see.  And, we will help Matt get the rental back in shape.  In fact, we have a lovely little Cuban man who has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years and refuses to speak English who is doing a wonderful job of restoration and lets us practice our Spanish.  And, of course, most importantly, we will be much more careful in renting and despite many, many positive experiences, learn that we need to know the background.  We should know better by now, as we have been burned quite often down here in the Keys.  But, who wants to look at each potential renter as a "deadbeat"?  Maybe me, from now on.

Orchid Ramble 2013

I finally got my nerve up and impulsively agreed to offer our yard as part of the Upper Keys Orchid, Bromeliad and Fern Society's annual garden ramble.  After I said yes, and the flier and directions were sent out, I sort of panicked.  We were going to be gone the weekend before and what seemed like an easy offer began to produce anxiety.  I mean, garden performance anxiety.  What if my yard was the worst and people secretly wondered who I thought I was to suggest people would want to see it!  But, in reality, everyone offers something unique to share with others.  Ideas come from our ability to see what other's do with our little plots of coral rock we are blessed to own or rent down here in "Paradise."

The day was glorious, in the mid-70's.  Everything was as cleaned up as possible, considering I live with two men who are Mr. Fix-its.  I provided some decadent homemade coffee cake to sweeten my guests impressions, and all in all it was a lot of fun answering questions about plants, water features and my wonderful orchid lath house that Harry built for me.  Then off to visit some other properties and learn and be awed by how creative people can be who all share the love of plants and gardening.

New Orleans Style Wedding

I haven't written for so long that I will have to do speed writing.  Early this month we attended the wedding of a friend's daughter in New Orleans.  We combined a mini-vacation with a memorable life event.  Alexandra is the daughter of one of my dearest friends.  I saw her the day she was born and watched her grow up into a most sensational young woman.  She has no idea of how much time every developmental milestone, every school and career decision that she made and every boyfriend she had was analyzed and discussed by her mother and myself.  We totally approve of the new husband, especially since he is a fisherman and has already been "on the boat".  The wedding was total fun - hanging out with old friends, eating and touring our way around the French Quarter and perhaps a bit of imbibing? 

Highlights: Visiting the dueling piano bar at Pat O'briens, beignets at Cafe DuMonde just as "the girls" had 10 years ago when we attended Mardis Gras when Alex attended Loyola, having creole food at Mothers restaurant -not once but twice, attending the reception the night before the wedding at the Pharmacy Museum, the wedding at the chapel on Loyola's campus, a Second Line parade complete with brass band and police escort through the French Quarter, the reception at the Southern Oaks Plantation including fireworks.  Thanks to Alex and Elliott and parents for hosting a great time.  Cannot wait until they move back to South Florida in the next couple months so we can see them more often.