SNOW?

I moved to Florida in 1988. For Christmas of 1989 temperatures got down to almost 0. I told my sister that day that if it snows I'd go back to Wisconsin so at least when I froze to death, I'd be with family. It didn't snow that time and has not threatened to snow in central Florida since, until yesterday. I understand that Winter Haven had "small hail" that some thought might have been snow but from the description, I'd say it was actually sleet. Glad I did not see it cause I might have had to move back up north. At least we have sun today. Temp has warmed up to 41 by 2:00. But this morning when I got up this is what my frog pond looked like, didn't find my thermometer until it was above freezing, so I don't know how cold it did get last night, but it was still 37 at noon.





Florida frogs are not smart enough to bury themselves to hibernate. I've found at least 5 frozen frogs and I don't think they'll be able to thaw out for a while. Some of them were found by predators. Who ever found them just took their heads and didn't bother with the rest of the body. I won't take pics of those because I think they are gross.

This could possibly be the culprit but he was fishing in the pond that was too big to freeze.

Winter Blahs

Well fall is really and truely here. We haven't had the A/C on for a full week (ok maybe more), but the gloomy weather is starting to get to me. I miss the sun. We've had rain off and on for about a week. Usually when fall/winter comes it rains one day and gets cold (below 60 at night) the next, maybe the cold will last for a couple days but the sun usually comes back out. Nope not this year. clouds, clouds and more clouds. But every time I feel like this I check out the weather in WI. Guess what, they are in the middle of a blizzard, the temp yesterday was 79 here, so shut up Sue and be happy. You aren't trying to drive in that crap, and you don't have to shovel it, and your heavy winter coat is sitting in the closet just taking up space.

And to those of you up there in it. I'm so sorry for you.


If you want to see what I'm missing click here.

Cheese Heads in the surf!

My Brother and his family came to visit from Wisconsin, this week. They spent the week at Disney World but Wednesday, we went to Vero Beach. Two weeks ago Hurricane Fred was spinning out in the Atlantic. One week ago Fred was downgraded to a tropical depression. This week he wasn’t a tropical system of any sort but the remnants of him were churning off the East coast of Florida.

You can see the size of the waves behind L (Blue suit).

This is E’s happy face.


N was having a good time too.


The spray off to the left was from N.

Here is a close up of E.



We were all a little pink by the end of the day but oh so happy. I’m so glad we were able to get together for our day at the beach.

That V-zon company

I have had several issues with the phone companies. I will not use AT&T because of problems I've had with them in the past. I would prefer to not use Verizon because of the issues I've had with them as well. Unfortunatly I did not get a choice. I was very happy with AllTel for my wireless phone and internet provider. Then Verizon bought them and I've been upset ever since. While Alltel was my wireless internet provider I never had problems accessing the internet, I never got booted off or anything. I should clarify that I did have trouble when I first signed up but once we got the hardware straight I've been very happy with them. Now that V company is my provider and suddenly I can't stay connected and sometimes I can't even connect. One week I'd been unable to connect for 3 days before I called because I just didn't have time to wait on the phone. Then when I did connect the guy who spoke to me said that they were having Nation Wide problems and I would not be charged for the days I could not connect. OK, I can deal with that.

So about 2 weeks later I receive my bill and no credits, no difference and I can't connect again. I call them up and tell them what I was told. The answer was "I have no record that anyone talked to you so we will NOT be honoring that." WTH!! "Well I can't connect today either." "Oh, we are having Nation Wide issues today and you probably won't be able to for a while." "How long?" "I have no idea." "Are we talking hours or days?" "I have no idea." " I would like to speak to a supervisor, now." "None are available right now, can one call you back in about an hour?" "Sure." "What should I say this is about? the nation wide problem?" "No, I want to talk to them about customer service." I'm still waiting for the call back. I'll call them again when I think I can talk to them without blowing my cool. But in the mean time I'll get my thrills other ways.

Tonight as I headed to work, I saw a Verizon truck pull out behind me. Now I was going about 10 mph over the speed limit when the truck zoomed past me. So I very calmly took my foot off the gas and slowed down to the speed limit. As I got to town I saw a cop make a u-turn with lights on. My thoughts were that I was probably going to come up on an accident. Imagine my surprise and glee when I saw that Verizon truck pulled over with the cop behind him. Love it when things turn out. LOL

I wonder if the cop was having trouble with his phone too?

Country life

I love living the in “boondocks.” I see things like the Eagles that I’ve shared here. One night when I came home from work there was a Bobcat standing on the hill. It ran when I drove in. But I did get to see him. I saw a barred owl another night when I drove in at dusk. It was sitting on the perimeter fence. I drove past it and it never moved. It only flew off after I had gone into the house to get my camera.

One evening when D and I were first working on the property we had set up a boom box while we were cleaning up around the pond. I believe we were still picking up irrigation hose from the grove at the time. We stopped to take a break and listen to the wildlife. We were talking about all the frogs and critters that were singing so nicely and that we really didn’t need the boom box. When we shut it off…everything went silent. Apparently the frogs and critters were just singing along.

Another time I had been working later than usual so I came in around 2 or 3 am. When I got out of the car I stopped to take the time to listen to the night. First the turtles would sound off. Their deep bass a rhythm for the melody. Then the bull frogs would sing the Tenor chorus. Next the Frog choir would sound in, singing the melody so sweetly and finally the peepers would sing the aria. Next they would all play their parts together until one or the other would make a mistake and practice would start all over again. I stood outside that night for almost an hour listening to the choir practice. I felt as though I were listening to their rehearsal for the big concert coming up. It took me back to the days that I was in the band. First the Tubas and the drums play the rhythm to get the beat. Next the Brass play the melody and finally the woodwinds fill in the sound. Each practicing their own part separately then all together as a group. Wonderful memories all.

Since it is such a dreary day here in Central Florida I thought I'd play with CDW and join her Goofy Gaggle of Geese contest. Check it out at MSFH. Here you can see a Yoke of Yarn that I think is going to strangle me. Especially since it isn't my only one.
And here we see a scramble of scraps. I think I need to make some card candy or work on my scrapbooks for a while.

Show Time

As I look at the picture of the Sand Hill Crane I am reminded of last spring. I was working in my craft room, long before I had any feeders out there; when I heard the cranes making a racket quite nearby. I looked out the window and there they were just beyond the pile of dirt. I know it was spring time because he was showing off and looking for love. While I was watching them I realized I wasn’t alone in enjoying the show. All four of my dogs (this was before Katie came to live with us) were lying on the pile of dirt not 20 feet from the cranes. Now Sam and Ruff absolutely love to make any bird they see fly. But they were all laying on the hill watching. When the Cranes had decided they were done they just calmly walked away. All four dogs laid their heads down and went to sleep. It was almost like they said, “Ok, shows over, nap time.”

New visitor

Can't believe it has been over a month since I updated this. I'll have to get better. Last Wednesday (April 29) I had a new visitor. D called me and told me to look out my window. Right there not 15 feet from the window was this guy. The sand hill crane is about 3 and a half feet tall or better.



He stayed around for quite a while. I got these pictures then we ate lunch. My batteries for my camera went dead about that time. I'll have to go to the store and get more. Anyway after lunch I was clearing the table and looked at the kitchen door and he was looking in the window. We decided about that time to share some of our corn bread with him. So I set it on the blocks behind him but as I walked out the door he decided he'd had enough and walked away. I haven't seen him back yet but I have faith that he'll come back.

Sonic Boom

The shuttle landed today.

What that means to me is that around 3:30 it sounded like a bomb went off or maybe thunder. Needless to say it upset my babies something fierce. Usually there is one or maybe two booms as it goes over. Enough to wake the dogs up and get them all barking. Well today I'm not sure why but, there were the two usual booms and it sounded like rolling thunder after that, the windows were rattling, the door shook, etc. Took me a few seconds to realize it was the shuttle and then it took several minutes to convince the dogs that there was no one they needed to kill. All four were on high alert. Even D was headed for the door. I'm so glad I learned to pay attention to those kind of things. One morning the shuttle landed quite early around 7 AM. I was sleeping and heard the boom. I bolted out of bed and went looking for the smoke from the bomb I was positive I'd heard. Maybe it was an accident right in front of the house. That time it took me most of the day to figure out what had happened. After that I pay attention to NASA.