Buttonwood Bay - Life After Discovery

I had to watch the shuttle launch on telle yesterday as the skies to the north east of us here in normally sunny Buttonwood Bay had clouded over at just the wrong time. Actually I watched it on a HD feed on my laptop as not only was the quality better, it was about 4 seconds ahead of tv coverage.

A few moments after Discovery cleared the tower, I went outside for a look but the cloud cover was still in place and so I came back in to watch the rest of the coverage online. After all, tv had returned full screen to Judge Judy by then anyway !

Priorities eh ?

Earlier yesterday Stanley Steemer came and cleaned our carpets and a jolly good job they made of it. We'd piled all the relevant furniture into other rooms and for the rest of the day, we 'lived' in the lanai......our sunny Florida room.

And we're still in it ! Despite being told we could walk on the carpets as soon as the cleaning had finished, we don't want to risk damaging the wooden based items by moving them back into place until everywhere is bone dry. That might be much later tonight or tomorrow morning but with it being another mid 80's day here, I'm thinking....tonight.

Right now Dennis is watering the new concrete patio which has to be done a few times a day in the first week. I think he's trying to grow an airstrip !

All these things are new to me as I've never experienced a professional carpet cleaning service or seen concrete watering before. These sorts of things just seem to be done so much easier (and faster) here as I'm sure if I wanted a new patio to be laid back in Leeds, I'd have to wait several weeks and then have some pessimistic contractor suggesting that adding a patio onto a 16th floor apartment might challenge his abilities a bit !

No seriously, my house IS a house and when I left it, it was firmly on the ground.

Elsewhere the pace is unrelenting in sunny BB and apart from personal things going on in and around the house, the park and its residents are gearing up for the annual week long Springfest events which, this year, has been given the not totally unexpected title of ..... Springfest 2011. The logo bearing t-shirts, baseball caps and mugs have been printed (I think a Springfest 2011 pool towel would be a neat and practical addition to the range) and ticket sales for the various events are selling like hot cakes....or Key Lime pies to use the local vernacular.

As the week progresses, we'll be having a performance by the Golden Chords (in a retirement community park that should be an easy one to understand), a strawberry social, a home and hobby expo, bingo, card game lessons, car and golf cart show, a 'fat Tuesday' (Pancake Tuesday to Brits and maybe others) parade and picnic, a talent show, karaoke, archery demo (I'm staying well inside for THAT one !), ladies fashion show (seems a tad sexist), casino night, a computer 101 session (power it up....ok you're on your own now.....), the Grand Ol' Buttonwood Opry Show, a fishing tournament, craft and bake sale, boat show, a Saturday night dance and finally, a chili cook-off closely followed by a chili fest where it all gets eaten.

There will be spot prizes, door prizes, raffle prizes and basically lots of opportunities to win something or other. Even people who have never won anything in their (long) lives would be very unlucky not to win something during Springfest week. Hell even I won something last year......a round of golf at a local course...with cart. The ticket expires today and it's still in my bedroom ! Oops.

This year I've splurged $3 for 3 chances to win 5 golf lessons or a foursome at my favourite course, Panther. I donno how much 5 lessons would normally be but I know a foursome costs $100 which is a LOT cheaper than a threesome I once had in 1975 but that's a story for another time and anyway, I'm still not allowed to return to Thailand. What IS a toyboy anyway ?

So golf lessons would be a prize worth winning and for me, the best of the 6 on offer. I don't need another GPS, digital camera or cd player and I definitely don't need a pet gator with or without its leash. I can't remember the 6th prize. Maybe a week on a desert island with the Golden Chords !

So think positive thoughts for me as I really REALLY could do with those 5 golf lessons. Yes, yes I know, more like 25 golf lessons but I'll take what I can get. I do need to know the best way to swing my racket and I think my ball toss up is all wrong too.

Right I've rambled enough and it's also lunch time. Caddyshack leftovers are a-callin' me and who am I to argue when that means St. Louis ribs and a baked potato.

Gopher was off.