Home Again

We enjoyed our week in Florida despite my being in pain for most of the week. I finally stopped hurting by the end of the week but as soon as we hit cold weather the pain was back. It's really more of a constant ache now but it is darn annoying. I saw my NP just before we left and I'm trying to decide if I should get back in to see her our just wait until my work physical on the 10th.

Anyway, we enjoyed the warmth and the sunshine. We took a day and went back to Blue Springs State Park to see the manatees again. It was a cool but not uncomfortable day.

Gar that seemed suspended in the current.

Just pretty shadows on the stream.

After our morning at the park we went to see Mary and Hugh, John's sister and brother-in-law. They have a very nice winter home near Orlando and we enjoyed our visit.

Around here we see Robins in pairs so I was surprised to see a flock of them flitting from palm tree to palm tree. It seemed wrong somehow to see Robins in palm trees. I took several pictures but I find birds impossible to photograph. I'm very jealous of those of you that not only do it well but make it look easy!

Here is a picture of a woodpecker that was in a tree at the edge of the parking lot. It was quite unconcerned by my presence and just kept working away as I took snap after snap figuring surely one of them would come out. This is the best of the lot :(

We also had a visit at the condo by a raccoon which we found surprising until we realized that the people in the unit next to us had left a bag of trash just out side their door. He traveled from door to door, wandered the parking lot and even checked out the pool before he moved on. I also took several pictures of him but I'll spare you you having to look at them.

I found this flower at one of the rest areas in Georgia. I have no idea what it is but flowers in February are just amazing to me and I was thrilled by the number we saw.


Mostly we just relaxed. I read several novels, a pleasure I never seem to have time for any more. We ate out every night :) and one night we went to a dinner theater. It really wasn't very good but it was a fun night out anyway. A one week vacation never seems long enough!

I can't recall another trip south where the traffic was so light and the weather so good. We didn't run into any bad weather on the way home until we were back in New York. We arrived home to a driveway with two feet of new snow that had drifted higher in spots. B had come over the day before we came home to snowblow it for us but the gas line had frozen while we were gone. He did shovel the end of the driveway enough that we were able to get off the road. John shoveled, B came over and shoveled some more and then the next door neighbor came over with his blower and got us cleared out.

It was tough going back to work on Tuesday but the kids were great and I thought how easy my route has been this year compared to years past. Such thoughts are dangerous! On Wednesday my secondary kids thought breaking up pencils into little pieces and throwing them around was great fun. Not expecting trouble I was oblivious to the mayhem for several minutes! They're a sneaky bunch. The ring leaders spent Thursday before the bell cleaning the bus rather than visiting with their friends. The elementary kids gave me fits starting on Wednesday too. By Friday afternoon I was really ready to head home. Hopefully next week will be better.

Mike and Alex were here for the afternoon and Alex is one sick little boy. He has both a sore throat and a tummy ache. I can't recall seeing him so miserable since he was a baby. I'm hoping that whatever he has is just a 24 hour thing and that he's back to being his usually busy self tomorrow.

I feel like I'm always trying to play catch up with this blog and I don't see that changing any time soon :( Garden club starts up again this month so I have to work on that blog some and I have fallen way behind transcribing letters for Apple's Tree. Busy is better than bored I guess. Maybe I'll make you all feel better later in the week and share some pictures of our snow.
*sigh*