Pot Pourri

As usual I have too many subjects to write about - thus the title. . .

I don't know about you, but Fridays come around really quickly.  I don't know if it's because we're down here, or my age, or what, but the weeks roll around and around and around.  February is completely a whizz.  Whatever happened to it?

 Doesn't seem possible that my friend Marcia's birthday is on February 24th.  I had a card for her for a couple of weeks. . . before Valentine's Day.  Valentine's Day came and I thought - well - her birthday is in ten days, I have plenty of time to send it out.  But, of course, I got it sent out yesterday - after the mail came.  It'll be late.  Happy Birthday, Marcia.  I did think about you.  Your card is coming. 

I had a dream about my friend Ruth M.  She wanted to contact me, so I called her in Myrtle Beach.  No, she had company.  All was okay.  She'd call me in a couple of days when things quieted down.  Holy cow.  Guess I'm not flamboyant, or what is the word.  It escapes me.  Clairvoyant.

We're getting into the thick of things down here with Showtime.  Lots of rehearsals next week because next weekend is the performances.

 Did I mention that we're having three instead of two performances?  More people, less crowding.  We'll all be tired, doing  three performances.  Two on Saturday.  One Friday.  Dress rehearsal Thursday.  The show will be one and a half hours instead of two. 

This is new:  Show people could get a ticket for someone yesterday, Thursday,  at the rehearsal.  I got one for Paul.  Carol O. got one for Bob.  That means we don't have to wait on line for two hours on Saturday for tickets.  Good. 

Bob and we took Bill out to lunch on Wednesday.  We went to Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda.   It is  situated on a long pier  and has an enclosed two-story shopping area with condo rentals on the second level.  The shops are small, interesting, and geared completely to tourists.  They're fun to walk through or by..

At the end of the pier are two restaurants.  An upstairs and a downstairs.  The upstairs is more upscale which we didn't want.  They both look out into the harbor.  We went to the one downstairs one. The upstairs one is similar to being  in a ship's dining room.  Linen table cloths, napkins The downstairs one is much less formal.  They use paper towls for napkins!

 You seat yourselves, and we got an immediate seat right on the outside under the roof,  and could look at the boats going by.  Charlotte Harbour is quite wide at that point - perhaps a mile across. I love the smell of the salt water.   Afterwards we strolled by some shops and  stopped for ice cream at one of them.  It had  seating outside.  I was surprised to find that the metal chairs were nailed to the floor.  The only reason I could think of doing that is  people walk off with them.  Strange.

Bob's having a new roof put on.  They started yesterday morning and the pounding above Martini's head made her very nervous so he brought her over here so she could be lessed stressed out.  Well, without Bob here, she wasn't exactly happy.  She lay on the floor near the back door and looked out the window-wall to see what was happening and could see him outside.

 We had our roof done  a couple of years ago and I had forgotten how quickly they work.  They had the old roof off, the plywood back up, and now today they're putting up the tiles.  Neat. 

Paul and I were pleased to receive a Valentine card from Gracie and Sharon's family. "Happy Valentine's Day from the Dog."   My thought is  that Gracie informed Sharon that she wanted to send us a card, so Sharon complied.  Hey - what a great dog, and what a great stepdaughter!  Can't get better than that. 

 Our new Sony Home Theatre Blu Ray machine is not working properly.  We've found that it's starting to blank out for a few second intervals every once in a while.  We contacted Sony and they couldn't find what was wrong.  They said we probably need a new machine.  It's defective.   Paul has been thinking it isn't the machine, but the things that are attached to it that make it have problems.  These "thingies" of which I am completely stupid about are what he's talking about.  As they say, a little knowledge is a bad thing.  Good thing I don't have any idea what's happenin'. 

New update:  Paul thinks it's defective.  We're calling SONY again.

  Anyway - last night we watched "Argo" for $4.95.  It blinked on and off and finally gave up the ghost.  We turned it off and then on - and finished watching it.  I couldn't believe that I was watching a first-run movie here at home - We could see why it was nominated for 7 academy awards.  Do see it if you can. 

Speaking of Academy Awards - I just finished reading "Silver Linings Playbook" It's up for quite a few awards. 

 Someone once said that if a movie is made from a book - it's usually not as good as the book.  The book was wonderful.  I recommend it to anyone.  It's $9.99 on Kindle.  Pretty good price.  (I don't usually go above that.)

I wondered what the movie was like, so I went on Google and looked up the Trailers.  I could see the difference even in that.  In the book, he's in a mental institution for four years.  In the movie - it's 8 months.  Part of the angst of the story is that he's missed so much of his life and so much went on without him.  The book and the movie are told from his perspective.  I will see the movie eventually.

While we were watching Argo last night, we got a phone call from our NY upstateneighbor. Dick.   That always makes our hearts beat faster and hands perspire.  No.  The house was fine.

 They're starting up the old Home Owners Association.  There's a covenant that people are supposed to follow.  I know Paul and I were careful to follow it.  One of the rules was that all out-buildings had to complement the house it was with,  have the same colors, etc.  Couldn't go beyond a certain size.   Before we built, we sent letters out to all the neighbors beforehand that  we wanted to put up a  second building as Paul's workshop.  He enclosed the plans. (We didn't end up doing that, but we had thoughts of doing it in the beginning.)

The reason Dick called us was that:

1.   The people next to us have put up a big bright metal blue roofed open-sided garage on their driveway out front from which to store  their boat, other cars, etc..  I guess it's a real eyesore. 

2.   Also the house across the way has a buyer who wants to put up a 40 X 60 garage.  The house is bigger than ours.  Sounds like a business could be coming in.

We told Dick that we support the association completely.  He said he'd try to get us to be able to attend the meeting somehow. (technologically)  All I can say is - how dare those people try to do that to our neighborhood.  Go to it - Dick  and neighbors!

So - guess that's all the news that's fit to print (?).  and all the news from the Woods' Circle.  How're things going in your neighborhood?