Key Largo Resort

OK, it’s official. I am officially done with winter. Unfortunately, winter is not quite done with me. Fortunately, a respite is in the offing. All I need to do is bear down and make it there. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping and that’s what I’ve been doing. In preparation for more southerly climes, I’ve been acquiring sun and swimwear. In particular, I’ve bought a pair of rashies. A rashie or rash guard is a top that was first developed for surfers. They were worn to prevent body rashes caused by their surf boards. Not that I am going surfing, but they also offer excellent UV protection and I do plan on being out in the sun. I don’t want to get burned, but I also don’t want to look like the great white whale, as I frolic with the sharks on the high sodium seas.

Closer to home, this will be Anne’s final week in the first grade. The teacher that she has been subbing for comes back to school. I don’t know which of us will be most glad that this gig is finally done, but I suspect that it will be me. I believe that Anne plans on taking the rest of the month off, before returning to day-to-day work, which would be fine with me.

We were going to take a class this week, on applying for Social Security. Even though there are fewer options now than there were just a few years ago, it would be good to know all of our options. Taking a Medicare class last year, paid great dividends. We were going to take this class last Wednesday, but bad weather caused its cancellation. It was a shame, because we had more activities available on Wednesday than we could have done and ended up doing nothing. 

We don’t have much snow, but it has been snowing fairly regularly for the past week, turning our street into a muddy mess. The water company has installed a new water main. In doing so, they trenched the length of the block, which evenly distributed mud everywhere. To ensure a thorough distribution, the water company has a street sweeper regularly come by. It doesn’t clean anything up, but it does make sure that the mud is spread everywhere. This was phase one. That crew has since departed, making way for the next. The new crew began work this week and will hookup everyone’s laterals to the new main. Some neighbors will have to have whole new laterals put in, because they are currently using lead pipes. I don’t think that we need to do this. Still, it will mean service interruptions and more mud. A third and final crew will come last, to put everything back together again and hopefully clean up all the Missouri mud.

Finally, we’ve been invited to a potluck this weekend. I was a little slow in claiming a type of dish and all of the ones that I’m familiar with have been already taken. Our hostess suggested that we bring bread. I’m not a baker, so making bread seems too much of a stretch for me. Instead, we’re heading off to  check out Knead, supposedly one of the better bakeries in town. It’s near Knitorius, a yarn shop that Anne has frequented, but is now going out of business. I hope that it lives up to its reputation and is a hit at the party.