Cold temps, hot food, and a hero!

Boy, it sure was hard to get out of bed this morning! Mix the springing ahead with really cold temps and you've got a 'pull those blankets up and snuggle in' goin' on! Of course, by the time we got out of church, after the Congregational meeting, it had warmed up to almost 60 above zero, nearly double the low temp of earlier.

Since my usual lunch gang didn't stay for the meeting, I just came home to eat (what??) some leftovers. Oh, that concoction I made for the dinner Thursday night was just as good the second time around--cabbage, carrots, and corned beef. There was also a container from Blu Grotto's dinner last night but opted to get the kettle out of the fridge instead. Perhaps later tonight I'll have some of the tortellini alla panna, but it's hard right now to think about eating after all that cabbage! Yes, might be a good idea to just stay in tonight!

Pam, Joan and her husband, Paul, and I enjoyed dinner at the newest finer dining restaurant on Fleming Island, standing room only when we arrived. Fortunately Paul had done a "call ahead" seating for us so we didn't have to wait at all. It does my heart good to see this business really taking off like it has, as I know the owners for many years, way back to when we first moved here. We had built a couple houses in partnership with them plus had done a re-model in their family restaurant, located just around the corner from my condo. This new menu is considered to be "healthy Italian" foods, but we liked it anyway!

One of the owners, Tony (an Italian named Tony?), saw Justin when we had lunch at Blu Grotto week ago and was totally blown away with what a big boy he's become. We've eaten at the "old" family restaurant a couple times recently but he's usually in the kitchen and hadn't seen Justin in a while. It was fun to see Tony's reaction to how tall Justin's gotten!

The river has settled down since yesterday's wind-whipping. By late afternoon the winds had quieted, with the river floor left horribly exposed. If you recall, I wrote about how it didn't know which way to flow--well, it ended up moving away from the shore and leaving bare muck and yukky algae showing. I wanted to yell, "Cover yourself!" but was afraid of waking the winds again. Today the water level's back up, covering most of the yukky stuff. It really looks to me as though it could use a good raking, just to get all the junky bottles, boards, and algae out of there. Or, just wait until the water level comes back up.....

Justin returned my laptop on Friday night, having loaded the word processing programs that I'll need for when I'm on the road later this month. It's possible for me to work on the newsletter and other church stuff when I'm traveling, which is pretty cool, if you ask me. Hopefully I won't miss a beat, at least with the things that don't require face-time. I'll be available by cell phone, e-mail, and telegram, call me!

There is a slate of folks lined up to fill in for me in my absence, both at church and Art Guild. Hopefully I don't forget about something and have it fall through the cracks. I probably won't sleep tonight trying to think of all the details left open.....Need to speak to someone about Pizza/Game Night (if I write it down, it's easier to remember). Possibly Juliane and Fausto would be interested in getting things arranged for that, and then that's it, I think.

Okay, here's the thing: I am sick and tired of seeing the endless advertisements on the USA station about the male virgin movie!!!!!!!!!! Make it stop!!!!! Some of my recorded shows are on that channel plus Law and Order re-runs, and it is driving me bonkers to see that over and over and over. Ugh, enough already with the vomiting and condoms and chest hair removal! They show the whole movie in the advertisements, for Pete's sake.....There, I feel a bit better now, that I've gotten that off my 'chest'!!

On another note: Joan told a story about her son-in-law, Will, who is a fireman. I bought my jet skis from him several years ago. Those who were here for my birthday party at "Mushroom" met his wife and him, when they came to our table. So, anyway, he was driving across the bridge from Fleming Island the other morning while off-duty and saw a guy with a stalled car trying to push it over to the side. Of course, there's no room for that with the construction going on, but anyway, the car sort of got away from and rolled against the guard rail. The man was pinned between his car door and car, being squeezed by the rail. Will leaped to action, summoned men from their cars and got the car moved off the injured man. Will performed CPR as he was already bluing until rescue got there to take over. WOW! Our Will is a hero! I sure hope that if I ever need some help on the road, someone like him will not be afraid to jump from his car to lend a hand!

This photo was taken at CHRISTmas at Paul and Joan's house. Will is standing behind me, his wife is kneeling next to Joan, who is holding her dog, and Paul sports the white beard behind Joan. Pam is standing right in front of Justin. Will is the guy who liked to call me just to make my phone go off.....rascal!!