Hurricane Season

It's been one year (yesterday) since Irma.

And now we have Florence.

She is heading north of us.

Which is good for us.

Not so good for them.

My Trim Healthy Facebook feed is FULL

of slightly panic-filled posts about

"What do we DO?"

Lots of us from Florida and Texas have done

what we can to help them through.

It is pretty intimidating,

scary, nerve-wracking, etc.

But you just have to either go with it,

or move.

And we aren't going to move.

They say we are already getting the effects

on the coast. Higher waves, greater

beach erosion and serious rips.

1 person was killed and 2 were seriously

injured in the ocean yesterday.

But at least we aren't getting the brunt of the storms.

Yes, stormS.

There are actually THREE of them out there.

Florence, Isaac, Helene.

Florence is going north to N.C.

Isaac is going south to the islands

(and then who knows where... those are the ones

we "worry" about - once they hit the islands

they either die, or skip over the top,

hit the warm water on the other side and then....

into the Gulf? Up the East side? Up the West side?

Slide across to Texas??? Nobody knows yet.)

And Helene looks like maybe she'll curve and die

out in the ocean.

But they are both at least a week away from

really knowing what they are doing.

(Sounds like ME!)

Meanwhile.

We just had our house re-wired.

We now have a place where we can plug in

the generator(s) and run all the freezers,

fridges, and even the lights.

That feels good.

So, we are prepared.

And we are not scared.

But we are keeping an eye on the horizon.

This is as close to an "adrenaline rush" as I'm

interested in. 

Is it weird that I love it?

I'm Home

Whew!

It was a fabulous trip!

And thankfully the flight home was

significantly better than the flight out.

(But it GOT me there, so that's good!)

We got back to Orlando a couple minutes
early even! Poor Rod had to drive around
for 30 minutes just to find a parking spot
(on the roof)
so it's a good thing he was plenty early.

I was SUPER happy to see him
sitting under a palm tree in the airport.
I missed him!

I got to ride in his new little car.
It's a terrific little car!
Counting Jim, we now have
THREE VW Golfs
and TWO VW Jettas
(and 2 Ford F250's)
Not much variety in our lives.
Or we know good vehicles when we drive 'em.

We headed over to the dealership to sign all the necessary papers. (It helps to have
an "in" with the boss - they let Rod "test drive"
until I got home!)

Fortunately for Jim, he was busy selling another car.
Unfortunately for us, he didn't get done until it was
too late to do our paperwork.
Home to feed the animals.
And back out again.
We were out of dog food, so it was off to WalMart.
And then it was late.
So we got Chick Fil-A.

It was good to be home!
(hahahaha)

*************
My computer turned itself off right here.
(It doesn't like when I sit on the couch...
only when I sit in the armchair.
Weird.)
I'm posting this anyway.

Nothing Personal, BUT...

Geez Denver!

Could you mark your roads?

We had a wonderful day in a little

place called Estes Park.

Looks like I’ll have to add pix later.

I’m on the airport WiFi and it doesn’t want 

to load them for me.

Anyhow, it was up in the mountains.

Fresh, lovely air.

Lots of fun shops.

And then a storm rolled in over the mountains.

Estes has a visitors center and a free shuttle

service that runs all over.

Just as it started to sprinkle, the little

bus showed up and on we hopped.

Decided to head into Boulder for an early dinner 

and ended up at Chili’s for a yummy meal

and more... talking. Hahahahaha

You would think we would run out of stuff

to talk about, but no!

We gabbed until we figured the rush hour 

traffic would be done and then headed

in the direction of Denver.

More or less.

Missed a turn.

Missed another turn.

Got turned around.

Roads vanished.

Construction closed sections

and no signs telling what to do next.

Headed the wrong way down a divided road.

Thank goodness Mario Andretti was driving!

(And there was only one other car on the road)

She whipped that baby around and got us going

in the right direction again.

And we missed another turn.

But we FINALLY made it to our hotel.

Where a young man who had limited language

skills and other issues “helped” get us checked in.

(Just cuz it’s legal in Colorado, doesn’t mean

you should use it ay work!)

But we got a room.

And climbed into bed.

And had a good sleep!

And woke up at 3 for our flights out.

It was POURING!

And Denver’s lousy road signs continued.

And our car had terrible headlights.

And the lane markers were pretty much invisible.

But we found the rental place.

Where we parked in the wrong place and drug our

suitcases through the raging river.

And a super helpful shuttle driver parked our 

car for us cuz he was amazing and we were

Obviously at the end of our ropes.

And then he took us to our gates.

Where we had to split up.

But they are calling me to board.

So....

Next stop, Charlotte.

And then Orlando.

Goodbye Colorado!

Paint some signs.

But we LOVED you!!!

Look! Food!

We went to a fabulous Mexican place last

night for dinner. The food was not only 

delicious,  but also beautiful.

And we forgot to take pictures.

This afternoon we ended up in a fun sidewalk

cafe that featured Farm to Table.

Obligatory selfie.

Have you noticed we only do that when we

stop somewhere to eat?

We did...

Pretty food!

And very yummy.

They had a grass fed burger with cheese and

other random burger-ish toppings.

Right below it on the menu was a 

vegan quinoa burger, with amazing toppings.

So we ordered the beef burger with the 

quinoa burger goodies!

Ha!

And it was delish!

We are back in our yard,

reading, napping, enjoying the sunshine.

Food Photos

Here are the pix to go with the last post.

I REALLY should have brought my laptop.

Diner selfie.

It was PACKED and NOISY and we sat

at the counter and we’re amazed at the

cook making literally a thousand helpings

of hash browns and amazing omelette sally

at one time!

My yummy Denver omelette.

Pancake et al...

Ignore all the senseless nonsense.

I can’t edit anything.

Sigh.

Food

Boulder has some good little food places.

We are very close to the Pearl St outdoor mall.

(Basically like downtown Park City)

When we finally got here Thursday night,

we walked down there to the Yellow Deli.

Google said 13 minutes on foot.

A pleasant evening walk.

(It was 10 pm)

Google did not mention the slight up hill

(Pant pant)

nor the extreme downhill.

(Which meant an extreme uphill on the return trip)

YIKES!

However, we successfully found the deli 

and discovered it was a cheerful, although

somewhat dark (lots of wood) 

throwback to the 70’s complete with

jute macrame dividers between the booths.

The gentleman who waited on us was a delight!

We had a couple of DELICIOUS sandwiches,

Nancy had the “Spring chicken” and I had 

a Yellow Submarine.

She had a natural orange cream soda and 

I had the BEST iced chamomile tea!

We had a wonderful time visiting and sharing

stories about our respective day and journey.

She spent a fun day in Denver, even took a subway!

When we were done, we called an Uber for

the quick 3 minute drive home.

A FIRST for me!

And TOTALLY worth the $!

We enjoyed it so much, we went back

for breakfast the next morning!

We both got an egg sandwich that was super

yummy and filling!

No lunch.

(See above... haha)

I’ll come back and tell about the day later,

this is just about the food.

The evening found us at a marvelous

restaurant called Riffs.

We nearly had to order the entire menu.

It all looked so good!

Finally settled on a grilled peach and

prosciutto salad for an appetizer,

and the Nancy ordered a fabulous watermelon

salad with pickled red onions and basil.

And a player of delicious bread and more

of the amazing prosciutto.

I got a roasted smoked pork loin with

garlic smashed potatoes and green olives, 

capers and other random but tasty veggie.

We ate family style sharing everything.

YUM!

AFTER we had eaten it all, we decided that

henceforth we would take pictures of all our

wonderful food.

Which likely means we will be eating 

Pop Tarts and Hot Dogs from here on out.

Hahaha

Actually we found a fun diner while out and about

looking for a yoga mat for Nanc.

Eggs, bacon, hash browns, a pancake for Nanc that

was as big as her head and a big Denver omelette for

me, because, DENVER!

Lotsa Little Posts

I do not love posting from my iPad.

So I plan to do lots of mini posts.

This was our view this morning.

We weren’t exhausted last night so we

Didn’t sleep as soundly.

Both up about 2 and again at 4.

And then finally slept until 7.

We look out to a pretty back yard.

Beautiful even first thing in the morning!