April 4, 2012

Took the boat to the Dive Bar for dinner with good friends Lynn and Kurt Weber. It is always a good destination. They have a great calm harbor, which makes for easy parking. The food and the service are pretty good mid-week. The trip home after dark was especially beautiful. It is pleasing to watch the lights reflect off of the water and that night there were no clouds so the stars were plentiful and the full moon helped to guide our way. A good night with good friends.

April 8^th

Happy Easter! We were invited to Easter Dinner at the Sharpnacks’. Also in attendance were friends Tom and Sharon Zeck, Steve and Sunny Cole, Jay and Stephanie Sharpnack and of course their kids, Allison, Joe and Sophie. The baked ham was delicious. We all watched Bubba Watson win the Masters before we could eat. What a finish. I can relate to being in the woods but not to the second shot that he hit out of the woods. An exciting finish! Jan had one of my favorites. Cheesy potatoes! Everything was delicious. The bunny shaped cake was as cute as can be. Thanks Jan.

April brought us our first bird of paradise in many, many years.

We were excited. We have also had many Gardenias for the first time on our bush.

April begins the Grand Exodus of the snowbirds. Those of us fortunate enough to have a place to go during the summer. People start to leave and things begin the thin out. You scratch your head and ask, “Where did the last three months go?”

We received a letter from our HOA with pictures of areas on our townhouse that needed attention and they wanted everything thing done by December. It went out to all 52 townhouse owners. One item on the list was our balcony railing on the upstairs deck. I power washed it to remove the old paint and I over did it and hurt my back. I had to spend a day in bed and then wasn’t able to do much for a week. I got caught up on paperwork and made trips to the lumberyard to get needed supplies.

When my back got better I was able to continue the projects I wanted to complete before we took our trip to the Keys. I built a new boat step. This time using pressure treated wood and stainless steel screws. We’ll see how long it lasts. The weather seems to eat everything. I replaced some wood trim on the town house and painted. I was able to get pretty much everything done by the time we were packing to go to the Keys.