Spring Already!

First the health issues.My knee was really dragging last week when I spent a lot of time on it, but today it is doing quite well. I am finally getting back to close to normal, with only the issue of getting up and down to and from the floor, which is slowly getting better. Laura is still slowly recovering from "the cricket incident", but has now twisted herself somewhere and is also now recovering from that.

The weather this year has been fantastic, with only a few light freezes in December. This week it has been 80 every day, 60 during the night. No AC or heat required. It has been mostly sunny, with very little rain.It is so dry, they are comparing it with 2008, when they had major grass and field fires throughout Florida.

Last week, we had our annual Turkey Jamfest, which was a huge success. Beautiful weather, 54 people. We have have just concluded putting everything away.

We continue to be busy. Today we went to the annual Seniors day at the Putnam County Fair. The fair is about 1/4 the size of the Chautauqua county Fair. They do a very nice job of recognizing Seniors, with a free lunch, free entertainment, and prizes such as $25 gift cards to the local grocery stores.

Tomorrow, we go to the Annual Clay Electric Meeting in Keystone Heights. This is the annual election of officers, and other official business. We get free entertainment, this year it is Mike Snider and his bluegrass band. We also get a chicken dinner, some vendor give-a-ways, and if we stay long enough, they give away about 150 prizes, ranging from flatirons to large screen tvs, which is followed by the grand prize of one of their pickup trucks. Lester and Sue won this last year.

Friday, Janice is bringing Remy over for a boat ride to see alligators, then we go to the Sr Center for music. Saturday, we are going to Silver Springs to See Glen Campbell on his "Goodbye Tour". He is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers(?). He now uses teleprompters and his family is the band and very supportive.

Sunday, we have at least three choices, one being the Flagler Air Show, another being the art and craft show in Deland,the other being the Balloon fest in New Smyrna.

We just finished a busy weekend of visiting Daytona to see and walk among the bikers on Sat, Visiting Waldo flea market and Micanopy, which is a small town, with many shops and and a huge antique store on Sunday. And then Monday, it was back to Daytona to meet with Mel and Norma and Janice and Don. We saw Jane Saturday night on our way back. The purpose of Mondays' trip was to try and assist Billy Johnson, who was faced with repairing the bus for the "Big Leg Emma" band from Jamestown. They had come down to Daytona to play at the Ocean Deck Hotel Sat and Sunday nites.

The bus broke down somewhere around Jacksonville, and was towed to Daytona. Greg Folts and Billy tried to find a part Sunday and thought they had succeeded, but it had to be shipped in from someplace and would be there on Monday. So we loaded up as many of my larger tools that I could locate and we went off to Daytona. I took Billy to the Advance store, where the part had arrived, but! It was not the right part. The parts man there was very good with their computer system and he claimed they had the right part in stock at another store, and it was $10.86 cheaper. Off we went and the part was there, and although slightly different, was the correct part for the job. We got back to the bus, Billy struggled, but with help from another band member, got it together, and they were able to move on to the next location, Charleston, S.C. The part in question was the bracket that holds the serpentine belt tensioner.

Jerry and Shirley left for home this past Saturday. Jerry was quite busy, replacing a toilet, replacing a leaking water heater, having a new AC installed, installing a new window plus miscellaneous little things like painting walls, and mowing the lawn. He also found time to play a little music at Ebo's, Jay Lou"s and the Senior Center.

Ray mowed our lawn in ripley today and said everything looked ok, so that is good. It is hard to believe that in about 40 days, we will be heading North. We have some work to do, as we need to complete the shed, so we can lock it up securely.Will try to do better to keep current.