Travel with Snowbirds Tuesday February 26, 2013, Blue Spring State Park Orange City FL

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The One about Being Under a Tornado Watch.

As I was proofreading this, I realized how wordy I was today. There’s some good stuff, but it’s buried in the words. Sorry. I tried to cut it down; it’s long like the tornado watch was today. Feel my pain.

Since I took a 1.5 hour nap yesterday afternoon, it was not easy falling asleep last night. I was still awake at 12:30 and finally came to the realization that I don’t like any of the late night network TV shows. I watched Kimmel last night due to the promos I saw for his Oscar coverage and it looked like it was going to be funny. It wasn’t to me. I did like the segment on 101 utterings of AMAZING by the stars. I do not find Guillermo funny at all. Never have, never will. What am I missing with him? So, in addition to not being tired, I was aggravated with myself for not being able to fall asleep, and for watching almost the entire Kimmel show without turning the channel. I finally turned off the TV and read about 25 pages of ‘All Together Dead,’ Sookie Stackhouse #7. Yes, I am enjoying it, and it did the trick, I fell asleep. I have learned a new thing. There is a light fixture embedded into the cabinet over the head of my bed. I have to stretch my arm to reach it without sitting up. All the light bulbs in Moya are LED types. This one above my head throws a lot of heat. When you are hot already, this light bulb makes you even hotter. That annoyed me as well. I turned it off and read by the light built into my kindle cover.

Sleep was fitful. It rained off and on all night long. The train went by several times, woot wooting each time it passed along the track bordering this state park. I guess it gives the engineer his jollies to wake the campers. More annoyance. The good news is I did not cough all night long. My dose of Delsym at 7 pm was at its peak at midnight, and I did not cough at all.

Needless to say, I woke up with a chip on my shoulder because of all my peeves. I took another Delsym dose. My eyes are itchy, next drug, Claritin. I have not sneezed or blown my nose at all, but my eyes are itchy and runny. My ears are scratchy, my cough is bronchial. My mother’s rule was to treat the symptoms. Aspirin for the pain caused by coughing, Delsym for the cough, Claritin for the allergies. Cold-Eeze on general principals (yes, it is working). Check, Check, Check. Yes, I am old fashioned. I DO believe in Aspirin for pain and fever. It works quicker and better than those NSAIDs and Tylenol. For long term pain I take coated Ibuprofen, but for a headache, aches from cold, and quick reducing of fever, nothing works better than good old 2 ASA.

I had to do a manatee check when I got up, and I hoped the 2+ mile walk would not be a mistake. The outbound is fine, all downhill. I got some good pictures of momma Ann and baby, look herein for them. I did not walk as far as yesterday, and took my time returning up the slow hill – 200 steps and rest for a count of 100. Pulse rate 120 after the end of one of those step spurts. I am getting to love my Runtastic iPhone app. I can set it to ‘ghost’ yesterdays walk and try to improve my time. That will be good for me when I get home, as I walk Winston the same walk every morning.

What is the best thing to eat when you are sick? Homemade chicken soup of course. I had some frozen chicken tenders, frozen corn, shallots, vegetarian bullion, and some of that Knorr latino spice. I threw it in the crock pot with some water, put in some noodles 30 minutes before I wanted to eat, and instant home made chicken soup.

Another thing I forgot on this trip, my super slick weather radio. This instrument is a must have in ILM. It runs on electricity with battery backup and squawks when any abnormal weather event is occurring in my county. I need it today. Oh Lordy. Tornado Watch banners are scrolling across the top of my TV screen and it sure is dark right now. The rain is pouring down in buckets. Volusia County is under tornado watch until 3:00 pm. A tornado watch is when general conditions may lead to a tornado forming. A tornado warning is when a tornado has been spotted in the area or indicated by radar. In addition to the scrolling, tomorrow is the one year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death in nearby Sanford (under the same tornado watch as I am now.) There are numerous memorial services planned by numerous organizations with quasi religious sounding names. I am very detached and disconnected about this today. Do any of these services do any good???? Or, do they just give those on the fringe of the situation their 15 minutes of fame when they get their own TV interview? Tornado watch/Trayvon, back and forth, back and forth. Right now it is raining so hard, I should be outside in my bathing suit with a bucket of soap and a brush washing Moya. That would probably make me sicker, right? Since I am pitched forward that 2.2%, the rain is sheeting down from the roof onto Moya’s windshield making for interesting effects. I am thrilled there are no leaks!! I can just make out Kathy’s RV to my right and a popup camper to my left thru the dense shrubs. These shrubs on my left are so close I could touch them if I put my arm out the window. I am surrounded by dormant small live oaks and palmettos (I know they are some type of palmetto, but not exactly sure which one…..Scrub???) and what I think is poison ivy on the left side and across the road from me. Rambling here out of boredom. A ripper of a cell just blew over Clermont my TV reporter just told me, and I now have a 6 minute early warning for a strong cell coming over Orange City. Crap.

Whew, it wasn’t that bad. Just deluges of rain, but no wind. During that 10 minutes I worked on putting the Velcro on the windshield curtain rod to attach my vinyl sun screen to (PennJ Judy B called it a polymer…….science teacher…..) It is an absolutely perfect fit. Other Judy B from Hershey who gave me the screen, thank you so much. I will take a picture of it when the sun comes out. Everything is perfect, the length, the width….I only purchased 5 feet of industrial strength Velcro. It could use a little more, as it is an 8.5’ expanse. I have so much Velcro at home…..I will stow some of that Velcro in Moya and finish the job on a future camping trip. I can tell it is going to be a wonderful thing to have. I can see out, but the sun and roving eyes stay outside. XXXOX.

While I was trying to get tired last night and painfully watching Kimmel, I started my new afghan. It has an interesting pattern that will make me use my brain. I hope I like it. It’s going to be made from lots of remaining yarn I have in my stash here and at home. I have only ripped the first two rows out twice now. I WILL figure it out. I WILL figure it out.

I got outside about 1:30 pm. I could hear the rain had stopped drumming on Moya’s roof and Winston was doing the peepee dance at the door. Since NOTHING interrupts me from General Hospital at 2:00 pm, out we went for a brief walk up and down the street, going two campsites in each direction. Kathy and Oscar came out as well. Winston really doesn’t like the rain. He pee’d and pulled me towards the door. He can be such a good boy sometimes…..And the rain started again.

What do we all think of the new Dancing with the Stars dancers….both Cast and Professionals. Where’s Maks???? (pursuing other interests I read…whatever that means.) I understand the need to replace the Pros with the new and upcoming dancers, but doing 4 of them in one show? Time will tell. I will miss Maks and his tirades and his abs. I am a fan of Kellie Pickler and DL Hughley (when he is not being incredibly obscene – yes, I do find some comedians funny.) A quick Wikipedia read on DL – married since 1986 and has a son with Aspergers. Wynonna looked a little long of tooth…. Is Vanderpump really Lisa’s last name? OMG. That is the stuff comedians long for! How many of my generation had Dorothy Hamill haircuts – I sure did, and still love that look and that swing on the back of her head. But the biggest surprise, Ingo. I miss Jasper Jax on GH, and am very happy to see him here.

Figures. Time for GH and crocheting and the sun just peeked thru. WTF?????

It ended up being a really nice afternoon. The temperature only got up to 75, and the humidity decreased greatly.

I have no idea what the soup tasted like, but it went down real good. These Cold-Eeze make everything tasteless. My tongue seems coated with a protective film that prohibits the sense of taste. The soup looked great, smelled great, so I am sure it tasted great. I put some canned dog food in Winston’s new Kong and we had a great dinner. Inside the Cold-Eeze box was a note from the CEO – email him and let him know your experience! I did. Boredom.

Enough rambling. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Kat out

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Photos

Ann and baby
baby on top, born 2/13

newly re-released Slip
with tracking device

anhinga
It has long been thought they spread their wings like this to dry them, as they are 'wetable.' New studies indicate that anhingas produce very little metabolic heat and they loose heat very easily, especially during the process of drying their feathers. Now it is believed that they adopt their spread-wing stance in order to absorb heat so that they can maintain peak activity. Interesting. I love google.