Travels with Snowbirds 2018, February 2018, Thousand Trails, Clermont FL

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I lost the gift of gab for a while. I lost the desire to write. I became a slug, not doing anything, not wanting to do anything. I was feeling sorry for myself a whole lot, and I wasn’t feeling healthy. It started when I got to this current campground and, hopefully, fully ended today. I had a spring in my step today, I didn’t feel so negative, I am happier inside my skin…..which has gotten fluffier since I did eat a lot while in my funk.

I will admit, I stayed up until 2:30 last night watching Olympics and writing a purge blog. I had a lot of things to get off my chest. I did not sleep once I went to bed. I got up this morning and realized I could not publish what I had written, it was too private, too personal, too revealing. So, dear readers, you are getting the revised version with only the interesting stuff.

In no particular order…..

The Pine Trees started to produce their green pine tree pollen (PTP), making it difficult for me to see and breathe due to itchy eyes and chest congestion. The damn heart drug I take to keep my heart rate low combined with difficulty breathing from the PTP severely impacted my quality of life. I could not walk more than 50 steps without having to stop to catch my breath. My girlfriends were arriving from Wilmington and we had massive plans to do Old Lady Disney World and I needed to and wanted to participate. Those two days are a blur. I took a few pictures and posted them to a blog I never wrote. I will somehow get them into this blog. I rented a scooter both days, thank goodness, or I would have been more miserable than I was. Kim came with me for Epcot day, and I think she really had a good time, not having been there for 30 years. We ate very good fish and chips at “England”. And I saw the new “Soarin” thanks to Barb fast passing us. Next day was Hollywood Studios which ended up not as I had hoped. I had to give up my reservation for SciFi Diner because I knew I would not last to 5:40 pm to honor it. That has been a bucket list item for me for many years…..ever since Mary Hill and I took the girls when they were…….8??? 12????? We did Brown Derby that year. Then, The Indiana Jones Stunt Show, my favorite thing in Hollywood Studios broke at our show. The wall in the beginning was unable to leave the stage; the show couldn’t go on. 3000 people in the stadium left, no one more disappointed than me. The freakin thing has worked for 29 years and the day I am there to see it, it breaks. That day I used Uber for both rides, and it actually worked out very well, except for the fact that it was about ¾ mile walk from where I returned the scooter to the Uber pick up lot. I made it, but I was not happy. Ginnie took care of Winston both days; I didn’t have that to worry about. Thanks, Ginnie.

The heat has arrived. I can never remember it being 85 in Orlando in February. I am dealing with it, but remember, this girl doesn’t like camping in the summer, but it sure beats being in the cold north. It took about a week of taking Claritin and faithfully using eye drops twice a day to get the allergy thing under control. I have gradually worked my way back up to riding my bike 2 miles in the morning. I am concentrating on walking properly to keep knee pain free. It’s working a little. I do have an appointment for a knee gel shot the day after I get home, as well as a haircut, grooming for Winston, getting eye glasses adjusted, getting RV inspected, cleaned, and stored. Uh Huh.

Ginnie’s leg wound is slow to heal. We found a wound specialist who is wonderful and taking good care of it and Ginnie, but the healing process is slow.

Saturday was my mini Mineola High School Class of 64 annual FL reunion. Thanks Linda for picking up the slack and getting things organized. I really was in a fog. It was good to see old friends. Greek food at a nearby restaurant was good. The loud music was not for our hearing impaired. Including me. God Bless Dick (I call him Richard) Paczkowski. He and wonderful wife, Joannie, drive over 2 hours to make our event each year, and their combined health issues make it tough on them. He showed us a picture of him all decked out with his straw hat, corn cob pipe, white long beard, and every type of gun weapon in his arsenal……with is Oxygen tubing running around his body to his portable concentrator. What an oxymoron. Love you both. Dick, I wish we had been friends in Mineola. And God Bless Janet Marchand Papp and husband Chuck who drove 3 hours to join us for lunch before continuing to St Pete for dinner with other friends. They live in and manage a large senior community and have some fun and sad stories of the residents. And Maureen Kelly got lost on her way. She told me she was singing at the top of her lungs with the radio blasting (Maureen is extremely hard of hearing…) and missed a crucial turn. I couldn’t call her to check on her because I knew she wouldn’t hear the phone ring. We had a lot of laughs for our brief visit. I wish more people could make it and stroll down memory lane with us.

Saturday was the regularly scheduled campground wide yard sale. Ginnie and I went up and down every street in her golf cart, and she was fortunate to find 7 unread hard cover Janet Evanovich books. $1 each except for the latest one in the series which was $2. Last stop was at a Big Class A in the annual lease section. The couple was older than me, but I don’t think they were 80. The husband looked dusky and yellow. Red flag. Wife looked worn out. I noticed a severely physically and mentally challenged lady having a temper tantrum trying to use her walker towards the back of the campsite. Mental overload on my part. The wife told us all items free. If it is not gone it is going to Goodwill. Someone was backing a hauling trailer into their site to take away their storage shed. Then I noticed the For-Sale sign on the rig. So much in my head it was spinning. I said to husband, I was sad for him having to give up the dream. He told me he was going home to Ohio, and I can’t remember if he said Cincinnati or Cleveland. He had a heart transplant in 1995 and it was getting all “clogged” now and he was in end stage renal failure and he needed to ‘go home’. I had to hug him, this stranger I did not know. Wife was at my side encouraging me to take something and I had a moment with her, eye to eye and we knew each other while I selected a box cutter. A FREAKIN BOX CUTTER. She is tired. Both him and 42 year old challenged daughter have taken their toll. How much can be thrown at one lady. She told me she didn’t know how she was going to get thru the next few months, and a whole lot of other sad things, and I gave her my life long advice; put one leg in front of the other and walk thru the pain and do it because you are woman hear you roar and they need you. I had my free box cutter in my hand. I told them I would hang it up in my RV and say a prayer for them every time I looked at it, so they could have the strength for what is coming. I was sad and I cried.

Sunday the girlies and I went to see the Dancing with the Stars Tour in the Bob Carr Theatre near UCF – a facility very much like my Wilmington Wilson Center. It was a great show; I was entranced from start to end. The Volunteer Ushers steered us wrong 3 times…to row M in the balcony, and it was not an easy task for Ginnie to retrace her steps 3 times to find our correct seats. Guess what, my CBT and WC friends, there is no elevator to their balcony level either. The orchestra seats go from wall to wall – no center or side aisles. Very interesting arrangement. Then, despite the groupies behind us shrieking in their alcoholic reverie and the ‘bimbout’ (old bimbo) in front of us taking smart phone photos every 10 seconds, we truly enjoyed the energetic show, great light effects, great costumes. Pizza on the way home at our favorite newly found Italian Restaurant, “I Love NY Pizza”, go figure.

I was able to turn on the computer Sunday night and start to write. I greatly revised the depressing version I wrote at 2:30 into this somewhat happier, newsier edition. Writing puts my life into a cabinet for me where I can look at it, take pieces out, examine them and put it in the proper compartment. Put one foot forward and walk thru it and come out on the other side. I am woman, hear me roar.

Kat out

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Photos

Maureen brought Winston a new toy
Winston has NEVER liked plushy toys. He picked this one up immediately and carried it everywhere, until it squeaked. He jumped. I put it in his bed, he wouldn't go in his bed, instead, he slept on mine. Crazy dog.

Beautiful sunrise.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures