Our visit to what we think is the best beach in Florida!!

We hate leaving our peaceful paradise!  It takes dragging in some cases to get Jim to go anywhere.  I don't really like leaving either but sometimes you do have to at least get a few groceries.  And this coming week is filled with doctor/dentist appointments. So we thought we would give ourselves a nice day at the beach.

Not a local one though as they are all crap.  We ended up spending the day at what was our favorite beach when we lived in Clearwater, Indian Rocks Beach.   I don't know why it is called Indian Rocks, it should be called Interesting Rocks beach as we have taken home several weird looking rocks, one we found out was a meteorite! And several "rocks" turned out not to be rocks at all but Pleistocene fossil remains of several animals. I have a dish of over twenty horse teeth, a sloth tooth, assorted animal bones, hundreds of fossil shark teeth and even a prehistoric section of a deer antler!  And usually you can find some decent shells too.  I don't care what "Dr. Beach" says Indian Rocks Beach rocks!!  

We started out on our LONG drive. OMG, 2 hours of torture! We forgot how long a drive it is from where we are! It's funny but I am originally from RI where NOTHING in that state is a long drive, yet if locals have to drive even close to an hour in one direction they usually get a hotel for the night! I find that hilarious now when it is a 10 mile drive (one direction)for us just to buy food.

Finally we arrived a little before 11am, so the beach was picked clean of the prime shells but we still managed to find a few things including a couple of shark's teeth.

Our haul from the this most recent trip to IRB

A huge horse tooth from a previous beach trip

Rainbow on IRB

We walked the beach, dug for shells, both had a long nap listening to the white noise of the beach, and I even went in the water for a little while! We missed doing all that, but with the hellacious drive in mind it may be the LAST trip to IRB. 

After leaving the beach I wanted to stop at a place called Tampa Bay Salvage. I saw an add online and thought they had the coolest stuff! Well they didn't disappoint!  We drove up to find remnants of two piper club planes, an ox cart and Indian Taxi, and an old red British phone booth! And that was just some of the things outside. We loved browsing through all the neat stuff,  a moose antler bar, three hundred year old monastery doors, etc!  I though the little piper cub would make an awesome child's bed for any kid into aviation!  We didn't come home with anything but that's not saying we won't go back and get one of their unusual finds.  Loved the ox carts!! 

Indian Taxi

One of two ox carts

Then back home to our little piece of heaven.  It's nice to get away but nicer to go home.

The Trump Drinking Game

Here we are with a new President and 4 years of God only knows what.😱  I decided to make a drinking game out of the inauguration and take a swig of wine with every stupid comment!  Since I have a low tolerance for liquor I expected to be out cold in 20 minutes.  But actually his speech was short and simple as he spoke to his supporters. He promised he would work for "everyone".  Does he really mean that as he was pretty adamant in the past about who his "enemies" were.  Basically everyone who DIDN'T vote for him.

I watched the whole shebang, all 6 hours of it.  There were violent riots, hundreds arrested, protesters galore and lots and lots of empty seats. And he takes office with the lowest approval rating of any president ever.  For someone who thrives on being loved I almost felt bad for him.  Because of the long delays due to the violence the parade was delayed over two hours. So the one thing I REALLY wanted to see I saw 10 minutes of before the station cut away to local broadcasts!  Argh😭  Donald Trump had been president a few short hours and already I was frustrated and upset!!

And there was the stunning Melania Trump by his side in her beautiful Blue coat, with matching gloves and matching shoes. Somewhere I envisioned a high strung fashion designer yelling "matchy, matchy" and falling into a seizure.  But maybe she wanted to play it safe and not stand out in a high profile way.  If that's what she wanted, mission accomplished.

With Trump the GOP gets their wish -total control.  Be careful what you wish for.  It could come back to bite you, anything that goes wrong and you are solely to blame.  If/when he makes his first big mistake I can then get the bumper sticker that says "Don't look at me I didn't vote for him." Little solace in a world gone mad.

I expect the liberal media to trounce Mr. Trump for the entirely of his term. Mr. Trump welcome to your nightmare!  And since he has already gotten upset and frazzled with questions by the press that he was not capable of answering I predict major health issues for him. Let's face it he is past 70 already, the oldest president elect ever,  is over weight with a big gut on him,  and has a type A personality to the max!   None of this being a healthy combination of factors.

In a way I am relived he won.  I don't have to defend my candidate for at least the next 4 years. And if the GOP was brutal on Obama they would have tortured Hillary!  Grandmas shouldn't be tortured they should enjoy their grandchildren and take them to theme parks, like I do.  I would have been worried sick for her for 4 years!!  I have enough health issues I don't need anything to make them worse.

It tickles me when people call Obama a do nothing president or Congress a do nothing congress. Seriously, they don't get why?   A Republican controlled congress trampled any good Obama wanted to accomplish to make him look weak and unproductive.  So as a result very little got done for the benefit of America.  I agree there should be checks and balances on a two party system but no one party should not have their rights and wants trampled for benefit of one party who doesn't even represent the majority of Americans!  Not a very fair system.

And Obama fielded all their demands and abuse with dignity and grace. Something that we will not see from Mr. Trump as it is blatantly apparent he can not take ANY form of criticism at all.   It ought to be an interesting presidency to say the least.   And I for one hope beyond hope that he will accomplish "something" that will benefit us "all".  It is now a waiting game.

Missy

It is with a heavy heart I report that my daughter had to have her elderly Golden Retriever put down.  The past few months have been, constant surgeries, illnesses, vet visits, medications, etc. It came to a point where a decision had to be made.  She was too wonderful a dog to have suffer, and she will be sadly missed by everyone who knew her.

She was a rescue dog long ago, and went on to have a major positive impact on our lives.  If Kevin hadn't taken her home that day she was to be destroyed the next. I always wondered how such a great dog could have been returned to the kennel not once but "twice". She never bit anyone and was so sweet. When Kevin was deployed to Afghanistan when the girls were babies I was so thankful to know that a big, strong dog was standing guard.  Every night she would lay in front of the door to the girls room. If anyone broke in they would have to go through Missy first!

I was lucky to have her live with us for the 9 months it took Tara and Kevin to close on their house.  I will always remember her running down one of our wooded paths with her tongue hanging out and that silly look on her face.   Here's to you Missy, the best dog ever!  🙏  I hope Heaven never runs out of dog treats!

It's the end of the world as we know it

Ah, a brand new year and soon a brand new president.  I am trying to remain positive about the latter. But I like the majority of Americans who didn't vote for him are scared half to death!  😧  And it doesn't help when Mr. President elect tweets such things as : "Happy New Year to all: including my many enemies and those who fought me and lost SO badly they just don't know what to do. "  Oh Donald, I know just what to do-PRAY!!  Pray that you don't completely ruin our county in 4 short years.  I doubt very seriously you will even be any resemblance to a competent President.

Perhaps his snarky tweet was revenge for Hillary Clinton referring to some of his followers as deplorables.  But when I read in the newspaper about some Trump supporters  are denying the Sandy Hook massacre as an evil ploy by Hillary to take away their sniper rifles.  I think deplorable is correct. In fact I would use another word which is not printable. I'm sure those grief stricken parents pray every day that it was all a hoax that they will some day wake from their nightmare existence to a world where they still have their precious child.  Unfortunately that will never happen.

And don't forget Mr. Trump that it was the Electoral college, a handful of Americans,  that voted you in not the majority of Americans. The electoral college as we all know is an antiquated system that should have been disbanded LONG ago. Every vote should matter, not just a  handful.

I doubt the middle class will be helped. Why should he? What's in it for him? With the Donald we will have a Plutocracy, a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.  Never so much as now when a billionaire takes office and fills his cabinet with fellow billionaires.  If you think he cares about you and your little problems you are kidding yourself.

We who are helpless with this election result  have no recourse but to support someone who we believe has no right being in our highest office.  I can't wish for the next 4 years to fly by as that will put me in my late 60s and my husband in his seventies!  And Jim is trying to cheer me by saying none of this will personally effect us.  I hope he's right but it can't stop me from being upset over the rest of the country who will be stomped by this school yard bully.  If the next few years do prove to be disastrous💀 I can always hide out in my solid concrete and steel fortress of solitude on the 4 wooded acres, and pretend all is right with the world.  God help us all!

The Quest to be exotic

First of all Happy New Year to everyone! Let's hope it will be happy for all!  🙌

One of my pre-New Years resolutions was to send for my DNA profile from Ancestry.com.  They had been advertising the heck out of it and offered it for a discount for a few days, which is when I snapped it up.

I few days later my kit showed up. The instructions were easy to follow but the test itself was gross. I had to repeatedly spit into a cup to fill to a certain level.  😝 EWWW.

With that disgusting ritual over I sent it back right away and eagerly waited for the results. Finally, on New Years Eve they posted the results to Ancestry.com. I couldn't wait to read them!

It was then I received the shock of my life!  That's ME??? What???  No, that can't be right!  DNA don't lie, we all found that out with the OJ trial, not that it mattered there.  But it is pretty damn accurate.

0% Asian, 0% African, 0% Native American. What the hell??? What about all those family stories and all the dreaming of our brave Sioux ancestors? Gone, all gone!!  To say I was disappointed was the understatement of the year. 😕

All my life I wanted to be different, exotic.  Why be normal? What fun is that? When I was young  I dressed outlandishly, and generally marched to my own drummer.  Look at the house I live in!  It looks more like George Jetson slept there than George Washington!

I always wanted an exotic name too and sadly missed my few chances at that.  I was born into a boring Scotch name (Thompson), married into an even more boring English name (Tucker)and re-married into another boring Scotch/Irish name (Jamesson) and he isn't even Scotch!!  He is full blooded Greek and his dad had a glorious exotic name Demetrio, which he Americanized into Jamesson. Why Charlie (Costa), why?? Why couldn't you have left a beautiful name alone?  I asked him that one day and his answer was he didn't want to be discriminated against with a foreign sounding name so he picked an American name. Which is odd when you think of it, he picked a Scottish name with Scandinavian spelling as an "American" name!  If he REALLY wanted to be 100% American shouldn't be have picked an American Indian name? They are the ONLY 100% Americans!At least THAT would have been unique.   But what is done is done.  I tried to talk Jim into changing it back once but he wouldn't. Sigh.😞

But at least he IS exotic.  No DNA issues there.  Which is why I picked him in the first place he was so different, so dark and exciting. Not to mention Greek men are very cuddly.  We would go to his house and his parents spoke to him in Greek, so cool sounding, and a little bit like Klingon.  I loved it!  But no one knows he is exotic, oh sure he looks it but they look at the name and say, oh he can't be, which is fine with him, but not me.

So we are back to the disappointing DNA.  What it DID show was 100% European.   39% French, German, 32%  Irish ( my sister was so happy about that, yeah me not so much), 17% Iberian peninsula, 9% Greek/Roman (wahoo!)😄 2% Great Britain and 1% European Jewish.   It's funny but I went to Paris, France on a high school trip and one of the french ladies said I looked VERY European. She thought I would blend right in. So she was right about that.  

At least my daughter and her girls got an exotic French name-Dumais. And her youngest daughter looks exotic, VERY French, so I'm happy for them.  That's off to a great start in my book!