Our Maiden voyage

Finally, FINALLY got to go out on a little ride on our boat!  We had the seller take us out so we could learn all the controls.  Jim had owned little center console boats before but this one was a little different and had an inboard which he had never used in previous boats, and he was nervous about it. I get it. We are old and like the saying goes, "can't teach an old dog new tricks".  If I had to ride a horse or drive a stick shift again I would be scared to bits, and they are both things I was proficient at.  But like another saying goes, "use it or lose it".  With lack of use goes any confidence or bravery you used to possess. And it does take a little while to get that back.

When the seller was sliding the boat into the water he told me that "Boston Whalers" are unsinkable!  ARGHHHH!!!  😟 OMG,  you didn't just say that did you?  That's what they said about the Titanic!!  He laughed.

Speaking of which he told us that we didn't need to buy any life jackets as it came with some. Okay, sounded good to me, till I saw them. EWWWW!!😒  They were filthy, ripped and so old looking I thought maybe they were left over from the Titanic!  Seriously I would rather risk drowning than wear that gross thing. So Tara and I went out and bought shiny new ones for us girls. The guys thought that was a waste of money, so if the guys want to wear the life rags let them.

Our first voyage was on the Weeki Wachee river an Indian name for Winding Waters.  It was like stepping back in time.  The woods were so thick and the oak canopies were looming over head, I half expected a dinosaur to come loping out of the woods!!

wild Florida 

We went over the very deep spring hole named hospital hole, which is said to have healing waters and the mama manatees like to hang out there. We even saw one.  The manatees were thought to be mermaids by ancient sailors. They are "cute" but jeez, exactly how long would a person have to be out to sea before they thought this creature was a beautiful mermaid?  I think there may have been a little delirium going on.

the mermaid model

We got our Florida boat numbers the other day and that with the life jackets and a new anchor are already for more adventures!  Hopefully we will get lots of use and fun out of it.  Florida isn't the boating capital of the country for nothing!

Valentine's Day the cruelest cut of all

I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day!  It is especially painful when a person is not in a serious relationship and it seems like EVERYONE is in some human version of Noah's Ark. 😡

The absolute worst Valentine's Day ever was when once again I didn't have a significant other and was working at Target.  All of a sudden a Barbershop quartet stormed into the store carrying a bouquet of roses.  I love barbershop quartets so I followed them.  They were delivering their beautiful songs and flowers to one of my co-workers!  With every flowery song a.i: "let me call you sweetheart", etc,(ad nauseum) she would fain embarrassment, "oh please stop", she said meekly. YES PLEASE STOP! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP!, I screamed in my head.  Another female co-worker was crying, either because it was so beautiful or because she felt slighted like the rest of us.

This holiday is a commemoration of a Saint, Saint Valentine, who was beheaded on February, 14th, probably for inventing Valentine's Day.  That'll teach him!

And every store has oodles and oodles of butt candy. You don't have to be a cardiologist to know that a heart just ain't shaped like that.  In fact the heart shape was designed to resemble the reverse shape of a woman's butt when she is sitting.  The round parts going into the point of the waist. So you are buying your beloved candy based on a woman's butt!

When I started to date Jim I told him of the "barbershop horror" at Target. The next day while working I was called to the back room, there waiting for me was a biggest bouquet of roses I had even seen! It was so big I could hardly carry them!  It felt so good walking out of the store with my prize bouquet. Now I knew how others felt.  And Jim made sure I would never be slighted again.

Years later my daughter Tara gave me a reason to love the holiday. She was due mid-February and could pick any day, she picked Valentine's Day. So Kaity turns 11 tomorrow on a day I used to loathe.

We had a little celebration yesterday, birthday and Valentine's Day for the girls with gifts an a pizza and cake party, yes even butt candy. We also started a little archaeology dig going in the backyard.   We have found several things in the past, fossil shells, a fossil sand biscuit, a partially fossilized whole turtle shell, and a very pretty salt glaze vase!  But nothing this time other than some blackened pieces of wood pretty far down, maybe part of an ancient campfire.  Who knows what secrets the woods holds! it's fun to imagine!

The dig site

New Stuff /old stuff/ tan stuff/ gold stuff

It's almost spring and this girl has thoughts of: cleaning, sorting, organizing, throwing out.  Not very romantic. But it's time to get the yard in shape, outdoors cleaned up, pond and pool looking good, etc. And with every chore Jim complains that we were nuts to buy this place with all it's maintenance! Well duh, yeah we are a little nuts but we could not pass it up! We would NEVER find a unique place like this for sale ever, anywhere!   Every now and then domes come up for sale.  Usually they are one dome and not a complex/set of 4 like this one and many for sale are wood, which I think totally defeats the purpose of the strength of a dome, why wouldn't you want it to be concrete? Although the wood ones are much prettier, the concrete ones like ours look like space stations or igloos.

When it comes to maintenance I get the easy tasks as anything strenuous is way out of my ability level.  Usually it involves painting.  I had noticed that my little rustic display was looking pretty ratty so I hauled them into the garage to be re-furbished.   The wagon I gave a fresh coat of stain/sealer and the black accents were re-painted with Rustoleum.   My dad was happy I was doing that over as he said it looked really awful. Gee, thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed.😒  I didn't have any black paint so I used Kevin's black engine paint.  Not really meant for wood but it seems to be working just fine and went on perfectly.  I also painted the vent out take for the little bathroom, gave it a little steam punk vibe with gold accents.

Pump and wagon

Bathroom vent

Wagon

Fake water pump

When we bought this place it had cheap plastic blinds over the two sliding doors. We hated them and now two years later FINALLY had them replaced!  The living room now has a dark brown almost fur patterned blind and our bedroom is tan and has a refined basket weave design. Both are room darkening, and 1000 times better than the crap that was there before!  Not really sure why it look us so long to replace them, I guess we didn't think it was a priority so many other things needed changing.  The blind installer who came to put up our new blinds was shocked with the house. "I wasn't expecting this! This is the coolest thing I've ever seen"!  What? Like it's weird or something?   We usually get similar reactions and it's always fun to see the look on people's faces. 

Actual color tan with basket weave design

Basket weave

Chocolate brown tree bark pattern

Actual color is dark brown/ fur/tree bark pattern

We are also buying a little jet boat, not that two old people will be "jetting" anywhere, and just the other day bought a Toyota Highlander to tow the boat we don't own yet. Wishful thinking. But even if we didn't get the boat we NEEDED another vehicle!  We have used one car for the two years we've lived here and it's been hell!  When you live in the sticks and one person takes the only car the other person is STRANDED bigtime!  So that will be a huge relief to have another car to rely on.  

So that's what's new at the dome, until next time....