Sugarloaf Key: A beautiful day here in paradise. Turn on the news and there’s pictures of people shoveling snow and sliding around on the ice. Ya gotta love it! We headed to Key West around 3:00, parked at the Truman Annex, and walked over to the Meteor for dinner. Then walked back and headed over to Fort Zach Taylor for the concert. Howard Livingston and the MM24 band. Sitting outside with the water all around, sloops heading out for their sunset cruise, wonderful breezes blowing and listening to the tropical sounds of MM24. A great evening.

Sugarloaf Key: Drove into Key West late morning and did the laundry. Everyone had the same idea. The place was crowded. Poured down rain for a while. An iffy day all day today. Took the videos back. The only good one was “The Women”. Very good. 80 today.

Sugarloaf Key: Merry Christmas! A quiet day today. I did a pork loin roast with mashed sweet potatoes, a vegetable and apple sauce. Opened a bottle of wine. Was hung over by 4:00. A good day, considering that an ambulance hauled off a girl down the way who it was rumored was doing drugs and drinking last night—along with dieting. Also a guy down the way from us who just pulled in a couple of days ago got a call this morning that his son had died. Not sure how. Very sad. The place is full. Most of them will leave after the holidays. Nice weatherwise—low 80s.

Sugarloaf Key: An iffy day again today. Drove to Big Pine Key and picked up some groceries, stopped at the video store and rented 3 movies, and had lunch at No Name Pub on No Name Key. Back home and relaxed outside reading for a while. Started spitting rain. Guess that was a Keys snow storm. 81 today.

Tue, 12/23/08

Sugarloaf Key: Really blustery today. But warm—upper 70s. Even though our outdoor reed carpet is staked down, it kept blowing up from the back and knocking over one of the chairs and the table in between. So Mike found a large rock and placed it on the back of the mat and so far it’s working. Decided to go see a movie in Key West. Went to see Seven Pounds with Will Smith. An okay movie—slow at times. Felt lousy most of the day today. Only had two drinks last night, but they were really strong. Got back from the movie at around 5:00 and it was so windy there were white caps on our little lake. Supposed to have showers tonight.

Fleming Street

Fleming Street

Mon, 12/22/08

Sugarloaf Key: This morning was cloudy and nasty looking. But I donned shorts and a tee shirt and walked around the lake anyway. Walked down Johnson Road with my treat for Daisy. She wouldn’t come to the fence, but she didn’t bark at all this time. Came back—stopping at the office to see if my remote had come-- and put on sweats and a sweat shirt. Did some cleaning while Mike took my bike up to get it fixed. Later we headed over to the KOA for happy hour. The KOA is getting busier—people coming down for the Christmas/New Year holiday. We have some at Lazy Lakes also. We actually have children running around. What an anomaly. Guess they’d better clean up the Christmas movie they were planning on showing.

On the Afterdeck at Louie's Backyard

Sugarloaf Key: A beautiful, sunny day. Hardly any wind. So we set out with our bikes to bike the old county road. Riding through this residential area on the way to the old road, we noticed a lot of new homes being built. Not sure in this economy how any of them will sell. Took us a half hour to get to the old road. Stopped at one of the canals and watched some guys fishing. Continued on and noticed my front tire looked soft. My brand new tires—which are supposed to be Kevlar—went flat. At least the front tire went flat. So I walked the bike back and Mike biked back to the truck and came back and picked me up at the barricade on the old road. What a disappointment. We packed a lunch and were going to make a day of it. Oh well. Tomorrow we take the bike back to the bike shop and get the tire fixed or replaced. Took a shower and then relaxed outside with my latest book. First day of winter—80s here. YES!