A sign of progress

I put socks on when I get up in the morning.

(Waits for snide remarks to subside.)

somewhat haughtily: I do this because it is chilly in the morning, even in the house. The thermostat overnight setback, don't you know?

Today at 6:20 or so as I put on my socks I realized that I have been doing this in the dark for months and sometimes I get my socks on crooked (I hate that).

But today I could see what I was doing.

A sign of progress.

Consequences

A person who takes pride in his driveway but who also spends some time away during which time it snows several inches resulting in a snow emergency and attendant plowing faces consequences upon his return.

The snow having been driven on for a few days was not amenable to removal by power tools. The job had to be done by hand.

So a couple of hours of hard manual labor spread over two days and here you go:Everything neat and pretty, now on with the show.

*sigh*

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

Last chance

Walking in unfamiliar environs and in a city without grid pattern streets can create measurement difficulties. The obvious solution, start walking and turn back after you have completed half of the desired distance, is actually a bit more difficult to implement than to state.

Today's walk started here.Another view.We were lucky enough to come to this sign (and to notice it).We turned around. Who knows what would have happened had we not.

Fountain

Today is theme day. The theme for this month is "fountain". I don't have one.

Today after breakfast I added a new bird to my life list. This creature was having breakfast out on the boat lift behind the house.That's an osprey, also sometimes known as a fish eagle or sea hawk.

While we were checking the bird book and the inter tubes to make the species ID these two fellows walked right up to the house.They are "white birds."

This afternoon we went out to Gasparilla Island. I always like this, it is the shell line on the beach.Wet sand below, dry sand above, a shell sandwich.

The lighthouse.Before it was an overpriced tourist destination Gasparilla Island was a deep water sea port. Those piers are pretty much the only thing left of the industrial area which once existed on the south end of the island. There were a couple of warehouses and a major phosphate shipping operation.The star of today's show, the Gulf of Mexico.No snow emergency here, it was about 80F with fairly light breezes. Also fairly obviously it was mostly clear and gorgeous.