The Way Home

We had finally arrived at our intended destination, where we bought a few things and then headed home...

..........on the way, we passed by this nice neighbourhood.  The picture is a little blurry - the car was moving at highway speed!  I love the olive-coloured palm trees.  Getting closer to home...

........ is this church which seems to be really busy on Saturdays - more so than any other day of the week.

Every year while we are here there is a huge auction sale where they sell acres of heavy equipment and used transport trucks - as well as school buses - this is just a small sampling of what is available.

We drove past the Comfort Inn where we stayed for a couple of days when we first arrived.  It was comfortable and very nice .  We will be staying there for a couple of nights before we head back to Canada, so we will have time to visit with David and Allison when they arrive for their turn at the villa.

We seldom buy gas at this Chevron because usually it is more expensive here than the others, but this day is was $1.69/gal (US$ of course and US gallons) which seemed to be the standard price that day. (Today Poppa gassed up for $1.61/gal; a total of $14US!!!!)

Next on our tour was Granny's favourite place to shop and eat when she is here - Cracker Barrel.  I had fun looking around when we went for breakfast on Monday morning - but with our Cdn$ so low, I didn't buy anything.  Breakfast was just as good as ever Granny!

Behind all those trees is the Walgreen's - kind of like a Shoppers' Drug Mart in Canada.  Squeegie was wanting to stop there to get some snacks - but Poppa kept on driving.

And, soon we were home again!  What did we buy???  Well, we just bought some water and a few groceries, but....

...... it looks like Squeegie managed to sneak a couple of things into the grocery cart when we weren't looking!

Looks like he's all set for an evening of watching TV!  And me...........

........ I just kept on knitting........ more silly socks!  Soon there will be a nice pair of non-silly socks - honest!

Moving Along....

...... on our little journey.....

........... Squeegie started squawking about stopping for a donut - yes they actually have a sparse number of donut shops in Florida.  Poppa kept right on driving and....

... we passed this place where they sell big transport trucks.  Most of them were either white or red, but there was one blue one - can you spot it?  Still driving..........

..... and Squeegie still squawking in the back seat - now he wanted to stop at Wendy's.  But - still no luck for the constantly "starving" little bear.

We seemed to be continually stopping for lights in the middle of traffice that seemed a  little heavy for February - but we saw a lot of Ontario plates and even a few from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick!  Poppa kept driving..........

............ past the Orange Ring which advertised that they would ship produce if you desired.  Squeegie thought we should stop and get some fruit, but, Poppa kept on driving.

.......... and we arrived at our intended destination.  What?  You thought you would get to see some more socks?  Oh - Okay...........

........ here is another pair of silly socks.  Have any of you seen a pair you like yet??  You might want to wait - there are more!

Moving On....

... down the road.  After passing the office of the tax preparer we headed towards Haines City, Fl.  I have always loved........

........ this little bridge, where the sidewalks have their own little passage alongside the road.  Some day I am going to convince Poppa to park someplace nearby so we can walk under there.  Once we go under the bridge, we can see another landmark..........

.......... this tall building in the midst of all the low-rise building around it, is the Baptist College.  There are several other buildings behind this one - I always guess that the tall part is housing for the students and the one-storey structures surround it are the classrooms - but I really don't know if that is true!

Squeegie wanted to stop at this spot - but Poppa kept on driving.  We passed....

...... the Haines City Medical Centre (pardon the blur - it was sunny and it caused a glare on the windshield! Love that sun!).  A little further along.....

.... we spotted the Citrus Growers building where they process citrus fruits for retail markets.  There were a lot of active citrus processing plants when we started staying in Florida for the winter (about 8 years ago), but with the mysterious disease which is affecting the oranges - we have seen a lot of them close down or become of the home of other unrelated businesses.

Then, as we drove past a residential area, we were back on the highway, heading towards the villa.  We were off the road long enough for me to do some knitting though.

Here is another pair of silly socks from the "Available Socks" folder.  What can I say - nothing outstanding about them - except they are definitely silly!

Imagine....

........our little Munchie - who is now 7..........

......... and guess what!  He has lost his first baby tooth.  If you look closely, you can see it in his hand.  Wow!  They grow up sooo fast!  He was quite happy and excited as quite a few of his friends have already lost little teeth and grown new ones.  And Mommy was telling me that the going rate for a first tooth is $5.00 from the tooth fairy.  I wonder what he will do with it!

The third pair of socks..........

........ looks like this.  They are mostly normal socks with a little bit of silliness thrown in for good measure.  More to follow soon!

Drive Around

Yesterday we went for a drive.  We had a destination in mind, but Poppa decided to take the long way there.  So....

... we drove out the gates of our community, and....

......... up the road.  These trees look like the trees in Canada right now - no leaves!  As you can see there are other trees which still have their leaves.  Some of the trees in Florida shed their leaves when it turns cool (winter here), while others just grow new ones and shed the old ones at the same time.  Things seem to be picking up in Florida .....

........ we saw lots of construction going on.  It appears that there will be several new developments in our area.  We are also seeing lots of Ontario plates, so the value of our dollar hasn't deterred lots of people from coming to the sunny sourth - including us!

We passed by a graveyard for heavy equipment - it was huge!

I spotted this big transport truck - not in the graveyard, but parked in front of a business.  Americans are very patriotic (generally) and I thought this was an artistic display of that sentiment.

And, apparently they pay taxes in Florida too!  But, before we get too far away....

......... for the sock lovers reading - here is the second pair of socks to be added to the Available Sox site since I came to Florida.  I have to go and knit some more now, so we'll continue our voyage later!

One More

I did determine that I had one more pair of "special order" socks to knit before I continued with my normal winter knitting of socks.  So, without further ado....

........ here is a pair of socks I made for Kevin.  He never asks for socks, but I know he loves them and after I started knitting this pair in Sirdar Sole to Sole I decided that the colours were just right for him, so I carried on and made them into men's socks.  They should keep his feet warm when he goes hunting in the fall, but they are nice enough that he can wear them to work on sub-zero days.  Now, let me explain (for those of you not on the Sock List):  I sent out an e-mail today to the Sock List subscribers letting them know that I will be posting completed socks here as they become available.  They will then have the option of choosing early or waiting until later when all the socks are done.  If you are not on the Sock List, but wish to be, leave a comment at the end of this blog for more information.  But, before I show you the new socks.....

......... I really should share this photo with you.  This is Mommy's arm - and yes - that is a new tattoo, to celebrate her motherhood and her two wonderful little boys (Munchie & Curtie).  She assures me that all that redness has disappeared already and she is fine.  Ouch!  Recently Poppa, myself and Squeegie went on a mission to find something Poppa wanted to get while we were in Florida.  After a lot of searching and driving from place to place, he finally found what he wanted....

....... new golf shoes.  These new style golf shoes do not have round gripping devices on the bottom, but rather little grippers moulded right into the soles.  He's been wanting to try them out, and didn't have time to look when we were at home.  Unfortunately, Squeegie really likes them and doesn't want to give them back to Poppa!  Somehow, I think Poppa will wrest them off Squeegie when he is ready to go golfing.  On another note....do you remember me being somewhat concerned about Aunt Peggy when we were leaving Canada?  She wasn't feeling well - she had a really nasty cold.  Well - late in January I received this photo of.........

....... my almost 101-year-old Aunt practicing her hockey skills so she can try out for the Maple Leafs next fall.  I guess she is feeling much better!  And now, at last, here is the ...........

......... first pair of 2016 socks.  As you can easily tell, they are silly socks.  I am determined to use up ALL of my leftover bits of yarn this year - so there will be a mixture of silly socks and those created from a single skein of sock yarn.

More About Poppa

Here are some of the things Poppa has done since we arrived in Florida!

As you already know, he did lots of things to help Denis & Liz at their place in Florida.  I was busy painting critters, and didn't take many pictures, so I have no idea what they did!  I know that after....

........... they had gone back to Canada, he went over to their place and painted the top of the dryer to make it look fresh and new again!  He also.........

...... fixed their Canadian flag solar light - which makes some light for all the critters at night - it had quit working - I'm not sure what he did - but it is working again.  When things were all finished up over there, he came back to our villa....

....... his first task was to fix the blinds in the front window.  David had asked him to take a look at them, since they weren't opening properly.  So he took them all off and did something mysterious to the track...........

......... then hung them back up, adjusted some of the vanes....

.... and they all work fine now!  After that.....

........... I heard strange noises and found him behind the dryer.  On further investigation....

.......... it turns out he was cleaning out the exhaust pipes from the dryer.  He thought it was taking too long to dry the clothes..........and it did make a big difference!

One night he helped make supper!  One morning....

.......... he went to McDonald's for breakfast.  The lines were just as long as they are at Tim Horton's in Canada!  He and Squeegie spent some time....

.......... eating that supper he had made...........

......... they let Happy sit with them while they did a few jigsaw puzzles on Poppa's laptop.........

......... on one of the hot days, they sat outside reading a James Patterson novel.......

....... you already know about them replacing the kitchen taps......

........... and while Squeegie watched from afar (he hates water!), Poppa even took some time to play with Wilson in the pool!