SHOULD HAVE SEEN IT COMING !

Well, yes, we should have seen it coming. We put all that work into the new flower beds just in time for the record cold wave. We covered most of the new flowers that were out in the open. We hoped the trees and existing overhang would take care of the rest.

We lost some "Impatiens", I lost my patience, and my lips turned the color of this text. But what the heck, it was 79 yesterday, supposed to be 81 today. I can put up with a day or two of the cold if it will always come back to this.

Our Christmas Present....to Each Other

We had decided that we were not going to exchange gifts this year. We thought taking care of the kids and grands plus the cost of the trip to Tennessee for Christmas would be enough. She changed our minds.

Shortly before time for us to travel, Ms. Becky saw some decorative curbing around one of our neighbor's flower gardens. It really caught her attention. She mentioned that it would certainly look nicer than the stones and blocks, etc. that we had around all of our flower beds.

I found out that the people that own Tree Frogs and take such good care of our lawns also own Creative Curbs and Concrete Designs. I saw one of the owners when they were here with the mowers and inquired about the cost of the curbing. She measured off the area we talked about and gave us an excellent price. I passed this information along to Ms. Becky and left it up to her. Her first response was that we didn't need to spend the money for that right now. Remember, she is a female. Two days later she changed her mind.

Creative Curbs promised that could get it done before we left for our Christmas trip, and they did. Of course, by then, the project had grown to include curbing around two more trees. Here are some pictures of the results.
Around the Northeast Corner of the Driveway

This Section Starts at the Front Steps and Goes to the Northwest Corner of the House

The Ficus is in the back yard. The Palm is in the front yard next to the driveway.

He Travels Well

Wake me in a couple of hours and I will drive.

Just give him his pillow and blankie and he will go anywhere! The only problem is, sometimes he wants to drive. After our trip to Lake Okeechobee I had to disappoint him by informing him that he was not quite ready to get his license.

Okeechobee was nice. We did a little exploring of the neighborhood with our friends, learned a lot about the lake and the "Rim Canal" that circles it, and found some good places to eat. The Brahma Bull was especially nice. If you are ever in the neighborhood, you can find it on Highway 441 just a couple of miles south of the intersection with Highway 78. They have nightly specials including Snow Crab Legs and Prime Rib. We were just there for lunch but it was good home-style cooking. It is time to go back on the diet now. The holidays killed me. Time to get back into the routine.

After the Party

Well, the trip back to see all the folks was mostly enjoyable. We left for the south on Sunday morning. I thought if we got through Atlanta before noon on Sunday traffic would not be too bad. I wasn't smart enough to check the football schedule. Atlanta had a 1:00 P.M. kickoff. Traffic was too bad!!!

Interstate 75 south of Atlanta was bumper-to-bumper, stop and go. We elected to take I-16 East from Macon to Savannah. Another mistake on my part. Interstate 16 was not crowded at all and we had a scenic and leisurely trip until we got to I-95. With the combination of traffic and road construction, there were many miles travelled at less than 10 miles per hour. By the time we got to St. Augustine, it was 10:00 P.M. A trip that should have taken less than 11 hours had taken nearly 14 hours.

We didn't miss the furnace that night. When Camping World opened, I visited the service desk and told them I realized that our appointment was not until 10:00 A.M. but that we would be in the parking lot as soon as they got ready for us. They finally took us in about 12:45 P.M. after Miss Becky had some choice words with them. Then they decided that the furnace needed a new switch that they did not have in stock. That means another 200 mile trip when they get it in to have it installed. We finally made it home around 5:00 P.M. We were cutting it pretty short since we planned to leave by 11:00 A.M. the next morning for a trip to Lake Okeechobee with some friends.