Walking again

 YES!! finally the weather has cooled down enough we can walk in the morning again. Been out three times in the last week, twice in the wetlands - did 2 3/4 miles both times. Today around our community. Only 2 1/2 miles. For some reason I wear out quicker when walking in the community than in the wetlands. I guess not as much to see and a lot hotter with no shade. So here we are on one of the still puddled trails. Three weeks after the flooding. 

All the rocks have been washed clean, lots of pretty colors in this one. 

Most of the ponds have very murky water and are overgrown with plants. Looks like the beavers are trying to dam this one up again. 

One of the many closed trails. All the dirt is gone.

Need to watch where we are walking lots of big drop offs where the water too the dirt away. 

The river has a lot of water in it, but was a lot higher than it is now. 

This used to be dry land, now quite a bit of water in it running into the river. 

This trail is open but in pretty bad shape. 

This pond is completely covered with some kind of scum, algae? Used to be a lot of ducks and geese here. 

Almost home the first walk,  only saw one bunny and this road runner. Wonder if the bunnies managed to stay out of the flooding. 

Tuesdays walk. The mud still in the road at the gate between our community and the Wetlands. 

Just a dragon fly, lots of them around.

A couple of turtles checking us out to see if we will feed them. 

We saw a coyote, but wasn't fast enough to get a picture of him. This was always my favorite part of the park, now it is completely covered with growth, not maintained at all. 

Turtle taking the sun. 

Like walking here for the shade. Lots of the dirt here was washed away too. 

Again not fast enough with the camera to get a picture of a three foot skinny snake. This pond has a lot of the water plants in it now. 

Today we walked in the community. So much damage to so many places. And of course home owners insurance doesn't cover any of it because it was caused by flooding. Some of the homes in the back part of the community where the block wall came down even had water in their homes.

Lots of other things going on, still trying to catch up. 

It's been a while...

For some reason I just haven't felt like sitting down and writing. So here I am today. Went walking this morning got in 2.77 miles, so I don't feel like doing anything but sitting for now. The weather has finally cooled down enough to to be nice to get out and walk in the morning. Also walked Saturday morning. Did 2.75 miles. Took me until today to recover...

Really nice weather for the next week or so. Very small chance of rain a couple of days and some windy days.  Can live with that.. 

For sure don't need any more rain. This is the back of our home, where the water went under the house. 

The almost dry drainage ditch that caused all the problems. It had rapids it was so full and flowing so fast. 

I mentioned we are at the higher part of the street, so there is the water line where the ditch started to overflow. Just before the house. The wood on the right is the crawl hole to go under the house. Remember this is a manufactured home so it sits up on jacks/stilts. Saturday we have someone coming to crawl under there to make sure the jacks weren't undermined by the rushing water. Sure hope not. 

The front corner of the house where it is just hanging in the air. All the dirt and rocks ended up in the street and before we could get the mess back up on the yard the street sweeper came and swept all the dirt and rocks up. The wood you can see is the skirting that goes around the exterior of the house to cover the crawl space. The actual bottom of the house is up higher. 

A kind of pretty sunset one of the nights after the rains. 

One thing that has been keeping me busy is our new TV. We got a Roku TV. Big learning curve there for both of us. Here is Bill watching a Miami soccer game. One of the reasons we got the Roku, can only watch Miami and Messi on Apple TV MLS. For Bill to see TV good it has to be as dark as possible. His eye is improving a lot, but still has trouble with regular things unless it is really bright light. Like using the remote control. It is a challenge for him. He got another shot in eye last week and could read all but the last line of the eye chart. Huge improvement.

One morning's sunrise over the Wetlands. 

Another diamond dot painting. Really like this one. Picture doesn't do it justice. 

Hanging on the wall along with other "water" pictures. When the light is on in this room it really sparkles.

Lots more been going on, but will leave it for later. Just trying to catch. up. 

Sunshine today, thank goodness

 Started this blog a while ago and got side tracked. So will finish it now. Here is a picture of Bill watching a movie on his computer, Thank you Gil, our son, for setting this up for him. Even has head phone, got new ones after this picture that are wireless.

A nice sunset the night before the RAINS CAME

Just a meal I fixed from scratch. Really good. Beefsteak tomatoes sliced with seasonings and cheese then baked. And chicken breasts with artichoke, onion, asparagus and leftover pieces of the tomatoes. 

Been working on my diamond painting - the kind with the beads. Got this one framed and hung. 

Working on this one now. I love roosters. Will find a place in the kitchen to hang it.

Bill bought me this one, finished it and framed it using a frame Bill made of an old piece of wood we found in the desert years ago. He made the frame a long time ago too, so I had to get creative to make it work with the weird size picture. This hangs in our computer room. 

Right by the sunflower Bill made me out of wood a couple of years ago. 

So excited, before the flood, about getting our mail box fixed finally. Lock broke several weeks ago and management had to order a new lock. They finally called me and told me the lock was fixed and pick up the keys. Well, I got to the office and the girl gave me back my old key...I mentioned I thought there should be new keys. Well this is what I have it will work. Hum...Went to mail box, of course it didn't work AND the lock was put on upside down...Went back to office and told them. So no one knew about new keys and maintenance man was upset when I mentioned lock was upside down. So I left - two days later they called found the keys. Picked them up and lock was on right side up, so guess I can end my affair with meeting the mail man every time I had mail. Yippee!

Also got a new TV - a Roku... Best Buy delivered and set it up. 50" TV and delivery and set up $238, lucked into a deal. Installer explained how to use it. So we are now bumbling our way through figuring out what is what and where is that channel I found before...Have managed to get Bill set up so he can watch Major League Soccer and watch Messi play for Miami. Worth it. 

Here is the front corner of our house - just hanging out there in the air. 

And that is it for this time.