Something Happened

  Yeah. Something happened. It got warm. For a day. Well, two actually. Since we arrived we've been struggling with the remnants of the cold snap we dragged down here in our car's slipstream. Not cold in Canadian terms but for Florida, yeah. I'm not looking for sympathy because we all know that 15C is HOT compared to -15C. Canadians would be out in shorts and t-shirts if the temperature suddenly hit 15 in January. However, when you drive two and a half days in order to be warm and you're not you feel just a bit cheated. Especially when the long-term forecast says it won't get warm until the day we leave. Ok, complaining /off.

  We're in a nice house with two cats who are amazingly standoffish. We see Dusty in the morning and evening and he's managed to warm up to us just a bit. We only see Mia when she comes out to eat otherwise she hides from us all day and all night. There are three sets of sliding doors at the rear of the house and Dusty spends a lot of time going out the bedroom door, which we leave open for them, then standing at the opposite one begging to be let in. It's a fun game. For him.

  We have an unheated pool in which we haven't even stuck a toe because, wait for it, it's not warm here. The last time I checked it was all the way up to 68F, about 10 degrees less than it would be for me to even think about getting in it. Oh, and the microwave broke last night in the middle of making dinner. Put the thing in, set it for 7 minutes and, after 5 minutes, it stopped with a bad, something-melted-and-it's-not-what-you-put-in-there kind of smell. Now I actually have to cook.

  Ok, I did say it warmed up for a couple of days and we did take advantage of it. Monday was time for golf and we found a place where we could play nine holes for a reasonable price. Right beside the Venice airport. I mean, right beside, as in next to the runway. Hook your drive and you'll be responsible for a Cessna pinwheeling into the ocean. I sliced instead. No one died.  Afterwards we headed to Siesta Key for buck-a-shuck oysters and some of the local brew. Not bad. We'll head back there soon.

  Yesterday I decided to do some 'slporin' on the bike so rode the three miles to Venice Beach.

It was a nice ride and there's something about getting off your bike, lying on the sand and watching the waves that has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. I felt so good that I continued wandering around the town to see what else was on offer. A park running down the middle of Venice Ave featured banyan trees which are always cool to see wherever we encounter them.

  I checked out the "culture park" where the art gallery, community center and library are gathered but didn't see much culture so I left in search of the old Venice Railway Station. Imagine alighting from a long train trip in the 1920's after leaving snowy New York and being greeted by this:

It's not "old Florida" but it helps illustrate the attraction for early tourists. Of course, this area is home to the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus so the train station displays some of that history too.

  That was pretty much it for the day so I went home to break the microwave.

  Since the weather has been iffy there's been ample opportunity to keep abreast of the news and, frankly, it's depressing. I've been on Bluesky recently which, for the uninitiated, is like a left-wing X (Twitter). I agree with most of what's posted there but it's a constant "here's another stupid thing Trump/Musk/Bezos/Zuckerberg/MTG said/did today" and it's become a trial being immersed in it.

  For example, today I read that Trump wants to create an External Revenue Service to collect tariffs. Um. I thought Musk's DOGE thing was supposed to be reducing the size of government. Also, Customs and Border Patrol already collects tariffs. Stupid. Then I read how Walgreens pharmacies have noticed sales are down after they started locking up everything to reduce shoplifting. Surprise. I'm trying to understand how this country functions amidst all the stupidity.

  The news wasn't all bad. Yesterday I watched Jon Stewart's interview with Mark Carney. If this guy isn't our Prime Minister after the next election there's no hope for us. If you haven't seen it you'll find it on YouTube. Watch it.

  Enough politics. You didn't come here for that shit. You came here for this. Last night I was looking at house sitting posts, trying to find one to fill a two week gap in our schedule. We're willing to go anywhere it's warm... within reason. I found one in Austin, TX that looked interesting. Nice house, nice neighbourhood, two dogs named Sosa and Lorenzo. Then I read this:

  "We are the biological parents of Sosa and Lorenzo"

  You know me well enough now to actually hear what's going through my head when I read this:

  Biological parents of dogs = dogs

  Ok. I've heard the "fur babies" thing ad nauseum over the past twenty years but this is a step too far. Either the post was written by dogs and that raises a whole raft of questions like, "How can dogs afford a house?" and "How can dogs type?" or the "parents" failed Grade 11 Biology spectacularly. Pretty sure people can't have dogs as children unless the house is beside a nuclear waste dump. Suffice to say, we're not responding to this ad.

  We still have two and a half weeks to fill that gap so, as it gets closer, we'll become less selective. If the ad's still up we might end up fearfully driving to Austin to see what dog children are like, in person. By the way, I think Sosa is named for Sammy Sosa, a famous drug-cheat baseball player. Maybe steroids are at the bottom of this little mystery.

  That's about it for this chapter. The forecast calls for warmish weather starting this weekend so maybe some beach-y things are on the menu. If not, our next sit on the Atlantic coast is promising warmth and we'll be ready for it. Stay tuned.