Flea Market

We continue to discover that we lack certain small household items, and since they will be used for only a temporary period, we chose to get them where the getting is cheap - the Florida Flea Market.

Flea markets here can be huge. The one we visited today was the size of Portugal. After too much walking we settled on a bench in the produce area and enjoyed cold, fresh, made-to-order smoothies. Kudos to the inventor of the smoothie!

While there, entertainment was provided by a nearby coconut and sugar cane stall.

Sugar cane was stripped & hacked into 6-inch lengths,

falling into, & filling, the plastic bag held by an assistant.

Deft strokes of a machete opened coconuts & the

milk poured into plastic jugs for waiting customers.

 A sample view of the produce area.

Yes, we bought a supply of good things.

All of it heavy.

Now rendered a beast of burden, I was reluctant to resume skipping along the merchandise aisles. But we did visit one last area ...

Flower stalls.

Fresh flowers here are the best bargain we've seen anywhere, including Mexico. We got a bouquet then headed to a "Thrift Shop" where we found an almost free glass vase to put them in.

Incidentally, the Thrift Shop employs innovative technology to keep overhead, and prices, down ...

And here are our flowers (which you can see) in their new glass vase (which you cannot see) sitting on the glass top of our coffee table (which you also cannot see).

Cost of flowers & vase combined: $6.00.

Are we power shoppers or what?

I trust you noticed that, for a change, no birds of any description appeared in today's blog entry.

A Slight Inconvenience

For a while there was sign on the elevator door that water would  be turned off in this building on Monday. Surprise, it didn't happen. Surprise, it happened today.

So, after a breakfast of light toast, we went out again to explore the neighborhood. I say light toast because we are working our way through a loaf of bread as insubstantial as cotton candy. Bread science has now made possible a slice that looks like the real thing but can be crumpled down to the size of a pea due to air content. I thought someone asking for bread and getting a stone was bad enough. But getting air?

Already we long for good old Première Moisson bread where a slice is more than tasty, it's a bread steak. I feel optimistic we will find genuine bread here, now that we're alert to the issue. We'll let you know.

Monday & Tuesday

Today was Get-to-Know-the-Neighborhood Day. In particular we located the local Kingdom Hall which I happily learned is not only a few minutes away but also accessed along a parkway with virtually no stop signs, traffic lights, or complicated maneuvers.

This contrasts with many roads around here that are 6-lanes wide and crowded with achingly slow traffic lights. The prescription for your glasses can run out while waiting for a green light. Of course other things are slower here too. Service in stores, for example. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it takes some adjustment coming from a place where business is conducted with a lively sense of dispatch.

One swift thing I noticed was the latest Star

Wars merchandise in a Disney store. The

movie just opened 10 days ago, right?

Back to that Kingdom Hall we found in our neighborhood. Here is a photo ...

 The butt end of our car is seen at right.

No one was around when we stopped by.

For those readers upon whom major snows fell today, I offer condolences in the form of a flower photo taken around 5:00 pm today ...

Yesterday I discovered another odd type of fowl poking about on the property but decided not to dwell on it this time. No sense confirming this blog is for the birds with more questions about ones I can't identify.

Day of Rest

Apparently the effects of a long drive, followed by a day at Costco, really kick in after a couple of days. So today was limited to finding out where the garbage goes and what the back court looks like (nice). The forecast thunderstorms never materialized.

 The courtyard is pleasantly landscaped with ponds, fountains and bridges.

 As I was saying ...

 This bridge leads to one of several fenced-in pools. More on that below.

Our condo is on the 3rd floor (there are elevators) behind the middle, distant tree.

To enter this recreation area we had to go first through the gate to our pool. I thought I needed a key to open it. As I was trying the lock, a voice from the pool said, "Pas besoin de débarrer la barrière, Monsieur." The few folks in the pool were Québecois. J'ai répondu, "Merci bien!"

 Near one bridge I was approached by a ... a ... creature.

What is it? Half duck half turkey?

Or just a strange duck. I know a few of those.

Food

A Costco grocery day today. A person's got to eat.

On the way to the car we stopped for a moment to look over the back court area. A large bird, that later Googling indicates is an "Egyptian goose," stood on the lawn. I approached while taking a video, hoping I might capture the interesting motions of it taking flight. As you will notice in the video below, this bird stood his ground well. 

In retrospect I am glad I discontinued my advance. As Wikipedia notes, "Both sexes are aggressively territorial." The bird's demeanor made me suspect as much. And I was wearing shorts. This is Florida and I expect to wear them often, preferably without the spectacle of goose bites all over my calves.

The Costco interlude provides no story other than they were offering turkeys at a surprisingly discounted price today moving us to buy one.  When it comes to fowl sometimes you lose sometimes you win.

Zero

You can be sure this was strictly a rest up day after a rather extensive drive.

Today's T-Shirt

But for the Canadians checking this page I will share with you an invaluable tip regarding the purchase of gasoline in the the USA.

As you may be aware, when advancing into the bowels of the USA, gas pumps start requiring more than a swipe of your credit card. They require you enter your zip code. Minus this, which we are, one is required to schlep over to the store, wait in line while others pay for potato chips or chocolate bars and chat about the weather, then pre-purchase your gas by handing the clerk the very same credit card refused at the pump but which he processes effortlessly ... sometimes. Next you schlep back to the pump hoping your chosen pre-payment amount fills the tank.

For those who already know how to avoid this inconvenience, you may stop reading here. For those who don't, here's what to do:

Extract the numbers from your postal code in sequence. To illustrate, if your Canadian postal code were M6L 5P9 you would enter 659 and add two zeros on the end. This would make our sample entry 65900. The gas pump will accept this configuration as your zip code and you will be able to pump gas without further inconvenience.

By the way, the cheapest price we saw for gasoline on our trip was in South Carolina: $1.67 per gallon. That translates as about $0.60 per liter in Canada.

This blog should be picking up soon.

Arrival

Shafts of sunlight brightened the road a few miles past Jacksonville, Florida, ending three-days of gloomy skies. We did not stop at the Florida Welcome Center for our free cup of orange juice but pressed on. Our GPS, that we named Lucy (Lucy in the Sky with Directions), guided us into our condo complex at 5:00 p.m. The photos below are of the welcoming committee.

It's been a long drive, along roads teeming with automobiles of every description, a vehicular zoo on
long and speedy parade, and we are glad to be finally removed from it. Now to rest up from it all.

As Far As Brunswick

Driving two days from Londonderry, New Hampshire has brought us through rain, fog, dark skies, and highways coursing with vehicles like corpuscles in arteries. These notes come to you from a hotel room in Brunswick, Georgia, with approximately 400 miles remaining between us and our destination.

Approaching The Fog.

Many a spectacular vista was unable to strut its stuff.

Trees looking left and right, trying to figure out where the countryside went.

A story:

This evening in Brunswick Carol and I went for a take-out supper but stopped first to re-fuel the car. Getting the gas pump here to digest data on a Canadian credit card grew complicated and my frustration was noticed by a young lady who approached and offered to help. I assumed she was an employee. I thanked her and said I had finally got it to work.

I noticed she was with an older woman putting gas in her car behind mine. Their grooming and the kindness made me wonder if they might be JWs. I thought of offering them a JW.org business card. Just as I replaced the pump handle the young woman returned to offer me a tract. I thanked her very much for her additional kind gesture and told her I already had a good supply in the trunk of my car. She looked confused so I explained I was also a Witness.

Within seconds Carol was out of the car, the older sister came over, and there was a hug-fest at the gas bar.  Naturally, I took a photo ...

Meeting Family in Georgia

From left to right in the above photo: Santina, Carol, and Nyra. We all got acquainted, traded experiences, and exchanged contact information. When Carol told Nyra I was an elder she wanted to arrange for me to give a talk in her hall. Not likely, but I thanked her for being such an encouraging sister. Nyra studied with Santina who was baptized in April of this year.

Isn't it an amazing thing that total strangers who never even saw one another before become instant and joyful family on the basis of mutual love for Jehovah God?