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July 2021

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July started off with a bang – Hurricane Elsa came up the coast and after much tracking and work warnings, it did virtually no damage.  We barely even got any rain.  Based on the radar, someone was getting it, but it pretty much skipped over us. The weekend before the hurricane we were still getting a bunch of rain.  It limited what we could do and I know Gil likes to go out and do things on the weekend as he spends way too much time in front of the tv during the week.  So we went to a flea market in Lakeland that offered a free circus show and alligator farm on the premises.  The circus performed on two different stages at different times of the day and were basically just local performers with some skill.  There was a girl who had trained cats, a magician, a mime…they were all talented individuals but it was about what you would expect from a free circus.  Gil and I both took our turns to be photographed with a live alligator.  She was a small thing and was very d
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June 2021

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June has been super stressful as now I have plans in place, I have a lot to do to get ready.  Things I want to get done at Gils house.  Things I want to get done for myself before I leave.  Final packing lists.  Crate up things to get back to my parents house.  I’ve also been slacking on the walking since the middle of April, it got hot and its so hard to stay motivated.  But I have a bunch of 5k’s that need to get done, but probably not this month, lol.   I signed Gil and I up for some specials at the zoo this month.  We haven’t really been going recently and there are some animal interactions I wanted to experience before I go.  So we did two of them this month.  The first was photos with a Sloth.  This was fun, I got to ask questions and the sloth was adorable.  The second was an interaction with a white rhino.  We got to give him back scratches, which was pretty cool.  I also go to ask lots of questions and got some decent pics.  We stuck around and watched
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May 2021

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May has turned into a the beginning of the next stage.  We’ve been fully vaccinated and the world is slowly starting to open back up.  I’ve put together the Costa Rica trip, which is now taking place in August, as the airfare is much cheaper.  I was able to get it through SW and use my point, yay!  I’ve booked lodging for 11 days - $300 for the first 10 days and $100 for the last day, lol.  I could have gone cheap on the last day, I have places that I use close to the airport, but the name brand hotels next to the airport are usually really expensive and I was able to get one for $100.  We’ll have a full hot breakfast (included in the room) and a ride to the airport.  Our flight is at 8am, so I figured being really close and having that breakfast available would be worth the extra cost.  Plus, a pool, a bar and air conditioning will be nice as we wind up to go home.   I’ve rented a room in Paris for the month of November.  That’s exciting.  I’ll have an entire month to chec
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April 2021

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Total Covid in the US at the end of April: Cases:  29,970,052 Deaths:  543,808   By April many people have the Covid Vaccine and other age groups are opening up.  Gil and I both got our first shot on the first Saturday of April.  We’ll be getting our 2 nd  shot on May 1 st .  My parents are getting their second shot about a week before we are.  Lots of vaccine out there and lots of places providing it.  Just a matter of people getting it done at this stage. I did my 3 rd  Marathon on April 10 th : Paris Marathon.  The medal is very pretty.  I tried to do it the weekend before, but then the vaccine became available to us and it didn’t work out.  Went to Gator Creek Preserve in Lakeland for the marathon.  It’s a good park with lots of trains and not too much crowd or photo opportunities.  Which is why I chose it.  Of course, on my first loop, without a camera, I saw 2 herds of deer, a great horned owl and a runaway cow.  I need to give this park another chance for the early A
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End of March

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End of March:   Final Covid 19 number at the end of March Total on March 31 Corona Cases      28,300,487 Corona Deaths       521,388   Numbers for the Month of March: Corona Cases      1,030,027 Corona Deaths       25,959     March was a pretty good month.  I’ve decided to stop doing weekly blog entries and just do a monthly one until I’m traveling again.  Life really isn’t that exciting and it’s a struggle to come up with interesting events sometimes.  Monthly would be more appropriate.  We are getting our vaccines Saturday (1 st  shot) and the world will be back to normal (or as close as we can get) soon.  At least in the US, the rest of the world may take some time to catchup as not all the vaccine programs are going as quickly or being distributed at the same rate.  Manufacturing and distribution will take some time.  In the meantime, we’ll do our best to have fun at home
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March 21 - March 27, 2021 St Petersburg, FL

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3-21-2021 Corona Cases     27,756,698 Corona Deaths       512,183   3-27-2021               Corona Cases      28,085,132     Corona Deaths       518,413   I’ve been a slacker this whole week.  I haven’t walked since Saturday.  I only have 13 miles left on the current challenge and I can’t be motivated enough to crank it out.  Sunday, Gil and I went to get his glasses and International Plaza again, and again there is an issue with the insurance.  So, no glasses again.  After that, we went over to the Disney Store, which was in the process of closing.  The last day of liquidation…not much left.  Spent a couple hours at the zoo, but it was very busy…they were doing some type of festival and the crowd was twice the norm.  After that, we went and checked out the new REI store.  Which is awesome and I’m, super happy to have one close by.  I didn’t buy anything but I started making a list. This week at work, I finally got all my permissions and have started working the chargeback
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March 14 - March 20, 2021 St Pete FL

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3-14-2021 Corona Cases      27,416,572 Corona Deaths       505,364 3-20-2021               Corona Cases          27,720,566 Corona Deaths       511,745     Interesting things we did this week I did very little this week.  Last weekend was a pretty big weekend and this weekend I spent adjusting to the time change.  Combining a Disney trip with Daylight Savings has my sleep all messed up.  I’ve been struggling to get up on time for work all week and even with the time change I should be wide awake by 6am and just trying to get it moved back to 5am.  I’m snoozing the multiple alarms until 6:45am and then running to the bathroom and getting the VPN set up in time for work.  I’m sleeping hard and dreaming a lot.  I wish I could make it stop because it makes it hard to get out of bed. I reached out to the Camino friend I made a couple of weeks ago to see if she wanted to walk one evening this week and she never responded.  I know she read the message, but perhaps she didn’t like
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