Leon Ain't Got Nothing On Us

(Please forgive the poor grammar in the title ;))

The palm tree in our front yard covered in ice. And say hello to our OSU lawn gnome, lol.

I have to laugh at the extreme irony that the first named storm we had to deal with since moving to Florida was a winter storm. I mean, seriously?!?!

Leon brought our part of Florida a sheet of ice over the roadways and especially the bridges. You need to understand the amount of bridges around here. Like I said in my other post, the Mister crosses four just to get to work. During the course of the storm, every major bridge in the three counties of northwest Florida closed. The bridge that leads to the main gate of NAS Pensacola (where the Mister works) was closed. At one point, the only way he could have gotten to work was either by air or boat.

Something else you need to understand is that Florida isn't equipped to deal with winter weather. At all. Northern states have machines that salt and sand the roads. We had to wait for the ice to melt. I even saw on the news, workers who were chipping away at the ice covered bridges with shovels. I also think that it's ironic that whenever northern states experience widespread power failures that Florida sends up power trucks to help out. Where were salt truck to help us out?

My girls had three days off of school and the Mister had two and a half days off of work. And you know what? I really enjoyed having my family home while not being able to go anywhere. We didn't lose power, unlike the almost 50,000 other people in our area who did, and our pantry was full. It was nice being home, warm, fed, and together for those days. For the Mister, it was like free days of leave. However, Florida doesn't build inclement weather days into the school year so they have to make them up. Our county has applied to not have to make up those days, but so far and until and unless that gets approved, they are taking two days off of their Spring Break. We had planned on taking a family vacation during that time and now we don't know what we're going to do.

Overall, we made out pretty good during Leon's wrath. Some of the plants in the backyard are probably going to have to be pulled up in the Spring, but I've seen a lot more plant damage in my neighbors' yards. I didn't cover any of the shrubs or bushes up. What can I say? This is a rental and I think the shrubs in this yard are ugly, lol.

Did Leon visit your town? How did you fair?

Crazy Winter Weather

Much of the U.S. has been experiencing the wildest weather this winter. I've seen on Facebook many postings my my friends and family in Ohio about their kids not having school. One friend posted that her kids only had one day of school out of an entire week due to the weather. I also saw that Ohio's governor is saying how they need to add more school days for the schools this year.

It's been pretty crazy here in Florida too. This being our first winter here, we didn't really know what to expect. I was guessing that it would be colder than San Diego but warmer than New Bern, N.C. So far, we've been having a lot of "colder than average" days. The arctic blast that most of the country experienced affected us too. We had subfreezing temperatures and I'm pretty sure my poor hibiscus aren't going to survive the winter. I tried protecting them by putting them in the garage and then in the driveway, but they weren't getting enough sun in the front yard. That, combined with the cold-ass temps has really hurt them.

Today, we are getting ready for yet another dose of winter weather. Winter weather advisories were posted yesterday and now we have a winter weather watch. The weather "authorities" keep changing their minds about how much snow/sleet/freezing rain we're supposed to get, where, and when we're getting it. As a result, schools have been cancelled for both Tuesday and Wednesday. For an Ohio native as well as a person who has survived several harsh Vermont winters, that's pretty insane to me. Right now, it's a mild 63 degrees outside. Is that not craziness? I always chuckle when warm weather places panic over a little winter weather. I distinctly remember driving my girls to school in Vermont when we already had lots of inches on snow on the ground and it was snowing so hard on the way to school that I could barely see to get us there. If I hadn't had 4 wheel drive, they would've missed school that day. The only time I can remember them cancelling school in Vermont for weather was when it was due to cold temperatures and not because of snow. I also remember when New Bern got a dusting of snow. You could still see the grass and roads under the snow and it closed down the entire city. Schools, government offices, everything, lmao.

Pensacola Three Mile Bridge

However, even the jaded me is keeping a close eye on this storm. Why? Because if we get as much ice as they're forecasting, it's a pretty good bet we'll be losing power. Hardly any of the trees down here lose their leaves in the winter. The gigantic trees in my front and back yards are still very leafy. Add ice to leafy trees, and you have broken limbs and downed power lines. They're saying we could get as much as 3/4" of ice. I also worry about the Mister because he has to drive over four bridges between our house and his base. Bridges are especially dangerous in winter weather. One bridge is three miles long. I've been hearing on the interwebs that they might actually close this bridge so it might be a moot point.

On the up side, I'm hoping that the bad road conditions hold off long enough so that we can drive to the beach if and when it snows. I've always wanted to see snow at the beach. I know. How dumb. But I've always thought that it would be neat and unique. We've also laid in a supply of wood in case we do lose power and we just went to the commissary so we have a full pantry and lots of tp. From what I've been hearing on the interwebs, the stores are all out of milk, bread, and tp. And we have a cabinet full of liquor. There's more than one way to stay warm, heheh.

What's the weather been like in your neck of the woods this winter? Crazy, normal, mild?

'Tis the Season?

I have a long and convoluted story to tell. Hang on to your shorts.

After that cold snap we had, freezing temperatures equals a cold snap in Florida thankyouverymuch, the weather did a turn about and we had a warm front come through. Being the heating/air conditioning Nazi that I am, I opted to open windows rather than turn the air conditioning back on. I'm sorry, but air conditioning isn't happening at my house in late November/December. Remember that if you ever want to visit in the winter.

Anywho...

Our rental management company informed me that we were "due" for a home inspection on December 5th. I have a hard time believing that the timing is sooooo coincidental when he just happened to mention it to me on the phone when I called for the second time to tell him the heat pump wasn't working. (Remember when I posted that the heat wouldn't come on and we had a repair guy come out? Well, it turned on once and then wouldn't come back on. AC either. Turns out that the outside unit had a short that caused a thingamajigger in the inside unit to break. It's all fixed now and it wasn't our fault.) So, between the heater being broke and the high temps we've had, my electric bill for the past month was less than $100. Beat that! I digress. Again. ANYway, because of the inspection, I went on a three day cleaning frenzy. I vacuumed every one of those days. We also got one of the book shelves built, sanded, stained, sealed, and loaded with books that we've been intending to build since the movers broke ours. I completed all the organizing, unpacking, and decorating that I've been putting off for five months. The house looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Today, I wrapped the first Christmas presents. I went to put them under the tree, but the tree skirt was a bunched mess, all wrapped up around the trunk because the cats won't leave the tree alone. Cat owners commiserate. I figured I'd vacuum up the needles while the skirt was mostly out of the way before straightening it. When I hauled out the vacuum cleaner, I noticed that it the canister needed emptied from the last time I vacuumed. When I went to do so, I saw that there was a sludge build up all around the bottom of it. Because the epic cleaning took place during this warm front with obscene humidity levels, the dust and dirt combined with the excess moisture in the house and formed a layer of ICK in my vacuum cleaner. I had seen a post on Pinterest a while back on how to clean your Dyson so I figured I'd do a Google search to see what I could come up with because, frankly, I was afraid of running water all over my $600 vacuum cleaner. I found a YouTube video that demonstrated how to take apart and rinse all the various components of your Dyson. They had a yellow Dyson and I have a purple Animal, so I had to figure out some stuff of my own, but I bit the bullet and washed it out. Talk about disgusting. Just when I thought I had cleaned everything, more nasty, dirty, sludgy water would pour out of it. It was freaking nasty. I'm sure living in San Diego on a canyon for three years contributed to the excess of yuck. I mean, we had an amount of dust in that house that you wouldn't believe. I didn't realize how truly dusty that house was until we moved into this one.

These are all the parts of my Dyson that I cleaned. The two in the back are both pieces of the canister and the three in front are parts of the two filters. P.S. My kitchen was painted that color when we moved in. I no likey.

So, if you have a Dyson, don't be afraid to take it apart and clean it. In fact, if you have allergies, hay fever, or general lung sensitivities, I highly recommend regularly cleaning your vacuum. Probably with a dust mask or something if you have "limp lungs" (what movies is that from??). Dyson recommends rinsing the filters every three months. Just be prepared to go without your vacuum for about 48 hours while it dries. I'm sure mine will take longer with this lingering humidity and rain we're having. I'm going to give it 72 hours at a minimum just to be safe. I don't want the dust to combine with any moisture that might be on the inside of the canister. It'd defeat the whole thing. Just be sure to check out an online "how to" video before attempting to clean your Dyson. I take no responsibility if you decide to throw your entire vacuum in the tub without knowing what you're doing first.

Where the Hell Am I??

It's COLD here. Maybe it's not Vermont cold, but it's freaking cold nonetheless. We've had freeze warnings the past two nights. Our daytime highs have been pretty chilly too. I knew, logically, that it gets pretty cold in northern Florida and it's even been known to snow from time to time, but I think I was hoping that people were exaggerating. I don't have enough winter clothes for this place. Seriously.

What's more, our heat doesn't seem to be working. We, supposedly, have central air and heat but when I switched the thermostat over from "cool" to "heat" three days ago, the heat never kicked on. The current temperature in my house is 63. Do you know how hard it is to make yourself get out of bed in the morning when you know it's that cold and there's no heat coming? Considering that our forecast high for today is only 55, I don't see the house warming up all that much today.

When we first moved into this house, we had a very respectable-sized woodpile in the backyard. In the last three days, we've seriously depleted our supply of wood due to the fact that the fireplace has been our only source of heat. Having an open concept living room/dining room/kitchen, it really doesn't heat much though. It raises the temp about three or four degrees. As a result, we've been sitting and/or laying on the floor in front of the fireplace, lol. Even Bailey is cold. She wears a sweater all day with her bone blanket draped over her back plus an extra blanket at night to sleep.

Three good things come from having your house uncomfortably cold: 

1.) It's cold enough to put my pretty comforter on my bed and I sleep really well.
2.) The water in the glass next to my bed stays nice and cold all night.
3.) I should have a nice decrease in my electric bill with it not being hot enough for the ac and no heat.

I'm calling the rental management place as soon as I post this. I'm hoping they open at 8 am.

My First Autumn in Florida

It occurred to me the other day that this is the first time I've ever been in Florida during the fall months. I briefly lived here in 1998 and I've been to Florida on several occasions for vacation, but all those times were during either spring, summer, or winter. Huh.

I'm really enjoying the cooler temps. We're still getting into the lower 80s, but overnight, it's been in the 50s and 60s. Overall, it's cool enough that I've had the windows open this week for the first time and the ac off. I don't think the home owners ever opened the windows. They were nasty dirty and required cleaning and vacuuming. Anyway, I'm looking forward to a lower electric bill. Hopefully. Speaking of bills...

Our water/sewer bill has gone up $15-$20 every month since we moved into this house. I was expecting an increase from June to July since June would have been a partial billing month, but every subsequent bill has had an increase. Not only has it increased, but it's now $50 more a month than the average for this house. I'm not happy. One reason was that the hall bathroom toilet was leaking. The flapper was warped. We replaced that last week so I'm hoping that will reflect on next month's bill. I also went all dictator on the fam and made a list of rules for water/sewer usage. Ugh.

Anyway, this fall ushered in the first tropical storm system that we had to deal with:  Karen. First, we had hurricane watches. Then, the storm weakened and we had tropical storm watches. Finally, it weakened further, changed its track, and we barely got any rain and hardly any wind at all. We had worse thunderstorms over the summer. Seriously. All this storm did was ruin weekend plans we had. So, we have all of our canned food, water, batteries, candles, etc. on hand so if something else comes in before the hurricane season ends in less than a month, we're all set.

Navarre Beach from the Pier before Karen. Scary, right?

Something else this fall in Florida...

We're upping Bailey's weight loss program. She's lost quite a bit of weight since we moved. She's been getting daily walks in the evening once the pavement has cooled off and with the weight loss, she's been more playful and moves around more easily. She seems to have reached a plateau though, so now I'm walking her in the mornings before it gets too hot. She's not enthusiastic about this additional walk. I have to constantly encourage her to keep going after about 15 minutes. I even let her take a break at the bay. We have a fishing dock in the neighborhood that is on the banks of the East Bay. It's really very lovely. Still, after that first 15 minutes, it's a chore to keep her going. I'm hoping that with repetition, she'll start to enjoy the additional walk instead of acting like I'm punishing her.

View from the dock as Bailey and I relaxed during our walk.

Lastly, the Mister signed us up to go to the Marine Corps Ball this November. The jury is still out on whether or not I'm going. He has to. The only reason I even considered going this year (the last ball I attended was in 1998) is that it's supposed to be at a really nice resort-type place in Destin, FL. I, like Bailey, have gained some poundage. I have to tell you. Using this blog and my social media peeps as a support system for keeping up with diet and exercise was a dismal failure. You people sort of suck at it. Anyway, shoving myself into a muumuu isn't my idea of fun. However, if I can find a dress that isn't muumuu-like, and I don't look like a stuffed sausage in it, I'll go. I don't like the idea of the ball to begin with. It's a bunch of adults going to prom. It isn't dignified. And it's also a thinly veiled excuse to get drunk at the prom like you couldn't necessarily do in high school. It's annoying.

Enjoying the Emerald Coast Kinda Life

It's weird, but we settled into beach life almost instantaneously upon arriving in Pensacola/Navarre.

The change from living in San Diego to living in Navarre is pretty extreme. First of all, San Diego has a population of over a million people. Navarre has just under 30,000. In San Diego, we lived in a very densely populated neighborhood where privacy was nonexistent. We could look out the back of our house and see I-15. And hear it for that matter. Where we're located now, you have to drive out on a state route for a ways, then turn off onto a county road before you turn again into our neighborhood which consists of three streets. Heheh. There's a dirt road that runs parallel to the main road in our development. A red dirt road at that. We live near NOTHING. It isn't convenient to bring home takeout for dinner. The nearest Target is something like 20 miles away. The nearest mall is an hour away. And I LOVE IT!!

We go to the beach at least once a week. The beach is only a few miles away. Have you ever been to the Gulf Coast of Florida? I've been to beaches at the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in America and the beaches here are the prettiest out of them all in my opinion. Pure white sand and water that's so clear that you can look down and see your feet and fish and stuff even in water so deep that you can't touch bottom. It's also a pretty blue/green color. Sometimes it's so calm that there are barely any waves at all. And I mean no waves as in, no white caps. The water is also bath water warm. In San Diego, the water is cold even in July and August. Tingly, prickly cold. In all the years I lived there and for all the many, many things I love about San Diego, I was never a fan of the beaches. They're too cold and there is never anywhere to park.

Navarre's motto is "Florida's Best Kept Secret". We definitely have tourists, but there's only a few resort-type hotels on the beach so it's never wall to wall people. If you drive a few miles down the road to Pensacola Beach, you'll find a typical, coastal tourist town with hotels everywhere, a boardwalk, and swarms of people. They can keep it. I love the laid back atmosphere of Navarre.

I know it's early and I'll probably be changing my tune come Christmas shopping time, but I don't even miss the amenities of living in a big city. Here, I get outside all the time to walk the dog, chat with the neighbors (Yes. You read that right. I actually talk with my neighbors and they're super sweet and even invited us to a neighborhood 4th of July party.), poke at the flowers and plants in my yard, or go to the beach. Everywhere else we've lived, getting out of the house always meant going shopping.

Tonight, we drove to the beach after the Mister got home from work. It was after six and most everyone had gone home for the day. We sat in our chairs in the sand while the sun set, gathered everything up and went home for dinner about an hour later. What'd you do tonight??

Having Finally Arrived in Florida

This move is probably at the #1 spot for bad moves. It has been the most unorganized, ill-prepared, rocky, full-of-surprises move we've made in 16 years.

On the California side:

Our movers were idiots. They showed up to our house 1 1/2 hours late and with only one guy to pack. Every other move we've made with movers, they were able to pack us up in one day because they bring at least three people. This took two entire days.

Then, they were told that we were estimated to have close to 12,000 pounds of household goods. We ended up with just over 9400 pounds and they still didn't bring a truck big enough to hold everything. 1/4 of our stuff was hanging out the back of the truck, strapped in and open to the elements. I can only assume (and fervently hope) that they loaded our stuff onto a bigger truck before they left for Florida. But this means that our stuff went from our CA house, to a small truck, to a big truck, and eventually, to the FL house. Ideally, you want your belongings loaded and unloaded as few times as possible to avoid damage.

They were done packing and loading on Wednesday, June 12, but still haven't called to let us know our delivery date and time. They were supposed to have (and told me they would) call on Thursday. This has me worried.

We also decided to have my car shipped rather than drive two cars in tandem. This company, too, has been incommunicado. The Mister sent them an e-mail on June 10 and we still haven't gotten a reply. At this point, I'm figuring my car is in Mexico at a chop shop. Oh. And the Mister accidentally left his keys in my car. Not that big a deal since I have copies.......except for the key to the cartop carrier. We only had one of those. Luckily, I was able to find a place that could make us a duplicate key for only $35 versus the $200 it would have cost to buy another one.

Lastly, the military housing people forgot about our moveout inspection. When you live in base housing, you have to have one of their people walk through and make sure you cleaned and didn't leave anything damaged. This caused us to get on the road 1 1/2 hours later than we had planned which caused us to get to our first stop in El Paso, Texas pretty late. Asshats.

And to top it all off...The Oldest child came down with this really weird rash on her leg. People on Facebook thought it was my rash because she was embarrassed for people to think she had ringworm. It def isn't ringworm. Anyway, a couple days after the rash, she got a really inflamed throat. It's absolutely disgusting. I've had tonsillitis a few times but my throat never came close to her grossness. I managed to get her into the doctor on June 12th, the day before we left San Diego. The doctor wasn't sure what was going on but guessed it was viral and that whatever was causing the rash was also causing the sore throat. He took throat cultures just to be sure. He called me today, SUNDAY, to let me know she actually has strep throat. Can you believe he called me on a Sunday? AND, he called in a prescription to a nearby pharmacy here in Florida. I so love him and am going to miss having such a great doctor. :(

On the Drive East...

The car drive east was relatively uneventful considering the 1977 miles we covered. We ran into some weather in New Mexico which spurned dust storms. The Youngest child now hates New Mexico. Then we ran into some rain in San Antonio. Then some really bad traffic in Alabama. The traffic added about an hour to our last day of driving. And wow! Louisiana drivers are rude asshats and that's saying something from someone who is used to California drivers. It's like they sent people from Louisiana to LA to learn how to drive like an idiot.

Now that we're here, things are going pretty good. Kinda got a shock at the hotel when they told us the price for the pet fee. As a result, we snuck the cat in. So, I'd feel bad about that if the pet fee wasn't MORE than the room fee. Plus, our pets are trained and do their business where they should. We're staying in a brand new Hyatt Place. It's really nice. After three days in the car, we appreciate having a living room area in addition to the bedroom area. The bathroom door has a tricksy lock though. Tricksy, tricksy lock. The Oldest child called me this morning (the Mister and I were getting lunch) asking me, "How do I get out of the bathroom?" I laughed so hard that it was a minute or so before I could answer her.

Navarre Beach at sunset

Last night, we drove out to Navarre to see the new house. It's in a great, private neighborhood. It's so quiet and all the houses are well maintained. The yard has flowers and plants in it that I'm sure I'll kill in the next month or so but they look nice for now. From what we could see from peeking in the windows, the inside is clean and nice too. Oh. And there's a whole stack of firewood in the backyard so we'll be set for when it gets colder. Right now, it's in the high 80's with tons of humidity. I love it.

We drove along the coast back to Pensacola (which was a really long drive because much of it was in 20 mph zones for nesting birds, heheh) and ended up getting dinner in Pensacola Beach. I had forgotten how crazy Pensacola Beach is in the summer with all the tourists. C R A Z Y!!! We ate at a really neat restaurant that backs up to the beach. Our table was literally right next to the sand. I could put my foot in the sand from my seat. When we were done eating (and we had awesome food) we just stood up and walked out to the water. You know. After paying the bill. It was so cool!!

So, assuming that our household goods haven't fallen of the back of the truck and my car isn't in pieces in Mexico, things are good on this end of the trip. We're hanging in the hotel until tomorrow morning when the rental manager guy will finally let us in the house. (Apparently, they don't work weekends.) Even if everything is lost, we're insured. We only own a handful of things that are irreplaceable so it won't be total devastation. Even so, my next blog post might be from jail after I do violence to some people if this turns out bad. We've never had our shipments be so up in the air before. It's disconcerting.

Bottom line, I'm thrilled to be here. I've never lived so close to the beach before. Maybe I won't be saying this should a storm roll through, but for now, I love where our house is located. The dog and cat we most excellent travelers. Better pets don't exist. The kids were good. No flat tires this time. Life is good.