Leave Your Worries Behind

It's been a year since we left Indiana. Those two years in the ice, cold and snow were enough for Mi Miguel. But gosh, I miss having our own bridge. That was one of my favorite things about that piece of property. Mi Miguel just couldn't make Indiana his home. 

He is from Florida, born and raised here and wants to retire in his home state. Oh the things I could've done with that beautiful bridge. The heat here in Florida can be unbearable for me. But, after much discussion of the pros and cons of living in the Midwest (we lived in the St. Louis area for 28 years) we've come to realize that there is no perfect place to live. No matter where you go there will always be a downside to living there. Florida is hot, very hot in the summer.

Even still, I like Florida and hope to spend the rest of my days here. Our kids live in different states, so there is always that angst of wanting to live where you want to live but also wanting to be near your grown children.

Happiness? We're there. Or, at least as close to it as we've ever been. I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as perpetual happiness. Going from a huge house with acreage to a small house with a small yard that sits on a canal, has definitely put us on the path of a clutter-free destination to happiness.

When we first bought the furniture filled house, the wall units that you see in the photo were for sale. I wanted them. Mi Miguel said, "No, we don't need them." He always says that. So, we bought them. 

We knew that we would be taking a fourth of the Florida room and turning it into the master bedroom closet. All I kept thinking is wouldn't these units make great closet organizers?

Now that we've been here a year and we are building that closet, these wall units make great organizers. I chalk painted them. Next, all the hardware will be painted a dark silver. Banjo, as you can see, finds the cubbyhole quite comfortable. The closet is 9'x11' plenty of room for these handy dandy pieces. The opposite wall will have a long double rod for hanging clothes.

This is a truer color of the units. The glare from the windows makes daytime photography too bright. I think they will fit nicely and make for great "his and her" space.

The dining room rug didn't match with the floor and the paint. With sisal rugs being all the rage right now, I decided to flip the rug over and paint it. 

I love the muted colors of the original design. It flows much better with the floors and walls. No paint needed, this works better than anything I could paint.  

The corner cabinet, bench and linen dresser will now be washed over with dill paint and hopefully I can be done with the dining room. 

While Banjo and I were on one of our several backyard breaks, we discovered this colorful beetle. I ran inside and got a dice to show the size better.

I'm not sure exactly what type of beetle this is, but it's a dandy.

I wasn't sure if it could fly, so I didn't mess with it too much. According to how the sunlight hit the shell, it could look more brown or more yellow with the green.

The face on this beetle is fierce. I'm not sure what his place is in our delicate ecosystem, but he/she looks capable of carrying out the beetle duty.

The legs look intricate and had a death grip on the blade of grass.

Who knew that all that detail was hiding in this one little beetle?

After our group walk last evening, we decided to try the dog beach with Banjo. She hasn't been in over a month with our first few tries ending in disaster. Due to the recent tropical storm we saw a few sailboats that were either dry-docked or lost at shore.

Even though the tropical storm, Colin has come and gone, the sky is still showing some tumultuous clouds over the gulf. 

Mi Miguel spotted something in the water. He thought it might be a manatee.

It came out of the water several times, maybe for air which manatees do that.

We weren't sure what it was so we chose to leave it alone.

Whatever it is, it's huge and found the warm shallow waters to be just as relaxing as we did. 

Banjo made it all the way down the dog beach trail and into the water for the first time. 

As long as the water didn't touch her belly, she was cool with it. I can so relate with my own love/hate relationship with the deep water.

We got this picture of her and then she was DONE. The water is fun to her, but sniffing for endless hours on the beach is way more fun for a hound dog like her.

The grainy photos, including this one was taken with Mi Miguel's phone. The clarity just isn't there. Even though this isn't a very clear photo, I wanted to post it for my son. As we were leaving the dog beach, this C-130 flew across the gulf. 

Yeah, we still have problems in Florida. But the way we handle them now is so much more stress free. We never found a way to deal with the cold weather, but we sure have found a way to deal with the heat. 

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