27 January 2025
The weather has been chilly in Florida but nothing compared to the temperatures in New Jersey. Clark has been keeping his eye on the temperatures within our NJ home. Sadly, the upstairs furnace has been working only intermittently. Repairmen came to the house multiple times. Each time they came, they identified something new that needed to be addressed to fix our problem.
The first time the repairman came he heard the attic furnace squealing loudly as soon as he opened the front door. The bearings had gone bad. The next time Clark called someone to come, they said we needed a new thermostat. Unfortunately, that gave Clark two apps to run to check in our temps in the house - one for upstairs and one for downstairs.
After all that messing about, Clark checked the temps in the morning one day during the past week and found the furnace offline. He convinced the company to send someone in the morning to analyze the problem. It was diagnosed as the furnace unit freezing up over night due to cold temperatures and condensation caused by the furnace being 90% efficient. Clark was informed that a 90% efficient furnace should never be placed in an attic. A new furnace was ordered for the attic. It was installed today. Hopefully that worry is now behind us.
While Clark dealt with furnace repairs, I went shopping with my friend Nancy. She owns a condo here and has a car, so she picked me up for a provisioning run. Food shopping in a car instead of on a bike with backpacks allowed me to not worry about how much I bought. I could take advantage of buy-one-get-one deals at Publix that I frequently have to bypass due to capacity constraints. I particularly made sure to stock up on items that come in heavy cans or jars.
We ended the day with a working furnace at home and fully provisioned food on the boat. Topped off by a lovely sunset here at Marlin Bay.
28 January 2025
Today being Tuesday, I abandoned Clark and walked to the library. Every other week I attend for art in the morning and crafts in the afternoon. Crafts only occurs every other Tuesday. In the morning, (I believe based on a suggestion I made to the instructor last week), we spent the time in art class working on making a 2-dimensional drawing rise up out of the paper using line shaping (curvature) and shadowing.
Before that we took some time to do "blind drawing" whereby a shape, such as your hand, is drawn on a piece of paper without looking at the paper. We drew our own hands and then tried to draw the person sitting across from us without looking. It is supposed to teach the artist about spatial awareness. Our efforts resulted in abstract art. A hand is easy compared to drawing a person's face. The trick is to not lift the pencil off the paper.
In the afternoon crafts class the instructor used a Cricut machine to print out patterns to be used as bookmarks or candy holders for St. Valentine's Day. Since I normally, basically 100%, read on my Kindle due to no space for books on the boat, I have little use for bookmarks. One in particular I found bizarre was a "Coffee Spill" bookmark. The instructor, Angela, acquired miniature coffee mugs (as small as the nail on my little finger) and then had us cut the "coffee spill" out of felt from a shape printed on the Cricut.
We used a glue gun to attach the "coffee spill" to the cup. The pattern used for the spill was an oak leaf. Ultimately, I trimmed the oak leaf down to a brown blob and placed the object on my knickknack shelf as memorabilia.
Art starts at 9:30 and goes until 11:30. Crafts starts at 1:00 for about 45 minutes. When I left for art at 9:10, I told Clark he was on his own for lunch, and I would see him sometime later in the afternoon. Given that I planned on making a day of it at the library, I was thrilled to find that my friend, Pat, planned to do the same thing.
Two weeks ago we sat in her car and talked in between sessions. Today she told me she had to go home (she owns a house) to bring her garbage can in from the street so she would not be fined for having it out in front of her house for too long. Key Colony would charge her $50 if they found her to be in violation of keeping the street clear. She took me home with her to see if her neighbor had taken in her can.
We found the garbage can pulled up in her driveway, so she had not needed to worry or go home. Pat is 84 years old and petite. The garbage cans provided by the town are the huge ones that can be hoisted up by trucks for dumping. Pat struggles as she wrestles with the can to move it from place to place. She claims that she could easily fit inside the can. I believe her. I helped her move it to the spot behind a bush where she stashes it to hide it from being seen from the street.
I had brought a small snack with me to the library for "lunch", but when we got to her house, she pulled out her delicious zucchini bread from the freezer, and we made a lunch of that. Yummy! I enjoyed our conversation and my unexpected lunch treat until it was time to return to the library for our craft time.
After my lovely arts and crafts outing, I walked back to the boat. I find myself fascinated by the lobster pot structures being built near Keys Fisheries. They just keep getting higher and higher and more and more interesting. On a hot, sunny day, the odor of the fish traps becomes quite unpleasant.
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| These are all lobster traps - larger in size than crab pots stacked up elsewhere on the property. |
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| Shows the height of the traps compared to a boat on a trailer out front |
As I passed by the marina club house, I decided to take a look upstairs at the jigsaw puzzle and put in a few pieces while I was there. Most of the animals have taken shape. Some of the camouflage background still needed to be filled in.
29 January 2025
The washing machine on our boat is out of commission. Clark told me that due to the fuss and bother of even determining what ails it, we need to wait until we are in New Jersey to take the boat apart to get to the washer to analyze the problem. Sigh!
Given that, I packaged up my dirty laundry (a lot of it) while Clark pulled out our collapsible wagon to transport us to the laundromat. We have foldable bikes that are not meant to be towing wagons not designed to be towed by a foldable bike. However, Clark figured out how to tie the wagon to his bike, so he can pull it behind him in such a way that it tracts his movements.
I noticed that pulling the wagon slows him down considerably. Instead of being a block behind him for the 2-mile ride to the laundromat, I came up right behind him several times and had to back off. Maybe he should tow that wagon all the time so I can keep up!
Doing the laundry this way revealed two things. 1 - it was way more efficient given I could use 3 washers simultaneously. 2 - the laundromat is a bit pricey. It took 2 hours and $20 to do the laundry. Next time, if we go regularly, we won't need to use as many washing machines. It won't take less time, but it should cost less to get it done.
Coming back from the laundry run, we found some unexpected traffic on the walkways at our marina.
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| Iguana Crossing |
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| At least 5 or 6 iguanas going "home" after lunch |
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| They live in these boulders |
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| This guy couldn't decide - home or more lunch? "Which way do I go?" |
After putting the laundry away and eating lunch, I disappeared for a while up to the club house to once again tackle the jigsaw puzzle.
Clark had an appointment to meet up with our friend John to go visit someone in the area with a problem with some electronics. John picked him up at 3:00 to drive him to this person's home. Clark looked like a doctor making house calls as he went off with his little black bag to see what he could discover for this person. His black bag contains a meter for testing electrical currents as opposed to doctor's equipment.
30 January 2025
Seems like every day there is something or other that gets on our calendar. Today we biked to Faro Blanco for Thursday evening docktails. Our old boat neighbor Mel was in town with his friend Kathy. Other boaters we know from FB, like Phil and Lynn, were there as well. Thursday became the day for "heavy hors d'oeuvres" some years back. Everybody brings something. However, the person who took over as hostess of the event, Martha, prepared a veritable feast of hot hors d'oeuvres for folks who came to socialize. We saw quite a few folks we have not seen in a very long time.
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| Socializing at Faro Blanco |
31 January 2025
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| Hallelujah it's done! |
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| Matching Sentinels! |
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| Fishing from the rocks behind a boat |
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| Two men in kayak near our boat |
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| Black dot near kayak is the diver in the water. |
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| Shadow of a Heart-shaped Doily |
This evening we had a bit of a conflict. Martha held a party at Faro Blanco partially to celebrate Mel's birthday and partly to celebrate the 3rd year anniversary of her husband surviving a heart attack. Having biked to FB last night and wanting to listen to our friend "Johnny Live" perform at the pool bar, I passed on the FB party. Clark attended on his own.
John started singing at 4:00, and his show ended at 7:00. I love the music he plays. He mixes country with pop tunes circa the 70s. I had a lovely time listening to his music, sipping a couple of cocktails, and reading my latest novel. John clearly showed he appreciated my being there.
When Clark returned from Faro Blanco around 6:00, he walked right past me and did not notice me sitting there. Since I had my nose in my Kindle, I did not see him either. John stopped singing and yelled out, "Clark!" and pointed him towards me.
Clark and I talked for a minute, and then I decided to leave the pool bar area to walk back to the boat with him. He needed to put away his bicycle, and I needed a light jacket for the evening. John stopped singing and called out "Hey!" as we walked away. I indicated that I was chilly and signaled that we would be back.
My friend Bill was in the hot tub while Johnny was singing. Bill always seems to know how to make me laugh. He had me in stitches. Needless to say I enjoyed the evening very much. Clark had a good time as well.
1 February 2025
The big event of this week for me was the Tea & Fashion Show at the St. Columba Church. My friend Nancy invited me to go with her. As she did last year, she signed up to be a model for the fashion portion of the show. The objective of the show is to make money for the church by advertising the clothes available at their thrift shop.
Before the event truly got underway, I took a few pictures. The church goes all out for this event. Every table has a teapot and china cups at each setting. A display of trimmed sandwiches and a variety of sweet treats adorned each table. Servers took the teapots and returned them filled with hot tea. Jacob, the teenager who plays the drums at the Sunday morning contemporary service, brought me my tea.
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| The table where I sat. |
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| Another table nearby |
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| Punch |
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| Buffet table of food |
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| Raffle Baskets |
One of the church members, Connie, is in charge of the thrift shop. She has an amazing talent for creating works of art out of the donated clothes, hats, purses, and jewelry on sale at the shop. Designer clothing is sold for $8. Jewelry can be had for $4. Once she has created an ensemble, it looks like it cost 50 or 60 bucks.
I knew Nancy would be modeling. I did not know who the other models would be, but it turned out I knew most of them from my time at the church. I did get one big surprise, however, as my friend Zoe appeared as a model. I thought she attended church there for the first time just two weeks ago. They snagged her quickly to be a model. With her petite figure, she showed the clothing well.
I took some pictures at the show. Unfortunately, the models were on the move and/or spinning to show off their clothes. I captured what I could as they passed by.
My friend Zoe ...
My friend Nancy ...
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| Ms Monopoly announcing the upcoming event |
After the tea concludes, folks are invited to visit the thrift shop to spend money. Each place setting offered a $5 off coupon. (I learned at Sunday service that the thrift shop sold $300-worth of merchandise after the show.)
I consumed far too many sweets at the fashion show. As a thick fog rolled into the area, I picked up a sea grass rake (which is now just a long pole as the rake head fell off) to move some grass away from the back of the boat. The cool, damp conditions were much more conducive to "mowing the grass" than a hot sunny day.
Right after I "raked the grass" a couple of days ago, a huge amount became piled up behind the boat. It looked to be a foot deep. The top had started to decay in the sun. Decay means "stink" and it had to go.
Besides the weather being the right conditions, the current was flowing fast in the right direction, so I took advantage to get rid of much of it as possible before it became too dark to work! As I leaned over the side of the dock, a couple came by and asked me what I was doing. I replied, "Moving the grass!" I explained that when it gets this thick it won't move itself and it starts to smell awful. Having not experienced it before, they thanked me for the input and then went on their way.
On a clear day we can see all the way to Faro Blanco with no problem. Today I could hardly make out the tower at our marina.
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| Sun in the fog |
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| Marlin Bay tower in the background |
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| Foggy island behind our boat (Sea grass before I worked on it) |
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| Close up of island shown above |
We had no visible sunset this evening with the fog. When it got too dark to see, I put the pole away and climbed on board to make dinner.
Clark spent the morning talking about boating with a friend on the phone and the afternoon looking into what we need because tax season approaches. I'd rather be raking the sea grass.
2 February 2025
Today being Sunday, it was off to church this morning. Boaters just down the dock from us asked about St. Columba yesterday, and I gave them the scoop so they too attended today.
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| St. Columba Irish Blessing |
Today's service was not the usual from Pastor Debra as we had a visiting dignitary today. An Episcopal Bishop that preached in Madagascar for several years gave today's service and gave a presentation on missionary work after services to those of us who stayed for the usual social time.
I gave a donation and bought myself a necklace hand made in Madagascar. The missionaries, including the bishop's wife, have been teaching the Madagascar women skills to make money including jewelry making. They make beads out of magazines.
The display table of crafts and books available for sale...
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| Books $20 |
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| Handmade jewelry (donation) |
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| Necklace I decided on |
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| View to the west |
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| View to the east - purple coloring to clouds |
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