2026 January: The Odd Couple at Marathon Theatre

 25 January 2026

As today was my birthday, we decided to get tickets to the play showing at the Marathon Theatre - "The Odd Couple". The matinee for today started at 3:00. Since today was a Sunday, we started the day with our weekly bike ride to the church. I was happy to see my friends from Haiti, Winise and Joseph, today as they have been away for several weeks getting to know a new grandchild. 

I bike to the church with Clark for 10:00 even though the service does not start until 11:00 because he goes to practice beforehand, and I prefer to bike on busy Route 1 with a "buddy". I was surprised to see that Winise and Joseph were already there. It made the time before services started pass very quickly. They are interesting folks with a home in Haiti where they help support a number of orphans. A fundraiser is coming up mid-February to help them raise funds. Winise will put on a Haitian dinner. We went last year and plan to attend again this year.

After church we biked "home" to grab lunch and hang out for a bit until it's time to leave for the play. Neither of us had seen "The Odd Couple" play previously. I, of course, had seen many episodes of the TV show growing up. I found it interesting to get to know the back story as to how it all began for Oscar and Felix. 

The room outside the theatre stage area was decorated with handmade quilts for sale for anyone interested. Each table had a centerpiece of a poker hand. The aroma of fresh popped popcorn greeted us as we came in to grab a seat. 

We saw two folks waiting for the show to begin, Roger and Stephanie, that we know from St. Columba. They said they came to the show to see Nancy (also from St. Columba church) who was playing one of the Pigeon sisters (Cecily) in the play. We, on the other hand, had come specifically to see our very own Grace who works at Marlin Bay. She had the role of the other Pigeon sister - Gwendolyn. She had demonstrated her British accent to us at the marina to give us a preview.

After the show we got to see "Gwendolyn" for a photo opp.

"Gwendolyn Pigeon" 
aka Grace

Grace & Ev

Grace & Clark

We have gone out to dinner a couple of times recently - quite unusual for us. We dined out tonight but chose the less expensive option of hitting the "Coast to Coast" pizza place.

Later, on the boat, I enjoyed a delightful "Happy Birthday" phone call with my son, Jeff, and his daughters. Zoe made me laugh repeatedly as she wished me Happy Birthday probably 100 times as she ran by the phone. That was the entire "conversation" between the two of us.

26 January 2026

Today the weather was beautiful until around 3:00 when a cold front moved in. Given that we knew the cold front would arrive mid-afternoon, I suggested that we (Clark and I) bike to Publix before if rolled in. We grabbed our bikes and hit the store. We planned on having dinner guests the next day and needed food supplies for the menu we decided on.

As predicted the cold front rolled in about the same time we got back to the marina - good timing. Knowing that I had a full day planned for Tuesday, I decided to prep all the food this afternoon.

In the afternoon I got a call from my other son, Chris, calling to say Happy Birthday. He was taking advantage of all the recent snow to ski in Vermont over the weekend. We talked until he reached a "road closed" sign and had to get off the phone to find an alternate route home. I checked in with his wife later in the day to verify he got home safely.

27 January 2026

Today started as a typical Tuesday with me heading out to art at the library and Clark getting ready to head off to band practice at the church in the afternoon. Since I had art in the morning and crafts in the afternoon along with a nip in the air (northerly winds are 20 mph give or take), I decided that I would stay at the library and not come back to the boat for lunch. When I did get back around 2:00, Clark and his bike were gone - off to the church.

Art in the morning consisted of a lecture on the color wheel - primary, secondary, and tertiary. She had us paint a color wheel. After that she had us paint a picture of a piece of fruit we had brought in specifically for this class. Fortunately, I ran into someone in Publix yesterday who told me I needed fruit today since I missed class last week and didn't know. 

I brought an apple (and ate it for lunch after class). Today was the first time I painted a watercolor picture and not wanted to throw it away as I walked out of class.

Color wheel and apple pictures

I hung out in the library for the hour between classes and then went upstairs for crafts. 

Two weeks ago we poured paint to make a picture on a canvas.

We collected the drippings of the poured paint on wax paper. This week we selected components - necklaces and earrings - to make jewelry from the drippings. We examined our paint results and cut out the sections we liked best.

I grabbed pictures of some of the results of the class.

turtle necklace fob and
matching earrings

Dragonfly

Plain (non-animal) option

Butterfly earrings

When I got back to the boat and found Clark gone, I set to preparing the boat and food for our dinner guests this evening.  Our friends, Nancy and Steve, came to the boat for dinner. Clark managed to get back from guitar practice about 5 minutes before our guests arrived at the marina. He had just about enough time to drop off his guitar before going up to the marina entrance to greet them. 

I made dinner, and our guests brought dessert of brownies and ice cream! Yum!!

After dinner, Clark learned all about building bridges from Steve while Nancy, and I shared more personal experiences. The evening flew by and it was quite late when Clark walked them back to the marina exit. 

28 January 2026

Today, being Wednesday was laundry day. The "hot" topic this week is the very chilly weather across the country and even in the Florida Keys. We spent the morning in the boaters' lounge waiting for the laundry to finish. Then we moved to the boat and stayed there for the rest of the day. While I worked on logic puzzles, Clark sorted his music for church on Sunday,

Clark even turned on the heat in the boat! 

The picture below gives an idea of the weather in Marathon today. Cloudy, gloomy, with occasional rain.