2026 March: Bingo!

Cloudy days at Marlin Bay

17 March 2026 - St. Patrick's Day

Since the St. Patrick's Day party was held Sunday night, things were pretty quiet around the marina today. The day started out as a typical Tuesday with my playing Mah Jongg as Clark went off to church for band practice. 

Last Thursday when we played Mah Jongg, I had three terrible rounds with the tiles. Out of all three rounds, I only saw one joker. So, today, I wished for jokers, and my first hand was so full of jokers, I had trouble figuring out how to play the hand. From that lesson I learned, "be careful what you wish for". I lost all three rounds again today, but at least I got better tiles to play with. 

Someone at the game suggested I try "Mahjong 4 Friends" to get practice matching the tiles dealt to a solution on the card. I tried it on my phone and the display is too small to work with, so I tried it on my computer. It is interesting to see what hands are suggested as deciphering the card is the hardest part of this game.

Many years ago I decided to buy some songs online for my mp3 player. I put some $$ in the till and could then download songs until I ran out of $$. After a while I forgot all about it having only a couple of dollars left in the till. 

However, every year for the past 20 or so years, they have added a few bucks to my till as a birthday present. I decided to go take a look to see how much money had accrued and found $60 I could spend to buy songs. Given that I spent most of today downloading songs to use up the $$. Each song only costs about $0.10 or so. I downloaded numerous songs, ran out of ideas for what I might want to download,  and found I still have about $30 left over. 

Every other Tuesday for the past couple of months, we have an MTOA boaters' meeting to attend. I just happened to look at the calendar today and saw MTOA for this afternoon. Given the strong winds have returned after several days of higher temps, sun, and humidity, I suggested to Clark that we walk instead of pulling the bikes out. 

We got to the park and saw no one -- just some chickens with a rooster.

"No one's here but us chickens!"

Then I noticed that the place we normally meet was cordoned off with yellow tape and remembered that the MTOA leader, Art, had said that the meeting place would be moved due to the normal place being painted. Fortunately, Clark knew where the other venue was, so we walked there and still found no other person. 

Clark called Art and found out the meeting was cancelled. Art had sent email that neither of us saw that said the group would be attending another garden party the night before at the same place as last time. Sorry we missed the email and that event!  Since the Community Park Pavilion is being painted, that event was deemed the last MTOA gathering of the season. Sigh!

18 March 2026

Today, being Wednesday, was once again laundry day for me. Today, Clark walked with me up to the marina office. As we walked past the inner basin, Clark said, "I smell smoke". We looked around but did not see anything unusual.  A short while later we saw a brigade of trucks show up to work on an electrical problem. The smoke Clark smelled earlier was coming from a burned transformer! What a powerful sniffer he has! 

They turned off the power to replace it. There was a text that was sent that the power would go off at our dock at 11:10. When Clark received the text at about 10:50, it had already been off for several minutes, but he didn't notice since the inverter on the boat automatically powered on to cover the loss. Clark enabled the solar panels, and they promptly recharged the batteries before the power was restored around lunch time.

As was the case yesterday, we had strong winds blowing through the marina. A couple of sailboats came in to Marlin Bay with Scouts of America on board - teenage boys and girls. I (Ev) missed all the action as these young sailors handled the boats, so my stories are secondhand. 

Yesterday, when a boat named "Music" came in, they caused a lot of concern as their boat blew against the rock wall before they got it into the slip. A slew of boaters came out to help them. 

I heard that Pete on Cavara jumped into his dinghy to help tow and push the boat into their assigned slip. Someone was concerned that the line hanging from the stern of the sailboat would get wrapped around their propellor. Lots of folks were pushing and shoving the boat to get it into the slip. 

Today, when a sister ship insisted they had to leave regardless of the windy conditions, a collision occurred. Clark saw the commotion from today's event. I was blissfully unaware doing my laundry. As I understand it, the sailboat was bow in to a slip at the far end of the outer basin where we are docked. The captain backed out of the slip, proceeded to back out of the marina, and then stopped thereby losing way and rudder authority. As per Clark and others, he could have backed out of the marina by just maintaining his aft motion. 

However, the captain decided the boat should be turned to exit bow first and herein lies the problem. When the attempt was made to turn the boat, the wind caught it, and it ended up pinned along the rocks at the end of the fairway in roughly the same spot as the other was the day before. Ropes and many hands were used to pivot the boat, but it ended with its anchor entangled in the bow pulpit of one of the boats on the west side bending their bow railing. 

Bent railing on Outside Time

Apparently there was no fiberglass / gelcoat damage, but the railing is pushed in, and the Gold Looper flag is now lying over sideways. I talked with the owners, and they have things under control. They are in contact with the boat captain for insurance reasons and already talked to someone about railing work here in Marathon. They are not leaving for a few weeks and hope to have things resolved before they depart. 

After lunch today, as Clark was busy multitasking on his laptop, I left the boat and went for a walk. Ultimately I wanted to end up at Bingo at 5:00 at the Club House, so I had lots of time to kill. As I walked past the spot where the utility trucks sat earlier in the day, I saw several dogs playing on the grounds with their owners. Both owners and dogs seemed to be having a great time.

"Something good here!"

The three black dogs playing on the grounds live on a relatively small boat together; the two white dogs live on another. It must be crowded to have such large dogs on board. To me, one large dog seems possible, two large dogs surprising, and three large dogs amazing. Watching happy dogs playing makes me happy, so I stood and watched for a while before continuing on my way.

At the Club House, I found our concierge, Grace, at her desk and pulled out the rocks I painted recently to show her my artistry. She was away when I completed painting them, and when she gave me the rocks to paint, she told me I had to show her the results. I had them with me in my backpack in case I got a chance to talk with her today.

House, Boat, Island

Very few people were out and about today, most likely due to the cooler temps and high winds. Grace was not busy, so I chatted with her until folks started coming one after the other to check on packages, etc. Then it was time for me to leave.

As I talked with Grace, Hannah came by to see if Grace wanted to order coffee from the coffee business that Hannah and her sister operate out of their boat. They take orders, make lattes etc., and then deliver them to the customer. Quite enterprising for girls just entering their teen years! I asked Hannah if she would be at bingo, and she excitedly said, "Yes!" She calls the numbers as the balls drop down. She has her hands full with a bunch of rowdy adults, but she keeps things under control with good humor. 

Just before 5:00 I headed upstairs to the bar (indoors today due to weather) to see who had arrived for bingo. Only three people were there. I grabbed a seat and waited for the fun to begin. When Bingo started at 5:00, the room was full of folks anxious to try their hand at winning a round. 

Hannah handed out bingo cards to the players. She makes the rules. Today she gave us multiple cards to start and set herself up on the pool table so that she could be heard over the noise of the rowdies attending the game.

Hannah setting up

Hannah, "Let the games begin!"

We had played a few rounds and just started another when, from the hallway, we hear, "BINGO!" Hannah has a rule that if a person calls bingo and does not have bingo, they have to wear the "Basket of Shame". When the person from the hallway walked in, the basket was immediately placed over her head!

Barbara wearing 
the "Basket of Shame"

Barb did not have to wear it long, however, as shortly thereafter, her husband randomly called, "BINGO!" even though he was not playing! Barb quickly transferred the basket to his head. 

Roger wearing the Basket of Shame

Hannah's mother told me that being here at Marlin Bay has helped Hannah realize her strengths. Hannah is outgoing and fun, and she has made lots of friends here with the boaters who admire her talent for dealing well with people of all ages.

Hannah called several rounds of bingo today, and I actually won a round. Hannah had two prizes left when I won - a snack voucher for the pool bar or a free drink at the bar. She closed her eyes and picked one, and I got the snack voucher.

The snack voucher is not a coveted prize as many of the snacks have been around a while - often found to be past their expiration date. So, in effect, I got the "Stale Crackers" award. Yay?

Folks at bingo were exceedingly loud making it hard to hear the numbers called. Someone at our table decided that for each number called, we needed to have a rhyme to go with it, so for example, Hannah called B7 and this person replied "I'm in heaven", and so it went!

When I left Bingo, I had a raging headache aggravated by the loud yelling at my table. I normally plan dinner well ahead of time, but today I forgot to even think about it until I was standing in front of the refrigerator at 6:15. Since most everything was frozen solid, I fell back to hot dogs and baked beans for my dinner plan. Since Clark is not a baked bean fan, I made a mountain of stir fry veggies as well. Basic, but it worked!

The only network television station we get in the Keys is CBS via Paramount+. Wednesday night for CBS is game show / reality TV night, and we are not a fan of either. Clark put on Netflix and found Season 7 of Virgin River had been released, so we watched that. I am not sure how many episodes we watched tonight, but at some point I fell asleep on the couch and decided I better put myself to bed. Clark continued watching TV long after I retired for the night. 

2026 March: Musicians Dinner & Seafood Festival

 

St. Patrick's Day Bear

10 March 2026

Today was a typical Tuesday where, for the last few weeks, I have been playing Mah Jongg with fellow boaters here at the marina instead of going to the library for art. Folks that have been playing Mah Jongg for years say, "Oh! It's easy!" Hah! Trying to figure out how to match the tiles to a pattern on the playing card can be nearly impossible. 

Official Mah Jongg playing card

Sample of the patterns to be matched
while playing a hand

Then to make it more "interesting", players do the "Charleston" to start the game. This phase of the game is the art of selecting 3 tiles you may (or may not) need and pass them to another player. This passing of tiles can occur up to 7 times with at least 3 rotations required. 

Every time I play I learn a little more of the obscure rules and how to read the "card". I have decided that I want to teach at least some of my grandchildren how to play this summer (if they don't already know), and I am sure they will quickly surpass me in skillset!

Mah Jongg ended just after 12:30. I thought I had an open calendar for the rest of the day but saw that today was Crafts at the library when I checked the calendar. Twice I had asked in the library what the scheduled craft for today would be, and both times I was told, "Angela's not here today". So, basically, no one could tell me what they had scheduled. I scurried over to the library at a brisk walk and arrived shortly after 1:00 to learn that today's craft was ..... "Painting coconuts"! 

Marlin Bay has coconuts on hand to paint every other Thursday, and so far, I have not taken advantage of the opportunity because I do not want a painted coconut to store on the boat. I saw a friend there and said hello and then left for a brisk walk back to the boat. At least I got in some exercise!

I planned to make lunch for Clark when I got back from crafts. He said that would be fine, but when I walked in, he was munching on a bagel. Seems that he forgot to eat breakfast (who does that?) and decided not to wait until I got back from the library to grab something to eat. 

Even though the band will not be playing at church this coming Sunday, practice was still scheduled for this afternoon in preparation for church the following Sunday. The band leader would be away on the coming Sunday. Given that, the pastor requested that, instead of the band playing, prerecorded Motown songs would be played for folks to sing along with. They picked songs that could be interpreted with a religious point of view.

Clark left shortly after 2:00 to go to the church for practice. I planned to do some art this afternoon but hadn't started anything yet when I got a text message from Clark. He left his recording device on the boat and needed it for practice. "Can you bring it to me if you can get your bike off the boat?" (insert eye roll here)

I knew what he needed, and the church is only about a mile away. The big question, however, was could I get the bike off the boat. I have managed it when the boat is right next to the dock. Unfortunately, today we had wind pushing the boat away from the dock such that I had no means of safely getting it onto the dock. I packed up what I needed and decided to go in search of assistance, when by chance, a fellow boater walked right by the back of the boat. It took about 5 seconds of his time to grab the bike from me as  I handed it up to him, and we were then both on our separate ways. (I told someone later, "I prayed for a miracle and God delivered!"

I had the wind in my face for the ride to the church, so it was a bit of a challenge to go at speed. Again, I thought, "At least I'm getting my exercise today!" I left the boat around 2:30 and I was back on the boat with the recorder delivered at 3:00! With the wind at my back, the ride back was fast and fun. 

Clark was very happy to have his recorder for the practice. As it turned out, Vivki (harmony) had car trouble and Nancy (fiddle) and Steve (banjo) never made it to practice. The road construction in front of the airport made the traffic so congested that the cars were not moving. Eventually, they gave up, turned their car around, and went back home. Clark was able to share his recording with them.

I made no attempt to put my bike back on our boat when I got back to the marina. I chained it to a cleat on our pier and walked up to the Club House. There I found my Mah Jongg friend, Francine, playing house with a 5-year old girl, Willow (from boat "Hoppy Trails"). Willow's mom was doing laundry, and Francine was entertaining Willow in Morgan's absence. Playing house sounded like fun, so I joined them for a while. "Hoppy Trails" has been on their Great Loop trip this past few months and stayed at Marlin Bay for the winter. 

As I walked back to the boat, I passed the pool bar and found more friends to talk with including Tina, Marcy, Melissa, and Deanne. Marcy had just returned from her cruise to Antarctica with her husband Jeff and regaled us with talk of her time with penguins and seals. 

After dinner this evening Clark spent time with his guitar and me with my art supplies. 

11 March 2026

Today started out as a typical Wednesday with me at the washer and dryer up at the marina office. The wind had died down and the humidity had gone up, so in the afternoon, Clark and I decided to take a dip in the pool. The weather over the past few days was not conducive to going in the pool with a chilly wind blowing each day.

This evening, the church had a special Lent / Easter event going on. Each Wednesday, our friend Nancy had been leading a gathering of interested participants to immerse themselves into a Bible parable. Tonight's story was "The Good Samaritan". Nancy walked us through, step-by-step, the story line as we pictured ourselves actually there on a dust-covered road seeing the injured person at the side of the road. What were we thinking? What were we doing? What were we feeling? It was an interesting experience. 

Although dinner was served at the church beforehand, Clark and I decided to go to Coast To Coast pizza afterwards to grab food. 

Sadly, (or maybe not so sadly), I had eaten some cookies at the church and thus had no room for a big meal for dinner afterwards. Clark suggested we try a calzone instead. We had never had one here before. It was huge and looked like a pizza folded over on itself. Needless to say, we had some to carry home with us afterwards. 

12 March 2026

Today started out as a typical Thursday with me running off to play Mah Jongg with boating friends, and Clark hanging out at the boat waiting for our turn to have our weekly holding tank pump-out. 

When we started playing Mah Jongg, we had two tables of four people. The turnout has been diminishing. Today we had three of us for the first round - Francine, Roni, and myself. Before we started the next round, Sienna joined us. Sienna is a young teenager living on their boat "Still Waters" and being home-schooled as her family travels the Great Loop. 

Sienna and her two sisters (Hannah and Tessa) are amazingly smart and well-mannered. I love interacting with them as they remind me of my granddaughters. Today was only the second time Sienna played Mah Jongg, and she did very well indeed. I, on the other hand, had a miserable day as not one of my three games gave me anything concrete to work with, i.e. nothing matched anything on the card! Of all three plays, I only saw one joker! Ah well, maybe next time!

While I was away from the boat, Clark was busy with his church music and, as it is that time of year, taxes!

At 6:00 tonight, we went to the St. Columba church for the Musicians' Dinner put on by the Iona Society of the church. The meal, as with many others provided at the church, was catered by Frank's Grill -- a well-known and respected Italian restaurant here in Marathon. Members of the Iona Society, the choir and the band attended the event. Clark does not appear in the pictures as he was the one running around taking them.

Table decorations

Fancy dining tonight

Food from Frank's Grill

Dan, President of Iona Society
making presentation

Pastor Deb (right), her husband Kirk
(on left), Jodi (next to Pastor Deb)

Music Director - Tom
with wife Donna

The Band sans Clark
Ev, John, Nancy and Steve

Band Vocalist (Harmonies)
Vicki

We arrived back at Marlin Bay just as the sun was setting. Clark announced that he wanted to go to the west side of the inner basin to say goodbye to the folks on Sunset Seeker - Carole, Ed, and the dog Riley.  We found them and our mutual friends, Evie and George, watching the sun go down.

Sunset Silhouettes
George, Evie, Carole, and Ed

13 March 2026

The sky was  interesting this morning. 

Off and on over the past few days / weeks, Clark has been gone from our boat to help a fellow boater with his battery issues, and he has had many issues! Today Clark was on his way over there shortly after scoffing down a bagel for breakfast. I was left to my own devices to do as I pleased.

Thursdays, the marina offers art opportunities for those interested in participating. The weeks alternate - rocks one week then coconuts the next. Before leaving Marathon this season, I wanted to do one more rock-painting session, but it conflicts with Mah Jongg. Our entertainment director, Grace, said she would put a couple of rocks to one side for me, so I could do them on my own time. 

I grabbed three and decided to work on them today. I used acrylic marking pens. They are easier to work with, but I still end up with my hands painted along with the rocks. I searched on line for some design ideas and then went to work.

The rock shapes are challenging as they come from Home Depot and are expected to be used for landscapes not art. They have various curves and imperfections that make them "interesting" to work with. 

14 March 2026 - Seafood Festival Day

We have found that the best time to hit Publix is Saturday morning. The shelves are well-stocked in preparation for weekly visitors, but the visitors have not arrived in town yet. I took Clark with me this morning to stop at the farmers' market for veggies (we got beautiful tomatoes, baby cucumbers, and baby bok choy) before heading to Publix in search of Killer Dave Bagels and other items of interest. 

As we biked down Route 1, the weather made an abrupt change. We biked in bright sunlight. Up ahead, however, we could see a giant, black cloud covering the sky. One minute I was blinded by the light, and the next someone had turned out the lights as it became very dark indeed. Fortunately, we did not get hit with any rain of consequence. We felt very few drips as we waited for the light to change in our favor for the trip back to the boat. I later heard from my friend JoAnn that where she is staying in Key Colony got a brief downpour.

The weather turned steamy just in time for the Seafood Festival. At the "last minute", St. Columba Church was offered the opportunity to use a tent at the festival. Last Sunday, Pastor Deb asked for volunteers to help man the booth. I decided to raise my hand. My friend, JoAnn, is in town for the month of March and agreed to be my booth partner. We were given the 12:00 until 2:00 shift. 

Clark went off to work on the boat with the battery issues again today while JoAnn, her husband Jim, our mutual friend Nancy (visiting for a few days), and I went to the festival. 

When we arrived at the St. Columba booth, Pastor Deb and Cathy were there to greet us and give us the lowdown on what we needed to do -  talk about the church programs, sell raffle tickets, and promote the upcoming Monopoly Game fundraiser coming up at the end of the month. With a rain potential, we got special instructions on what to do if things started to get wet. Luckily, we did not have any rain on our shift!

Pastor Deb, Cathy, Ev, and JoAnn

Jim and Nancy wandered off to look at the stalls but not before Nancy took our picture for the blog update!

Clark and I do not normally attend the seafood festival. We went one year and found it hot, steamy, and loud with heavy fried food. Being across the street at Marlin Bay, if the wind is in the right direction, we can hear the music from afar.

This year was a special year - the 50th Anniversary of the Seafood Festival. 

The history of the festival was written up in the handout at the event.

Special shirts were made to note the anniversary.

Grace, who works at Marlin Bay in the role of Concierge, could not attend the event and really wanted a t-shirt. She had mentioned it in passing earlier in the week. As I stood in the tent, I remembered her saying she was hoping to find someone to buy her a shirt. I texted her, got her color choice and size, and picked one up for her. She wanted turquoise. I got one for myself at the same time!

JoAnn and I took turns to walk through the booths to see what was for sale. 

I saw a couple of things of interest but kept my money in my pocket. A couple of booths down from ours, a group of folks offered a fundraiser for "Marathon Youth". The item being offered as the prize was a picture taken by a man from the "Bryl Electric Co." of the bridge at Bahia Honda. I loved it but it was way too big for the boat. It would take up a large portion of a wall in a living room quite nicely. 

I dropped $5 in their collection jar but declined to enter the raffle. In exchange for the donation, I took a picture of the picture!

Picture being offered at raffle - Bridge at Bahia Honda 

 JoAnn managed to find a painting that she loved and picked it up as a gift for one of her grandchildren who has a birthday coming up.

The art is interesting. From a distance an image becomes clear. Up close the painting looks like random globs of paint. The work is very well done, and JoAnn was very taken with it. 

Although our shift ended at 2:00, Cathy had asked me to stay a while longer to overlap with the next couple manning the booth to be sure they were comfortable before I left. Being in the tent for an extended period of time was challenging. Outside the tent the sun beat down but a breeze could be felt. Inside the tent, we had shade but no breeze. 

By the time I walked back to the boat in the steamy weather, I was dragging my feet. As I walked towards the dock, I saw our dockhand / banjo-playing friend, Steve. I must have looked bedraggled as he asked if I wanted a ride in the golf cart to our dock. Normally, I would refuse, but today the offer felt too good to resist! Shortly after I climbed on board our air-conditioned boat, I lay down and fell asleep on the couch. I almost never take a nap!

15 March 2026 - Sunday

The weather forecast for today looked pretty ominous with potential for thunder and lightning storms. Given that Clark would not be playing in the church band today (special Motown program), we did not have to be at the church an hour earlier than the 11:00 service and, therefore, begged a ride with Jim and JoAnn. 

The following were the Motown songs played / sung at church:

    1 - You are the Sunshine of my Life - Stevie Wonder

    2 - People Get Ready - Curtis Mayfield

    3 - Put a Little Love in your Heart - Jackie Deshannon

    4 - Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

    5 - What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye

    6 - Lean on Me - Bill Withers

   7 - Reach Out - Four Tops

As per usual Clark and I hung out after services to chat with folks. Clark and another regular at the 11:00 service share a birthday. I had reminded Pastor Deb that Clark's birthday would be this Monday, so she had folks sing Happy Birthday to him. Given that, our friend, Dan, walked up and said it was also his wife's, Janet, birthday, so we sang the song a second time in her honor. Neither Clark nor Janet want to be singled out like that. Oh well! 

Jim, JoAnn, and their visitor, Nancy, sat with us for a while but left well before we did. Since Clark believed the rain threat to have passed, we saw no reason why we could not walk back to Marlin Bay. Clark got into a conversation with two physicists who did nuclear engineering. I walked away from that and sat with Pastor Deb, Nancy, and a man who had once lived at the home of Pastor Deb years ago when he was a troubled youth. Listening to their stories was entertaining to say the least.

As it turned out, the rain threat was coming our way not going away. Looking at the sky, we could see ominous clouds to the west - the direction we were headed. Clark already walks faster than I do or want to, but when I said, "I just saw lightning!" He picked up the pace and was very nearly dragging me down Route 1! Although we were hurrying to seek shelter at the marina, we could see many other people blithely heading towards the Seafood Festival with nary a care in the world. 

When we arrived at Marlin Bay, Clark went into the Club House for safety. I, of course, went with him. However, he seemed to want to spend the day there waiting out the storm. I, on the other hand, wanted to get to the boat to get lunch as it was now approaching 2:00. Clark had eaten nothing at the church and I had eaten only cookies. It was not raining, and I finally convinced him to leave. 

He took off at high speed to get back to the boat asap with me lagging behind. On the way, I was surprised to see two teenagers swimming in the pool with thunder in the distance. That certainly did not seem safe! Adults nearby did not seem to have any issues with it, so I minded my own business and chased after Clark. 

Shortly after we were safely on board our boat, we did get a brief downpour followed by intermittent rainfall. I was glad I managed to get Clark back on board before that or we would have gotten wet for all his efforts to keep us dry and safe. 

By 5:00 when the marina had Karaoke and a pot luck dinner planned, the storms / rain had moved on. Other than all the deck furniture being wet, we had pleasant conditions for our party. Our concierge, Maddison, started out singing with the theme song from "Moana". We had some good singers and some not so good singers. 

My friend, Celine and her daughter sang a duo. "Killing Me Softly"

We got to sing Happy Birthday to Roxanne from the boat Someday Came at the party. 

As the sun began to set, I decided I wanted to head back to the boat. It has been a busy week after all. The sky offered opportunities for photography as we walked through the marina.

to the east

to the west near the inner basin

across from the tower

from the dock where our boat is tied

16 March 2026 - Happy Birthday Clark!

Luckily, since today is Clark's birthday, we had nothing on our calendars - no art, Mah Jongg, guitar practice, boat battery work, etc. Just a day to do nothing! I chose to work on the blog. Clark decided to read the book I gave him for his birthday. 

"Tone, Twang, and Taste -
A Guitar Memoir"

The book was written by Pete Kennedy whom we heard play recently at the Marathon Public Library. Clark and I were both intrigued by the list of names of people he had played with including Frank Sinatra. Once Clark is done with the book, I think I will borrow it!

Since tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, my "Vermont Teddy Bear" (given to me by my older son many years ago) decided he better get into the proper attire in preparation! He donned his jacket and hat but felt something was missing, so he rifled through my jewelry box and came up with some beads for the occasion.

Afterwards, Clark chased him around the boat as he (the bear) tried out different spots to find one to his liking! Not being satisfied with staying within the boat, he went out onto the cockpit and sat on the dock box for a while.

He did not like the lighting / shadow cast there, so he moved to the boat rail. My heart was racing to see him sitting there in such a dangerous spot. Instead of chastising him for being careless, Clark took his picture!!!

Naughty Bear! 
Get down from there before you fall in!!

Finally, he decided that he wanted to be inside driving the boat (fortunately pretend driving). He's been there all day, happy as anything, and fortunately in no danger of falling overboard!

I put on a skirt and blouse instead of the usual shorts today in honor of Clark's birthday, and as a consequence,  Clark invited me out to dinner. We walked the short distance to El Siboney for a quiet dinner.

After dinner Clark suggested we walk to the west side of the inner basin to check out the sunset. There we found Evie and George and spent a lovely time chatting as we watched the sun drop below the horizon. The show started out looking like it would not be very impressive and got progressively better as the view changed.

Fishing boat returning to Keys Fisheries

An author I follow on Facebook usually posts items with puns or a funny punch line. Today she posted something quite different.

Many a time I have taken advantage of one friend or another for the above reason, and I have greatly appreciated their support that was given without trying to fix anything. A sincere thank you to those folks!