2025 March: The Kennedys Perform at the Library

 3 March 2025

Even though Clark just performed at church yesterday, he had to run off to the church to practice today in preparation for next Sunday's service. Since he would be gone, I (Ev) decided it was a good time to update the blog. 

Later, with nothing else on the calendar, Clark spent some time with guys at the marina talking about batteries and such. Ev took the afternoon to draw some pictures in preparation for art class Tuesday morning. The instructor tends to focus on watercolor which is not my favorite. I planned to do acrylic painting instead and, given the class is only 2 hours including setup and cleanup, wanted to have a picture ready to work on. I opted to do a simple palm tree scene.

Walking through the marina today, I spied some iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks.

2 Sunbathing Iguanas

4 March 2025

While the art instructor worked with the class on layering to obtain color variants in watercolor, I happily worked on my acrylic picture focused on completing the work within the allocated time.

Palm Trees in Acrylic

I completed the picture and got some homework from the class as my friend Pat brought in her recipe for the zucchini bread that I enjoy so much. Now I have to pick up some ingredients at the store to give it a try.

When I returned to the boat, I found Clark taking care of business and emails on the computer and preparing to go out for the afternoon. Even though they had practice yesterday, band practice was scheduled again for this afternoon. John, who sings with the band, was living in a house nearby but recently moved to a new apartment. Since Clark was interested to see the vacated property, John picked us up to give us a quick tour of the grounds before practice. Clark took his guitar with him so he wouldn't need to come back to the boat after the tour.

View of rear of house from Gulf side

View of the front yard / driveway into the property

I wandered around and grabbed some pictures of the art displayed on the property.

Hanging on the outside walls of the house ...

Located in the gardens around the property ...

Besides the flowering bushes scattered around the property, there were two interesting plants in the yard.

Cactus

Plant hanging from tree in yard

I had gone along for the tour but had no plans to attend the band practice, so John dropped me off at the entrance to Marlin Bay before heading to the church with Clark for practice. 

When I walked back to the boat, I was unhappy to see that high tide had washed a pile of sea grass that had collected on the rocks into the area around our boat. I grabbed a boat hook and spent a couple of hours pushing the grass on its way across the marina. The area around our boat looked a lot better when I was done, and some poor boater on the opposite side of the marina had a huge crop of sea grass to deal with. When the wind changes direction, the grass will find a new home once again. Meanwhile, I got to exercise my upper body muscles!

Today, Clark worked on changing zincs in the engine room. The first one he removed broke off from the plug when he tried to remove the zinc from it. After a long time, the zinc was not going to budge, so he put the plug back in and placed an order for new zincs. Since it is tax season, when he's not doing band or boat chores, I find him on the computer doing electronic paperwork.

After dinner tonight, I made Clark the applesauce cake he enjoys as a snack before bed.

5 March 2025

We had the grand opening of the "laundry room" a couple of days ago, and I tried out the equipment on Sunday with sheets and towels. This morning I had a scheduled time slot to do a load of clothes. Everything went smoothly. The washroom area is positioned at the Captain's Lounge which provided a nice hideaway from today's humidity while waiting for the wash / dry to complete. 

We went directly from laundry to a bike ride for food shopping at Publix as we needed bread to make sandwiches for lunch. A walk past the pool showed us where we should, instead, be spending the day. 

Boating friends at the Boaters' end of the pool

After lunch, we had the afternoon to do whatever struck our fancies. First, though, I asked Clark to take out the garbage.  I gave him the recycle garbage can to empty instead of sending him with a garbage bag. Given that, I thought he would be right back. After 30 minutes, I got curious and decided to go in search of my garbage can (not Clark necessarily)! 

I found the garbage can lying on the dock next to Mike's fishing boat, which happens to be docked near where the garbage receptacles are situated. As I retrieved my garbage can, I heard Clark's voice coming from the stern of the boat.  Surprise, surprise, Mike had battery questions, so Clark had gotten involved with answering them.

Clark worked with Mike to help him install a battery monitor. Mike has a trolling motor for his fishing boat and needed the monitor to keep track of the remaining battery power for the trolling motor. Clark happily helped him with the wiring plan and determining parts needed to complete the job. 

Meanwhile, I decided to do more acrylic painting. I found a picture of apples on the internet and decided to try my hand at reproducing the picture. I tried a couple of days ago with colored pencils and was less than enthusiastic with the results. I felt better about the acrylic version.

As April 1st approaches, we have to think about leaving paradise. Consequently, Clark spent time today on boat chores to prepare for the trip back north. This included cleaning the sea grass out of the strainers and cleaning the sump strainer. The A/C strainer was the worst with a full basket of sea grass. With those jobs out of the way, he checked one of the engine zincs that he didn't get to the prior day. That zinc looked new. 

This evening I noticed the color of the sky as the sun was setting, so I grabbed my camera and quickly ran to the bow of the boat to capture the scene.

6 March 2025

A couple of days ago I (Ev) decided that I am tired of the NYT puzzles. Instead of fun I am finding them annoying, so I figured that after almost 3 years of playing, it was time to give it a rest. I had to do one more Wordle to see my overall stats as I knew of no other way of accessing the data.

So, instead of Strands, Wordle, and the Mini Crossword, I do the AARP daily Codeword puzzle to get my daily word puzzle "fix". I am still intrigued by the "Spelling Bee" game however. Usually I play until I hit "Amazing" then look to see how many points to "Genius". If less than 15 points, I continue looking for words; if more, I stop playing.

Where yesterday was sticky with humidity, today we returned to Florida's version of the Artic. With a northwest wind, I find getting off the boat not to be worth the challenge, so I did not even try. Instead, I spent most of the day reading. Clark claims I took a nap on the sofa this afternoon. I will have to take his word for it! I know I laid down for a few minutes with my eyes closed, but ...

Earlier today, Clark disappeared to have an in-depth discussion with another boater here, Trevor, on lithium batteries. Trevor is very knowledgeable on this subject, and for once, Clark was picking his brain for information. Fortunately, they finished their chat in time for Clark to be back on the boat in time for this morning's pumpout of our holding tank. I did not want that job.

I learned yesterday that the person that does the jewelry-making sessions scheduled one for this afternoon. She showed me the planned project that entailed bending wire to shape and adding beads, shells, or stones for color. Although pretty, the proposed result is not something I would wear, so I decided to pass this time and save my $$ for another day. 

Additional jewelry sessions will be held each Thursday this month, so maybe a later session will be more to my taste. Next week is proposed to be making a charm bracelet.

Late this afternoon, Clark got me off the boat, and we walked to the library to hear one of the band concerts offered there. Unfortunately, this month there is only one scheduled. We went to hear "The Kennedy's". We enjoyed the show very much, which was introduced as being "Jangle Pop".  

"The Kennedys" - Maura and Pete

The husband and wife team played one song after the other with barely taking a breath in between songs. After the first six songs one of the strings broke on Maura's Gibson guitar. Her husband very quickly stepped up and played a lovely solo on his electric guitar that I immediately recognized - "Alfie".  I later learned from Maura that she had never heard him play that song during a concert before!

I was amazed at how quickly she removed the broken string and got the new string in place. She said it was the first time in at least 5 years that a string broke during a performance.

Maura Kennedy replacing her guitar string

After the repair, the duo played an additional 7 songs. The energy of the performance was "off the charts". 

After the show, Clark and I talked to Maura and checked out the items on sale at the show.

CDs, Books, and T-shirts on Sale 

Two of the books on sale, written by Pete Kennedy, are of a mystery / thriller type genre. (A third book in this series will be released soon.) The other book he has written is shown below on the subject of his experiences with guitars.

I found all three books available for my Kindle via Amazon.  Instead, we bought the two CDs offered for sale. 

Prior to going to the library, I requested a trip to "Upper Crust" for pizza for dinner tonight. Clark agreed. We chose this spot due to its proximity to the library and marina.

Inside "Upper Crust Pizza"

Chicken, Green Peppers, and Sliced Tomatoes

Homemade Peach Cobbler was on the restaurant's dessert menu tonight, but we had to pass as we had not a bit of space left after finishing the pizza.

The weather had been chilly earlier today, but it was downright cold after the sun set. Clark always walks quickly, but he was pushing my limits in his desire to get back to the boat asap. The sections of the walk where we had to walk directly into the north wind were particularly brutal given the way we were dressed - shorts and lightweight jackets.

We got back to the boat just before CBS's Thursday night lineup of entertainment and spent the rest of the night "glued to the tube".

Sadly, we learned today that the drummer for the church band broke his arm. He won't be playing for a while. Consequently, yet another practice is scheduled for tomorrow with a different drummer.