SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND

Home in Port Charlotte
67*, going to a high of 95

To say I've been busy is putting it mildly.  In the three weeks since I've blogged I have spent a week working on the road in Miami/Palm Beach/Stuart, spent another week in meetings in California, and spent Memorial weekend in Key West with friends visiting from Arizona.

Key West was fun, as usual.  This time my wife had the idea to rent scooters and see new parts of the island.  We had a blast!  We think that will be our new mode of transportation in KW for at least a day.  They only charge 50 bucks for a single seater or 65 for a double seater for 24 hours.  Parking is normally so hard anywhere near Duvall Street but there's all kinds of free parking for motorcycles.  We zipped around from place to place and really enjoyed it.  The bad news there was that our favorite singer/song writer, Michael McCloud wasn't playing because of a charity event going on at the Schooner Wharf bar.  Then the holiday traffic, on the way home on Monday, was insane.  It took us 5 hours to drive the 126 miles out of the Keys and we only saw one minor fender bender.  There were just too many cars for the road to handle.  After getting off the islands, it took us another 3 hours to drive to our house.  But everyone was patient and took it well.

My friend, Gary, and I went fishing one day while they were here.  We caught grouper, snapper and blue runner in the Boca Grande Pass.  The wind and the waves were pretty rough.  After a few hours in the pass we headed to the Myakka River cutoff and hid behind some mangrove trees to escape the wind.  We fished the flats in 2' of water, where I landed my first speckled sea trout.  All fish today were released alive.

After our Arizona friends left, my youngest son Billy arrived for his 3 weeks of summer with us.  I took vacation time from work to spend time with him.  I'm so relieved to have some time off the road.  It's been particularly hard on me the past 4 months.

I ordered a new palm tree pruner, as the one we had from Home Depot is only 12' long and doesn't quite reach all of our palms.  The new one is a commercial model and it telescopes out to 20'.  This will keep me from having to use a ladder, which can be very dangerous.  The blade is incredibly sharp.  I tried it out on a couple of trees and I must say I'm impressed.  I feel like Al Pacino, as Tony Montano in Scarface..."Say hello to my little friend!"  I have 27 palms to prune so my work is cut out for me. 

I plan on taking Billy out fishing at least a couple of times while he's here.  I want him to have the joy of landing a snook, like his brother and I.

The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season is underway, as of June 1.  I will track and follow any storm developments here, as conditions warrant.  It's been 5 years since any major hurricanes made landfall in Florida.  Here's hoping for 6.

(the latest title page photo was taken last weekend in Key Largo, from the Hampton Inn)