House Hunting; Harpoon Harrys

Home at Port Charlotte condo, high of 87, currently 65, late day rain

Spent the day looking at houses. Number 1 on our list didn't work out like we had hoped. It was the one we told everyone about with the nice concrete docks and 80' seawall. Kathy was concerned about the size of the bedroom, but nonetheless we were interested at the right price. They were asking 225. We through out 150 as a price we would be comfy with and he politely said no way and didn't bother to counter. Not a good sign. Since we hadn't really looked at anything else together, we bid them adios and went on to look at a bunch of trashy, overpriced places with docks that couldn't hold a candle to number 1. We ended the day looking at a craigslisting asking 182. It was an okay house, with a dock that was all wood, but very nicely done in 2005. The biggest problem was the kitchen was almost nonexistent. There was no counterspace to speak of, it was never redone since 30 years ago and I couldn't really see how to expand it. Kathy liked the bedrooms but hated the kitchen. I liked the docks and all the mullets jumping, but hated the kitchen. We both liked the price, but really thought they'd have to be around 140 for us to really be interested in exploring the kitchen remodel. I told the agent I would want a boat ride down the canal to see the gulf access and she said she'd work on that. But really, the kitchen kinda killed it at that price.

We had dinner at Harpoon Harry's, in the Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. A squall (sudden violent rainstorm) blew across Charlotte Harbor for about 30 minutes. The dropped the temperature dramatically. We waited in the truck for the rain to stop and then went inside Harrys.

Immediately after being seated, waterside, Kathy gasped and said, "Oh my god, is that a shark or a dolphin?" I looked out and saw the bottle nose dolphins playing nearby. First day and she gets to see flipper? I had to wait a couple of months for that. Anyway, it turned out to be a whole pod of dolphin. There were close to a dozen cruising by while we watched. Most excellent!

The cool temps made Kathy's arms get goose bumps. The storm drifted north across the harbor, dropping beautiful rain in the distance. The news would later report we received 1.5 inches today. This is the normal amount for the entire month of April. There is afternoon rain forcast for the next 7 days. Guess we better house hunt early, huh?

We went shopping at Sams Club and picked up some Skinny Cows! Thanks, Doni.

It's 1:30 AM on Thursday, so I will sign off for now.