WEATHER AND UNDER IT

Home in Port Charlotte
Under the weather

Puerto Rico was great, as usual, but heavy rains on Saturday kept us from touring the rain forest and the beaches.  Instead we toured a bunch of back roads and small towns, stopping at roadside cafes for cocktails and sampling local foods.  My colleague, David, who is from PR, has a sister who is the administrative assistant to a Puerto Rico Senator.  She arranged a tour of the capitol builing.  It was not only beautiful, it was a great lesson in world history.  We came back to the mainland late Saturday night and stayed one more night in Miami.  By the time we got home on Sunday I was feeling poorly with a sore throat, sinus thing and terrible body aches.  I slept 11 hours Sunday night and awoke fully sick on Monday.  Two of the people we flew home with also came down sick on Sunday.  Gotta love that air travel.  I cancelled my Tuesday and Wednesday schedules but hope to feel better enough on Wednesday afternoon to head east to Fort Pierce.  I am scheduled to teach an excavation class there on Thursday and I think I can make it.

I checked the power steering unit on the boat again today but it still leaks.  I called Boaters World, where Ronnie and Carol have had their boat serviced.  They don't have on the water facilities but I finally got a good referral to a mobile mechanic.  He came out today and gave me an estimate of 3 to 4 hours labor to remove the old unit, 2 hours to put the new one in.  His rate is 75 per but that's better than the 92.50 from the retail shops.  I told him to do it.  He should have it out by next week.

Weather here is heating up.  Afternoon highs have been in the mid 80s and they're telling us to get ready for our first 90 next week.  Gulf water temperature is currently at 76.  I really want to go fishing.  Tides are noticeably higher, which is normal as we go into summer.  Sunday night our NOAA weather radio alert sounded at midnight with a tornado watch (warning would be worse) for Charlotte County.  I told Kathy a watch just meant conditions were right for forming a tornado but none has been seen.  We went back to bed with confidence in our NOAA radio.  Twenty minutes later the siren bolted me out of bed, thinking this would send us into the closet (our shelter room).  Fortunately this alert was just a severe thunderstorm warning for Sarasota County.  I have the radio programmed to inform me on our county plus those adjacent counties that border ours; Sarasota, Lee and Desoto.  We went back to bed and heard thunder and rain all night long.  It didn't stop me from sleeping great though.  The really exciting months for weather are coming right around the corner.

Our yard is coming together decently.  Bermuda out front by the street is about a B-.  Sod we laid down near the house has taken hold and is already sending some runners out.  The backyard turf is still at a D + .  Kathy's hibiscus are blooming like crazy.  Her roses are popping now and then.  The topsy turvy tomato plant she put up has taken off.   It has 6 tomatoes growing.  Citrus leaves have finally stopped falling and we've got hundreds of little buds for next season.  We get pretty excited about our gardening here!