Laurie came by on her lunch hour for a final visit and she was able to say goodbye to Ted who was pulling in the drive just as we walked outside to her car. It was a great visit and all concerned were happy we made it happen.
The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we headed NE towards Orlando. On the radio it was announced that Brenda Lee was performing at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, strawberry capital of the U.S. We attended this festival sometime in the late 90s with our friends Jim and Marilyn and saw Wayne Newton perform. So we decided to stop.
My, how it has grown. It was bigger than most county fairs with a seemingly never ending midway, everything under the sun to eat (including deep fried butter!?!?) and of course everything strawberry.
We caught most of Brenda's show. She is 4'9" and her hair is about 6 inches high. She put on a good performance and we, along with many others, enjoyed it.
We walked around some of the exhibits but we don't need any signs, candles, massages, etc. so we ended up at St. Clement's Catholic Church strawberry tent for shortcake. You get a bowl and can choose a shortcake or half a biscuit and then you put on your own strawberries from a huge bowl, followed by whipped cream from an equally huge bowl. The lady at the end plops a whole strawberry on top. Now this isn't on my diet but you can't go to the strawberry festival without eating one ... and besides it was my lunch!
Kristin had a dinner to go to so we weren't in any hurry. We all pulled into the drive at her home at the same time. The yard looked so nice now that the city has finally finished digging up her yard for the third time. Pipes were installed for the lake water leveling system so there wouldn't be any flooding. It would have been so much better if they had done it right the first time!
Wednesday Ted went to The Villages and we went looking for a new car for Kristin. She has had an Altima for 10 years and it has 180,000 miles on it. We thought it best to get a new one while there was time to comparison shop rather than getting into a situation where you had to buy something right away. She put her car on Craig's list and had constant calls. She was unable to keep her voicemail empty. So we knew there wasn't a problem getting rid of it.
We went to Courtesy Acura in Sanford to look at a Honda Accord that had been advertised with 36,000 miles on it. It was in beautiful condition with leather interior and clean as a whistle. We both drove it. We studied the carfax and it had every maintenance recommended done at a Honda dealership and was inspected by the state of NY each year. No floods, no accidents, no major repairs done on the vehicle.
We pretty much shot the day looking, negotiating, driving, paperwork and paying for the car. Then we had to take the old car to the new buyer and that was 45 minutes away in rush hour traffic. But we got it all accomplished and she is happy with her new set of silver gray wheels.
We were going out to dinner and Kristin invited a friend she wanted us to meet. Larry has been in the picture for a few months but she hadn't said anything until now. He had dinner with us and we found him delightful. Very open with us, caring about her and seems to be an all around nice guy. He is a photographer and after dinner he brought his camera in, used her ladder for an angle, and took a lot of pictures of all of us. Then Ted took a few of them two using the camera. I hope there are good ones in there.
Kristin went off to work Thursday morning and we dressed, packed up and left mid-morning and drove to Daytona Beach airport. Since we had to go through Atlanta anyway, this airport is so much easier than Orlando's crowds. Ted flew 1st Class to Atlanta but had to sit with me in the exit row into Houston. Three out of four segments in 1st Class isn't bad though.
Rebecca is cleaning today. The guest rooms and bath aren't usually used but with Chris having been here for so long she has a little extra work today. I cleaned the pantry, the inside of the refrigerator and my closet. There is a pile of clothes to go out now.
We have a quiet weekend ahead of us and I'm looking forward to time at home catching up on whatever comes my way.
The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. ~ Sydney J. Harris
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