Freezing

It is flipping freezing down here. I didn't bring a warm enough coat, and I've been freezing all day. I sat in back of the house (south side) out of the wind and that was tolerable. But anything outside in the wind is pretty miserable. I'm hoping the wind dies down tonight. That alone would help a lot.

Just returned from the track. I'd found the Bradenton club's website and saw that they ran at the track on Thursdays at 5:30. So I decided to go see what it was all about.

 Pretty much a bust. 3 gals and a guy. The guy was doing his own thing. I introduced myself to the girls when I got there and said I was running the Disney Princess Half on Sunday and didn't want to be doing speedwork and two of them were running too. The gal in charge said she was running 3 x 1 miles at 1/2 marathon pace and I said that sounded good. So I went off to do that and they did 40 minutes of plymetrics. I was done running by the time they started. Oh, well. That's the way it goes.

This afternoon, we went out for Chinese for lunch. I had wonton soup and cashew chicken. It was good.

Then we drove up towards Tampa to a Manatee viewing location by a power plant. The plant discharges warm water into the bay and that's where the manatees gather. In the parking lot, instead of gravel, there's crushed shells.

The manatees are really large, slow moving, kind of ugly creatures. : )

We saw two stingrays too. I wasn't able to get a picture of them, though. We didn't stay long. It was just too cold out in the wind. It was nice to see flowers in bloom.

This morning I jogged a few miles from the house. There was an abandoned lot with lots of orange trees on it. The oranges were all being wasted, drying up and dropping on the ground. I picked up 2 and brought them home and squeezed them for juice.

Delicious. The downside ... I sliced my thumb open cutting the second one in half. It was pretty deep and took a long time to stop bleeding. It looks pretty nasty.

The friendly neighborhood white egret was back today looking for handouts. Beautiful bird.

Dad grew this palm from seed. He's very proud of it, as he should be. It's in the back of the house.

Congratulations to Ron Giles for getting all the correct answers for the "Where Is It?" contest in the March RTC News. "Who Is It?" hasn't received any guesses yet. Give it a try. Name who you can. I'll help you out. : )

Tomorrow we're going to the Red Barn Flea Market in the morning and St. Armand's Circle for lunch and a little shopping. It's beautiful down there. The shopping is way out of my  price range, but it's fun to look. There's one shop I like called Fresh Produce that has fun, casual clothing. I did pick up a sundress there last year.

Well, better sign off and get back home. I'm at the clubhouse again using their wireless. Hope  everyone had fun at Team R.E.D. tonight. I'll catch you all next week.

Toodles.