We had lunch at the Ocala airport a while back. The Elevation 89 restaurant's food is fantastic. The service...not so much! (This was my second visit) Our waitress was MIA. I needed a glass of water. This waiter had just finished clearing a table near us, and, as he walked by our table asked if we needed anything. I inquired about a glass of water, and off he went.
In a bit he was back with my requested water. I still have no idea how we began talking about magic with the young man, but he smiled his delightful smile and declared he was a magician!
We talked about our favorite magicians; David Copperfield, Piff the Magic Dragon, Murray Sawchuck, Penn & Teller, all of whom Ezra has met, studied and/or socialized with. Ezra apologized for not having his cards with him. He left the table, grabbed a handful of the restaurant business cards from a display at the register, and returned to perform a trick for us. We enjoyed the trick. He was very good...even with business cards!
We know we will see Ezra on stage some day. Can't wait!
When I was in high school our English teachers took the class to NYC to experience some theater. It was a wonderful introduction to Broadway and off Broadway shows, city life, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Theater and the dark sides of city life. One of the shows we saw was "Man of La Mancha". It became one of my favorite musicals. I will still sometimes break out in one of the songs from the show....and know most of the words of each one!
A few weeks ago our tiny little community theater put on Mary Poppins. I thought it was quite an ambitious show, and the cast and crew did a marvelous job.
Feed the Birds
But, this post isn't about theater...it's about birds! This morning as I contemplated getting out of bed I heard an owl hooting in the woods nearby. At least I was pretty darn sure it was an owl...but if so, what kind? I downloaded the Merlin app (it's by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and identifies birds that it hears). My owl was a Great Horned Owl....and, according to the app, rare in this area at this time of year.
Here are the birds that Merlin detected in 10 minutes, as the sun approached the horizon:
We do feed the birds...and the squirrels...and the corgis who graze under the feeders 😟
Thursday was a sew day for a group of my friends. I found a project I began 3 or 4 years ago, or 5 or 6 years ago... to take with me.
I decided that since it was just plain sewing, no fancy stitches needed, I'd take one of my featherweights. I haven't used the white one in...well, I can't even remember when I last used it! The white one is named "Flower". That wasn't always her name!
I pulled the machine off the shelf first thing in the morning and decided that she would probably like some oil. But when I opened the covers of the machine, I realized she needed a bit more than oil!
I grabbed my WD-40, oil and a bunch of Q-tips. The only thing I was missing was the grease that is used in the motor and in the gears. It's on order now!
It is always gratifying to work on the machine and be able to hear a difference. When I was working on the head of the machine, I had the machine running as I sprayed in the WD-40. The sound changed dramatically, and I could almost feel that the motor didn't have to work as hard. After the WD-40 bath I oiled everything. Flower purred!
We went to Ocala for a meeting and stopped at the Hobby Lobby store. I am going to be taking a beading class in a week and stopped to pick up the materials. As I perused the beading and jewelry items my eyes spied these:
I had to buy them... I had to buy every one they had (4 packs). it helped that they were 40% off! I wasn't sure what I'd do with them...but I would find something. When I came home I looked in a beading kit I bought recently, and it had crimp thingies. Aha....on the suggestion of my BFF, I can make bookmarks. Better yet, I can add the charms to the ribbons I put in the journals as place markers. I checked to see if the crimp thingie would work...that's why I have the lavender ribbon... I was testing it out.
I had to drop the Mister off to pick up his truck after it was serviced, so I ran by the local Hobby Lobby. They had four more packs of the charms. I was able to order three additional packs, which will let me put a charm on the ribbon of each journal. Hobby Lobby didn't have any of the crimp thingies in the right size and color, so I ordered some from Amazon. I can't wait for them to get her so I can embellish the journals! And of course, it will be nice to have something else to do, because, as you can imagine, I have practically nothing to do to get ready to leave for 3 months! 😂😂😂😂
Sunday I became serious about planning our route from here to Kankakee, IL. We will be meeting up with the Adventure Caravan travelers there, with our formal trip beginning on Sept 20. We will travel with the group from there to the Santa Monica pier...the official end of Route 66.
So, this is my spreadsheet of our trip....and it has already changed! That's one of the things I find most challenging. I can't tell you how many times I block out a trip, locate campgrounds within a suitable mileage, make reservations.....and then discover that we need to tweak our plans...and I get to change or cancel some reservations and make new plans. It can be frustrating!
Here it is Tuesday and we are still unsure if what I have set up is "set in stone".
But, I moved on and have adopted a "Que Sera, Sera" attitude.
Many years ago my parents had a large sailboat that they sailed on Lake Ontario. One of the other boats in the marina was named, "Que Sera". The dinghy had "Sera" painted on its transom. It always made me smile, and when I hear the phrase, I immediately think of the boat. Can't help it!
Today I ran some errands and actually visited Walmart twice! I haven't been in Walmart in months. I do like going there for their veggies, which are usually the freshest in town. But, the parking lot is always crazy and it is always crowded inside. The Mister wanted to show me a small griddle that maybe we could carry on the motorhome instead of a grill. They didn't have the exact one we wanted at Walmart, but from what they had we could make a decision. He later found the grill at Ace Hardware, but they didn't have the connector for using small propane tanks, so back I went to pick up the connector!
I discovered that I enjoy cooking on a Blackstone griddle. I like cooking everything at once...even hamburgers and steaks come out great. I have my formula for making slider sized, medium rare cheeseburgers with sautéed onions and/or mushrooms. Yum! That's what we had tonight! The Mister 'seasoned' the grill by heating small amounts of oil, wiping the grill down, and repeating the oil treatment 2 more times. Then, I sautéed a bunch of onions in oil before cooking the rest of our dinner on it.
I finished the last of 23 journals for our Rt 66 tour. I ran out of the Rt 66 fabric, so used embroidery on a simpler fabric. I actually like these last two better than the others! The leaders of the tour will get these:
We have had more rain. It is glorious! Our yard is loving it!
