Today would have been my Dad’s 83rd birthday. Happy Birthday Dad!
I want to wish all of you a very wonderful New Year. I hope that you and your family are granted bountiful blessing is 2011!
I went to my 1st Hopkins Christmas party on Sunday 12/19 at the Help Age Center (Senior Center) with Ron and Conan. I guess now that I’m old I can legally join in their fun (I turned 60 on 12/22). I met a lot of very nice people, both locals and ex-pat Americans and French. Dinner was turkey, ham, potato salad, pasta, and of course rice and beans, plus beer and soda. I was doing OK until the Anisette came out… Needless to say I slept like a log. Thank God I don’t get hang-overs!
I’m in the states now and it feels so weird! One of the hardest things to get used to is wearing shoes again. In Belize you can go into most places barefoot, including restaurants. Most of the restaurants will even serve you sans shirt. I’ve even been in the American Embassy twice barefooted. Here in the U.S. everyone wants your feet and chest covered. Of course there is more broken glass and rough pavement here and less sandy roads and floors so it’s an incentive to wearing some form of foot wear if nothing else than to not leave bloody footprints behind you. I think the only reason for the shirt is to be fair to women who have to keep their breasts covered. Hey why not just make it optional??? I see plenty of uncovered women at Kismet, although they are almost always Europeans. They have a different idea of what is acceptable beachwear. We Americans are much more prudish than they are. To me it’s no big deal. When Dave and I were in Playa Del Carmen there were 6 young British women lounging just below our room topless and it was no big deal. Neither he nor I stared and they just sat there reading and talking, minding their own business. It was an American woman who convinced the hotel that it wasn’t proper and they were forced to don their tops. So, anyway, I brought the “Jesus” sandals that Ron gave me and a pair of sneakers that I hope not to have to take out of my suitcase. I checked the weather before leaving and the Orlando forecast showed 70’s and low 80’s for the next 10 days so I might not suffer too bad having to wear my sandals. I’ve always been a proponent of bare feet since I moved to Orlando the 1st time in 1987 and when we lived in Alpharetta GA for 5 years. I just hate the restrictive feeling of enclosed feet for some reason. I met a Canadian couple in the Belize City airport who have a house in San Pedro on Ambergris and they said the same thing about it feeling odd wearing shoes again. They though, are headed home for the holidays and MUCH colder weather. They’ll be back in a month though.
I’m staying in Sanford Fl at my son Rich’s studio apartment, sleeping on my blow up mattress, and getting to see TV whenever I want and having a wonderful visit. I really don’t miss TV though. The past few weeks I’ve even been without my movies because of the cool people staying at Kismet. (Conan was talking about extending his stay so I may see him when I get back.) Rich and I plan dinner tomorrow (Tuesday) at a restaurant that he’s been itching to try, The Ravenous Pig (www.theravenouspig.com), that serves locally grown veggies. Matt and I will hit the Route 46 restaurant for one of my “must eats”, all you can eat BBQ ribs. I’ll miss taking Carrie to the Cracker Barrel though for her Chicken/Broccoli casserole because of scheduling conflicts, but did make up for it by taking her to see the latest Harry Potter movie and a nice sushi dinner, with dessert in an Irish Pub (me a Guinness of course and Carrie a Bailey’s and a bread pudding). Today (Monday 12/27) it’s FREEZING!!! It was 31 degrees when I woke up and it’s 37 right now. Rich’s heater doesn’t work well so I’m thinking about checking us into a local hotel for the rest of my stay. I had to run off to the library just to warm up!
I’m downloading as many movies as I possibly can before returning to 13 Casa Del Mar (my trailer home). My daughter Carrie is downloading the latest TV series episodes that I follow (Warehouse 13, Fringe, Dexter, etc) as well as some of the new ones. But TV and watching movies has become less and less important to me over the past couple of months. I’m deep into my 5am and 5pm fishing and that doesn’t leave much time for anything else. When I get back the place should be jumping and in January some of the regular guest, like Bruce, will be returning and I’ll be in the thick of it with them too. But I do lend Tricia and others copies of my downloads, and they’ve seen much of the 650 that I already have, so I need some new stuff.
Carrie and I plan to go to Disney to see the Christmas lights on Thursday 12/30. It’s always a nice thing to see as they do such a nice job there. It all started years ago with the Osborn Family lights and they’ve expanded it every year so now it’s several million lights. They do the soap bubble snow on the main movie set street too.
And so, life, and good eats, goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!
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