Pictures from Florida

As previously promised, here are a few shots from our recent trip to Florida. There is a view out the window of our room at the resort, the resort as seen from the beach, and a short video of the waves washing across some coral rock that has been exposed due to severe beach erosion this year. I also added a couple shots taken at a fly-in community where we stayed with friends for a couple days. One shows a Piper Cub fitted with pontoons and a cool old hot rod, and a front shot of an old Piper Cub J model.

Snowbirds in Florida

We just returned from a couple very pleasant weeks in Florida. It started with a visit to my brother Mic and his wife. We enjoyed a great dinner which was also attended by their son Andrew and wife and two children. It was a fun, family evening. Next on the agenda was a golf weekend for me with some of my old buddies from work, playing four different courses in Orlando.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Jupiter and checked in to the Jupiter Beach Resort on the ocean. This was an exchange for our time share week at Tahoe that we had banked a couple years ago. We had fun all week, dining out and meeting old friends in the West Palm Beach area. Saturday morning, we checked out and drove south to Boynton Beach and stayed a couple days with friends Jon, Sandi, and Leslie. Again, great times good food, and a chance to see old friends.

Monday, we drove north to the panhandle of Florida, just west of Ft. Walton Beach to visit Mike & Joanne, friends we met in Germany. And finally we drove back home on Wednesday, after just over two weeks away. We are thankful for the warm weather we experienced, and the chance to see friends and family.

I'll publish a couple pictures within a day or so.

A cold morning in TN

It dropped to less than 10 degrees Fahrenheit last night. The heat pump worked hard to keep the house warm, and kicked in the secondary heat several times. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this, a heat pump is simply a reverse cycle air conditioner. In the summer, it cools the air in the house by "pumping" heat outside, and in the winter it pumps heat from outside into the house. As it gets colder, it gets harder to pump heat, so the secondary kicks in. That is a series of heat strips in the plenum that produce heat while air is blowing across them. Just like having a toaster oven with a fan blowing across it as your house heat source. And of course this morning, everyone's power consumption was up, so the power failed a couple times. Fortunately, it seems to be fine now.

Here's a picture of our water fountain, taken at just before noon. Lots of ice formed last evening and this morning, but it is still running.