It's about time

For a people story - do you think?

Okay, Chester, it is time for ANY post I know. My bad - seems I usually blog first thing in the morning after Sir and I go for the first walk (??), however if I go back to bed after said walk (been doing that a lot lately) blogging doesn't get done! Case in point, I loaded these pictures sometime last Saturday with the intent of doing the text of the post on Sunday - guess I went back to bed on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and this morning as well!

My lodge (where we've been for weeks) had a new dock built last year. I believe the old one got "wiped out" by a storm some years ago - before we started coming here. For whatever reason the new dock is not used - it could have something to do with the fact that there is no indication on the dock or anywhere on the building looking in from the water what the place is, so people passing by have NO flippin' clue that it is Elks Lodge #1872! Oh dear once again I digress.

So we were in the coach last Friday evening, perhaps eating the delicious pork chops I made and I look out and see a woman and a little boxer. I run out (boxer freak that I am) to "chat boxers". The woman (Jenny), her husband (Doug) and one year old boxer (Roxie) had just arrived at our dock!!! To spend the night!!!

What a terrific story (as well as delightful people to chat with). They are from Lancaster PA (long way on a sailboat isn't it!). Jenny is a bartender at the Lodge in Lancaster (where we had stopped when we were in PA - come to find out).

They were married in Key West two years ago and were on their way there to celebrate their anniversary. They bought their 23 foot sail boat in the fall and trailered it down here to set sail for their two month travel to KW. Friday was their third night on their boat. Two months can you imagine. They aren't even 30 years old - like Jenny told me, they want to do these things before they have children - smart girl that Jenny huh! They were so fun to chat with and have such a great story at such a young age.

We are headed (if all goes "right") to Key West on Monday to spend a few days before we head to the West Palm Beach area for six weeks or so - from West Palm I have to fly back to MA for a doctors appointment. Hopefully we can "hitch up" with Doug, Jenny and Roxie while we are in KW - they may need transportation to buy groceries or something?

They stayed one night - then left ... no pictures of the sails up when they were leaving though. Would have been pretty I'm sure - the water was so calm.

Another story from last week .... As you may have read in past posts we've been taking Sir off the property to swim and get some serious running exercise. One day last week we went to a little park down the road where there are rarely people and it is fenced and fairly secluded. It is bordered on one side ("high" above the park) by route 1 and on the other by one of the many "inland" waterways (canals??) that go through these parts to connect to the ocean or bay sides of the islands. We've been to this park several times and Sir just runs around like a nut sniffing things and chasing wilson.

This particular day he went off into the trees that run along the canal side (as he always does - the sniffing must be great in there I guess). Well Rick goes over to be sure he isn't pooping somewhere that we would miss and not pick up - all of a sudden Rick yells to me that he needs HELP (careful with comments about that please) ~ sort of a desperate sounding call for help I might add. As I get through the brush he is taking his phone and wallet out of his pockets and calling to Sir (again). Apparently Sir got himself in the water (no surprise there for sure) but could not get himself out of the water. There was not a shallow area - just a straight down drop ~ which made us think perhaps he had sort of slipped/fallen into the water ~ that it was not necessarily intentional. I get over there to help Rick try to pull him out and we are fearing that one or both of US are headed into the canal as well - trying to pull 93 pounds of dead weight up and out and I just know he (Sir) is going to slip right out of the collar we are trying to get him out with! Sir just FROZE - seriously FROZE ~ he had no flipping idea what to do and there is nothing for him to step on to try to "push" himself up and out some. So he did NOTHING!

Looking back it is kind of funny but it was NOT at all funny then - it was down right scary. I just knew one of us was going to end up in the water (most likely King Richard) to get him out and there could have been gators in that there water!

Needless to say, it did somehow work out but it was quite an adventure. Then again, life is quite an adventure isn't it!

I leave you with a sunset ......