How to Keep Busy While Your TV is Being Held Hostage

March 1- March 20, 2011
What's one of the most important rules with this lifestyle. ALWAYS BE FLEXIBLE AND ABSOLUTELY KEEP NO SCHEDULE!!! After organizing the boat and tweaking a few more projects, we were ready to leave, or so we thought.

We discovered our television wasn't working and we made the decision to hand her over to the repair people after several reassurances, " that it only would take a few days to a week at the utmost". Our 26 inch flat screen tv is not quite 3 years old, so we decided that it  was worth repairing. What's a few more days?

Thank goodness for our neighbours and friends Ted and Nancy , they made our delay a positive event. Early one morning we saw Ted and Nancy returning from their ' morning walk' and we inquired as to how far they walk and how long it takes. They knew we were trying to diet and 'positively convinced' us to join them the next morning, they even started a little late because they knew we weren't quite the early risers. Ok, so up we rose and donned our sneakers and hats. We thought we were keeping a good brisk pace, until a few short minutes, we saw Ted and Nancy's silouhettes fading off in the distance as they made short work of the walk, we were impressed.Over the  half way mark for them, we crossed paths and they were smiling and always encouraging, but Oh MY! did our legs feel the burn. We think Ted said our walk was calculated at almost 5 miles and it took us over an hour to walk.

Fort Lauderdale has a great St. Patrick's Day celebration. On March 12th we walked down to Las Olas Blvd, for a wonderful pancake breakfast with fresh fruit toppings. I know ,, what happened to the diet we were just talking about? Well we had been so good and when you walk into  La Bonne Crepe with the heavenly aroma, how can you not resist temptation? They were delicious!! But we would definitely work off the extra calories by the days end. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed the fantastic parade.

 Have you ever met an Idol or someone that you would definitely love to emmulate? Well the captain had his chance on March 17th. Our television was still being held hostage by the repair people and we found out that Sir James Galway was giving a one night performance at the Broward.His wife Jeanne who is also a fantastic flute player joined him onstage for a few songs. There was only a microphone on the stage but each note could be heard clearly. For those that may not know the Captain has been playing the flute for a few years and Sir James is his Idol. It was a memmorable evening, we were five rows from the front  and each sweet note that was played I'd look over at my husband and see the awe in his expression. He'd shake his head in incredulous wonder. After the performance we stood in line for  short period because Sir James was signing autographs. With program in hand Captain Dick waited his turn. But my husband not being shy told, "Sir James that he had been playing the flute for a few short years." Not missing a beat Sir James asked him, " If he was catching up?" The response was, "I'll never catch up," and they both laughed. What a night!

A few days turned into a few weeks but we made our delay a positive event. Each evening at 5 o'clock we'd relax with our friends on the dock. On one of our last evenings Gisela and Hans joined us all for a great rib dinner.  "Life is definitely good!"



A Flock of parrots