How did I get from Valentine’s Day in Florida to Dogs and Bunnies? Well Read on, I’ll tell you.

The good news is, the bunny got away safe and sound. The bad news is, I chipped my tooth, bruised my ribs and broke my hand. Although I didn’t know that part yet, I just knew it hurt and I could not move it much or hold the leash with that hand.

About a week and half before the Florida trip (February 2^nd I believe), Tod flew out early in the morning for LA so Indy and I went walking alone. The first half of the route went well and by wrapping the leash around my hips, I could control Indy’s rambunctious energy. The second part was not so smooth. Indy saw a rabbit, I didn’t. He took off and the next thing I knew I was flying slow motion through the air, face first headed for the sidewalk. All I could think of was oh God, not my teeth! There was not a damn thing I could do to protect myself or break the face first crash landing.  A few hours later (5-hours) I thought I maybe broke my little finger and should go get it checked out.

Here is a photo of the temporary cast – quite unattractive and clumsy, but, it did protect my hand, which I suppose is the entire point of a cast. (Just remind yourself of that when you have to wear such a hideous thing!) So much for a romantic Valentine’s Day in Florida. This cast will stay on for a week. Arrggg….

Here is a picture of the flowers Indy sent me – notice his photo on the card.

This is my hand after taking the temporary cast off – looks like hell but really it didn’t hurt, well, except when the Doctor messed with it, which of course Doctors like to do.

 Ouch, looks like it should hurt. Really it doesn’t.

Here is my new cast – I like that I could pick out a color to match my purse – very cool except a few weeks later when I had to go to some formal dinners… I guess a black cast would have been more appropriate but it definitely would not have been as much fun.

The new cast will be my armor and protector for the next 3-weeks.

It is annoying, hard to type, hard to button anything, challenging to take a shower, open a jar or wash dishes, next to impossible to peel carrots,  and overall just plain old clumsy.  I cannot tell you how many times I clunked myself in the head or face before I got used to it. Next post, I really will get into the Florida story (which actually is the point of this post.)

I wanted to give you an update of our Valentine’s Day adventure in Florida. This trip materialized because Tod and I like to have some romantic adventure for Valentine’s Day. Someday, I will tell you about the year he bought me an exotic “frog” yes a FROG, named prince, but, that story is for another day. You all know we went to Ecuador to investigate retirement possibilities. When we returned we knew we would love to go back for vacation but Ecuador was just not right for what we wanted for a permanent retirement residence.

You know Tod, he started talking about the Azores for our next adventure in the great search for the perfect retirement location. To be honest, I did not even know where on this earth the Azores Islands were. Turns out they are located about 600 miles off the shores of Portugal.

I took a deep breath and calmly said, “Honey, what language do they speak there?” Everyone knows I have no aversion to moving half way across the world, but Portuguese? I don’t even know Spanish that well! How on earth am I going to learn Portuguese? I investigated the Azores and Tod was right, these islands sounded amazing and I knew we would Love them. The problem is, the practical side of me (yes I do have one) kept thinking about Tod’s consulting business and how that would require him to be traveling back and forth to the states. (The flights would be grueling if he had to do it on a regular basis not to mention that it would be challenging and expensive for any friends or family to visit us.) Hmmm, we had to come up with an acceptable plan B.

After a few days I said, “What about Florida? It would be easy to get to any major city in the US for work, easy for the kids to visit, golf courses, tropical weather, ocean sailing and beach access. Plus if we had to be someplace in an emergency, we would have quick easy access.” Tod was sold on that idea and ready to go to Florida the next weekend. He said, “I always wanted to checkout Punta Gorda” (I had never heard of it, big surprise. Not!) Tod continued, “That town has been on my radar since 1998.”

I said, “How about for Valentine’s Day weekend? We can have a get-away romantic weekend, play in the ocean, checkout the beaches and the town to see if it is anyplace we think we would like to retire.” That was it, the flights were scheduled and we were adding Florida to the list of potential retirement communities.

Tod started checking out real estate and wanted to checkout properties and Marinas, you know, just to get an idea of the market. The next thing I knew, we contacted a realtor about some listings he found and scheduled a full day of condo shopping on Friday February 12. And somewhere during all this, Tod found a few places on craigslist for sale by owner, so we scheduled to see one on Saturday in Burnt Store Marina and one on Sunday before we headed back to Dallas. (I don’t want to spend the entire trip checking out real estate – I want to swim in the ocean!)

 

 

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