Cedar Key - Day # 13 - Friends, Rain, Chili and Movies

We are in a 10 day stretch right now with high humidity (100% as I type), and much, much warmer temperatures (high 70's, low 80's).  When it warms up in Florida you are reminded why everyone who owns a sticks and bricks home has a screened in patio.  I remember one morning months ago when I woke up in Michigan to another cold, rainy day and realized for the first time in a couple of months I wasn't itching from mosquito and noseeum bites.  Well, "THEY'RE BACK".....these little winged demons seem to love me for some reason.....TLE rarely ever gets bitten.  Maybe they know she is a Florida native and leave her alone....they only go after "foreigners".

Back in March we spent 10 days at the home of my high school friend, Ernie Prociw.  We had a wonderful time reconnecting after almost 40 years......by the way, Ernie has a screened in patio called the "Paradise Club"......he lives on the east coast of Florida.  Well, I got an instant message from him a while back saying he was going to be in Gainsville on business and would we like to get together for lunch.  Of course!  I knew he would be in the area around the 8th of this month, and finally heard from him that he could be here in Cedar Key the 9th for a few hours.....cool.

I got a call from Ernie around 10 am saying he would be here a little after 12.  TLE needed to do some shopping, so we decided to walk into Cedar Key and meet Ernie initially at Kona Joe's, then head over to the Big Deck Raw Bar for lunch and conversation.  Ernie arrived about 12:20.....he is a punctual guy!  We had a nice lunch....garden salad and tea for me for me....TLE had some clam chowder, and Ernie got a bowl of steamed clams......I have to admit for the first time in my life I had a few steamed clams.  Thank you Ernie for taking time out of your day to drive into Cedar Key, and we will see you next month on our way up the east coast!

The night before on our walk into town with Bill and Debby I had offered to tune Debby's bike up, and just before we left to walk into Cedar Key she dropped it off.  After Ernie left to make a run down to Tampa I took her bike over to the trailer and got to work on it.  It had fallen over a while back and the result was a slightly bent rear derailleur hanger, which was causing problems with her shifting, so I removed the "hanger" and "massaged" it as close as I could to its original state.  To make a long story short, I was able to straighten it enough to fix the shifting problem, and get everything adjusted properly again.  Haven't had the chance to tune up a bike in a while, and in spite of the bugs and humidity I had a great time.

While I was doing that, TLE was busy preparing her contribution to NuRVer's Chili Cook Off scheduled for 5 pm over at the same site where we had our New Year's celebration.  Just at about 5 pm the sky opened up and we had a short torrential downpour that soaked everything.  It continued to rain lightly until after 6 pm, but eventually we all gathered at site # 58.....it turned into more of a potluck with all of us sampling the various chili entries....they ranged from "5 alarm" to vegetarian to vegan to meat....they were all good, and we were all winners to be able to sample so many great chili recipes.

After the brief rain storm

After the meal we sat down to watch the movie "Looper" starring Bruce Willis, and Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt on an outdoor screen and had a great time doing all the things that are considered taboo in a movie theater....making comments about the movie out loud, answering ringing cell phones, and just being silly.  It was an interesting movie with an interesting premise.

That was our day......thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - Today was our daughter, Sharon's 28 birthday, and also happens to be the day my father died 35 years ago.......I was just 28 when he died.