#201 – Good Morning Sunday, April 19, 2015

Hello Everyone,

Family fun last night!

Dinner at Bistro 821

My day started with a trip to Bank of America where I had my safe deposit box.  I was waiting for Dick to bring me his plants, since they will be going back north on Tuesday.  I will really miss them and I’m still so grateful for his obsession for painting houses!  My place is amazing!  Anyway, the BOA where my Safe Deposit Box was located is the main branch on North 41 at Neapolitan Way.  So Rose and I get rolling the way we do every weekday to go to work.  I figured I could get there and back home before Dick arrived.  I drive all the way up there and I’m thinking, “maybe they aren’t open on Saturday” and there were only 3 cars in the parking lot, but I ventured in anyway and the guy (Don – I think) says to me “Do you have an appointment?  Saturdays are “by appointment only”.  So I tell him that I drove all the way there from East Naples, and please can I come in to get to my Safe Deposit Box?  He relented – apparently there were “no appointments” as this was the first Saturday they had “tried” it.  So I get all of my “stuff” from the safe deposit box and he talks me into applying for a BOA credit card that gives cash back on groceries and gas which is what I use my credit card for mostly so I go ahead with that figuring I’ll eliminate my AMEX card that won’t work at Costco in a while that they talked me into when I was there.  I really hate having too many credit cards, so this will just leave me with 2 – my Fifth Third card that has a bunch of stuff automatically billed to it and the BOA card.  But I’m wondering now, how does the card know I’m buying groceries at a place like Walmart where there are other things there to buy that are not grocery items?  I’ll have to ask about that.  But I’m vacillating about going to Walmart.  I believe they have pretty bad corporate policies about employee rights and wages.  I don’t know – just considering.  But a salad at Publix is $4.69 and the same one at Walmart is $3.60.  Quite a savings over time.  Also other things I buy at Walmart are much cheaper than Publix – although I love shopping at Publix because it is so clean and organized.  The debate in my head continues……….

Need to back up a little.  On Friday, Moorings Park participated in the 19th Annual Relay for Life.  What an event!  It’s a great thing.  I think I’ve been going to it each of those 19 years.  I know I started going long before I started working for Moorings Park (I just celebrated 10 years and I got a $150 Gift Card I used for my beautiful new iPhone6!).  Since I lived downtown then, I would just walk up there from home and participate on my own without a “group” connection.  I was happy when MP began participating and we cook hot dogs and hamburgers each year to raise money at the event.  Our goal this year was to raise $10,000 and MP is always the “Survivor Sponsor”.  With our fund raising efforts before the event, we were pretty close to the mark.  I think Tessa said 250 partners had signed up to participate.  I didn’t have a “specific” job to do, so I came in after I closed shop at Intergroup at 7PM – that was good because it was REALLY HOT earlier in the day and by 7PM it had cooled down.  I walked around for about an hour mostly meeting up with Jackie and walking and talking.  She used to come with Linda and somewhere I have a picture of her wheeling Linda around the track in her wheel chair.  Now Linda has passed on from the disease, but there are many survivors, myself included!  Anyway, here are some pictures from the event:

My Luminaries

Mom & Dad and “Mary”

One of the things I love about Jackie is that she is so observant and has such great advice for me.  She is one of my former sponsors and I’ve enjoyed her friendship for over 12 years now.  I can always rely on her to help me.  She loves my cats and is always willing to come over and feed them when I’m away.  Now that I live closer to her, it makes it a little easier.  We talked about my getting a new car – again!  I’m back on that!  She was with me when I bought “Rose” 9 years ago.  But I bought her from a couple in Pelican Bay who were selling it on behalf of a guy who had died and left it to “Golden Rescue of Naples”.   I had already made up my mind to get a VW Beetle and had picked out a silver one on CARMAX and was having it brought to Naples, but then I saw the ad for Rose in the NDN and was so happy to buy it from them and plus she is YELLOW which is a great color to have in Florida.  Here she is in all her Glory plus a new picture I found on the internet – or someone sent me or something – can’t remember but it’s perfect for me:

Back from the swamp

Cartoon Rose & 3 Cats!

I love that!

Anyway, Dick and I did meet up at my house and he went over the “Consumer Reports 2015 Auto Issue” which has all the cars in there and how they “stack up” against one another and how they rate.  He explained it all to me so now I know what to look for.  I’m zeroing in on a Subaru Forester or still I like the Kia Soul.  I just love the sound of that name!  I hear good things, bad things, no opinion things so I’m still “cogitating”.  But yesterday, being an alcoholic and wanting things NOW, Dick and I went to the Subaru dealer to “look”.  I drove a Subaru Impreza and never got to drive a “Forester”.  The salesman was such an ASSHOLE – he even apologized for being one (he was from Brooklyn) and I made up my mind that there would be NO WAY I would ever deal with that guy or his dealership EVER!  So now I’ll think about going to O’Brian in Ft. Myers.  But I also looked at CARMAX on line.  There are a couple of them, but nothing that got me up and going there for a test drive.  I really liked the way the Impreza handled.  It’s their cheaper car.  I like it, but I’m not convinced yet.  The experience yesterday was good though because it showed me that my “impulsive” behavior needs to be toned down.  So now I’ll wait a little and search a little and I’m sure I’ll get what I need when I need it.

So that’s about it for today.  Lot’s to say and I’m over my 1000 word limit.  I just want to leave you with this beautiful image on this beautiful SUNDAY:

Beautiful!

Thanks for visiting!