Rockets, Limes, And Words

You know you have lived on Florida’s Space Coast for a while when you don’t even pay attention when the news announces a rocket launch and are not aware of it until you hear the sound of the booster rockets on reentry. That was the case on Wednesday when SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with 60 Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral. This was the company’s tenth rocket launch this year. Between that and NASA activity, I can’t keep track of everything that’s happening down there. But I did go out and get a picture of the trail the rocket left in the sky on its way to outer space.

I mentioned a while back that our citrus trees are beginning to produce fruit, and the folks at Lindley’s Nursery said to pluck them off before they get too big because the branches are not strong enough to hold the weight of growing fruit yet. I took these off of our key lime tree the other day and just as many off of the lemon tree afterward. I don’t have much of a sense of smell, but holding a handful of them to my nose was delicious.

Quite a few blog subscribers have been having a problem getting the daily blog feed lately, while many others receive it just fine. We have been using an RSS feed called Feedburner, which was a Google product that they have apparently stopped supporting. So I changed to a new RSS feed that seems to be working much better. If you are still getting the old feed, you can unsubscribe from it at the bottom of the e-mail when you get it. Then, please go to the blog subscription link in the upper right column of the blog and re-subscribe, which will start sending you the new feed with the next day’s blog.

After reading yesterday’s blog, Let’s Talk Turkey, three or four readers inquired about the Meater Plus wireless meat thermometer that Terry recently purchased, asking what she thought of it. She has only used it once so far, and there is a bit of a learning curve to it, but overall it does what it’s supposed to. The timer was spot on to the minute, alerting her to take the turkey out of the smoker at just the right time and then how long to let it rest before serving it. The only drawback so far is that it lost the signal several times. This could be because the smoker and sending unit were outside, and we were in the house, which is covered in metal. But all she had to do was walk close to the window, and it would reconnect automatically without losing the settings or the elapsed time or temperature. Overall, she likes it and says that she is looking forward to getting more use out of it.

By the way, we had more of the smoked turkey, along with more of Terry’s black beans and rice with andouille sausage for dinner last night, and it was just as delicious.

Yesterday was another writing day for me and I got in around 4,500 words in my new Tinder Street book by the end of the day. This puts me close to the halfway point, and I am having a great time with the story.

And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.

Be sure to enter our latest Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Blizzard, the fourth book in my Big Lake mystery series. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with U.S. addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – I sat quietly with my own thoughts today. Remind me never to do that again!