I’m sure we’ve all heard the old thing about telling a lie so many times you begin to believe it’s true. Apparently that also can happen when you tell a story in fiction often enough. Let me explain. My Tinder Street family saga is set in the Old South End of Toledo, Ohio. I know […]
We knew when we went to bed Thursday night that there was a chance of strong thunderstorms and tornadoes hitting our area Friday morning. And sure enough, we were awakened by the siren on our weather radio alerting us to a line of storms coming our way from the west, with the threat of tornadoes. […]
Hurricane season in Florida is officially from June through November, but in the six years we have lived here on the Central Coast, halfway between Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach, we have never seen one after mid-October. So, with October in our rearview mirror, we breathed a sigh of relief. But it looks like we […]
How about some questions from blog readers to start your week? Q. After riding out Hurricane Ian, would you do the same thing if/when another hurricane hits your area? A. It would depend on the situation. If it was a major storm coming in directly off the Atlantic, we would probably leave. But the folks […]
Just like a bad rash, or that annoying brother-in-law who keeps showing up to borrow your tools and never returns them, I’m back! Did you miss me? I sure missed all of you! I appreciate everybody’s patience while we’ve been offline for so long due to Hurricane Ian. Let me give you an update on […]
No, I’m not talking about me jogging. Why would I do something like that? I guess if there’s food on the table I could manage a real fast waddle, but if you see me actually running, try to keep up because something really bad is behind me! I’m talking about the hurricane that’s supposed to […]
It seems like in the last few days, I have had a lot of people worried about us being here on Florida’s Central Coast during hurricane season, based on the number of e-mails I have received from people telling me that it’s supposed to be an active year for hurricanes and wondering what our plans […]
The other day someone referred to Terry and me as enjoying our retirement here on Florida’s Central Coast. We both had to laugh at that because even though we are of an age to draw Social Security and get Medicare, we are far from retired. When our insurance company refused to cover treatment for Terry’s […]
I think we all take modern conveniences like running water and electricity for granted until we don’t have them. Living on Florida’s central coast, we are not immune to hurricanes and bad storms, and power does go out once in a while. Fortunately, the good folks at Florida Power and Light (FPL) are usually pretty […]
Living in Florida, every time there’s the possibility of a hurricane or bad tropical storm we hear from friends and family members all over the country asking if we are all right, if we have plans to evacuate, and if we don’t, do we have enough supplies to survive in case the power grid goes […]
Yesterday was another 6,000 word day in my new Big Lake book. I’m getting closer to the end all the time and should be able to wrap it up in the next two or three days. Then it will go through the last stages of editing and proofreading, followed by formatting, and be out. I’m […]
There was a time when gas cans came with a flexible metal spout that made it easy to fill a tank with. But, in their infinite wisdom, someone in the government decided that if something is working, they must find a way to screw it up. So they did, by mandating a new non-flexible “safety […]
I grew up in a very different world than the one we live in today. Before I was 10 years old I already knew what I wanted to be. Not a jet pilot or an astronaut or a professional baseball player. No. All I ever wanted to be was a newspaperman and to write books. […]
Thanks to a lot of hard work by Miss Terry and my proofreaders, “Cool” Judy Rinehimer and Roberta Jensen, my newest John Lee Quarrels mystery, The Road To Wrinkle Ranch, is now available on Amazon. At present, there is the e-book you can purchase, or you can read it for free if you are a […]
I’m back with more questions from blog readers about RVing, what’s happening in our lives since we hung up the keys, and all kinds of other things. While I try to answer all questions individually, I also share some here occasionally. Q. You said your daughter is flying in to visit you. As I recall […]
In a blog post a couple of days ago titled Building Stuff, I showed the cable and lock I had put together to secure our Honda generators when we have to use them outside during a power outage. At the time, I had the loops on each end of the cable secured with clamps and […]
Our two Honda EU2200i generators weigh 46.5 pounds empty, and when you add almost a gallon of gasoline, which weighs about 6 pounds, they far exceed the 25 pounds my doctor told me I should limit myself to with my bad back. So moving them around and taking them outside to use is problematic. We […]
Yesterday we finished most of the last-minute preparations in anticipation of Hurricane Dorian making its way up the coast. The latest weather predictions are telling us that our worst days will be Tuesday and Wednesday. As of the 6 o’clock update yesterday, the hurricane was still wobbling a bit further west than it was. The […]
According to the weatherman, we are just about one third of the way through our annual hurricane season here in Florida. The season starts in June and goes through the end of November, so we are about two months down and four yet to go. But, keep in mind that two hurricanes that hit our […]
It has been very hot here on the Central Florida coast for the last few days, with the temperature edging up close to 90° most days. And it’s only going to get hotter. The weatherman says that the region can expect temperatures in the mid to upper 90s for the next week or two. Fortunately, […]