Remodeling Week One

I contracted with COA, Inc. They are the division of On Top of the World that does remodeling as opposed to new construction. Robert Colen (part of the Colen family that owns OTOW) has been my contact. He has been everything helpful and very accommodating. My main supervisor is Troy but Jerritt, who is the backup supervisor, is usually here at the same time. They, too, have been generous with information and keeping me up to date with what comes next.

On February 22 construction began when they removed the roof and the aluminum & vinyl walls. Wow, I loved all the sunlight ... until it rained. Water seeped into the spare bedroom which was carpeted. Argh! I had to call Troy to come out and lay down some foam at the French doors to the spare bedroom and the door to the den to stop the water from coming in any further. Poor guy - it was cold and raining.

February 23rd, they removed the old concrete and poured a new slab extending it out four feet from the wall (or where the wall would be). When it finally stopped raining, the roofing company put up the new trusses and roofing felt on the 26th.

And then it rained again but at least the water wasn't coming close to the doorways. Good test for potential leaks. Actually, there have been a lot of opportunities to test for leaks since the construction has begun. *sigh*

Remodeling the Lanai

It's not as though I don't have enough room in my house (har har) but I decided to convert the lanai to a fully air conditioned room. Also, my Mom wanted a "project." So, I'm happy to oblige. She's the reason I moved to Florida, after all. These are my "before" pictures.

The lanai was at the back of the house and had a doggy door that gave the pups easy access to the tiny fenced backyard (see left). There was a French door leading to the spare bedroom (see right).

The outside wall was aluminum with vinyl windows and screens permanently fixed on the outside. The problem with the permanent screens was the male squirrels liked to hang on the screens and spray the vinyl. Because of the vertical blinds I couldn't clean the windows. Just squirting water on them didn't cut the squirrel spray. Yuck. Disgusting.

The roof was aluminum which was lovely during a rain but it was leaking, somewhere, and I had to lay down towels every time it rained. The floor was concrete and the area didn't have a vent for A/C or heat. In spite of this, it has become my favorite place to sit. I bought a porch swing that can convert to a flat surface and could be an extra bed, if I really needed it. It's really great for naps ... and I do love afternoon naps.

Yup, I Changed the Title

As much as I used to enjoy reading, I don't do much of it anymore. My passion has become dancing; hence, the name change.

Den and I are taking a private tango lesson tonight so we can begin intermediate tango lessons on Thursday nights. And we'll continue with the advanced fox trot classes on Wednesdays with Trish Sands. I feel very lucky to have started my dancing with her as my instructor. She keeps at me until I get it right. I don't think Den is as enthusiastic about the tango as I am. It's been an excuse for him to "sit one out" in the past, but he's doing this for me. Awwwww.

Christmas Newsletter aka The Year in Review

What a year this has been! I started out reading as much as I did when Bill was alive – about a book a day – however, I did add the physical exercise of walking the dogs twice a day because they no longer had a backyard. I also had to walk Mom’s dog, Lacy, because Mom had a broken foot which was finally healed by April.

I have also had to figure out what I like to eat versus what I had been cooking for the last 23 years. This became quite a challenge. It seems that I prefer salads, fruit, nuts and cheese. *snicker* I really don’t like to cook. *laughing*

I met a neighbor in February who encouraged me to get involved in some of the activities here in the community, particularly ballroom dancing. What a blessing. That month I learned the waltz and I’ve been dancing ever since. Now I know the basics of fox trot, cha-cha, tango, rumba, salsa, samba, East Coast swing, West Coast swing and bolero.

That same month I had a fence installed in back which gave the dogs a little area to run around in. Liz likes to go out and bark, so I installed a "bark breaker" that discourages the barking. Sandy likes to lay with his head resting in the doggie door hoping a squirrel will be foolish enough to enter the fenced area. *snort* Yeah, right.

In March I began going to the USA Dance Club, which is Ocala’s ballroom dancing club. I was so intimidated. The dancers were all experienced and I was so not. Different men would ask me to dance and I’d say I didn’t know this one but they’d get me up anyway saying they could show me. Bless their hearts. Now that I know better what I’m doing, I recognize what a generous act that is – asking a gal to dance who doesn’t know how.

Through ballroom dancing I have become part of a wonderful circle of friends. As much as we all love to dance, we also enjoy taking day trips together, like the one we took to Tarpon Springs, and getting together for parties. The members of this little group all live within 5 miles of me and we ride to the dances together since they all seem to be on the other side of town, at least 30 minutes away. Here we are. I’m second from left in this picture.

I met Dennis in May. He was recently widowed and wasn’t really ready to jump into another relationship but we kept running into each other at different venues and he felt he ought to pay attention. I wasn’t looking for a relationship either, but we had so much in common besides dancing like caring for aging relatives, a love of science fiction and similar spiritual beliefs. It was hard to ignore the connection. We are now dance partners and are dating exclusively. He’s a much more experienced ballroom dancer and he makes me look better than I am. He says I’m better than I think I am and a joy to lead. All I know is, I love dancing with him and people come up to us at dances and compliment us. Oh, and have I mentioned that we go dancing four or five times a week? Loverly. I’m lucky to read a book a month, now. Perhaps I should change my email addy and blog from byrdloves2read to byrdloves2dance. *chuckle*

In October I sold the house in Tennessee and in November I bought the house in Ocala that I had been renting. I’m really settling down quite nicely here in Florida. I love the sunshine, even in August, and especially now, in winter. Life is good – really good.

Marc Antony and Cleopatra

We had fun as Marc and Cleo from choosing the costumes to all the costume parties.

It all started at the Ocala Civic Theater. We had heard that they rented costumes so decided to see what was available. I wandered about looking for something pretty while Den explored further back in the huge warehouse of costumes. I just couldn't find anything that appealed when suddenly he appeared with the helmut seen here and asked Bridget, who is the costume department, "What can you build around this?" So she gathered the tunic and cape and whatever that thing is around his waist and a breast plate that covered his entire chest. Well, the breast plate was just not going to work when we danced so we substituted the smaller one seen in the picture. She also provided forearm braces and knee-high soft boots. He had the sword and belt - and yes it was a real sword!

By this time, Den had decided he was a Roman centurion and from there made the leap to Marc Antony and wanted me outfitted like Cleopatra. Bridget came up with this Egyptian costume. It's a leotard, white pants gathered at the ankles, a belt and collar of matching material, a gold head cover topped by an open weave black headdress with gold beads. I bought a couple of snake armbands to finish her off. No pun intended. LOL

So we started with a costume party on the 18th at Sensational Singles. I usually ride with my friends and Den and I meet up there but since our costumes were linked we decided to ride together. When we arrived, Gail was standing in the line for ladies in a mixer so we walked up to her and said hi. She didn't recognize me. I went pretty heavy with the make-up around the eyes so I wasn't too surprised, but it was fun. We discovered pretty quickly that Den couldn't turn me as fast as we're used to because the beads on my headdress swing out. So we modified our dancing style to accommodate that.

October 23rd we went to another costume dance at Dancin' Around. You can see some of the other costumes in the picture. This was fun because it was mostly ballroom dancing. Just about everyone came in costume including John Whipple, the owner/dance instructor of Dancin' Around. We hardly sat down at all - only when a tango was played.

Our last costume dance was in Beverly Hills at the Kellerman Auditorium on the 31st. This was also ballroom dancing and by this time we'd gotten our revised timing worked out pretty well to accommodate the headdress. We also found we had to make some adjustments for his cape when he spun about in the Swing. Luckily they played many more West Coast Swings so our movements were slower. Perhaps two-thirds of the people came in costume and there were some interesting ones. Of course, I think ours were the best.

We really had fun as Mark and Cleo. Den enjoys dressing up for Halloween a lot. It was a new experience for me but I'm so glad we did this.

Ocala Dance Club

Back in February I blogged about a neighbor who introduced me to ballroom dancing. I've been looking for some way that I might show him how much I appreciate his effort because not only did I reconnect with dancing but he also introduced me to a group of singles who live on this side of town and ride together to a lot of dances. A few of them have become very special friends.

Well, recently I attended a dance held by the Ocala Dance Club. It's the oldest ballroom dance club in Ocala and also one of the nicest. Men wear coats and ties, women dress in semi-formal dresses and the decorations are tasteful and elegant. In order to join this club one must have a partner and it costs $55 a year in dues. Plus you must be sponsored by a current member. The dues cover the expense of the once a month dances with live bands and the Christmas dinner/dance. Den invited me to be his guest last week because he already belongs with his partner, Hilda. She used to be his uncle's "girlfriend" before he died. Den offered to sponsor us and said if I joined with Paul, he'd back off and let Paul have first claim on my dances. Very honorable, but I hope he doesn't back off too much.

So I asked Paul if he'd like to join with me as his partner and I offered to pay our membership fee as my way of saying "thank you". He accepted. I hope he loves the club as much as I did. I want my thank you gift to be special.

The Weather Changed

I love the early morning walks. Slowly but surely we've been working our way up to 3 miles which a neighbor assured me is the distance from our villas to the Arbor Club and back. Friday it was pretty nice but still warmish and humid. The dogs were trying to lick the dew off the grass on the return home. I figured I was going to have to cart water for them from now on.

Saturday morning, I dressed as usual in shorts and t-shirt but the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees from yesterday. Rather than go back and change I decided we'd just add a little jog here and there to the walk to warm up. Worked like a charm. And we made it all the way to the Arbor Club. Easy. Of course we started pretty early for a change (like 6:15 AM) so it was dark all the way but there was also a lot less traffic. The pups were still eager to walk by the time we got home - I guess the heat and humidity really takes a lot out of them.

Saturday afternoon I went to a West Coast swing workshop at 1:00. I dressed as usual in shorts and t-shirt but when I stepped outside, I found the temperature hadn't risen much. Back inside to change, this time into slacks and 3/4 arm length top. Funny how I now find 70 to be cool. It didn't take me long to become acclimated to Florida's weather. Naturally, I opened all the windows and doors to let the breezes blow through. Fantastic!