The Burn Ban

One of Doug and my favorite things to do on weekend nights in Florida is sit out on our back patio with the tiki torches and candles burning enjoying the cool evening weather. It gives us a nice time to relax and catch up on the week that just passed. Unfortunately, Marion County instituted a burn ban recently which changed our routine. We still enjoy our weekend nights on the patio, but it does feel like something is missing when we can’t light up the sky with our tikis.

I had never even thought about there being a burn ban until we got news of wildfires in Northern and Central Florida while we were in California. It made me take our drought a lot more seriously and I am glad to follow the rules as I remember how quickly the grass burned one night after a fallen tiki ember lit it on fire several years ago. I won’t complain too loudly as I know the summer rain will begin soon and the burn ban will be lifted. Until then, I will just enjoy the lights on our tiki bar and small decorative palm tree. They are fun to look at and a lot safer right now.

Unwanted Visitors

Monday morning, I woke up to find a mound of dirt in our backyard behind our lone tree.  My heart sank when I saw it as I wasn't quite sure what caused the huge dirt pile.  It almost looked like a hill of fire ants, but after investigating, I realized that there were no small creatures coming out of it.  My next suspicion was the armadillo that had been crawling around our home at night, but I had never heard of them digging up yards.

Since I had no clue what was causing damage to our yard, I decided to do some research online.  Although Google Gemini agreed that it could be an armadillo, they said that the most plausible answer was either a gopher tortoise or a pocket gopher.  I knew that the first one was a protected species in Florida, so I stopped physically poking around the mound immediately.  Instead, I called the "gopher guy" who I had seen several people post about on our HOA Facebook page.  After not getting an answer or a callback and seeing another hole pop up in our yard on Tuesday morning, I started to panic.  Thankfully, I remembered that our pest control guy was local and that he might have a suggestion.  He instantly texted me back the number of a wildlife company that agreed to come out today.

After walking around our backyard, the trapper told me that it was for sure a pocket gopher and set a live trap in the second mound.  If the gopher wasn't caught in two days, she would fumigate the tunnel on day three.  I was relieved that we had a solution to the problem but soon found out from Doug that we had another unwanted visitor roaming around our backyard.  A black snake had made a home under the grill recently.  Much to the dismay of Doug's coworkers, I instantly spread Epsom salt around the entire grill and fence area where the snake was last seen.  I know it will scare off the rodents, but having a snake in my backyard is too close for comfort to me.  

The Locket

Doug's dad contacted Meg recently to ask her if she had Jeanette's locket from their trip to Alaska many years ago. That seemed strange to me as he knew that Jeanette had given Doug and I the locket several years before she died after telling us the story about panning for gold on their last vacation with Grandma Brucker.  Although she didn't wear the locket often, she did have fond memories of that trip with her mother. 

I hadn't heard Carl mention the locket in years. He had alluded to me several times before we moved to Ocala that it was very valuable, but I knew that the flakes of gold were worthless. I had already asked our jeweler if it was something that I should have insured, but she told me that although it was a great keepsake of Jeanette's trip, it had no monetary value.  Maybe Carl just wanted to know if one of her grandchildren had it, but I was more afraid that he was going to ask for it back. Since Jeanette's intention was for us to keep it for her grandchildren, I had never contemplated giving it back to him.

I did take a picture of the locket today in case Carl texted us about it, but we never heard anything, so I put it back in Grandma Guard's jewelry box with other memory pieces from both sides of our families. That way if any of our children want to see their grandparents' jewelry, I will be able to share it with them.  I have learned over the years that I can't keep everything, but I can hold on to the memories of others that were "priceless" to them.

Sleepwalking Alarm

Still tired from traveling to California, Doug and I went to bed between 9:30 and 10 on the first full day that we were in The Golden State.  Sometime around 11:30 that night a loud knocking woke me from a dead sleep.  At first, I thought that it was the recurring dream that I had had about someone knocking.  Many times, in the past, I had jumped out of my bed, ran to the door and found no one there.  Thus, my first reaction upon hearing the knocking was to go back to sleep, but then I heard it again.  That's when I realized that it wasn't a dream and ran to Doug's bed.  When he wasn't there, I got worried and bolted to the door.  Doug was standing outside the door thrilled that I finally answered.  

After calming down from the excitement, Doug explained that as far as he could tell he had gotten up to go the bathroom but walked out our room door instead.  He didn't wake up until the door shut and locked.  He had tried knocking, but I didn't hear him because of my white noise machine.  He really needed to use the bathroom so he decided that the only thing he could do was go downstairs and use the one near the lounge.  He tried to be inconspicuous as there were two wedding parties in the lobby, but since he was shirtless and barefoot, he assumed that several people noticed.  I was surprised that no one said anything to him, but maybe they thought he was homeless or one of the drunk partygoers from the Butter & Egg Festival.  Doug returned to our room and had just about given up knocking to sleep on the floor outside our room when I answered.  He was definitely very happy to be back in bed.

After I got over the shock and embarrassment of the situation, I started to panic.  Doug had slept walk quite a few times during our marriage, but only in our house.  I had told him that recently he had slept walked out to the kitchen while I was still up watching television.  I am not sure that he believed me then, but he did now.  Since I didn't want him to get locked out again, and I didn't want to stay up all night worrying about him, I asked him to please sleep with a shirt on and a room key in his pocket.  He had no problem doing either.  I also turned on the bathroom light, put a row of hangers on the back of the door to act as a sleepwalking alarm, placed his suitcase in front of it and tied a bag around the door handle. Before I could finally fall asleep, I even ordered a door stop alarm that would wake anyone up if stepped on.  I am happy to report that there were no more sleepwalking incidents after that, and we both slept very well for the rest of the trip.

Hoosiers in the NFL Draft

Even though Doug and I were on vacation in California, we still made time to watch the NFL draft last week.  It started Thursday evening and became a historic first round for the IU football program as Fernando Mendoza was the #1 pick and Omar Cooper, Jr. was the 30th.  IU had not had a player taken number one since 1938, and it was the first time ever that two Hoosier football players had been drafted in the first round during the same year.  Friday night's draft was just as exciting as two more Indiana players were chosen - D'Angelo Ponds int he second round and Kaelon Black in the third.  

Doug and I were up early Saturday morning to watch the start of the last day of the draft as we were surprised that Elijah Sarratt hadn't been picked yet.  Thankfully, it wasn't long after the fourth round started when he was called by the coaching staff of the Baltimore Ravens.  Three more players were chosen on Saturday as well - Nowakowski in the 5th round, Coogan in the 6th and Aidan Fisher in the seventh round making for the best IU football draft to date.  

By Sunday night, there were six additional IU players signed as free agents and several others invited to minicamp. We don't know how much any of these Hoosiers will get to play in the NFL, but it will make for a very interesting fall.   Between the draft news and the IU football spring game last week, I am definitely ready for football season to start at Memorial Stadium.  Now if we can only find a way to get tickets to the games.  

The Craziness of Little 500

Doug and I arrived in Orlando this morning at 5:30 a.m.  Doug slept most of the two flights home.  I was pleased with the two hours that I got.  We were excited that we were able to get our bags quickly, find a Lyft to Meg's and arrive home by 7:30.  My head hit the pillow at 7:35 a.m. and I slept for almost five hours.  Doug decided to stay awake as he wanted to get back on his normal sleeping routine as quick as possible.  

I noticed that while I was sleeping that Cameron called.  I was sad that I missed his call, but glad to hear that Doug was able to talk to him.  I thought that Cameron was calling to tell us more about the shooting that happened on Kirkwood last night.  He had texted me when we got on the plane about it and told me not to worry as he was out by the stadium at the time and that his friends that were at the bars fled without injury.  I had read this morning that nine people were shot in what started as a fight between two girls, but that no one was killed.

When I finally got ahold of Cameron this afternoon, I was shocked by the story that he had to share.  It wasn't about the shooting at all.  When Cora woke up this morning, there was a man sleeping on her couch that she and her roommates did not know.  He wouldn't wake up and they weren't sure what to do about it.  After some debate they called the building manager who had to pour water on the guy to get him to even respond to them.  It took some time, but the manager finally convinced him that it wasn't his friends' apartment that he was sleeping in and soon after helped him exit the apartment much to everyone's relief.  I was very happy to hear that.

In the end, I wasn't really surprised by Cameron's Little 5 experience.  That weekend had been out of control since I was in college, so I could imagine what it was like now.  Brett, Cal and Meg all experienced similar situations during their time at Indiana and I am sure that students will in the future.  It almost seems like a rite of passage for our family and now Cameron will have his own story to share.  Thankfully, none of us have been scarred by any of those memories.

Last Day in California

Doug and I spent our last day in California going to Francis Ford Coppola's Winery, exploring downtown Healdsburg and eating lunch at the famed Russian River Brewing Company.  Jim joined us for the last two and we were so glad to have those last few moments with him before we headed back to Florida.  Coppola's Winery was extremely fun to tour.  They had a swimming pool for guests, a bocce ball court, a museum dedicated to the family's movies, a restaurant and an area to taste wine.  Doug wasn't a fan of the wines, but I loved all of the movie memorabilia.  I was surprised that over half of the museum was dedicated to his daughter Sophia.  I didn't realize how many movies that she had actually directed.

Healdsburg was my favorite small city that we visited this week.  It reminded me a lot of Holland, Michigan with an area dedicated to artwork, a rose garden and a lot of nice touristy shops.  There were also multiple spots to taste wine or eat dinner along the square.  I found the perfect towel to commemorate our time in Sonoma County.  It had so many of the places that we had visited on it including Jack London's park and even Jim's new hometown, Guerneville.  While we were there, I loved finding out that the movie Scream was partially filmed in their downtown area.  I could envision the exacts scenes in my mind as we walked through the town.

Our last stop of the day was the Russian River Brewing Company.  Since we had arrived in Northern California, everyone had recommended the restaurant.  All three of us loved the atmosphere.  It was packed with beer tasters and had an outside area for corn hole, bonfires and small children to play.  Our lunch was very good.  The guys said that the beer was a little too watery, but neither minded as they enjoyed the experience so much.  

We parted ways with Jim at 3:30 so that we could make it to Oakland in time for our evening flight.  I was very sad to say goodbye but knew that we wouldn't wait another twenty-five years to see each other in person again.  Thankfully, we text and call often which makes the distance feel a lot closer.