Exploring Ocala

Meg arrived last night and the four of us had a lot of fun hanging out at home.  We picked up dinner at Publix and then enjoyed an evening of music, time on the back patio and the Wii.  Today, we spent the afternoon in downtown Ocala first stopping at the restaurant that Doug and I found a few weeks ago, Blind Eye.  Our lunch was delicious and the drinks were fantastic.  Cameron and Meg both liked it a lot, and I was glad that we had new places for them to try.  

We headed to Silver Springs next to check out both Broke N Records.  There were so many vinyls that we really liked, it was hard to choose which ones to bring home.  Meg found several that she had been looking for including Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits.  I picked up one from Sonny & Cher and Doug got a Gershwin vinyl.  I even found Jim Croce and Bob Dylan in the discount bin.  I already had the vinyls but knew that the boys would love listening to them.  The best score of the day was by Meg, but Cameron was the buyer.  It was the soundtrack to the Pink Panther movie.  It was the perfect celebration of his job offer from Owens Corning.  Before we left the area, I stopped in at Peacock Cottage to pick up a new air plant.  

It was really hot today, but we still made time to play several rounds of ping pong.  Phil came by afterward, and we played multiple rounds of Chameleon, listened to our new vinyls, and sat out on the back patio enjoying the evening air.  Cameron told Phil about his new job, and Meg talked about her and Nick's future plans.  It was a fun night, and I was glad to have Cameron and Meg here with us, so much so that I was weepy when the evening was over as I knew that I would really miss this once Cameron headed back to Bloomington.  

Kennedy Space Center

A few weeks ago, Doug told me that he would like to visit Kennedy Space Center at some point this summer and suggested that I ask Cameron if he would like to go with us.  Cameron had told me that he didn't want to overschedule his week while he was with us in Ocala, especially since he had had a very busy summer, so I was surprised when he said that he was definitely interested in making the two-hour trip to Titusville to visit the place where Apollo 11 had launched for its trip to the moon.  I was happy that he wanted to go, and thankful that the Space Center was offering a special rate for Florida residents, which saved me almost a $100 on our trip today. 

The three of us arrived at 10:30 this morning and headed straight to the bus tour.  I had read on the way in that it was the perfect place to start as it would take us on a tour of the main launching pad, give us access to the Apollo missions museum and let us Atlantis as well.  It was fascinating to all of us with Doug and I more focused on the 1960s and 70s missions and Cameron more on the current space travel.  I was really impressed with how much we learned and how much there still was for us to find out on our own.  The only negative on the day was standing under the rocket booster for seven minutes with a crowd of people for a less than awe inspiring "takeoff" experience.  Other than that, it was a wonderful day, and we were all glad that we chose to spend it at Kennedy Space Center.

Crooked Can brewery

Several months ago, Doug and I decided to try Crooked Canned Brewery.  It was unique in that it featured a local brewery and several food court style restaurants inside one long building.  Since he was staying at Meg’s while she out of town, Doug thought it would be a great place for him and I to meet as it was a little over halfway to Baldwin Park from Ocala. I liked the idea because it saved me quite a bit of time in the car and I would still get to see Doug. He and I met after he got off work that night and really loved the place. It not only had beers for Doug to try, but also several food vendors to choose from as well including a barbecue restaurant, an ice cream store, and a pizza place, just to name a few.

A couple of weeks after our visit, we noticed that there was a new Crooked Can Brewery being built along I-75. It was even closer to Ocala and from the looks of it, the place was huge. Doug and I both really wanted to try it as did Meg once she passed it on her way to visit us in July.

The three of us decided that tonight would be the perfect time to try Crooked Can Brewery especially since Meg had not seen Cameron since he arrived and was ready to hang out with him. We were also happy to show him another new place that we had found since his last visit in March. All four of us absolutely loved the brewery. It didn’t quite have all of the restaurant in place yet, but the ones that we tried were fantastic. We started with an appetizer of pork rinds along with a round of beers before picking out dinner. Cameron, Meg, and I had the empanadas which were absolutely delicious while Doug ordered a pizza for him and Cameron to split. Before we left, I treated everyone to dessert from the new donut shop, and we all agreed that the fried s’mores donuts were absolutely delicious. In the end, we all enjoyed the new place very much and it was the perfect place for Cameron to give Meg a surprise gift from his summer internship. It was nice to know that even the pink Panther loved Crooked Can Brewery.

A Day at Home

Cameron had a great first full day of his summer break at home in Ocala.  He slept in, signed his offer letter from Owens Corning, and went to lunch with me at Depot on Magnolia which he had never been to before today.  He was glad for the quiet day and I appreciated the company.  We even made time for a few rounds of Hands Down Yahtzee before Doug came home from work.

There were two things on Cameron's list that he really wanted to do while he was here.  First, he wanted to cook.  Since we were staying in this evening, it was the perfect time for him to try and make cheeseburger pods that Disney had made famous.  He had gotten the recipe for bao buns online and picked out his own ingredients for the filling.  I was incredibly impressed with how great they tasted and his ability to replicate one of our favorite theme park meals.  

The second thing that Cameron really wanted to do was watch Jaws 2.  He had watched the original every year with our family for as long as he could remember, and after seeing the sequel on the Rewatchables list, he decided that he wanted to watch it.  Doug and I had seen not seen the film all the way through in years, so we were more than willing to set up the tv on the back patio for a movie night.  Jaws 2 was just as good as I remembered and the perfect sequel to the first movie.  I was glad that Cameron got the humor out of the gasoline, water-skiing scene without even listening to Bill Simmons talk about it first, and that he enjoyed the last forty-five minutes as much as we did.  Overall, it was a wonderful night in Ocala, and I was extremely happy that Cameron was here to share it with us.  

Summer Break

Cameron arrived this afternoon and he couldn't have been happier to have a week in Florida before school started.  He talked non-stop all the way to Ocala from the airport filling me in on his two days at Grandma and Grandpa's beforehand and his weekend in Southern Indiana.  The biggest topic of conversation, however, was Owens Corning and Cameron's job offer.  He still hadn't come off of cloud nine from that and wanted to go over the benefits with me while we were driving.  I was impressed with the company's bonus structure, relocation stipend, employee stock opportunities and their 401k employer contribution match program.  Although he didn't have to choose his insurance plan yet, we still went over it and talked about what made sense for him.

When Doug got home, the topic continued and Cameron had his dad read his contract.  Once we all agreed that it looked great, we picked Hiatus to celebrate.  I hadn't been there in months, and we enjoyed a beer there before heading to Taco Tuesday at Tijuana Flats.  It was a fun night of hanging out, talking about careers, predicting IU football's success and listening to Cameron's plans for his senior year.  I was glad that the pressure was off this week and we could just focus on having fun and relaxing.  Cameron hadn't been in Ocala since March and Doug and I were definitely looking forward to spending time with him.

Vitamin D

Last week at my biweekly appointment, my therapist asked me to take a quiz on depression.  She felt that my weepiness was caused from a mental health issue and not just from being overwhelmed by the events of the summer.  I had never been diagnosed with depression before but definitely understood her concerns.  I had been very weepy.  In fact, I cried for an hour after I cut Doug's hair and realized that the scar from his last bought with skin cancer would be noticeable.  For some reason, I couldn't focus on the fact that Doug was healthy and that he honestly didn't care about his hair.  I just kept thinking about that scar.  Maybe my therapist was right.  

After the scar incident, I told Doug what my therapist said.  He listened but didn't really feel that I was depressed.  He felt that I still enjoyed life too much.  He also thought that I had other issues going on that I hadn't mentioned to my therapist. He suggested I should talk to Dr. Aich instead.  After Doug said that, I realized that he was right.  I had been having a lot of joint and muscle pain.  I started getting headaches and I was physically exhausted.  Even my morning walks had become too much.  He also pointed out that my weepiness could have been from the news that we received from Syracuse last week.  Our long-time insurance agent whom I had known since I was fourteen had died unexpectedly from pneumonia.  It was hard not to think about as he had children Cal, Meg and Cameron's ages.  

I took Doug's advice and had bloodwork done in anticipation of my appointment with Dr. Aich at the end of the month.  As soon as I read the report, I knew exactly what was wrong.  My Vitamin D was very low.  That had happened one other time in my life and I had the exact same symptoms that I was having now - fatigue, joint pain, nerve issues, weepiness, and more.  I messaged my doctor right away and she increased my Vitamin D to every other day instead of every other week.  I know that it will take a while for it to make a difference, but just finding out that there was something medically wrong and that I could do something about it made all the difference.

Windchimes Instead of Bird Feeders

When I was living in Indiana, I loved to feed the birds.  With the woods behind us and a big Maple tree in the front yard, we attracted hundreds of birds each week.  I not only fed sparrows, but gold finches, hummingbirds, cardinals and even orioles.  Out of all of the feeders that I set up in our yard, and there were many, my favorite was my peanut feeder.  I loved watching all of the blue jays flock around it when ever I filled it with peanuts.  They would fly up into our front tree and start cracking the shells with their beaks hitting the peanuts repeatedly against the branches.  When I couldn't see the blue jays through the leaves, I could hear them working on the shells.  The peanuts rarely lasted an hour or so before they were gone.  

Unfortunately, I haven't had any luck here feeding the birds and I am not sure why.  I researched what would be native to our area and set up several different kinds of feeders to accommodate those birds, but none ever came to our backyard.  I didn't know if the huge black crows that were hanging out in the oak tree across the street scared them off or if the birds in Florida had plenty of food and didn't need feeders.  Either way, my bird feeding days were over, and it was one of the few things that I missed about our home in Syracuse.  

Recently, Doug and I decided to give it one more try.  I set up the pole, filled up a regular birdfeeder and the one for peanuts, but nothing happened.  I waited a month and never saw one bird in our backyard.  I finally gave up.  Instead of being sad about losing all of my birds, I decided to try something else on my shepherd's hook.  I found a beautiful solar lighted hummingbird windchime on Amazon to hang in our backyard and decided that would be the best way to remember my fun days of being "the crazy bird lady" in our family.