The first norther...

Well, the first one of the season.  We knew it was coming.  The weather weasels have been talking about it for days.

The front moved in last night around 9:00, when the wind went from the south... to still... to out of the north.  With a cold bite to it.  The weasels said our high for the day would be 59º.  Technically, that was correct - it happened at midnight.  It was 56º when I got up (around 7:00), and has been slowly dropping.  Unlike our typical 10 degree swing from day to night, this will wind up being a 30 to 35 degree temp drop from yesterday's high of 82º.

Seems like this is a couple weeks early - we usually see that first norther sometime around Thanksgiving.  It reminds us to be thankful that we aren't in the frozen northland.  ;-)

Looks like a wet week ahead.  No beach walking or scooter riding for this candy-ass.  The palm trees aren't swaying, they are shaking like a hula girl!

On the bright side, the chilly weather brings out Joan's desire to cook.  She is a great cook and does so every day.  But chilly days mean something like chili, cookies, a roast.

Let the chilly wind howl... it's warm inside and it smells good in here.

:-)

What's your sign?

With my wandering ways, my dear ol' Mother used to say I was born under the sign of "No Parking," since we were always on the go.

The cold front hasn't moved into south Texas, yet.  It was 73º when I got up this morning, and still... and very humid.  Must be the calm before the storm.  We decided to take the scoots across the causeway for breakfast out, since we know we won't be riding for a few days.  We picked a table by the window at the Grapevine Cafe; we had our pick of where to sit, not many people around.

After breakfast, we rode the scoots around a bit; no destination, it just felt good to be riding.  We eventually made our way up to the SPI Convention Center (where our favorite short nature walk is) and Joan pointed out the Zodiac Sculptures.  Eventually, there will be 12 of these abstract art works, but the ones for her birth date and mine were easily accessible from the road...

The wind came up while we were there... out of the south for now.  Pretty clear that this warm air is moving to the north with the low pressure system north of us.  Sometime today, that will change, and our temps will drop.  For now, the flags that are out for Veterans' Day are standing at attention...

Time for us to head for home.  Along the way, we came across this sign that made me chuckle...

Is it funny because they have wine specials in their kids combos or the fact that they are apparently $667.00 dollars?  Yes.  That is a pretty specific niche they are marketing to.

It was a breezy ride back across the causeway, coming at us as a direct crosswind at the highest part of the bridge.  The little Hondas handled it fine.  Wouldn't want to be doing that for a long distance, though.

We stopped at the local building center to check on the refrigerator that was supposed to be in a week ago... and then yesterday.  When the manager saw Joan, he realized that no one called us back yesterday when Joan called to check on it... "We are waiting for a call back from the warehouse to find out why this is taking so long."

Yeah... it is annoying when people don't call back when they say they are going to, huh?  Kind of a regular occurrence around here.  OK, maybe not just here.  I'm not expecting it any time soon, just hoping the old one holds out until the new one gets here.

Today is Veterans' Day.  If you can read this post, thank a teacher.  For the fact that it is in English, thank a Vet.

Adrift at sea!

We didn't have to wait long for this latest roof repair - Pete (the builder) and Nacho (the worker) were here before 8:00.  The premise today: take out the flashing around the suspect roof vent, replace, seal and re-shingle that area...

Here's what he pulled off the vent...

That red circle shows three small holes where the galvanized flashing had rusted through.  I am hoping this takes care of the little nagging leak we have been dealing with.

They had that job done in a little over an hour.  I asked about the rest of the roof... "Looks good."

We have a norther that is supposed to blow in by Wednesday that is kicking butt up north.  It won't be "winter" like they are getting - our high on Thursday is supposed to be 61º with a strong north wind.  In fact, most of the next week looks to be windy and rainy.  Glad we got the roof attended today - it will give us the opportunity to test out the repair.

With that kind of forecast, I decided it would be the last opportunity to get some paddleboarding in for a while.  It is breezy today, but will probably be around 80º for a high.  Looking down the canal, it didn't look that windy.  I tossed the board in and paddled my way down the canal.

I could see the wind ripples at the end of our canal... I knew it would be more of a workout coming back against that wind at the end of the canal.  I turned east with a pleasant tailwind.  I would guess it was blowing about 10 to 12 mph.  By the time I got two canals over, the wind had really kicked up... to the point I was working hard just to get turned around!  Paddling with my normal stroke, I wasn't make any forward progress - when I would switch from one side of the board to the other, the wind was actually blowing me backwards.  Well, this isn't much fun.

I hunkered down and dug in with the paddle... now, keep in mind I do this for the pleasure of being on the water... you don't get a body like this by exercising.  Digging in hard got me moving, with the added excitement of getting almost sideways to the wind as I switched sides to paddle.  The wind darn near blew me off the board.  Twice.

I considered options: getting to the closest dock and carrying the board back home.  Or, tough it out on the board and try paddling even harder.  I really dug in with the paddle, trying to stay reasonably close to the docks in that area to get a break from the wind.  My arms were tired, but my thighs were burning... seriously, I think I was putting dents in the board with my toes trying to dig in through my water-shoes.  It probably isn't possible to dent an inflatable board.

Slowly, I was making progress in the right direction.  This was not the furthest I've paddled, but it was certainly the most exhausting.  I was overcoming the thoughts I had of being blown out to sea... which would be pretty darn hard, considering I was in canals in the middle of an island, and about 6 miles away from "the sea."  ;-)

Back at our dock, Joan was painting the door to our storage area under the deck... "How was your paddle?"

"Fine.  A little breezy."  It didn't seem very manly to say, "I didn't think I was EVER going to get back!!"  My legs were like rubber when I plopped onto our dock.

When I went inside to clean up, I took a moment to check weather... temperature 75º, wind out of the south at 20, gusting to 25, occasionally higher.  Felt like a lot higher.  ;-)

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The temperature in the Black Hills at this same time was 17º.  Brrrrrrrrrrr!!

I've got a peaceful, easy feeling...

If you said, "The Eagles," you get 50 bonus points.  Only 50??  Come on, that one was pretty easy.  Kinda peaceful, too.

This morning, I was told it was my turn to do breakfast.  That usually means: we go out.  And by "usually," I mean: every time.

Joan wanted a relaxing morning at home, so the options were: me cook, or me go get.  I grill.  I only "cook" if Joan isn't around, and that usually means opening something and put it in the microwave.  I really should get more involved in cooking.  Don't know why, 'cause I really don't like to cook.  I was alone a lot as a kid growing up, so I had to cook for myself.  Didn't like it then, still don't.

But, I am particularly good with a phone.  I called Manuel's Restaurant and ordered a breakfast tortilla for us to split.  These things are huge, so splitting doesn't mean skimping.  I hopped on the scoot and zipped to Manuel's.  They had my tortilla ready when I got there; I paid and zipped back home.  A good solution to breakfast-by-Jim.

After breakfast, the Blonde and the furry kid got to have a private concert.  It makes me smile when I start playing and Joan comes in, followed by Izzy.  We have a routine.

A leisurely soak, clean up, and ready to take on the world by the crack of noon.  We are still under the influence of the north wind (only blowing about 10 to 12), so it is a clear, crisp, and slightly cool day.  It was 63º when I got up this morning, but comfortably in the low 70s by noon.

This time of year is very quiet around here; not just in our resort, but it town and on South Padre Island.  The neighbors next door were here last night, but left already today.  No one home across the canal from us.  The neighbors on the other side of us are always quiet.  Out on our deck, the only sound was the rustling of the palm leaves in the light breeze.  No hammering.  Nobody busting up concrete.  We have the sunscreens rolled down, so it is almost like a sunroom out on the deck.

We turned on the TV out there, and the Home & Garden Channel was playing a show about people shopping for property on "Beachfront Living."  It is a lot of people from up north who are looking for their "place on the water."  They are discovering the difference between "a place on the beach and a place to keep a boat."  Yeah, I get that.  Joan, Izzy, and I are out on the deck, enjoying the weather and the quiet.  I will grill up some steaks before the afternoon is out, Joan is whipping up some twice-baked potatoes; maybe we'll dine out on the deck.  I love this time of year in the Tropical Tip.

The peace and quiet will get interrupted soon enough - we discovered another small leak that is going to require replacing a roof vent in our small bathroom.  Like cooking, that isn't in my job description, but the builder has been called (I handled that) and we are "on the list."  The next rain event is supposed to happen Wednesday and Thursday this week.  I'm hoping we get this taken care of before that.  One never knows.

Entertainment with your meal...

This morning, little Izzy was sitting on the back of the couch, with the light from the glass in our front door shining on her like a spotlight...

No, that has nothing to do with the title of this post - just a cute kitty.  Well, it was proof that there was some sunshine, after several days of rain.

We took the scoots over to the island for lunch.  In our driveway...

A few days ago, I mentioned the "angry villagers" regarding resurfacing our parking lot; here's the lot...

Might be hard to see in that smallish photo above, but it just looks like a big mud bog right now.  I'm sure these past few days of rain have set the completion date back further again.

It is sunny, but cool, in the Tropical Tip today.  Barely 70º as we rode across the causeway.

Wind blowing 15 to 20 mph in a crosswind as we crossed the Laguna Madre.  Lunch was at Pier 19...

This is the place I mentioned a week or so ago that is built on what used to be a fishing pier.  This is the whole width of the interior...

Every table gets a window view...

Lunch was good, with an added surprise...

Live entertainment.  I don't know the singer/guitarists name, but he was good - nice fingerstyle playing and a very mellow voice.  When he quit at 1:00, he mentioned that he was here "from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and then would be playing at Marcello's (Italian Restaurant in Port Isabel) this evening."  That is a long day of playing and singing.  We will remember this for breakfast some time.  Nice to have some live music with your meal.

Outside Pier 19, we geared back up for a ride around South Padre Island...

You can see water still standing along the curb from all the rain we had the past few days.  Back across the causeway to Port Isabel...

We topped off fuel before heading home.  As always, Joan got better mileage than me: 104 miles per gallon for her bike, 99 mpg for mine.

When the rain comes...

100% chance of rain today.  Not often that you see the weather weasels commit like that.

It rained off and on through the night and was a light drizzle when I got up this morning; 63º.  That is as cool as we've seen it since we've been back.  Nice to have the door open and the air conditioner not running.

On a rainy day, there won't be any paddleboarding, kayaking, beach walking, or scootering.  Oh, you could do those things in the rain... you could, but I'm over that.  There is a saying you may be familiar with: when the going gets wet, those who intend to stay dry go to a movie.  OK, maybe you aren't familiar with that, but it works for me.  We haven't been to a movie in months.  My movie preference is for something light - make me laugh - and if it's a little sexy, that's good, too.  Nothing like that playing at our local theater, so we'll pick from the more dramatic options.

While I couldn't take a climate where the rain goes on and on for an entire season, I try not to judge a day by the weather.  Heck, I have a raincoat I got in Friday Harbor at the end of the season, and have only worn it once.  And Joan has those snazzy new rainboots.  We just might go find some puddles to splash in.  ;-)

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On edit: we saw "The Judge," with Robert Duvall and Robert Downey Jr.  A thumbs up from both of us.  I was expecting it to be depressing - and it certainly had some "down" moments, but kept our interest throughout.

Angry mob...

I am thinking about selling pitchforks and torches.

I live in a "village"... the villagers are uprising.  A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of the parking lot in Long Island Village...

Hart to tell it is a parking lot because of all the water.  We have had several heavy rains since we've been back.  The parking lot is in the middle of being replaced.  It is behind schedule.  No surprise to anyone who has tried to get anything done down here - everything is always behind schedule.

Our board of directors contracted to have the parking lot torn out and replaced, with a completion date of October 7th.  The buildings around that parking lot are our events center, owners area, indoor and outdoor pools, exercise room, and our private mail boxes (that is another topic that gets people up in arms around here, but don't get me started on the Post Office).  Almost a month behind schedule, and all that has been done is tearing out the old parking lot.  As near as I can tell, no work has been on it in a couple weeks.

There is a lot of finger pointing going on as to who is to blame for the delays.  Certainly, weather has played a part, but today there was a "community meeting" about the parking lot.  It has turned into a soap opera, with the contractor not getting the proper permits, people complaining about where the material taken out was being dumped.  Truly, a fiasco.  One that is costing the owners about $200k, 2/3 of which has already been paid out.  Yep, people are pissed about that, too.

The winter Texans will be showing up soon, and if they can't drive their golf cart to the pools, dances, their mailbox, quilting, and other activities, it is going to get uglier than it already is.  Such is life, living in a community that is mostly retired folks... who have the time to get all riled up about things like this.  Some have called for our Village Manager to be fired.  Calls to the mayor - and we aren't a part of the city (really, it's a separate village).  Calls to the parking lot contractor (who, incidentally, has had to move his staging area 3 times now because of complaints... hard to work on the parking lot where you are spending all your time moving stuff needlessly.

Other than having to walk a ways to get to our mailbox, we are not affected by this situation.  Joan thought people would be understanding of the delays.  Ummm, nope.  To be fair, not everyone at the meeting was angry.  Some of weren't surprised that this project wouldn't get done on time.  Some of us have other stuff to get worked up about.

I'm trying to decide which way to go with my big sale: buy two torches get the third free, OR 20% off when you buy a pitchfork and a torch at the same time!  Hurry - supplies are limited!  (Well, they wouldn't be if my order had been shipped when it was supposed to be.)  ;-)