Life is good in South Florida.  We are having beautiful weather.  Each day has gotten warmer.   We have been relaxing for the most part.  Noel and Jo Ann came over from Fort Meyers Friday  night and will be leaving today.  For the most part we have eaten and relaxed.   I’ll have to get back to my exercise program when we get home – shoveling snow.  Not looking forward to that actually.

But life is good for the moment.  I am trying to not get too involved in what is happening at work,  just have some reports to review, maybe on the airplane Tuesday night.   A lot of people seem to be down here now,  the condo’s are busy and the traffic heavier than New Years.   Prime season.  The economy seems healthy for the moment and there is new construction going on.

Well back to the sunshine,   must be close to 75 this morning!

Well we survived one cold snap.  It was a long week.  And of course when it got above freezing it snowed some more,  very little though.    So hopefully we don’t have more of these temperatures,  I really prefer snow and 30 degrees.   Actually I prefer sun and 78 degrees.  

So we hope everyone else survived this OK.  I am sure nephew Craig is happy that he is moved back north for this winter (why am I here?).  Isn’t Minneapolis just like Houston?    This week is better and midweek should be much better.  That is good because we want good weather to leave in,  Thursday night we head back to Florida.   My assistant is having some major surgery at the start of Feb and will probably be out 6 weeks.  During that time I won’t be leaving for any trips.   So we needed to get one more warm weekend in.

Somehow Phil is still going, not by much.   At one point I think Judy said he may be trying to outlast Bush in office.  That may just be it, at this point there is nothing much keeping him alive, and we pray he does not feel the pain.

So a big week for the county no matter who you voted for.  There is a lot of excitment and let’s hope that the American spirit can make our country strong again.

Next, probably from Florida!

Our first weekend back in Wisconsin.  It was a rude awakening coming back home after the wonderful Florida weather.  Wisconsin is still cold and wet!  We took our good friends in Florida Al and Viv out to lunch before we left, and they dropped us at the airport the next day.  There was plenty of ice and snow back here in Wisconsin while we were gone, and Chris and I have worked on trying to clean up the walk and driveway.  Chris got the walk clear of ice for the neighbors to come over last night.  We try to invite everyone over after Christmas and though we had a small group we had a very nice evening with good friends.  Today spent a little more time trying to clear some snow back in the driveway with my new toy.  I have worked it hard already, and it has saved my back a lot of pain!   My snowblower blew through a gear before Christmas, and we ordered some new parts today.   Last years snows took their toll.  So hopefully the parts come in before the next snows!  It sounds like not much snow the next week,  but we will get classic January tempertures,  possibly not above zero by late next week.

And when we came back from Milwaukee on Tuesday night we heard some whining from Chris’s car.  The 4 wheel is not disengaging properly, and the fix is expensive.  So we may have found Chris a new (used) car this morning.  We will think about it a day and decide on Monday.  So something to get excited about!

So everyone stay warm!  I put some additional pictures on the album page.  Our thoughts today also with old friends Phil and Judy Ortiz as Phil seems to keep coming up with bursts of energy, and our prayers stay with them.