#Update

Another Quick Update!

/ Marcia Meara / 29 Comments

 

As they say, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get!”

Try as I might, I seem to fall farther behind each day. I reckon that’s one of the perils associated with growing older. Or maybe I’m just getting lazier? Whatever the cause, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to keep up with my blogging lately, and am working on ways to do better about that. Figured I should at least touch base today and let you guys know I’m alive and kicking. Well … not so much kicking, as it’s still too hot down here to encourage that kind of physical activity. But I AM still alive, anyway! 

Sorry I haven’t been around much, but I hope to get back into Blogging Mode very soon! No, I mean it. Really. I’ve had some ideas for topics I’d like to introduce on TWS, and hope to get a few of them set up before  long. In the meantime, if any of you have a book you’d like to promote or news you’d like to share, please feel free to let me know. I’d love to help you get the word out. 

Hope you are all enjoying the early fall weather in your part of the world … or at least are not having to deal with the remnants of a hot summer that just doesn’t want to go away? (You don’t even want to know how hot it’s going to get here by this afternoon!🙄)

Here’s to a super day, my friends! Happy writing!
(Or reading!) 

Still Trying to Catch UP … Sort of.

/ Marcia Meara / 14 Comments

Just wanted to thank you all for being so kind and understanding as I make my way through several health issues that have slowed me down considerably. Let me say right up front, they have NOT stopped me completely, nor WILL they! But it might be a little while before I get totally back on track again. Apparently, at 80 years of age,  it takes me longer to heal up from injuries, repel sickness, or regain my old “get up and go,” which (as they say) “got up and went” with all that’s been happening.

The good news is, my heart monitor comes off tomorrow, so at least I’ll be a lot more comfortable than I’ve been all week. (I’m allergic to tape, and the darn thing has been making me itch like crazy, so I’ll be doing the Happy Dance when it’s outta here!) Hopefully, I’ll get the results of the monitoring soon, and they won’t be too awful, all things considered. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing any laps around the local track or taking part in any swim meets, but that’s okay. (I never did any of those even when I was a sweet, young thang!) As long as I can continue to do the things I love (blogging, reading, and spending time with my family and friends), I’ll be a happy camper! Will update you after my doctor visit tomorrow, IF she can give me any answers that soon.

In the meantime, here’s to enjoying Life to the fullest, every single day!!
🤗❤️🤗

As a wise man once sang:
“Don’t Worry, Be Happy!!”

#QuickUpdate – I’ll Be MIA a Lot this Week

/ Marcia Meara / 20 Comments

 

Just wanted to let you folks know that my daughter is flying in from Denver this morning and will be here with us for a week. I’m so excited to have a chance to spend some time with her, including celebrating her birthday tomorrow. The bad news is, I probably won’t be around much for a week, though I’ll try to catchup here and there, when possible. I know you’ll all understand why I’ll be away, but it’ll be business as usual again as soon as she flies back to Denver next week.

Take care and have fun, everyone. See you soon! 😀 ❤

#Update on #Idalia & a Big #ThankYou

/ Marcia Meara / 48 Comments

 

Thanks so much for all the well-wishes, everyone! We made it through the storm with no serious damage, thankfully. Just a fair amount of rain and some gusty winds here and there. The storm made landfall farther north than originally predicted, so that saved us, and spared my son & family, as well. Sadly, there’s been a lot of water damage from storm surge along the coast, and Idalia (while mostly gone from Florida) isn’t done yet. Please keep others who may find themselves in her path in your thoughts and prayers.

I also want to say I may be a wee bit scarce for a couple more days as I’m dealing with some issues relating to a bit of oral surgery, the resulting infection, and a good bit of pain. GAH. In the famous words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s AAAAAALLL-ways sumthin’!” Hopefully, this will be over soon, and things will be back to normal (such as it is around here). 

In the meantime, hope you all have a great rest of the week, and avoid any random hurricanes that might show up near you. 

Be Back Soon!

 

 

 

#This & That & The Other Thing

/ Marcia Meara / 49 Comments

Happy Saturn’s Day, Everybody! Hope your weekend is going to be a great one, filled with all your favorite things and people. 

Just wanted to update you folks a bit. I’m still on “house arrest” and that will likely remain the case for a bit longer. We haven’t been able to reschedule the imaging of my heart earlier than September 6, and until my doctor has the results from that, he won’t be able to come up with a definite plan on managing this issue. I’m NOT in crisis mode, obviously, or emergency steps would be taken, but I do have a list of things I’m not allowed to do until the assessment is completed. Consequently, I’m way, way behind on many things I’d normally be taking care of each day. *sigh* (Can we say “frustrating,” boys and girls? 😄)

The good news is, I’m feeling pretty good, and even the AWFUL pain from my disastrous dental experience has eased greatly. (Plus, I can see my NEW dentist Monday for an assessment, and we’ll see if she agrees with me, or with my EX-dentist. It will be interesting, for sure. ) Also,  I am not having the issues with dizzy spells that I did for months, and the extreme fatigue has eased greatly, so that’s all good news.

I am still running way, way behind on my blogging, and about all I’m able to do right now is “Like” and share posts from my favorite online sites. I know you’ll understand if I can’t comment as often as I usually do. I’m looking forward to catching up one of these days, and being able to have more FUN with my fellow blogging friends. In the meantime, just know how important each and every one of you is to me, and here’s wishing you all a great rest of the summer, with plenty of good times ahead!

Here’s a picture I received from a nice lady who brought her little boy to my last wildlife presentation on Central Florida’s Fabulous Owls, five months ago. He was very attentive and asked several good questions. Afterward, she told me he wanted to have his picture taken with me, if it was okay–which of course it was! After nine years of giving talks twice a month at two very special venues, I really, really miss all the great folks who came to learn a bit about our wildlife. This picture arrived in my Inbox just in time to lift my sagging spirits.

Jesse and I – February 2023

One final update. I am feeling the stirrings of creativity once again, and am hoping to get some actual writing done on Cole, Cole, & Dupree, Rabbit’s latest adventure. Will let you know how that’s going in a week or two.

And that completes today’s Update.
Granny and I  wish you all a wonderful weekend.
Thanks so much for stopping by!

#ThankYou and a Quick Health #Update

/ Marcia Meara / 20 Comments

Just wanted to thank everyone who commented on Dennis’s wonderful butterfly post yesterday. So glad you enjoyed it, and I’m sorry I was unable to respond to comments. I’ve run into complications from my last dental procedure and have had to start a course of antibiotics, along with some pretty potent pain medication. I may be a bit scarce for a few more days, but hopefully, I’ll be back to my regular routines soon.

If all goes well, Dennis and I will continue with our #WildlifeWednesday series as time permits, too. Between us, we have lots of goodies we we want to tell you about, and we’re both looking forward to doing so. In fact, I have a post coming up on July 12 that I hope you’ll enjoy, featuring one of my favorite wading birds. Looking forward to sharing it with you. 

In the meantime, don’t worry if I’m pretty quiet for another week or two. I’ll be back before you know it!

See you soon!

#HurricaneUpdate

/ Marcia Meara / 42 Comments

 

Just taking a moment to let you know that we came through Nicole in pretty good shape. Yes, a THIRD tree (from a neighbor’s yard) DID fall on our property, but this time, it was a small one, and it hit one of our storage sheds instead of the house. (Mark can repair the tin roof. )The storm also blew down the fence again between our house and our next-door neighbor, but it had only been put back temporarily after the last time. It is old and in need of replacement, which will probably happen soon. But today, Mark is out there helping prop it up again in the hopes it will remain vertical until that happens. 

For those who may not have seen the images, while Nicole hit as a Category 1 hurricane and dropped to a tropical storm as soon as it came onshore, there are areas that were severely damaged. Not as widespread or horrific as Ian, but if one of these was your retirement home on Daytona Beach, you’d be pretty unhappy right now.

Having grown up in Florida, one thing I’ve never even considered doing is building a home on a sand dune, though I do feel sad for these folks.  The damage continues much, much farther than what shows in this picture. It was caused by the storm surge breaking down the seawall, then washing away the sand under the homes.  As you can see, these have collapsed, entire patios have been swept away, and empty swimming pools lay tossed all over the place. Truly a terrible sight. 

Our neighborhood has once again held up well. No flooding, though of course, there is some wind damage up and down the block. But nothing that can’t be set right. Speaking of which, it’s back to debris clean-up for me. This will probably take us several more days. I’m doing the easy bits, and doing them at a far slower pace than I’d normally tackle, so my new doctor won’t yell at me when I see him next Thursday.  (So much for getting any writing done this week. 🙄)

Until Next Time, Stay Safe, Everyone!

#HurricaneIan – #Aftermath – #Update

/ Marcia Meara / 25 Comments

Another Amazing Rescue in Progress!

Hi, Everyone! Just wanted to get out  a quick update in case the internet goes again.  We were incredibly lucky, considering a) what’s happened to the folks in south Florida and b) even parts of our county received a great deal of flooding, leaving several roads still underwater. Here’s the scoop on us:

  1. My son and his family (who live just 2 hours north of us) weren’t hit hard at all, and escaped any damage to their home, so that was the best news of all for us!
  2. Power finally came back on late yesterday, so three days without in this very hot weather. It was not fun, but with the generator, we were able to run ceiling fans, cook on the range, have overhead lights, and run the little a/c in the bedroom for sleeping at night. Compared to so many, many people, we have NOTHING to complain about. Again, we were truly lucky! 
  3. Of course, we spent a LOT of money on gas for the generator, but it’s still the best investment we ever made.  
  4. Internet is still a bit intermittent, but I don’t have time to be online anyway, as we are busy cleaning up heaps and piles of debris all over our yard. But again, we still have a house and a yard, with no major damage, so … LUCKY!
  5. We were able to find a tree service actually still working in our area and not off helping the far more desperate folks down south. They came, got the tree off the house, cut it up and stacked it on the curb for city pickup. They were super fast and efficient, and we were very, very grateful. Cost us $1200, but it could have been much,  much worse.
  6. Only a small patch of shingles were damaged by the tree being on the roof for two days, and Mark is busy replacing them with shingles left over from the new roof we had to get after Hurricane Irma 5 years ago. So happy there was no other damage to the house this time around! (Unlike the $85,000 worth to the house, and $3,500 worth to our car, last time.) Did I mention LUCKY??
  7. And last, we are very, very grateful and appreciative of all the well wishes and prayers from so many of you! I don’t have words enough to tell you what it means to know folks were thinking about, and praying for, all of us here in Florida. Many, many thanks to each of you, and I’ll be checking in through the days ahead as time allows.

NOTE: I have back-to-back guests on TWS again this week that I know you’ll enjoy. Jackie Lambert will be here on Tuesday, and Kassandra Lamb will be here on Wednesday. I may or may not be able to comment much, but I know you’ll make them welcome!

Now, back to debris removal! 

Still Here! #Update

/ Marcia Meara / 19 Comments

Most of Southwest Florida looks like this picture of Fort Myres

Just wanted to let you know we are still here. While the generator kept us going most of yesterday, we lost internet shortly after my last check in. Without internet, we had no way to keep up with the storm, and it was a long, scary afternoon and evening. Ran out of gas for the generator during the middle of the night, so Mark is gone to see if he can find a gas station with power at the pumps. 

Spectrum is back now, but if we can’t find gas, we’ll be without power again, and I won’t be able to get online. I WILL at least be able to check news on my phone apps as long as internet stays on. It was horrible not knowing what was going on. 

In spite of this, we are SO blessed to have been spared. I’m just seeing the most recent pictures out of south Florida and they are unbelievable. In my LONG life here, I’ve never seen such terrible devastation over such a large area. It breaks my heart! Entire communities of homes are either smashed flat or  COMPLETELY submerged beneath the flood water! 

Will check in later, if we still have power and internet.  I’m hoping it lasts long enough for me to respond to earlier posts, but we’ll see. In the meantime, please stay safe, especially those of you who are still in harm’s way as the storm moves north! 

#HurricaneIan – #Update

/ Marcia Meara / 20 Comments

Just wanted to let you know we are alive, and mostly well. While Ian had slowed to Tropical Storm speeds when it passed over us, we still got a ton of wind and rain, and for the first time that I can remember, flash flood warnings were issued for our county. We still came through remarkably well, compared to southwest Florida.

We did, however, have a TREE FALL ON OUR HOUSE AGAIN!!!! This time, it was a very tall, spindly live oak that the tree people said didn’t need to come down. It was all the way at the back of our property, and Mark didn’t think it would catch enough wind to fall. But with all the weeks of daily heavy rain, the soil was totally saturated, and it just plan FELL over, roots and all. It is lying across the master bedroom roof, but doesn’t look like it damaged it. We won’t know for sure until the rain and wind gusts finally stop and Mark can take a closer look. He might even be able to cut it in pieces and drop them over the edge himself, thus saving us $800 – $1000, and a LONG wait in line for a tree service. We’ll decide on that as soon as he can get up there and assess the situation.

For now, we have lost power, but the generator is working like a charm.  We also lost internet for about an hour, but it’s back, at least for now. The important thing is WE are safe, our house is safe, and best of all, my son & family is safe, too! (They are two hours north of us, and didn’t get nearly as much wind and rain as we did. YAY!)

With the power not restored, we are having to cope with heat, as the main a/c is too much for the generator, and we have an enormous clean-up job ahead of us, once it finally stops raining. But the bottom line is, we are alive and safe, and our house is still standing! I’m filled with gratitude for that, and praying for those who haven’t fared as well.  Also sending prayers to those still in harm’s way as Ian crawls northward, bringing more storm surges, wind, and rain to others in the path.

I’ll probably be pretty scarce for a couple more days, but I’ll check in with updates when I can.  Stay safe, everyone!