December 12, 2000, Tuesday- misty and rainy weather, so let's head south, all of the way to Naples, where the weather is better. Rolled into Naples at 3 to sunshine and temperatures in the low 80's. Nice for a change. Now it will take us a while to "set up" house, clean up the coach and car after days of rain, and Hobbes, who's coat needs some TLC and washing.

Dinner with Jerry and Lois was great. We got to see their new condo…..totally redone by the prior owner for resale. Smells brand new….then a few rounds of Euchre, just for old time's sake.

As we drove the few miles back home we heard that the US Supreme Court has issued their opinion. Turn on CNN and find out that there seems to be a "Catch 22" with an impossible remand to the Florida Supreme Court. Now it looks like it's only time before Gore must give his speech.

December 13, 2000, Wednesday- Yup…the US Supreme Court spoke, too little, too late. Gore is out, Bush is in. Now we will have a President who lost the popular vote and only won the Florida vote by the time honored legal tactic of delay and delay. Then, there is no time to recount.

December 14, 2000- Thursday- a perfect day from start to finish. We met Bob and Elaine at their new condo at Bonita Beach, about 40 minutes north of here. What a lovely place with all the whistles and bells 20 stories up. Views of both the Gulf and the wetlands, west and east. Then the fun stuff started with a day cruise on their new 26' Glacier Bay twin hulled boat powered with twin 135 horsepower outboards. This vessel cut through the swells and wakes like they were butter, smooth as silk. Lunch in Naples, then a cruise back. Their new toys don't stop. Bob's new Lexus 430, had back seat toys with controls for heated seats, a/c, vibrators and solar screens. New technology included a sophisticated cruise control that scans you speed and the car ahead, and, as needed, will slow your car to prevent a rear end accident. What a deal!

 

26' GLACIER BAY	CAPTAIN BOB AT THE WHEEL!

Dinner included we four and Jerry and Lois at a cute café in the Saks Fifth Mall in Naples.

BOB, ELAINE AND SUSAN!	ONE OF THE SMALL BUNGALOWS AT VENETIAN BAY

 

December 15, 2000, Friday- with our new land line phone in the coach, we could catch up on phone and internet open items that we've been carrying around for the last few weeks. Nice to get most of that behind us. Hit golf balls at the Lely Mustang practice facility. First class. Tomorrow we'll play the course because as of December 25 the fees will double "in season".

Will have to watch Hobbes since he started to limp today on his right front leg. When we called the vet for an appointment, he stopped limping, but resumed after we canceled the time slot. Smart dog.

December 16, 2000, Saturday- Hobbes was limping when walking slowly, but when going at a reasonable pace, no sign of a problem. Go figure.

The Lely Mustang course was perfect. We played the links course with nobody ahead or behind us. Three hours and forty-five minutes. It was in perfect shape and the carts were set up with GPS tracking systems. First time we played with this system, but it was definitely habit forming. Each hole was shown with distance to obstacles from the t-box, distance from the t-box and to the greens (both front and back). It even showed the pin placement and distance to the front and back of the greens.

December 17, 2000, Sunday- a classy day at one of the five courses the Bob and Elaine are members of. Not a blade of grass dared to be out of place at the Bonita Bay East Course. Perfect weather and by the time that we finished Bob couldn't believe that I was so bad but still beat him! He wanted a refund on all of his lessons. On the last few holes the native wild pigs were in abundance. These, fortunately, seemed a lot tamer then the javallenas that were surrounding our campsite in Davis, Texas last month!

BEACH DAY FOR SUSAN	TIME TO PIG OUT

December 18, 2000, Monday- Hobbes was again up and down with the limp so we visited the Berkshire Vet. A nice Dr. Winters diagnosed Hobbes with either a small fracture or bone chip that will heal itself in a few weeks. So for now, lots of anti-inflammatory drugs and no running off the leash.

I finished a project of drilling into our concrete pad - to secure the awning and sunscreen against any sudden wind. Now we can walk around our patio without tripping on the awning tie downs.

A strange one. Working with the Gateway laptop, I noticed that a door from the back of the computer was laying on the carpet. The small screw that holds the door to the motherboard and ram, had fallen out. So, easy, call Gateway and get another tiny screw. While the tech rep was researching the part number, I mentioned that my computer was running very slowly. How, do I check the ram? After telling me which keys to push, it came up with 32 ram. I had had 96 ram. That would explain why everything was running so slowly. Apparently in September when Gateway replaced my case, they left out the 64 additional ram. So, now to client relations. Nice lady…they are sending me the missing ram overnight. Now isn't that fortuitous that a missing screw resulted in getting back the computer speed?

Dinner hour provided the company of Jerry and Lois, followed by another round of Euchre. Continued good times.

December 19, 2000, Tuesday- our water aerobics class was canceled due to cold weather (temps in the 40's at 8), so we headed south on a bike ride to the Briggs Conservancy. This wonderful property of several thousand acres is the home to multitudes of air, land and sea life as well as plant and fauna. They have a marked canoe trail that takes about 2 hours, but was closed today due to high winds. We will be back.

At the same time we came back from our 20 mile ride a cold front was passing though the Naples area. All of a sudden the gusts could knock you down. Fortunately the anchoring that we did yesterday on the big awning and sun screen held. We were also lucky that we are parked facing north, and with the prevailing winds coming from the west/northwest, the patio awning was on the lee side and not subject to the direct winds. After the frontal passage occurred, I toured the park and did notice some awning damage to those that were facing the opposite direction. What we did learn was that if we leave the coach for an extended period of time we will probably take in the slides and awnings, just for good measure.

Called Gateway again and they will overnight the parts today.

A second front passed by at 1 in the morning, but those winds were only breezes, in comparison to the first passage.

December 20, 2000, Wednesday, a car ride around the area took us to Marco Island, a beautiful residential area, and finally back to home. A quiet day until dinner with Jerry and Lois at their place, followed by an animated round of Euchre. The main talk however was where is the bottom of the market, since today was another disaster of both the DOW and the NASDAQ.

UPS attempted delivery today at 6:30 PM, but to the wrong address. Their labeling system had truncated the space number for 446 to 44, which is an empty space. So, back into the system. I called and UPS took the correct address and will attempt delivery tomorrow

December 21, 2000, Thursday-. After numerous phone calls with totally divergent answers, our package is lost in the system. One party says it's on the truck for delivery but wasn't scanned correctly. Another says that it's in the local depot awaiting scan. The last says it's being sent back to the sender, but it's not in the system. Gateway says that until it's in the system, your on your own, and the can't do anything.

ANOTHER BEACH DAY FOR SUSAN	MUST BE A CONVENTION

 

For the first time in too long, we picked up a our tennis rackets, dusted them off, and headed to the courts. Believe it or not, between hitting and playing with a 9 to 7 finish, we played for a total of 2 hours. Exhaustion followed!

December 22, 2000, Friday- now the package has shown up as being returned to Gateway, so now Gateway will overnight another memory chip to us for Saturday delivery.

This evening we met Jerry and Lois at Hank and Linda's place in Pelican Lake. Their lot is wonderful and their new American Eagle spectacular. Hank and Linda had all of the shortfalls of the prototype that we saw in June corrected, and they added a few personal custom touches. Beautiful. Then we caught a quick bite before attending the Friday night services at the Marco Island Jewish Center. Amazing that there were over 200 people in attendance for a wonderful service.

December 23, 2000, Saturday- after a few more phone calls, we were assured that our Gateway package would arrive before 1 PM. So, off we went with Jerry and Lois to the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. A 2.5 mile board walk carries you safely through the swamp and grasses, the birds, alligators and wildlife. What a wonderful few hours stopping and seeing nature. Returning to the coach we found the package was left as we instructed but fortunately we still had the sign left on lot 44. Even after pointing out the problem to Gateway and UPS, the package was addressed to lot 44. Never a dull moment!

SUSAN, JERRY & LOIS!	CORKSCREW SWAMP FLOWERS

 

DENSITY OF BALD CYPRESS TREES	LARRY, SUSAN, BOB, ELAINE, JERRY, LOIS

December 24, 2000, Sunday- after a quick 100 mile trip to the east, we arrived at Mom's house. She looked great and it was good to see her. At 2:30 we headed to the clubhouse for the bus ride to the dinner theater in Boca, about 35 minutes to the northeast. A great dinner for 350 or so folks followed by a theater in the round musical performance. Great time had by all!

Happy Anniversary to us….number 33. A great start!

December 25, 2000, Monday- we cruised with Mom down to the Miami International Airport for a quick family reunion. John and Naomi had a 3 hour layover, so we got to take them to lunch, and then a quick 30 minute visit with Ben, Art, Anna, Brad, Rach, and of course, "the Jake Man". Jake is almost 3 months old, and this is his second airplane trip. Not bad!

JOHN, NAOMI & SUSAN AT LUNCH!	SUSAN AND PALEFACED NAOMI

THE JAKE MAN AND GREAT AUNT SUSAN!	ART, ANNA, SUSAN, BEN, NAOMI, JOHN, JAKE, RACHAEL, BRAD, MOM, LARRY AT MIAMI AIRPORT

 

Back to Plantation for a nice Chinese dinner with Mom and Gracie, then a quick100 miles back to the coach in Naples. These miles are easier then the 100 miles between Vail and Denver. No snow, ice or mountain passes!

December 26, 2000, Tuesday- what a day. Got to the Gateway Country Store and had them put in the new RAM chips. Then we headed across the street to the office depot, took out the computer, and purchased a combination headset and microphone to use with the GPS program. The other headset that I had contained a smaller connection so the "right" size was important. This one worked so off we went to the next stop….a home store and the Big K a few miles up the street. Parking was in the shade with the windows open a few inches for Hobbes. Stopped at a bike store for a bike trail map, and finally got home. Opened the computer bag and no computer. Susan and I both remember my putting the computer into the bag at the Office Depot because we made sure that the headset didn't get put into the bag. Did someone reach in through the partially open window and snatch the computer? Called Office Depot and the customer service girl checked the aisles I described and called the assistant manager. No computer. I was not a happy camper.

We grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the store. I cruised the aisles with no luck. After speaking to the customer service people who again asked everyone, no luck. Next step, call the police. A few minutes later the officer arrives and I explained to her what happened. Her comment was that it most likely wasn't stolen since the car was intact. I agreed that it was possible that I left the computer on the shelf, but since it hasn't been turned in, it was now stolen. I stayed outside and filled in paper work while she was going in to check the surveillance camera tapes. A few minutes later she came out and then walked back into the store. My phone rings and it's the store. The computer has been found. The store manager was walking by the front desk and heard the police officer and remembered that while he was busy in his office an employee had brought the computer for safekeeping. Whew! What an idiot I felt like, but I was about $2500 relieved not to have to spend for a new computer.

For a little R&R we hit some tennis balls and then joined Jerry and Lois for some Euchre. This time the men won back the championship.

December 27, 2000, Wednesday- we cleared some of the "desk" type work this morning, then took a wonderful 2-hour walk along the beach in Naples. The large number of families on the beach couldn't have planned a lovelier day for their Christmas Vacation. Temperatures were in the mid 70's, no breeze and an occasional passing cloud. Kids were building sand castles, folks collecting shells, fisherman, and lovers, like us, were everywhere.

This evening a package of mail caught up with us, and it brought tears to our eyes as we read some of the Holiday Season letters from friends and family.

Our ancient Palm Pilot recently died. We are talking one from about 4 years ago that still carried the US Robotics name. So, we started looking for a replacement PDA. Robert recently got a Palm, and Debi, Jerry and Lois recently got Visors. Researched all of the information on line. Many questions. Many dollar differences!

December 28, 2000, Thursday- catch-up day with sanitizing the fresh water system and changing the water filters while Susan did the laundry and ironing. Ordered the Mindspring Visor on the web.

Dinner was with Jerry and Lois, Mel and Ellie and Joe and Judy at a German restaurant. Good food and good company.

December 29, 2000, Friday- a quick trip to the East coast….to Mom's. Then to Elaine's and we all enjoyed lunch. Then Mom joined us back to Naples and all were better for attending Shabbat services at the Jewish Center on Marco Island.

December 30, 2000, Saturday- after getting some exercise with a 10 mile bike ride through our resort, we took Mom and Hobbes over to the Naples Art Fair. The place was hopping. It wasn't a beach day with temps in the 50's and a fair breeze- so everybody came to 5th Avenue. Crowded wasn't the description. Now we know what sardines must have felt like. A constant stream of people, 5 or 6 deep walked the 8 or 10 blocks on one side and then did the reverse back on the opposite. Hobbes was inundated with petting, photo opportunities, new four legged friends, and for us, thousands of the questions. He couldn't have been more patient with everyone, or put up with more physical petting. Oh yea, the show did have a good mix of product and levels of sophistication.

Tonight we three join Jerry and Lois and Judy and Joe at Gordon's, a new seafood place just off of downtown Naples.

December 31, 2000, Sunday- Happy New Year……an early movie---the Sean Conery movie Finding Forrester was a real tear jerker. Well done with a great new young actor that stole the show. Afterwards to a good Italian restaurant for delicious pizza. Finally back to our house, with Mom and Jerry and Lois for some cards and snacks. Quiet but nice!