NAPLES
December 1, 2001, Saturday- a two hour condo board meeting work session brought direction to the board regarding some landscaping needs. But, can the members work together….that's to be seen.
Went with Irv and Beth to see Amilee, a French film with subtitles. Fast moving, great photography but hot in the last row of the stadium seating theater in Bonita Springs.
December 2, 2001, Sunday- At night the condo had it's first entertainment night….Shorty and the Band. Inexpensive but lots of fun enjoyed by 60 or so folks. BYOB and shared appetizers. Danced for 3 hours. Tired feet.
December 3, 2001, Monday- finally had to shut down the computer from running it's defrag program. After 2 ½ days it seemed to be getting nowhere. After studying the display screen I noticed that it kept trying to defrag the same disk section, and after it got near the end, it would restart. Lucky that the hard drive didn't burn up after spinning for 50 plus hours.
Attended the "board meeting" this morning. It seems that it's politics as usual with certain factions trying to derail the group as opposed to working on moving ahead. Don't know if it's congratulations or condolences, but I was appointed as chairman of the finance committee. Upset a few people who thought that they were the "shoo in". To me it was a surprise and maybe since I'm a newcomer and not tainted by being on one side or the other, I'm the stuckee.
December 4, 2001, Tuesday- spent the night worrying about the committee. Today I spoke for an hour or two to each of the three board members on property and by phone with the president. Now I have a better idea of what is expected. Spoke to the treasurer this evening. He is away from the property, not an accountant, and needs help with this year's budget, already late for the due date of December 1.
Heard from Rob and Deb. They ordered a new Jetta VW. Negotiated a good price and hope to have it in a few weeks. Good luck!
December 5, 2001, Wednesday- more finance committee meetings..one on one… and phone calls. Jerry, Lois and mom Ruth joined us for dinner.
Watched the space shuttle head out into space. Although last year we watched at sundown and had more color contrast, today's event was no less exciting to observe from some 300 miles away.
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December 6, 2001, Thursday- a few unshopping stops this morning and an eye doctor checkout for Sue. This afternoon a 4 hour start to the finance committee. Three good volunteers to help me, Bob, Trudy and Howard. Productive meeting today….trying to get organized as to what directions will be most productive for us to pursue.
December 7, 2001, Friday- another day that lives in infamy. Too many days that we'd love to forget but never will.
Three more hours of finance committee meetings this morning. The more we get into it, the more nooks and crannies that we find. Our group is working hard, moving forward and most importantly, no politics here.
This afternoon the driveway man came and we picked out final colors for next weeks start of our concrete transformation. Afterwards, Home Depot came with our 2500 pounds of concrete stepping stones, and 800 pounds of special sand. It will be fun weekend getting this all into the ground.
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December 8, 2001, Saturday- after our routine walk around the park with Hobbes, we continued to tackle the stepping stone walkway on the side of the coach. After two hours of finishing the laying of the interlocking stepping stones, we made an executive decision to leave the stones in place where we placed them. Our initial plan was to mark the grass around the stones, then remove the stones, remove the grass and 2 inches of dirt/sand. The reverse included adding 2 inches of special sand over a weed preventive membrane, and then the stones. All of that lost its allure after the first stone placements. If the 30 pound blocks sit long enough, they will kill the grass below and become more or less level. "Good Enough Construction Co." at work!
So, with 40 extra 20 pound sandbags remaining, we loaded 600 pounds into the Jeep and 200 into the Porsche and off to Home Depot for the return. Leaving the parking lot the little blue car died. Good crank, but fuel starvation. My guess….the fuel pump. Next call to the towing insurance people and after a short while the cute little car was on a flat bed heading to the dealership for a Monday morning checkout.
Rob and Deb's several week wait for their new car was cut short with only a few day's wait for their new VW Jetta.
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This evening we joined Lois and Jerry at Beth and Irv's for a light dinner and with their waterfront property, enjoyed the Marco Island Yacht Club's Christmas Boat Show. Dozens of vessels with lights, loudspeakers and dancers….most with a patriot theme this year.
December 9, 2001, Sunday- a day of rest, or at least no hauling. Joined Jerry and Lois at the 8th Street Naples beach. Beautiful day at the water. Lunch at their place and a few Euchre hands around the pool.
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Happy Hanukkah with fresh potato latkes and roasted chicken with J & L.
December 10, 2001, Monday- drove the Jeep over to get the towing hitch installed on the front end. A new base plate and wiring is all we need. Nice folks that did the install. I got to watch the whole operation, and interesting, at least to me, it was.
First we took off the tail light assemblies. With sophisticated electronics on the newer cars, the last thing the manufacturers want is someone tapping into their wiring. So…the tail lights have an extra slot to take an additional bulb and wiring. Just drill out the blank and all the needed mirrors and reflectors are inside. No more diodes or shorting of systems.
Next, off came the bumper cover and the grill. A few bolts later, the towing base plate is installed. Two hours of labor instead of the four hours called for the Blue Ox Tow Bar.
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Got lucky with the Porsche. Our problem on Saturday turned out to the nothing more then a blown fuse on the fuel pump circuit. But these 20-year-old German fuses can't be found at your local NAPA store. Need to get a few to carry as spares.
Great news with a phone call from Steve….at John Hopkins….Doctors there fully approve of the treatment that he's receiving. His case, although not entry level, is far from the worst that they've seen. The physician has been seeing this condition in patients for over 20 years, and in that time only 2 patients have required heart transplants. Great news!!!!!
December 11, 2001- Tuesday- finance committee this morning. Frustrating because more questions are getting asked then are getting answered.
Better news this afternoon. Spoke with the local CPA and learned about lots of nooks and crannies of Florida Law accounting for "Property Owners' Association" law as opposed to Condo Laws. Finally got some great answers to problems.
Had dinner with Phyllis and Larry whom we haven't seen since last March. They looked well and have kept too busy with remodeling their country club's "clubhouse", a multimillion dollar project.
December 12, 2001- Wednesday…right on schedule the guys arrived to start on our driveway improvements. Today's work was to first power wash it to get rid of mold, mildew, dust and dirt. Afterwards they returned to apply a base coat. While they are doing their thing, we had to move the coach, lawn furniture, umbrella, bikes, BBQ, etc over to the borrowed lot of Hank and Linda. Fortunately a neighbor lent us his pickup truck to handle the larger items. Now we are camped out on a "lakeside" lot, like uptown!
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Since we were moving the coach for the first time in two months, we decided to head up the highway one exit to warm things up. A few weeks ago I had installed a new odometer/speedometer, and as I drove the coach from our lot to the entrance, the speedometer read 120 miles per hour and was pegged at the top end. Obviously something was done wrong. I installed the code for our tire size at 3830. It should have been installed at 38300….just a small difference. Reprogrammed in two minutes and away we drove.
This evening we did the Philharmonic Center in Naples for the first time. Beth, Irv, Susan and I lucked out with 10th row orchestra center seats for Mandy Patinkin's 2 hour solo concert. His range of voice, emotion and selections were incredible.
December 13, 2001, Thursday- driveway progress this morning was to flood the pad with water and see where it puddled. This afternoon they re-sloped the low spots to prevent water sitting on the finished driveway.
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More board meetings today but on a positive note. Moving forward? Hope so!
December 14, 2001- Friday- today's driveway update was the application of the concrete material overlay and texturing. After that set up, the next process was to create the lines between with the newly formed block.
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As for our finance committee a few ups and downs emerged on the budgeting process but we feel confident that these items can be resolved. The biggest uncertainty is still the water department's new rates and if we can get some sewer rate credits for the water that is used in the sprinkler system.
Happy hour at the clubhouse was subdued by the so many regulars that have gone "home" for the holidays. Temple on the other hand was packed with close to 200 people in attendance.
December 15, 2001, Saturday- Politics at an AM Board meeting, then we had the opportunity to watch the several coats of color and wash on the driveway. Starting to look like we imagined. Some more color coats, grout color and then clear coats.
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Dinner with Jerry (Happy Birthday today), Lois and Ruth at, pardon the inference, an early bird. I guess even we can be bought. For $14.95…..a margarita or wine, appetizer (the calamari was excellent), entrée of first class choices, and dessert. Afterwards a few Euchre hands finished a great evening. Returning to Pelican Lake we took Hobbes for a late night walk, bumped into a few friends, and wound up having more drinks….and didn't get home until well after midnight.
December 16, 2001- Sunday- a day off from Pelican finance work. Mom returned from her boat cruise. Great time had…..and her feet weren't too bad. Had Jerry, Lois and Ruth over for an early dinner and then we headed to the JCMI temple for the first part of Jewish Movie Series. Tonight was the "Jazz Singer" with Al Jolson, the first "talkie" movie. For a film made in 1927 it was fantastic.
December 17, 2001- Monday. A few more color coats and then a clear coat on the driveway. All finished and it looks great. Now it's drying as fast as it can.
Had a 4 hour finance committee meeting, working towards a final budget for 2002.
Met Jean and Rich and George and Barbara for dinner at Bubbalini. Good times reminiscing with fellow American Coach owners.
December 18, 2001, Tuesday- made my presentation to the Pelican Board regarding our Financial Committee goals and proceedings. Received a green light to proceed full speed ahead. We seem to be the only committee that hasn't met with opposition…at least as of yet.
After lunch took Rich and Jean out for a car tour of Naples downtown and the Port Royal section where the small lots start at 4 or 5 million. One home under construction is reportedly costing $50,000,000. Wow!
Dinner with R & J at Lindburgers for some real hamburgers.
December 19, 2001, Wednesday- after two postponements we got our day out on the Gulf with Bob and Elaine. Their Glacier Bay twin hulled boat really cuts through the water. 40 mph felt as smooth as silk. On the inland way we worked our way up to Fort Meyers, and then through the Gulf, back down to Bonita Bay. Like all machines, their vessel decided to act up and one outboard had to be shut down after the computer determined that there was water in the fuel and an overheat situation. Having a spare engine helps.
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Next we did dinner in a little Italian restaurant where all of the help were Oriental. Go figure! Then, a movie….Oceans Eleven. It was okay, but the good news was that after 11 hours, Hobbes was fine when we finally arrived home.
December 20, 2001, Thursday- more board meetings today…helped with the presentation of an in-house cable station. Then watched the county water department re-certify the accuracy of our water meters.
Dinner with Hank, Linda, Bob, Carol, Gary and Sheila at a little fish house on the Isle of Capri finished the day's activity.
December 21, 2001 Friday- another four event day starting with a finance committee meeting to work on the budgets, then off to find fishing licenses for Florida saltwater…..
Met Irv at his boat on Marco Island and got a few hours of cruising and a little fishing in around the Marco and the Isle of Capri areas. Got lucky when the boat was beached while Irv tried to net bait fish. A few serious fishermen in flat bottomed boats jumped into the water and helped us push against the tide and the wind. Their boat was a flat-bottomed vessel and they didn't need our help, fortunately. Susan caught the first fish, but our 20 year old line and equipment couldn't hold even a small fish. I had the same experience losing the tackle when I had a bite….so when we return from Colorado in January, off we must go to do our patriotic duty. Spend spend spend.
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Returning home at 5 gave us a few minutes before happy hour starts at the clubhouse. It must really be holiday season….only 20 or so folks were around, but even so, the laughter was loud!
No rest…..left the clubhouse at 7, changed, and left for Temple at 7:30. Over 200 people at services….almost needed a reservation to get a seat. Nice to see.
December 22, 2001- Saturday- worked on the final budget numbers from 6:30 until 10 in the morning. Moved all of our "stuff" back onto our lot….chairs, table, umbrella, bikes, grill, flowers, etc. Then moved the cars and coach onto the hopefully dry, new driveway. Everything matches wonderfully.
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Drove up to North Naples for our patio side table and hassock, and then met Bob and Elaine at Lois and Jerry's. A two hour walk around "old Naples" gave us plenty of time to catch up on "what's happening". Bob's outboard engine got a new water pump to solve the overheating problem, and a few more containers of "dry gas" to cure the water in fuel concerns.
December 23, 2001, Sunday- worked for ½ an hour trying to free up the sewer cap on the driveway that was nicely grouted and seal coated by the new driveway crew. Fortunately with a hammer and a few pointed screw drivers, I was able to free the connection.
Susan finished Jake's Chanuka present, a red sweater with trucks and stop lights.
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Over to Costco for food and booze for tomorrow's party. It was jamming there with only 2 days until Christmas.
At 4:30 we went to Bob and Carol's, across the street, for a block party with 30 or so of our neighbors. Lots of fun getting to know more folks and park history.
December 24, 2001, Monday- Happy 34th Anniversary to us….Susan started in the kitchen while I cranked out more financials for the Pelican Lake Budget. We then continued the cooking, organizing and praying that the weather held. Forcast….50% chance of showers. Good news….we held the day without precipitation. Just great friends over for the afternoon….Jerry and Lois, Bob and Elaine, Jackie and Theo, Irv and Beth and Hank and Linda. Naturally they didn't come close to finishing the great meal that Susan put together…..Bagels, lox, white fish, smears, herring, gazpacho, kuggle and all of the trimmings.
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December 25, 2001, Tuesday- Merry Chrismas….Palm trees are much more interesting for the Holidays then snow.
Joined Jerry and Lois at Kathleen's home in Cape Coral, outside of Fort Myers. Incredibly wonderful meal with beef tenderloin as the main ingredient. Twelve hearty souls enjoyed every dish from soup to nuts.
Finally saw some rain showers this evening….the first rain since we arrived in mid October. Not bad at all!
December 26, 2001, Wednesday- errands before travel….haircut, new temporary 30 day tags for the Jeep, Costco, driveway touchup punchlist….etc. Some financial committee work on the balance sheets and quarterly billings. Then packing for Colorado. This time it's lots of suitcases since it's winter and it's cold.
Dinner at Jerry and Lois's with two other couples. More great baked salmon and better company.
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