Palm City Day

Doctor's Lab - 8:45

Martin Memorial Fitness Center  9:45

Home  11:00

Lunch

Rest

Read books

Watch Pride and Prejudice

Go for a ride around cottage we rented a few years ago

Find a cache (Floater)

02/28/2014	You found Floater		Visit Log
FAN DAMN TASTIC!!! A great adventure! We were just out for a drive enjoying the warmth and sunshine. Although the temp was only 74, it was still 101 degrees warmer that it was this morning at the home of one of our Michigan caching friends. We pulled in to the park and this cache popped up on our Nuvi. Scanned the description and hint on the mini iPad, pulled over and parked and walked over to GZ. After looking around behind three other pines, I spotted the cache and tried to extract it with out success. I figured I needed some tools so I walked back to the cachemobile and surveyed what ones I had. Took some back to the cache and tried to extract the container again. FAIL!! OK so I obviously didn't have what I needed, I decided we should drive off, log the DNF, and return another day with something thin and flexible. Back in the car, I started up and began to drive away when Mrs Bend, who actually reads very carefully both the descriptions, the hints, and past logs of the caches, said "What if you - - - -, that's what it sounds like you are supposed to do" I hit the brakes, slapped myself up side the head, and went over and retrieved the cache. Signed the log and replaced as found. This is one of our all time favorites. I'd love to copy it up north but it wouldn't be very winter friendly. Worth more than one favorite to us but that's all they'll let us do. Thanks for the fun and making our day!

Drive along river

Laurie and Dylan attend funeral of Stella Boland, a teacher from South Fork H.S.

Diruetic Day

Ascites has returned despite low sodium diet.  I took the prescribed pill to see if it would help - don't think it did much.

Laurie, Chip and Dick dropped our car off at the Toyota dealer for recall service, and then they went out to lunch at Chili's.  I was at home doing laundry and diuretic-ing.  Dick was home by three.

Made our favorite breakfast casserole for dinner - it is so good :)

Errands

02/26/2014	You found Decker Bypass		Visit Log
We were out running errands, car wash, library, gas fill up, etc. Had no intention to hunt caches. We wound up back here just exploring the neighborhood when this popped up on the Nuvi. Pulled over, read the description on the phone and made the find. Thanks for adding to our fun today.     The hint was "a bolt to nowhere".

Another Sweet Day!

02/25/2014	You found Jupiter Indiantown Road, midway		Visit Log
It was nice stroll with Mrs Sharkie in an area that is new to us. Made the find and signed the log. Traded sig cards and left our pen. We contemplated continuing on down the trail to the "Annoying Fly" but the heat and humidity was getting to the northerners. We will save that one for a cooler day. Thanks for adding to our fun on this warm (70 degrees hotter right now than at our Michigan home) sunny day.
02/25/2014	You found C-Bob's Hopping Away		Visit Log
Sure glad Mrs Sharkie came with us today, she saved us from a couple of DNF's. This was one of them. While she was finding the cache, I was collecting small burrs on my shorts and socks. I tried our new stamp on the log but got it upside down.
02/25/2014	You couldn't find Pratt Tiki		Visit Log
This one defeated us today.
02/25/2014	You found I'll wait for you there alone		Visit Log
Out for a caching excursion on a warm (hot) sunny afternoon. The temp is only 70 degrees hotter than it is at our Michigan home. Mrs Sharkie made the find, Mrs Bend signed the log for both teams. Thanks to Hipointer and Capiti for maintaining the cache.                  02/25/2014 You found Stranded Visit Log How did we make this such a difficult find? Once again Mrs Sharkie bailed us out. She showed me the location and I still can't believe I overlooked it at least 3 times. TFTC  02/25/2014 You found Wanna Race Visit Log A neat location. Mrs Sharkie knew this was here but it was new to us. TFTC Success! I love the lush  South Florida greenery!  02/25/2014 You couldn't find First Park (& grab) Visit Log Defeated us today The cache name is really clever! The DNF was not for lack  of time and effort!  02/25/2014 You found Remote Location Visit Log We took advantage of a beautiful day to drive down Pratt and Whitney with Mrs Sharkie south of the High School to find some of the caches which pop up on our NUVI. This cache provided us with an amazing muggle tale. After pulling past this one, we walked back to seek the cache. After making the find, we knew we had to take the cache back to the car to show Mrs Bend and to have her sign the log. We just got to the car when a truck pulled up to the cache location. Two men in the truck were looking at us. Cachers? The guys got out and went to the back of the truck and came back around with string trimmers. What to do? Wait 'em out? Then a second truck pulled up and parked right in front of us. While checking us out, they placed a cone along side the road about 10 feet in front of us and carrying their trimmers, they crossed to the other side of P & W. We decided to drive off with the cache and return to check out the situation. After driving around a bit, we returned and the coast was clear. Unique cache has been signed and returned to the location where it was found. Thanks for the adventure!  02/25/2014 You found Crossroads Visit Log We knew there were a number of caches along the road down here because they show up on our NUVI. We came out with Mrs Sharkie this afternoon to enjoy the ride and the hunt. This was our first find today. TFTC. Took some trash and left our card

Med Stuff

Appointment with Dr. Desai, and for blood draws.  The Doctor was very personable, thoughtful and helpful this morning, even though the office was bursting with patients.

One draw was for her, and the other one was for Ann Arbor - I can only hope that they will actually fax the results.  This office is not good about faxing things - and they were particularly busy today.  Fingers are crossed.

Laurie came over later with some mail (my new driver's license) and to find out how things went this morning.  It's so nice to have her dropping in and living so near!

Sweet Day

Dylan is home from YIG in Tallahassee.  It was so interesting to hear him tell about it - what a great experience for teens!  He chose Judicial this year, and played an attorney.  He argued his case against his friend Peyton, which was quite a coincidence!

Laurie made us pancakes with scrambled eggs and fruit - so nice.

Then we watched the M-MSU basketball game which was very satisfying and enjoyable!

Stopped at Publix on the way home, fixed dinner, watched a little Downton.  What a Sweet Day.





Michigan Earns Sweep of MSU with Big Second Half

Feb. 23, 2014

• Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery  | Highlights video icon
• CBS Sports Postgame: Highlights video icon | Recap video icon | Beilein, Stauskas video icon

Site: Ann Arbor, Mich. (Crisler Center)
Score: #20 Michigan 79, #13 Michigan State 70
Records: U-M (19-7, 11-3 Big Ten), MSU (22-6, 11-4 Big Ten)
Next U-M Event: Wednesday, Feb. 26 -- at Purdue (West Lafayette, Ind.), 7 p.m. (TV: BTN)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's basketball team (No. 20 AP, No. 20 ESPN/USA Today) used a 13-0 run in the second half to pull ahead and defeat Michigan State (No. 13 AP, No. 14 ESPN/USA Today), 79-70, Sunday afternoon (Feb. 23) in front of a sellout crowd at Crisler Center. The victory gave the Maize and Blue sole possession of first place in the Big Ten standings and completed the regular-season sweep over the rival Spartans.

Sophomore Nik Stauskas (Mississauga, Ontario/St. Mark's School [Mass.]) scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half and shot 9-of-13 for the game while also leading the team with five assists. Fellow sophomore Caris LeVert (Pickerington, Ohio/Central) had 23 points, and his classmate Glenn Robinson III (St. John, Ind./Lake Central) chipped in 15 points and five rebounds for the Wolverines, who now have five wins over ranked opponents this season.

With the Spartans up 22-11, the Wolverines scored 10 straight points in a 2:33 span to come within one, 22-21, with 6:08 left before halftime. Sophomore Spike Albrecht (Crown Point, Ind./Northfield Mount Hermon Prep [Mass.]) hit a three from the wing....

Return to Quail Meadow

Dick's letter to Barb and Sharon about our return to Palm City:


Boy did we ever get out of town at the right time. When we left the airport, the runway was clear and dry, in Chicago there was heavy overcast but just a light sprinkle. On the flight down, the pilot was a good friend of Chip's. We didn't get a chance to talk to him but it all went well, we landed 10 min. early and Laurie was right there to take us home.

 Dylan is up at Tallahassee for a meeting of Youth in Government so we went out to dinner with Chip and Laurie to Flanigan's, an Irish Pub/Restaurant which maintains a St. Paddie's Day countdown clock.

This morning I'm reading the Wretched Eagle and see that after we left the rain came and turned the roads to ice, that temp is heading into the teens and more snow is on the way. 

Don't want you to be jealous but here the temp is 75, we have the windows open and are enjoying the sunshine. 

I just don't know what we ever did to get so lucky.

Calendar Caching

02/18/2014	You found End of West Bay		Visit Log
We had some February days open on our caching calendar that we figured would be a piece of cake in the Sunshine State but a medical situation brought us back up here to the frozen tundra for a few days. I thought we'd be out of luck but found out that Jay and Charlie have bailed us out. After a pleasant chat with the representative of the builder of our new Traverse City condo, we came into town for lunch and swung by this one to see if we could make the grab, spotted it but a couple of muggle dog walkers sent me back to the car. A quick return, snatch and sign and another day on our calendar is filled in. 358 down, 8 to go. TFTC

Vampires With Needles

First of three post-TACE blood draws.  Thank goodness that Munson has this nice branch lab across from the mall.  So much easier than going to the hospital.  They had no problem faxing the results.  Marie, the PA from Ann Arbor called to see how things are going.

02/17/2014	You found 03 Winter Freindly Cache		Visit Log
Never mind 10 per day, we haven't even logged one on Feb. 17 before. We are back up on the tundra for a few days for medical procedures and freezing our tails off. After a quick stop at Munson for a blood draw, we scored this one on the way back out to the river. Not usually our favorite type of hide but it sure was today. Now if we can find another one tomorrow and then it's back to the condo to soak up some more sun and let all this white stuff dissipate. TFTC

Valentine's Day

Dick's essay about our adventure in Ann Arbor :

The drive from Traverse to Ann Arbor was clean and uneventful. We were in awe at the size of the piles of snow along the highway but there was nothing new falling from the sky. We registered at the Comfort Inn for the next 5 days. On Thursday we had a consultation with the physician who is to do the chemo procedure. Afterwards, had lunch at Zingerman’s and then we did a memory tour of one of our favorite towns ending with a stop for beverages back out at the Grand Traverse Pie company. As we sat reminiscing about some of our earlier stops with geocachers, what to our wondering eyes should appear but Nurse Nanna, Anne Garman. We had a fun talk and then back to the motel to rest up for our Valentines Day event.

We left the motel at 6:30 AM yesterday for a 7 o'clock appointment at the U of M hospital. I dropped Nancy off at the front door and drove around the corner and into the large parking deck, she went to the admissions desk. Because the procedure was at Interventional Radiology, in the rear of the building and opposite side from the entrance, they gave her her own little scooter cart to drive instead of a wheel chair. They also told her that it was in the basement level so we had to use the elevator. When we got to the elevator, we went down to B1. When we got off we noticed the sign, "No Carts on the Elevators", Oh Well! I later asked a number of folks how one is supposed to get the scooters from one floor to the other and no one had an answer. 

Anyway, we found the reception area, got the scooter parked and Nancy checked in there. Soon we were called back and while one nurse was hooking her up to the IV stuff, the other one was updating her records into the computer. The day before, when we were shopping at Meijer, she bought little Valentine souvenirs to hand out to the various nurses, orderlies, PA's and Doctors that dealt with her. They were a big hit with all. Soon they were both finished with their tasks and left to work with their next patients. While Nancy snoozed, I read my book. After a while, another nurse came in, announced that they were ready for her and sent me back to reception and rolled her off down the hall in the other direction. For the next couple of hours, she was TACEed and I read and explored the building. 

At about 10:30, I was taken back to join her in the recovery area. In Traverse, at Munson, the recovery section is a series of separate rooms. Here she was in the corner of a large room that is sectioned off by curtains into eight small areas. When I was taken back, seven were occupied by various patients. Nancy was tended by nurse Cindy who kept reappearing to check her BP, her bandages, her IV, and to ask how she was feeling. By noon, Nan was allowed to sit up, to walk to the rest room and to have a sandwich. They were waiting for a room to become available to check her in. As we waited, from time to time I got out and went for a walk about the place. I went to the cafeteria for coffee and a sandwich. I scouted out the best route back to the entrance and the car. 

Sometime after 1 the PAs came in to check on her progress, all was going well and we asked if we could just go back to the motel. After checking her over again, they indicated that they would check with the Dr. but if things continued as well as they had been, she could be released about 4. By 4 we were getting antsy and chomping at the bit. Cindy paged the Dr. and we were finally given a number of prescriptions and the green light to go. After a detour to Rite Aid and the Burger King drive through, we made it back to the Comfort Inn 11 hours after we had left in the morning and crashed. What a day! 

02/14/2014	You found Your personality is so...magnetic!		Visit Log
Happy VD. In our over 10 years of geocaching, we had never found and logged a cache on February 14th until today. This site has lots of memories for us. Mrs. Bend lived in Betsy Barbour 60 years ago. Our favorite "go out to eat" place was on the corner. Red's Rite Spot had great burgers. Down the street, Cottage Inn was the first place we ever had pizza's. Grabbed the cache, signed log and replaced as found. Thanks for the smilie and thanks for the memories. Back in the 50's Cottage Inn had a sign on the wall which said "Banks don't sell pizza, we don't cash checks".  Good memories from college days!

Go Dylan!

BOYS TENNIS: FEB. 13, 2014

SOUTH FORK 4, SLW CENTENNIAL 3

At Whispering Pines Park

Singles: 1. Tommy Martinez (SLC) d. Brett Munson, 8-4; 2. Gianluca Guagliardo (SLC) d. Reese Peppler, 8-3; 3. Ethan Conrad (SF) d. Cody Maitland, 8-2; 4. Taylor Phillips (SF) d. Jhad Desenclos, 8-2; 5. Dylan Gillespie (SF) d. Tianyue Wang, 8-0.

Oh Yeah!

SOUTH FORK 7, PORT St. LUCIE 0

At South Fork

Singles: 1. Bret Munson (SF) d. Alex Acciavatti, 8-2; 2. Reese Peppler (SF) d. Nicolas Saavedra, 8-0; 3. Ethan Conrad (SF) d. Santiago Saavedra, 8-1; 4. Taylor Phillips (SF) d. Andri Cordova, 8-0; 5. Dylan Gillespie (SF) d. Ben Vetiac, 8-0.

Caching on the Ninth

02/09/2014	You found All Alone		Visit Log
We came out today to enjoy the sun and the green before our quick flight back north tomorrow. As the sign in our gym says, retirement is what you do between Dr's appointments. Up there they have had 150 inches of snow and it was -9 yesterday morning. We breathed the air, enjoyed the sun, signed the log, and replaced as found. TFTC
02/09/2014	You couldn't find Canal View		Visit Log
Gave a quick look but too many muggles and we don't yet know what a Florida hide is.
02/09/2014	You couldn't find Timer's Entrance		Visit Log
This hide, in fact this park, was too much for us today
02/09/2014	You found Not Out Here Too!		Visit Log
Mrs Bend figured out what we were looking for before we got to the corner based upon the description. Did a thorough search at GZ with no success. Overcame my fear of sticking my hands in tight spaces and searched deeper, found the cache in with the trash. Signed the log and put it back down there. TFTC

Happy Birthday Dear Laurie

Dick went for a walk this morning, and walked halfway to Laurie's house.  On Blasko Lane he found this cache - we're trying to find one on every calendar day of the year. not necessarily the same year!

02/08/2014	You found Honest and Fair		Visit Log
Congrats on a great job! Not only a great location but an ammo can. They have gotten fairly rare in this area. We appreciate the find because we have never before, in over 10 years of caching, found a cache on February 8th. Of course, part of the reason is that this is the first year that we've been out of Michigan in February. Up there, this morning it was -5 and they have had over 150 inches of the white stuff. Took nothing, left nothing, signed log and replaced as found. Thanks for a job well done, it earned a favorite from us.

Spent the afternoon with Laurie and Dylan - Chip was on his way home.  We planned to go out to dinner and have yummy birthday cake afterwards.  We had fun picking out cards, and we probably overdid it, but gee, we did have fun.  When Chip got home we opened the present -  Kindle Fire :)  After it was suitably charged up, Laurie had some fun playing with it!

Some things are just way too much fun!

We had a great time for dinner at Bonefish, and Chip wound up paying for the birthday dinner, so what could be better??  Then back to their house for cake, candles, and Happy Birthday to Laurie!  And the cake was really, truly yummy!

No Misses

Almost missed an appointment at the cancer center for a blood draw.  I called them about something else, and they said come in right away, don't wait - you're late!  Oh no!  I checked the calendar and there it was, so we hurried over there.  They were very nice about the whole thing - not a problem I guess.  Anyway, whew!

The "something else" I called about was patient itineraries faxed from U Hospital for my procedure next week.  Since we're flying to T.C. Monday, we needed to pick them up today.  Hooray - they had been faxed and received, which is sometimes a problem for this office.

Then we went shopping for Laurie's B-day at Best Buy :)

02/07/2014	You found Where Caching is a Pleasure #109		Visit Log
2/7/14, we just noticed that 2x7=14 This is the first cache we've found on Feb. 7th in over 10 years of caching. It's great to find one so winter friendly. This time of year it's common for the snow to be plowed up a couple of feet over the tops of the skirt lifters. A terrain 2 often becomes a 5. Oh right, that's up in Michigan where the wind chill is well below 0 and the total snow fall was 150 inches at the end of January. I guess that's why we had 8 dates with no finds in February and also why we bought a place in Palm City. We've got about 20 years together on you two. We hope your future holds as much fun and enjoyment as we have had in our lives. Signed log and replaced as found. TFTC