First of all a couple of things from prior e-mails. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Dave and Maggie Coleman’s winter getaway ranch (El Rancho de Coleman) on the bike route at San Antonio. Maggie sat next to me at last Tuesday’s hospital board meeting and let me know, in no uncertain terms, that it was not their place. We all make assumptions, and once in a while they’re wrong. I assumed that the picture I sent was of their place. Since it isn’t theirs, I imagine the sign was for their place across the street. It looks like an empty field to me, but maybe the house sits way back so Dave and Maggie can get some privacy from paparazzi like me.

In my old age, after getting so involved with the above confession, I’ve forgotten what the second thing was that I wanted to correct from prior e-mails. If I remember later I’ll let you know.

Now I have it. Ignore the last paragraph. Last week I wrote about being the weather pox. All the time I was in Michigan the weather down here was great. Daytime highs were in the mid seventies and, occasionally pushing eighty. I watched the news last night and saw that the daytime highs by the end of the week will be in the high fifties to very low sixties and I’m guessing there will be lots of wind.

Jan Kietzmann, from Hastings but spends the winters here in the park, is on my Sunday e-mail list. Apparently she told a few of the people down here about my weather affliction and that I would be back on the 18th of January. Last evening, as I was watching the Professional Poker Tour on the Travel Channel, I heard some noises outside. I looked out the vertical blinds and there were about forty people in front of my place with torches, pitchforks, and signs that said “Take your *&%$# weather and go back to Michigan”.  I ran after them but those three wheeled bikes and motorized wheelchairs are faster than you would think.

The trip down was pretty uneventful. I flew down on Allegiant Airlines from Lansing to Clearwater St. Pete Airport. My mother flew up the same day so I gave her a hug, we talked for five minutes, and then I got on the plane she got off from and away I went. I sat in the aisle in an exit row, so I had plenty of leg room but I wish I would have sat next to the window. First of all, I like to look down and see where we are. If it’s clear, I try to figure out what part of what state we are over based on the topography. It makes the time go by quicker and it brings out the geography geek that lives inside me. You wouldn’t think that, with my exciting, outgoing personality, there would be something that laid back inside. I guess we all have little surprises that we hide.

Secondly, the guy next to me sat with both elbows on the seat dividers, so I had to lean out into the aisle slightly. You had to pay two dollars for water, soda and six dollars for alcohol, so I figured no one would have to go the rest room. Wrong!! It seemed like everyone did and would just about tear my shoulder off when they went by. The guy in the middle seat next to me had a book of sudoku puzzles and he worked on them from time to time. I couldn’t help but notice that he kept looking at the solutions in the back of the book and then he would erase two or three of the sections of the puzzle he was working on. It’s a good thing none of my schoolteacher friends were there. They would have had him sitting in the corner with a dunce cap on his head and, in an airplane, a corner is hard to find. Several times I stifled the “you’re only cheating yourself” comment…he was much bigger than me with some mean looking tattoos.

I’m running short distances, trying to get my hip bursitis to heal and I’m not riding very far either. I can’t swim until the dome comes off the pool at the YMCA, so I’m already a little bored. Without Jean here I’m spending a lot less time in the kitchen trying to figure out where things are. I just look at where they’re supposed to be and there they are. I thought I cleaned out the refrigerator when we flew home on the 11th, but Jean did leave me a half eaten cup of yogurt with an expiration date of January 12th. I would have thrown it away, but she must be saving it for something, so I’ll take it with me next time I go to Michigan. I’ll just have to find a 3 ounce container to put it in since I don’t check any luggage.

Just (Enjoying A 77 Degree Day While They Last) Jack