Friday, 19 February 2021 - I started off my day by hosting the Cruiser's Net, as usual. Around 2 pm I went to the marina to pick up the transfer pump that I'd ordered from Home Depot that I had been notified would be delivered today. It wasn't there. Since I wasn't there to sign for it, they put it back on the truck. I then spent several hours on the phone and online trying to make them realize that I'm never right there at the marina, or at least, I can't stand around for hours waiting for the driver to show up since he can show up at any time of the day. Online, the computers wouldn't allow me to create an account because the address isn't a residence. Of course, it is a residence, about 500 people live here, but try to tell that to a computer or a "service rep." Now I have to wait until Monday, but there's no telling when the driver will show up, so I probably won't be there again. You miss them three times and they send your products back to the sender.
              When Susie picked me up this evening at the marina and I got in her car, a frog got in with me. It's possible he got onto my waterproof bag when I set it down on the dock and rode along till I got in the car. I saw him jump into the front floorboard and tried to grab him, but he made it onto the dash. Again, I made a grab for him, but he jumped and disappeared from my view. He was on the brim of my hat. Of course, I couldn't see him, but Susie was laughing uncontrollably. Susie had stopped the car so I exited and managed to get him to vacate the brim of my hat into some ground cover nearby. I'm sure the scene was quite animated for a minute or two there.

Saturday, 20 February - We finished the planter wall at Susie's that the bamboo containers are hidden behind. This time, all we did was add one more 1 X 4 board to the top of the wall and put some short boards on top of the gaps between the containers to cover them. With the covers, the arrangement of the four containers looks like it is one long trough, but will allow the individual containers to be moved or reorganized if one is doing poorly, or outgrowing the others.

Sunday, 21 February - Susie and I took a ride in her car to Summerland Key, about four islands west or 25 miles, where there is a short road, the length of a small, single engine aircraft airfield or about two blocks long, that has homes with airplane hangers on the ground floor, under the living spaces. We were lucky enough to get to watch one of the small planes take off. We, also, stopped to take a photo of the open overhead door of one of the hangers / homes and the owner walked out to us to answer questions we might have. I was pretty surprised to hear him say that the homes along that road only cost from about $750,000 to a million dollars. I figured that since they had hangers with a runway in front an a channel for a boat in back that they'd be much more.

Monday, 22 February - I was promised by FedEx late Friday afternoon that their carrier would call me before delivering the items from Home Depot and that they would be delivered by 10 am this morning. I hadn't heard from the driver by 9:45, so I went to the marina to make sure I didn't miss him. When he hadn't arrived by 10:15, I asked the girl at the desk when the driver usually arrives. She said usually around 12 to 1 pm. I returned to the boat and was sent an email indicating that the package was delivered about 4:30, without a phone call.

Tuesday, 23 February - I passed up an opportunity to go kayaking today because I wanted to get some exercise playing pickle ball again today, but the game was postponed until tomorrow because of the threat of rain. It merely sprinkled. That gave me the opportunity to try out the new transfer pump so I went to the marina and filled 10 five gallon jugs with water and returned to the boat. I had arranged the pump and hoses so that I could simply pull along side the boat, insert the hoses into the jug and water fill pipe on the boat and pump away. Everything went fine although I was a bit disappointed in the flow rate. It didn't seem to go a lot faster than my siphon does when I carry the jugs aboard, but at least I didn't have to lift the jugs. I returned to the marina and refilled the jugs with 50 more gallons of water and returned. When I started the pump, which I was using on battery power, it pumped about two gallons and the battery died. I had been under the impression that one battery should pump about 200 gallons, so I'm quite disappointed. I had to go aboard and run the AC cord to the pump to finish the job. Having an AC powered pump is something I wanted to avoid because of thee possibility of electrocution with me standing in a wet, aluminum dinghy while transferring the water, plus an all AC or all DC pump would have been a lot cheaper that the AC/DC pump I bought. I may return it, but I'll give it one more chance. Perhaps the new battery didn't charge as fully the first time as it will in the future. I hope so.

Wednesday, 24 February - Pickleball! I know most of you are freezing up north, but I really worked up a sweat playing today in 77 degree sunshine. It's been about 45 years since I played any tennis, which is very similar to pickle ball. That was probably with Tom Vance, long ago when we were room mates. I never got very good and I'm still not.

Thursday, 25 February - Pickleball again this morning. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the usual days to play. This was my fourth day to play and, at least for the first hour and a half, I could actually tell that I was improving. I think I got a little dehydrated during that last half hour; at least that's the excuse I'm using. But Hey! I was on the winning team twice today with different partners. That's definitely an improvement. My biggest problem is that I usually can't remember who just served the last ball. That sure makes it hard to keep score.

Friday, 26 February - I was net controller on the Boot Key Harbor Cruiser's Net, as usual, this morning. Susie and I have been anxiously awaiting for El Molcahete Mexican restaurant to reopen in a new location within a few blocks of her house in Key Colony Beach. They had their grand opening this Wednesday so we went there for dinner this evening and were served at one of their two tables on their front porch. I can truthfully testify that their chicken enchiladas and margaritas are still very good, even though, since they don't have a full liquor license, their margaritas are made with agave wine. We are glad to see them reopen after so long and hope that they do well in their new location.

Saturday, 27 February - Susie's labradoodle, Sangria, still has ringworm, so we shaved her again today. With her shaved, we can see where the infections are and she does seem to be doing better but I'm amazed it's taking this long for it to clear up.

Sunday, 28 February - Today was my brother Mike's birthday so I had a nice long phone chat with him. I also repaired a small lantern of Susie's, then helped her repair a broken picture frame.

Monday, 1 March 2021 - The sacrificial zincs that I ordered for the rudder shaft came in on Saturday and I picked them up at the marina office this afternoon.

Tuesday, 2 March - I played Pickleball again this morning. When I returned to the boat, I defrosted the freezer, then use the freon sniffer that I bought recently to try to detect leaks in the system. I got several false reports from the sniffer. I determined that they were false by rechecking the reports numerous times and am convinced that any leaks that I might have are not in the evaporator or the compressor / pump area. That leaves the refrigerant lines between those two points, and that is going to be very hard to check since it runs mostly in unaccessible, hidden compartments, then through the other refrigeration compartments. I can check part of that and will do so soon.

Wednesday, 3 March - Susie took me to the grocery store and dropped me off early this morning, then she killed time by jogging for a half hour while I bought groceries. Upon return to Island Time, I quickly loaded the groceries onto the boat, then headed over to the park for Pickleball at 10 am. After two hours of Pickle ball, I returned to the boat and put groceries away.

Thursday, 4 March - Boy! I'm not used to this type of workout anymore. I played Pickleball again this morning, again. Later, I disassembled the ACR EPIRB (Emergency Position-indicating Radio Beacon) to find out exactly how to replace the battery, then ordered a new battery on Ebay. It should be in near the end of next week. That beacon would, supposedly, help the Coast Guard find me if the boat founders or sinks. (If I remember to release it when trouble starts.)
                  Later, I listened to a 1948 radio broadcast of a Ray Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven" in the series "X-Minus 1" that one of the girls in the harbor downloaded online at Archive.org and rebroadcast over the VHF. After that they rebroadcast a Lucille Ball radio program sponsored by Jello in 1949, one of the series "My Favorite Husband", a precursor to "I Love Lucy" on TV.

Friday, 5 March - I had to show up about a half hour late to Pickleball this morning since I was Net Controller but I still got plenty of exercise. We actually played a little later than normal. I, also, took a trip via dinghy over to West Marine but came back empty handed, which isn't bad.

Saturday & Sunday, 6 and 7 March - I spent a very enjoyable weekend at Susie's letting her fatten me up with lasagna, pork chops, and stuffed mushrooms, not to mention breakfasts each morning of beautifully blindfolded eggs with Tabasco sauce, toast, fruit, and potatoes.

Monday, 8 March - I played Pickleball again this morning and I felt sorry for my first partner, who is a pretty good player. I certainly wasn't playing well and we lost 0 to 11, although when we played next, I was playing much better and my new partner and I triumphed over the previous partner. After that first debacle, I thought, "He'll never want to have me as a partner again."