Author Archives: Jo Mayne Casey

Settling into Spring

By Posted in 2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , 1 Comment

There’s a definite mental lag going on since we arrived back to Sonnystone Acres.  It’s always a Jump from the Magic that is Disney to Real Life, hence my whining all the way home that we should have stayed longer.

 

Then there’s the inevitable inner dialogue “Last Monday we were at Magic Kingdom, Last Tuesday we were at Epcot” all week long as I wash clothes and clean out the Rolling Sonnystone…   I’ve made a half-movie, downloaded all the Memory Pass photos for the other half.  I still have to organize my pins.  I bought new frames and have this year’s collection on display…  (after a frenzy of dusting)

Bright Yellow Forsythias greeted us as we pulled into the driveway…our yard is covered with meadow flowers and many of our daffodils are in bloom.

As soon as I could, I brought the surviving plants out of the shed.

I’m full of garden plans, looking forward to resurrecting my garden blog…  This week I will return to the Ancestry blog with plans to crank out a half-dozen or so posts.

Ya’ll know about my Uncle Junior dying while I was gone.  Sadly, my good friend Nu-Nu also died, buried the same day as Junior.  They were central to my “old folks tour” when I would take a day and drive over to Grayville and up to Albion and spend time with them.  When Nu-Nu moved to a nursing home in Mt. Carmel it took me a bit to “find” her, but I managed to get over there a couple of times, too.  I had tried to call her at Christmas, but got no answer; sent her a birthday card 2/24.  I don’t know any details of her passing, but she was 92 years old with bad lungs since childhood.   I will miss our visits.

I guess I need to find some new old people to befriend…

Peace

 

Headed toward Home

By Posted in 2019, Trippin' in the Trailer Tagged , 2 Comments

I can’t stand for our Disney Trips to end…I get all emotional and sad and drag my feet getting out of here…The Jrs and New Yorkers went home yesterday, but we stayed and did another tour of the Epcot Flower and Garden show, using up our food credit and buying souvenirs.

But Leave we must, taking our memories (and a ton of food) with us until next year.

We’ve been on the road for a month and it’s been a Great Adventure, the longest we’ve stayed and so the most we’ve learned.  I’m already planning next year’s March Trip, complete with improvements and enhancements.

But for now, we’re just planning on heading back to Sonnystone, where the freeze warning should be over by the time we pull in the driveway.  I expect there will till be plenty of blooms in the yard and next week’s weather looks like Spring.

I have sooo missed writing.  I had brought my Ancestry material, thinking I’d be able to write over at All My Ancestors–ha! I did break down and do some journaling, with an actual pen and paper…!   Next year, we’ll be choosing campgrounds with better internet, you can be sure…

I’ll tell you All About it when I’ve settled back in at Sonnystone.  Until then…

Peace

 

Postcard from the road…

By Posted in 2019, Travelogue, Trippin' in the Trailer Tagged , , Leave a comment

We stayed at Wickham Park campground in Melbourne, FL for eight days, five of them covered in charcoal clouds and windy cold rain.  The last three have been perfect Florida weather, though.

We went straight over to see Aunt Shirley on Saturday and on Sunday Cousin Kim had a little soiree’ at her house.

L-R Me, Aunt Shirley, Shianne, Kim, and Jonathan…

Wickham Park is a beautiful place with miles of walking.  Our campsite, however, happens to be shitty, right next to a fulltimer who is spread out like backwater.  The wi-fi is non-existent. I burnt through all the data on my phone while we were stuck inside the trailer during those stormy days, in addition to reading three books…

When we could finally get out and about we made the most of it with a drive to Sebastian Inlet State Park.

We visited Melbourne Beach…

(We spent more time with Kim and Aunt Shirley, too, but I didn’t take any pictures!!! )

Today we are checking into Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground at noon.  The Jrs will be arriving at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort around the same time.  The New Yorkers will be fashionably late this evening, staying at Saratoga Springs.  We have a week of festivities planned and all of the kids are bouncing off the walls with excitement, especially JoJo.  It’s the first time the Entire Family All Together has done Disney since 2015!!

There will be pictures…and wi-fi Everywhere…

Peace

 

Photographs

By Posted in 2019, Photos, Travelogue, Trippin' in the Trailer, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , , Leave a comment

I would have blogged more often this week, as I know you are just chomping at the bit to read my scintillating travelogue.  The internet, alas, as been only intermittent…to put it nicely.  Very frustrating…so I am now using my mobile hotspot and must keep an eye on my data usage.

The morning before we left Perry, Casey discovered a large lump on the driver front tire of our Expedition.  Luckily, we had only a 3-hour drive to St. Augustine Beach KOA.  This KOA is a nice one, 3/4 mile from the beach and just 3 miles from the Historic City of St. Augustine.

After setting up camp, we inquired as to a Tire Shop and got lucky…The Firestone Tire Center was smack-dab in the Historic City, so we dropped the car off for a new tire and walked around town.  Nice $135 free parking, eh?

We have been to St. Augustine Historic spots before.  There are reallyreally old buildings, forts, churches, the perfunctory tourist shops, decent restaurants, and the Fountain of Youth, of course…   We ate lunch and wandered around.

Our entire stay at St. Augustine Beach was sunny, highs lower 80s and breezy…in my mind perfect…  The beach had a nice pier and was just crowded enough with happy sun worshippers…

Saint Augustine Beach FL

Anastasia State Park was about a mile down the road, so we walked its dunes and hiked a short trail…

It’s only 123 miles from our St. Augustine Beach campsite to our current spot in Wickham Park, Melbourne, but since we made the trip and got set up, we haven’t seen the sun…  I am accustomed to everyday rain in Florida, and I remember a day where it actually rained all day, but this is running to 4 days in a row, with highs only up to mid-60’s.

And isn’t that perfect when you need to spend a couple of days indoors…?! I have already been to visit my Aunt Shirley and I’ll go back and spend another afternoon (doing laundry, too).  We are hanging out over at Cousin Kim’s house this afternoon, letting her feed us… I deliberately waited to shop for clothes until I got here and am thrilled to have a SteinMart and Bealls nearby, so shopping is a nice indoor activity.  Oh, and I need to get the witch nails cut back again, so there’s that.   By the time I get myself all prettied and cleaned, the Sun Will Return and we can head back to the beaches.

Uncle Junior died last Tuesday morning at 2am in the Linda White Hospice. He was a sweet man and I will miss our visits.   Aunt Shirley is the last of Mom’s brothers and sisters, 83-years-old and doing okay.  >sigh<

When the sun comes back, we’ll get out and Wow you with more photos…  Till then…

Peace

 

 

 

 

On the road…March 10, 2019

By Posted in 2019, Travelogue, Trippin' in the Trailer Tagged , , Leave a comment

I like a little bit of Winter…cozy days by the fire, watching the birds at the feeders, the pretty snows that outline the branches, but I am always ready to head south in March.

I made my plans last year and got my reservations in order, but…changes.

We had to plan our departure date around the weather (we drive through Dixie tornado alley), so we left early to  sneak through on days between storms.  We managed to avoid winds or rain and it’s been warm and sunny since we arrived.

One of my complaints about trailer trippin’ is the lack of RV parks that have availability, especially this time of year in Florida.  The Snowbirds start to leave in March, (having been here since November) but they amble out throughout the month.  When we realized we needed to leave earlier than planned, there were few options, so we grabbed a convenient KOA here in Perry, FL.

There is nothing to do here…Nothing…seriously.  And they close down all of Nothing on Sunday.  It’s a decent campsite, though, and we’ve been organizing things in the trailer, which we couldn’t do in the 20-degree temperatures that we left behind.

I do love my Trailer…enough to name it Sonnystone2…but I was thinking about re-naming it “Like a Rolling sonnyStone”.  We  haven’t made the sign, yet, so what do you think?

We’re just relaxing, but there’s drama going on back in Evansville that I am dealing with.  My uncle Jr is dying and had I been there, I would be with him at the hospital. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on the phone, but I could have been much more effective in person.  I feel guilty, but keep reminding myself that many, many things are not in my control and I’ve done the best I can.

Tomorrow we’re packing it in and making a little 4-hour drive to St. Augustine Beach (our original destination) to stay for the week.   There’s plenty to do there…

…So if you go from nowhere
On the road to somewhere
And you meet anyone
You know it’s me.

Peace

Wild Turkeys

By Posted in 2019, Weekly Wrap-Up, Winter at Sonnystone Tagged , 2 Comments

I’ve written about our resident wild turkeys, how a couple of years ago the bachelors got lucky and the two hens had nine new turkeys.  They were darling as they followed their moms around that summer. I didn’t see any hens or babies last summer, though I did see the three tom turkeys, who are just vile.  They meet up on my picnic table down by the firepit and smoke their cigars and swap lies.   While it may be kind of fun to watch them in the meadow during mating time (so I’m a voyeur), their overbearing, aggressive personalities are more negative than the positive.

Lately, they’ve been up near the house, availing themselves of the fallen birdseed from the feeders.  The other day. Casey happened out the door headed to the garage and I’ll be dipped if those assholes didn’t come at him, garbling and acting all tough.  He went on in the garage, grabbed a broomstick and there ensued a small skirmish, but he called a truce when I intervened.  I was getting ready to drive somewhere and I wanted to be able to get through without a fight.  They sauntered off toward the front of the house and I went out and got in the car without incident…however,

As I drove down our driveway (it’s about 0.1 mile) they decided to attack the car.  Have you ever seen a car-chasing dog? They want to attack the tires, the moving tires? These turkeys were  like that.  I was rolling along slowly and the one was dipping his head right into the tire well, while the others were running along gobbling and giving me large side-eye through the passenger window.  I was forced to turn right to avoid running over the front man and thought I’d outmaneuvered them.

But noooo….Looking in my rear view mirror, there they were!  a triangle of turkeys running their little legs off, gobbling loudly, their snoods bouncing and their wings puffed.  It’s a wonder they didn’t get run over, but traffic coming toward me saw them and slowed to a stop when the turkeys stopped… in the middle of the road…and the bastids proceeded to attack those cars, too!

When I returned from my my errand, they were back in the front yard and left me alone…

The very next day, Casey was working in the garage and didn’t realize they were out there when they attempted to stroll in.  He got the broom again…chased them down the hill swatting and yelling as they slowly and loudly backed off.  He threw a big stick and knocked one of them down, so they finally retreated and Casey returned triumphant…

Turkeys have been known to be aggressive toward humans and pets in residential areas.  Wild turkeys have a social structure and pecking order and habituated turkeys may respond to humans and animals as they do to another turkey. Habituated turkeys may attempt to dominate or attack people that the birds view as subordinates.

Ha!  I hope Casey has proven himself to be the dominant Turkey…

(He also pulled a muscle in his back and has been using the heating pad and ibuprofen…but don’t tell the Toms)

It’s the time of year for these nasty birds to be even more nasty, and right when I was ready to trap and remove them, I got a visit from the milder side of the Turkey tribe…

There were two older guard females off-camera and I am astounded… These are the babies that we saw two years ago and they’re all present and accounted for!  No doubt because the women have been in charge and I hope they’re not teaching them to be jerks like the bachelors…

who just happened to be a little behind them…

Ya gotta let nature be nature, I suppose…  Once they are through mating, they’ll calm some…I hope…I know I do…

And anyway, we might as well leave them the room since we’ll be vacating the premises shortly.  They would be better protection than a guard dog…

Speaking of vacating, we opened up the trailer and have started to load out for our upcoming trek.  We are watching the weather here for good travel conditions and will probably leave a day earlier than we’d planned.  You will, of course, be the first to know when we are on the road again…

The temps are dropping down to the teens for the next couple of days, but there is about an inch of snowcover that brightens up the landscape and the weatherman promised some sunshine…

Peace

 

 

 

Wrapping it All Up

By Posted in 2019, week-end wrap-up, Weekly Wrap-Up Tagged , , Leave a comment

It’s been a fun week of daily blogging here at The News.  I’m ready now to get back over to my ancestry blog and write about some of the research I’ve been doing, but I want to share one more ghost-post…

First posted February 24, 2014…

Or so it seems…

We had a great birthday week-end.  Thanks for your kind wishes.  Many of you are like me, scratching your head and asking, “where have the years gone?”  This poem says it better than I can…

Time Enough

The tally of years
added up so rapidly
it appeared I had
been short-changed,
tricked by sleight
of hand, fallen victim
to false bookkeeping.

Yet when I checked
my records, each
and every year had
been accounted for,
down to the last day,
and could be audited
against old diary entries
(client briefings,
dental check-ups,
parent-teacher meetings,
wedding anniversaries),
verified with credit
card statements
(multi-trip insurance,
antibiotics, concert bookings,
mobile top-ups).

And, although
nagging doubts
remained—an
inkling that I had
been ripped off
in some way,
given short shrift,
made to live at an
accelerated pace,
rushed through
my routines with
unseemly haste—
nothing could be proved,
no hard and fast
statistics adduced.

I had, it seems,
unknown to me,
been living my
life to the full.

“Time Enough” by Dennis O’Driscoll, from Dear Life. © Copper Canyon Press. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Onward to Spring..it’s only 24 days away!!

………

We’re going to uncover the travel trailer, aka Sonnystone2, this week.  Current plans are to leave for Florida in two weeks, which seems pretty soon, don’t you think?  On the other hand, it doesn’t seem soon enough to escape the dreary cold we’ve been experiencing.

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes!

age2

Peace

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