Bill and Cathy McArthur on the Road 2011: 3

  Monday, January 17, was a day of threatening rain in the morning and then rain in the afternoon. Cathy went to two exercise classes. Bill worked on an eBay ad for a neighbor. He found a very cool Disney Script font online and incorporated it in the ad. After lunch we went shopping at Big Lots, Dollar General, and Walmart for some items. Then we stopped at Starbucks. It was raining hard most of the afternoon. Bill had planned to do some kayaking, but postponed it for another day. Later in the afternoon, Bill went over to Rollie Balwin's house to help him send a letter to the editor to a Tucson newspaper. We had tortellini for dinner. Afterward, we went to country line dancing at the clubhouse. We viewed a couple of episodes of "24" when we returned home.

  Tuesday was a beautiful day. Bill left the kayak launch at about 8:30 AM and had to drag his kayak through the mud. He tied red and green markers to foliage at the entrance to Missy Creek as requested by Gene, the boatyard manager. Bill had to battle a fierce current through calm water to the ICW. He saw lots of dolphins throughout the 4:45 hour paddle. On the ICW, Bill saw many osprey and a magnificent frigate bird. He went to the entrance of Rookery Bay as usual. Cathy did some exercise classes and stopped at the hospital to see our ex-neighbor Jerry. While Bill was finishing lunch, Cathy arrived back with a couple of Rock Creekers to see our place. Bill brought his laptop to his tutoring session to show Primo how to do email. Bill stopped briefly at the Bridge on the way back home. We went to Starbucks/Publix for some shopping and ate at Aldo's in the same shopping center. Bill's meal of gnocchi was very good. Cathy did not like her too cheesy eggplant parm. We watched an episode of "24", Season 6 when we returned home.

  Wednesday started out cloudy, had a bit of rain mid-morning, and then was a nice day. Cathy went to her exercise classes. Bill did his first duathlon training session for the Sarasota half distance duathlon. He walked for a mile, speed walked for a mile, ran for two miles, rode his bike for 20 miles, and ran for 5K. Bill rigged a speedometer on the bike with one of his Forerunner 305 GPS units. He felt good after the training and was happy to be sweating after a workout for a change. Kevin Sands stopped over and Bill mentioned the leaky shower to him. After lunch, Bill cleaned his bike. Then we went to Home Depot to look for a tool to work on the utility room shower drain. We couldn't find an appropriate tool and headed over to Starbucks. After we returned home and Bill got a shower, we stopped by Happy Hour on the way to the computing workshop. After the workshop, we had quinoa and a frozen meal for dinner. We viewed "Solitary Man", an interesting character study.

  Thursday was a beautiful day, but a long doctor appointment for Cathy kept us from enjoying it. Bill had hoped to go kayaking, but it didn't happen. Bill drove Cathy to the River Chase Dermatology for an 8:00 AM appointment. The receptionist told Bill that Cathy could be done around noon, but she would call a half hour before she was done. So Bill headed home and worked on Workshop 3 and Workshop 4 of his computing workshop. After he had a lunch consisting of two bananas and yogurt, Bill checked his phone and found that the dermatologist had called, but his phone hadn't rung because the volume was set low. Bill hurried to pick up Cathy, who had to go to a medical supply place down the road to get a splint for her left hand and wrist to protect the stitches between two of her fingers. She also had a big bandage on her forehead, so she looked like she'd been in some sort of accident. We stopped at home and then went to Starbucks/Publix for some items. When we go home, Bill took a shower and discovered that the shower was leaking worse than ever. He called Kevin Sands, who said that Dan was coming over on Wednesday to fix it. Bill had to do most of the meal as we grilled burgers for dinner. We viewed "Couples Retreat" - a lightweight chick flick with lots of funny parts. We recognized many scenes from French Polynesia.

  Friday was another nice day. Bill rode his bike for 40 miles accompanied by a pesky wind. Bob and Marianne arrived in the early evening. We went to Sushi Thai on 5th Avenue for a great sushi dinner. We played Euchre after we returned home.

  Saturday morning, Bill awoke around 5:00 AM. He went out for a 1 mile walk, 1 mile speed walk, and 5 mile run. He felt good throughout and did the 5th mile in 8:40. The four of us went to Naples Botanical Garden and were shocked by the damage done to the vegetation by the cold of the winter. We went to Grouper and Chips for lunch. Around 5:00 PM, Tom and Jean Riley came over and we all went to the bridge and then to a Survivor Party at the clubhouse. We did a lot of dancing to oldies played by the DJ. The Survivor skit was very cute but dragged on a bit.

  Sunday started very chilly, but warmed as the sun took over from the cold air. Bill drove the rest of the crew to St. Ann's for mass. He walked to Bad Ass Coffee for a cappuccino. He saw hundreds of bundled up cyclists on 3rd Street as he walked. After mass, we drove to Skillets for brunch. Bill and Bob worked on the Times crossword as we waited about a half hour to be seated. When we finally arrived at our table, we found ourselves next to the governor of Florida, Rick Scott. We wished the governor luck as we left after a good meal. Shortly after we arrived home, Bob and Marianne headed back to their home. We went out for a walk along the airport path. We had an early dinner and then attended Tom and Jean's couples dance instruction, where they taught El Paso and demonstrated a few other dances. We watched portions of the NFC and AFC playoff games during the afternoon and evening.

        Bill and Cathy