The Cat's Meow

Last week The Colonel and I visited Joshua Citrus, Inc. It is a nearly one hundred year old family business. We followed the signs to Joshua on roads that ran between huge orange groves.

We pulled up and were met by two friendly ladies. One of the ladies immediately asked if we liked tangerines and placed two perfect, deep orange tangerines in my hand. They had lots of citrus to choose from. Tangerines, oranges and grapefruits.

They also had jellies, jams, juices and honey for sale. We bought a bag of oranges and Honeybell Tangelos and some of their delicious Orange-Strawberry juice.

The friendly ladies told us we could visit the building where all the citrus is brought in and sorted. Big white crates loaded with fruit were dumped onto a conveyor belt.

Hot water was sprayed on the citrus as it traveled down the belt. Once the fruit was washed it was sorted into different crates.

We were met by the resident cat, Joshua, as we toured. He was very friendly. The ladies said he had been dumped at the grove when he was a little kitten and is now their mascot more or less.

After our tour and purchases and before we left Joshua Citrus, Inc., we walked through the grove. The orange trees were beautiful, heavily laden with fruit.


We got back home with our fruit.

I squeezed the oranges for juice, but kept the Honeybells for eating (I shared some with a couple of friends too).

Having loads of fresh citrus virtually at your fingertips is 'The Cat's Meow'.

The Land Baroness

Darling Sister-In-Law (DSIL) has become a local land owner, a Local Land Baroness, if you will. She has purchased a lot in town here. Both the location and price were right so she took the plunge.

She likes the small town we live in and wants to retire here in a few years. Now that she has the lot she is starting to decide what kind of house she wants to build eventually.

She also wants to plant some trees on the lot. She would like to plant fruit trees now so that when it comes time to retire, build and move in, the trees will be mature and producing delicious fruit.

The gentleman who owned the lot before her had planted fruit trees, but back in 2004 hurricane Charley destroyed many of them as well as the house that was there.

There is a tree that is still alive and producing fruit; it is a tangerine tree.

DSIL gave The Colonel and I permission to pick the fruit (by the looks of the tree some of the neighbors had been helping themselves to it as well).

The ripest tangerines were higher up in the tree (apparently the neighbors could not reach them so they tree-ripened longer which made them sweeter). The Colonel and I used a ladder to pluck the upper tangerines.

We must have eaten two or three each as we plucked away. We ended up picking about 40 of those little orange balls of Florida sunshine. We gave half of our harvest to our friend Louise who said they were so good she might not share them with her husband.

I don't have a fruit tree in my yard yet, so it sure is nice to know someone who does and is willing to share the fruit. Being related to the tree owner helps too. Thanks a bunch DSIL.

Wordless Wednesday

Aqua Vitae

Aqua Vitae...Water of Life.

The human body is roughly 60% water.

Nearly 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water.

We all use water every day, many times a day and when it isn't there at our fingertips, it can throw us for a loop.

Case in point...

Monday evening I rinsed a glass to put into the dishwasher. I turned on the cold water tap and watched in disbelief as the water pressure grew weaker and then the stream of water completely disappeared. Dang, I had more things to rinse and I wanted to run my dishwasher later, but alas I would have a few dirty dishes in the sink when I woke up the next morning.

I had no bottled or jugged water on hand (usually a hurricane supply item and it is not hurricane season currently, but you can bet I will always have some on hand now, as well as Handi-wipes or diaper wipes) so I began to worry, nay, darn-near freak out about no showers, teeth brushing, flushing toilets and washing hands before bed that evening, let alone all of the next day's water usage issues. It hit me how dependent we are on having our clean, running water on demand and at our fingertips.

I called The Colonel over to the sink. What the heck?!?...Great.

Out the door we went to check the well and its supporting equipment. We checked the water lines, filter, conditioner and pressure gauge. The lines showed no leaks, the filter was clean, the conditioner was running smoothly, but the pressure gauge read zero. The Colonel said he thought it could be either the well pump (major buckage and time in repairs) or the pressure gauge malfunctioning (less buckage and time in repairs). We could do nothing but speculate and refrain from using "sentence enhancers" (cursing) while contemplating our bad luck, so we decided to turn in for the night.

Before we went to bed I scribbled a note for Spud, 'Water is Off', and placed it where he would see it when he woke up the next morning. The Colonel suggested we put some ice cubes in a pitcher so that they would melt over night and then we could make our much needed cups of coffee in the morning. Excellent plan.

The next morning with cups in hand containing coffee made with glacial-like, crystal clear water, we made the appropriate phone calls that would facilitate in ending our "dry spell".

Two hours and forty-five minutes later the repairman showed up like the cavalry. He looked at the equipment and quickly determined it was the pressure gauge. YESSS!! He broke out his tools and proceeded to fix the problem.

Forty-five minutes and $50 (thanks to our homeowners maintenance agreement) later, Bob's your uncle, he was finished with the job.

It was a relief to know we had water again.

I hope to never take running water for granted again, but people being creatures of habit and comfort that we are, I probably won't even realize I have taken it for granted again until it is not there (God forbid).

Where There's Smoke...

Smoke on the horizon is almost always a harbinger of bad news.

The Colonel and I had just pulled into our driveway when we smelled acrid smoke on the breeze as it swept into the open windows of the truck. At first we thought it might be the engine of the truck, but when we jumped out the smell was all around us and not confined to the truck's engine. Satisfied that the truck was not going to burst into flames, we went into the house, still wondering where the smell was coming from.

Not two minutes later we heard sirens and saw flashing lights turn onto our road. The firetruck raced past our house and then we raced outside to follow it. We got back into the truck and hit the road.

We kept our eyes to the horizon as we drove, spotted smoke there and wondered which neighbor's house was on fire. Each house that we passed that was not aflame brought us relief from concern over that neighbor and their possible misfortune.

The house that was burning belonged to a family we do not know personally, but we have driven past their house on numerous occasions. Their immediate neighbor, who returned home from work to make sure the flames did not affect his house, told us that the fire department had been to the burning house yesterday. It seems there had been a small fire then which was thought to be contained and put out. Apparently the fire had still been smoldering somewhere inside the house. Scary to think that the fire was smoldering as the homeowners were slumbering in their beds last night. I do not know that I would have gotten much sleep that night if it were me. I don't believe anyone was in the house when the fire broke out again today. I think they were all away at work.

It is always terrible to see a disaster like this happen to anyone. A lifetime of things gone in a fiery flash. These events should serve to remind us that the real things that matter are not things, but people. People cannot be replaced like a Sanyo stereo or a Prada pantsuit can.

Wordless Wednesday

King's Dream Lives On

This is my friend John. I met him three years ago when the Colonel and I started volunteering for a local African-American museum. He will be turning 80 this week.

John is warm-hearted, kind, witty, well-read, generous, quick to smile and wise. His wisdom comes from his many years on this earth and from the challenges he overcame in his lifetime.

He has lived through the Jim Crow Law years of "separate but equal". Separate bathrooms, restaurants, public transportation and schools. There was segregation in the military as he served his country during the Korean War. (John was in the same Air Force squadron The Colonel would be commander of roughly 50 years later.)

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished the Jim Crow Laws. Changed laws did not always equal changed minds as the history books have shown us.

John was a local civil rights leader. He fought for and became the first black mailman in this town and he started the first NAACP chapter here and was its president.

Some people might have become hardened by their experiences of racial injustice, especially in the south, but like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., John does not judge people by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character and is a peaceful man.

The Colonel, Spud and I are invited to attend John's birthday party. We will be in attendance, as will a large majority of the people of this town...proof that John is well known and well loved by many different people.

I count myself blessed to have met John and number him as a friend.