Today Dave and I went to Iowa City where I met with a neurologist about my tremors. He was so nice! He tested me for Parkinson's and I show no signs of that!! Thank you, Lord! He then talked to me about familial tremor for about 20 minutes! He answered all my questions and told me that I could "test" to see if the medicine I take was doing me any good by going down to one pill a day for a week and then going off of it entirely. He said I'd have to be off it for 2-3 weeks before the medication was completely out of my system as it has a long residual effect - one pill lasts something like 96 hours in a person's system and I've been taking it for 2 years! He said if I find that it's not doing much to stop taking it! He also told me that every one of us has tremors in our bodies...some people just manifest the tremors like I do...sort of a genetic defect. Since I have it on both sides of my family, it's no wonder I have it! I really liked this doctor - he seemed to care!!
We stopped for lunch in South English on the way home. On our way UP to Iowa City, the road was blocked in North English with what appeared to us as a school bus wreck. We met 3 Sheriff's cars with their lights going and an ambulance. When we were in the little restaurant in S English at noon, we asked if anyone knew what had happened. One of the guys said his sister's school bus (she was driving it) had been rear-ended by a car. Two people in the car were taken to the hospital, but no one on the bus was hurt! After we got home, then, Dave went to work and I just hung out! I was able to get some pictures uploaded, so...
I want you all to meet George! George is a Greg Egret (American Egret) who roams around our park in Clearwater. Our neighbors feed him hotdogs and he seems to really like them. Someone said that he's probably the only bird in Florida with high cholesterol!! He comes for a hotdog twice a day (at least)...one day around April 1st, he was there 4 times!! I probably took 30-40 pictures of him...he's quite a ham! He likes to sit on our roof! You don't suppose he's the reason our roof leaks, do you?
You can tell that George is a Great Egret by his jet-black legs and his yellow beak. In the early 1900's the fashion industry was using large amounts of plumes on ladies hats, fans, etc. At one time, the price of an ounce of plumes was over $30 - double that of the cost of an ounce of gold! Thousands and thousands of birds were killed in Florida for their plumes until federal legislation and the National Audubon Society changed this slaughter.
In this picture, you can see the hotdog in George's mouth!!
The following pictures were taken on March 31, 2011 when tornadoes did damage within 5 miles of our park. This is the spillway beside our place...it was overflowing with water! We had 5.25 inches of rain!! You'll notice that we have amaryllis blooming outside! This one is red and there's another one that's red/white - they're really pretty. We also have red hibiscus that were blooming while we were there!!
This second picture is of us sitting out the tornado warning (for about an hour!) in the men's restroom up by the club house! Bob was our "weather watcher!"
You can see the urinal behind Bob!!
That's all I have for tonight. I'm planning to see my Aunt again this weekend sometime and I'm hoping to visit my high school friend who's in Vista Woods recovering from hip replacement. More later...
This is a picture of a laughing gull at Tampa Bay. He's got his summer plumage already. Some kids had thrown some pretzels into the Bay and the gulls were attacking those pretzels. This guy waited until everyone else got theirs and then he dove in for one.
Here is a view from the Columbia restaurant on Sand Key. Columbia's is a great place to eat with a beautiful view! It's in an area called the Boardwalk. This wooden walkway covers 2-3 blocks there on the Bay. We've eaten here twice now and both times we've loved it. This time we took Maury, Roberta, Judy and Ray with us!
