Dear Diary

Egad! I've become exactly what I feared most, a bonafide Florida senior citizen. Everything runs on a schedule; like a train leaving the depot. Lizzie and I find ourselves going to bed, tired or not, at 9:30. We're now in the central time zone but it's SOP that we hit the hay on eastern time so we don't mess up our systems when we return to Ohio. I roust myself out of bed at 7:30 am; Lizzie and hour earlier. She watches, ick!, the Today Show. I'm on the computer immediatly after performing the morning chores. One hour later it's down to the work out room. Sometimes I don't do anything but watch TV. On other occasions I might lift a weight or two and could possibly jump up on the treadmill----or not. After this faux attempt at exercising Lizzie and I hook up and walk alternate Hwy. 98. There's no traffic, it parallels the Gulf and the sidewalk is filled with older folks 'shuffling' along. Know what I hate most about this trek? We'll pass fifty people and it's mandatory for everyone to say, "Good-morning", every damned time. That's too many words for me so I utter, "Howdy" but sometimes grunt, "Hi" or "Uh". Seems as though when it's after noon people don't say anything.
Our busy part of our day is noon to three pm. There's grocery shopping. We do our buying for one day only. It's like older folks not buying the green bananas joke. The chain grocery stores are Winn-Dixie and Publix. WD is too expensive. They charge at least 1 cent more for an orange than Publix. I've noticed that Lizzie and I do this: we'll pick up an orange and inspect it very closely. It might be that we do it because it's a time killer or because we're damned particular about what goes in our bodies or both. And Publix has a better array of post cards for our grandchildren and the price is right, too.
After this it's off to The Dollar Store. Whooee! Talk about bargains galore. They have items we won't use ever but they're so inexpensive it's impossible to pass them up.
At 2pm on the local TV channel we can watch The Closer----every day. Afterward, it's two episodes of the original Law & Order. Life doesn't get any better than this. Now that it's dinner time(don't laugh--it's 6pm in Ohio) we either have today's Publix fare or head out to the discount restaurant with coupon in hand.
That's it! Our week days are completed.
Week-ends are another story. If you've ever visited Wright-Patterson Air Museum in Dayton, Ohio you have to admit it was very inspiring. Well, the same can be said for The Pensacola Air and Naval Museum. I never thought I'd visit anything to rival WP but we did. For us, the week-ends are for day trips and Pensacola is well worth the hour drive. Did you know that at the very end of Pensacola Beach Key is a fort called Ft. Pickens? You do now. It was built in 1834 by slave labor from New Orleans. It's massive. The government sent the Indian 'renegade', Geronimo, to Ft. Pickens after his justified insurrection. Ft. Pickens is a highlight and so very fascinating especially when the tour guides are free. That's another aspect of being a senior; seeking out things that are free. The Pensacola museum is free but sometimes you'll be walking around and see a guide who has been hired by a group. These people go into more detail. You can't imagine how easy it is to mingle in just as though a fee had been paid. I did this at the Palace of Versailles in France and it worked to perfection.
Next week-end we're off to Seaside, Florida. It's only fifteen minutes from our condo. It's a quaint little community that has a food flea market every Saturday. It's also where the movie, The Truman Show, was filmed. The last time we went I got away without spending so much as a dollar. Admission to everything was the price of my eyesight. That's pretty much a constant statement for us old goats on the 'Redneck Riviera' of Destin; how much did it cost?
This is the wisdom I am imparting for the day : "If if costs something find an alternative activity unless you can work a scam". It's what old people are expected to do.