13 Feb. 2012: BLOG BACK BY DEMAND, OCCASIONALLY

Surprising that many of you wrote to say you are suffering from withdrawal not knowing what we're up to these days. After China/Vietnam, Florida is predictable and familiar. I hadn't planned to do any blog posts from here, but if you're truly interested there might be some news now and then.

We left the REAL snowbirds and Winter View sunrises late January and arrived in Redington Beach for February. It's one of a chain of small communities on the Gulf shore between Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach. The rented condo is about 220 square feet with Murphy bed and small everything but fine for our needs. There's a small pool for lap swimming. It's called the Royal Orleans but the only thing in common with New Orleans is the wrought iron railings --- nobody's throwing beads at us until we parade topless at Mardi Gras.. The view out the window is now a sunny deck, and there are other make-believe Snowbirds like us enjoying it.

We are common street walkers every morning! And even though our pedometer is out of a cereal box, it tells us we're doing about 9,000 to 12,000 steps per day. Then some lengths of the pool, a drive up or down the shore road, and back for sunsets. I told you, not exactly the daily revelations of Vietnam, but stay tuned and I'll try to find some interesting stuff. Welcome back, I missed it too!