Back and Forth

We're still going with the build-on-the-lot plan, but in the meantime, G decided we need a rental for all our belongings stashed here and there -- mostly there, like on display in an unleased store front unit in one of his brother's shopping centers -- while we figure out what and how to build. He had noticed a property in the paper and asked the girls and I to drive by while we were off-island doing a few errands today. Brand new, the cleaning crew was just wrapping up when we arrived and I got to take a look inside. It was perfect. Tomorrow we drop off a deposit check. That was too easy.

Poor G. He's been dealing with the transfer of his step-grandmother from an assisted living facility in Central Florida, to one in Hollywood. Instead of languishing up there by herself, she's had a stream of pretty regular visitors bringing her luxuries like cigarettes and sweet potato pie. But Great Grandma M is a redneck. She can not stand the ethnic mix of people down in South Florida and wants to go back up to her old place, a place with only English-speaking white people. She's pretty vocal about it too. Back up she'll go, once he makes the arrangements, again.

And he had a visit with some of our old friends. He reports they are all in outerspace. High drama, all the time. He can't wait to get back over to our nice, quiet, boring, little island.

The girls delivered some of our first pineapple crop to our neighbors this past weekend, and returned with an invite to dinner for this evening. The same neighbors L went AWOL to see; the ones I feared might be about to have us investigated by DCF. We had a very nice time. L insisted on wearing the outfit she received today, from her uncle for her birthday, as well as the gold bracelet she received from an aunt. She had a date! She was all googly-eyed with Mr. N, who is a mix of Jimmy Stewart and James Coburn, and who, if I was thirty years older, might find attractive, crawled right up in his lap for a chat and stayed perched there for most of the evening, hanging on his every word. One realizes how poorly one eats when treated to a huge plate of freshly caught sea trout, fresh black-eyed peas, fresh corn-on-the-cob, fresh fruit cocktail, and fresh keylime pie. With meringue. And a piecrust from scratch. They also sent us home with an antique table, sort of a forerunner of a card table with collapsing legs, but made entirely of wood, with beautiful dovetailed joints. They've made the island their full-time residence and have begun replacing functional vacation home furniture with treasured pieces from their large farmhouse. Hmmmm. Can I possibly squeeze one more piece of furniture in?