Still RV Looking, Valentine Genealogy Seminar

We started this month off with going to the annual Vero Beach Gardenfest put on by the Garden Club of Indian River County at the Riverside Park. We always enjoy going to get some ideas on plants and see what might work in our yard. We bought a Tibouchina or princess flower plant there and stopped at Busy Bee Garden Center and bought a bromeliad before going home.

I went to the D.A.R. luncheon on the 6th at the Vero Beach Country Club and our speaker talked about 100 Years on a Florida Cattle Ranch which was interesting to learn about the early cattle ranching in Florida.

I attended 4 of Pam Cooper's classes on genealogy on Tuesdays. She had a different topic each week and she covered Courthouse Records, Church & Cemetery Records, Newspapers & Military Records and Emigration, Naturalization & Passport Records.

I also went to our monthly genealogical society meeting and Pam Cooper was the speaker and she spoke about Rarely Used Records of Skilled Workers - railroad records, union records, etc. So we all learned some new resources to look for when we research our ancestors.

Mike and I went up to the IMAX theater to watch The Great Wall movie with Matt Damon - really good movie! After the movie we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We both ordered the Bacon

Sue's Part Time Job

I mentioned in my last post about some changes we were contemplating with getting another RV. So now I have another major change. Our son Fletcher called to say that the medical practice he works at in Ft. Lauderdale is looking to get a new bookkeeper. That the person who had taken over for the long-time bookkeeper had messed up the financial records and would I be interested in taking over the books. He said it could be arranged that I could do the accounting remotely from home.

So long story short - Fletcher drove up on the 21st and we drove down to his house on the 22nd. Then on  Monday I went in to work with him and met the doctors and started learning about their bookkeeping system using Quickbooks. They switched from using Quickbooks on their computer to using Quickbooks Online and I can access their records from my home computer. So I spent the rest of the week learning their record-keeping process and getting used to using Quickbooks. There is someone in the office who will handle the daily deposits and check writing and anything else that has to be physically done at the office. 

I've been retired since May 2006 and it's been a long time since I had to get up in the morning and go to work! But I enjoyed working with the staff (who are all younger than me) and getting to watch our son while he was working. 

I took my laptop with me and set it up to use with their system and I will use it to do my work on. I think Fletcher thought I was bored being retired and that this would give me something to do! Just from what I've seen that needs to be corrected on their books, I have my work cut out for me. I think my "part-time"

Tampa RV Show & RV Shopping

We've been talking lately about how we want to do more traveling and what would be the best way to do that - driving the car and staying in motels, or getting another RV. If we get another RV, would it be a motor-home or a travel trailer? We want something smaller than the 39' motor-home that we had before when we were living in it full-time.

That brought up more questions - if we got a motor-home we couldn't tow the Subaru Outback - we would either have to tow it on a trailer, get a different car, or travel with only the motor-home. I know a lot of people disconnect their motor-home from the campground hookups and use it for sightseeing, but that doesn't really appeal to us. 

If we got a travel trailer, how much weight can the Subaru Outback tow? Well, the hitch weight for the Outback is 200 lbs which means we would have to have a very light weight travel trailer or pop-up.

We decided we didn't really want to get a motor-home and have to get a different car to tow. So Mike and I have been looking on the internet to see what travel trailers or pop-ups we can tow with the Outback.

We just went to the Tampa RV Supershow this week. We drove over on Wednesday and spent the night at the La Quinta Inn at Pinellas Park. We paid $66 for the room and that was with their New Year Sale Promotion. Then on Thursday we went to the RV Show at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

We saw a lot of RV's, but the majority of them are too heavy or the tongue weight is too much for the

December Movies, Dining, Christmas, and Anniversary

December was a busy month. On the 9th I attended our genealogical society's monthly meeting for the DNA group in the afternoon, then I went over to the Heritage Center for the retirement party for Pam Cooper who was the Supervisor of the Archives Center and Genealogy Department. Thanks to her 30 years of work the Vero Beach Library's local history section went from 250 volumes to over 30,000 titles. 

Then I left Pam's retirement party and met Mike and our neighbor Barbara at the Italian Cousin in Sebastian for dinner. Mike and Barbara had the Sausage and Meatball Rigatoni and I had the Salmon Special with Mozzarella Sticks for an appetizer. Always a great place to eat!

On the 13th I went to our monthly Genealogical Society meeting and on the 16th Mike and I went to the Vero Beach Yacht Club for the monthly MOAA (Military Officers of America Assn.) luncheon. 

Fletcher and his friend Frankie drove up from Fort Lauderdale on Christmas Eve. After they got in, we drove up to the IMAX theater in West Melbourne to see Rogue One, A Star Wars Story in 3-D. After the movie we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse in Palm Bay for dinner. Mike, Fletcher and I ordered the Bacon Cheese Burger and Frankie had the Smokehouse Burger. We all ordered the Loaded Steak Fries with cheddar cheese and bacon bits. 

Christmas Day Mike and I drove over to my sister-in-laws for Christmas dinner with her son and her daughter and her husband and 3 sons. We had invited our neighbor Barbara over for dinner on Christmas evening, so since Fletcher and Frankie decided to stay at our house instead of going to Kissimmee I left them instructions on how to fix Pepper Steak in the crockpot. So when Mike and I got home, I only had to

November Happenings

I haven't posted since last month and thought I would update what's been going on.

My brother Cyril died October 27 - he would have been 90 in December. He had been in failing health for several months and my sister-in-law Elaine had been taking care of him at home. My niece's husband and sons would come over daily and help Elaine, so she did have some help. Cyril was 20 years older than me, so he was my "big" brother in years as well as in size. I really miss him.

Cyril's funeral was November 1 in Kissimmee. Our son Fletcher drove up from Fort Lauderdale and my first cousin Frances and her husband flew down from Illinois to be there. Elaine's brothers & sister and some of their children drove up from West Palm Beach. 

I had applied to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and my application was accepted. I was inducted in the Treasure Coast D.A.R. Chapter on Nov. 7 at their monthly luncheon. I received my certificate in the mail about a week later. I only had to prove  my relationship back to my 4th great grandfather Jacob Utley since he was already listed as a Patriot.

We had the shower in our guest bathroom resurfaced by Patrick at Resurface Specialist earlier this

Back to Normal after Hurricane Matthew

The rest of the month of October was pretty normal once the cleanup from the storm was done. And oh yes, all of the breakable stuff I had put away in drawers and closets in case any of our windows were broken - it took a LOT LONGER to put everything back than it did to put it away! But I'll do it again if we have another hurricane - which is very likely since we live in south Florida.

The monthly meeting of the Indian River Genealogical Society on the 11th was cancelled because the internet at the Vero Library hadn't been restored. 

On the morning of the 15th we drove down to the Home Show at Port St. Lucie and we took our neighbor Barb with us. We saw a product that we both liked - it was resurfacing a shower or bathtub/shower combination. We spoke with the owner Patrick from Resurface Specialist and made arrangements for him to come and give an estimate for our guest shower and Barb wanted an estimate for her guest bathroom. After the Home Show we

Hurricane Matthew and After

Not too long after my post on Oct. 6 our power went off at 11:30. By then we were having 30-40 mph winds with 55-60 mph gusts.

Fortunately earlier that day we had turned down the A/C cooler than usual so in case our power did go off, it would take longer for the house to heat up. Mike walked Tinker one last time that night and we went to bed.

On Friday Oct. 7 we were having more frequent bands of rain and stronger winds. During one of the "lulls" in the weather, Mike went over to Barb's house and started her generator so it would run her refrigerator. He then started our generator which he moved to the front of our storage shed and connected it to the house. We can run the refrigerator, lights and ceiling fans. 

Fortunately Tinker hasn't been too nervous in the storm. But he's not too crazy about having to go outside to do his business with this storm and we try to take him out when it's not raining really hard. 

Hurricane Matthew stayed about 45-50 miles east of our coastline, so we didn't get the full brunt of the storm. But we did get 74 mph gusts Friday and 4½" of rain. 

By mid-afternoon Friday the worst was over and we went outside to see if we had any damage. The roof looks good and there was no damage to house or the storage shed - but the oak trees and the yard are another matter!

The tops of the trees have been stripped and are now all over the front yard. Our side lot looks worse.

Before the Storm