Sunday February 22nd 2026

In a recent blog entry I declared Florida winter over. The daily high temperatures had returned to the upper seventies and lower eighties. Mother nature has decided to declare me wrong. Friday and Saturday the high temperature was around ninety. A very summer like temperature. Today was a transition day. It began with a cloudy sky and mid seventies temperatures. By mid day the wind was howling and heavy rain moved in. I didn’t hear any thunder, but the rain volume was consistent with a thunderstorm. After a couple of hours of rain the sky started to clear, but the temperature didn’t return with the sun. Most of the late afternoon was in the sixties.

The next couple of days have forecast highs in the fifties and sixties. The overnight lows are supposed to be in the thirties. It won’t get as cold as the freeze at the end of January, but warnings have been issued. Even freezing is better than the blizzard in the northeast.

My focus this weekend has been on chores and errands. The Saturday chores were slowed by the outside heat and the errands were slowed by another old nemeses, traffic. We are now in the heart of the Florida winter snowbird and vacation season. Last week, and to a lesser extent this week are the winter school vacation weeks in the northeast. Each week in March brings another Spring Break period for other schools and colleges. Easter comes into play at the start of April. With each of these events comes more cars on the road and more drivers trying to make their way in unfamiliar territory. Time to leave more time to get places and pack plenty of patience.

Thursday February 19th 2026

It turns out that the freeze at the beginning of the month did some serious damage to all of my plants. At first I thought only my bougainvillea took a light hit. I showed a picture in my February 5th blog entry. https://robsramblingroadtrip.com/2026/02/05/weather-wimp/ Since then it became clear that any return was going to come from the base. All of the green leaves and purple blossoms were gone.

Over the last couple of days I’ve cut the plant back. It is not a simple task. The branches run in every direction to form an interlocking grid that you need to get the cutters through. When you add in the sharp spikes along the stems it becomes a painful task. Even with heavy gloves the bush has drawn blood more than a few times. The remaining challenge is getting the cut out brush to the parks dumpster. Loading it into the back of my SUV doesn’t sound fun.

The avocado tree in front of my unit also shows signs of distress. It has lost the majority of its leaves. I look forward to getting rid of this one. It blocks my view up the road and is generally a dirty tree. I’ve been looking at various hibiscus plants as replacements for a year now. One other semi tropical in appearance plant in the back yard has nothing but dead leaves now. I don’t know what it is, but it will probably be replaced soon.

Sunday February 15th 2026

I think Florida winter is over. The high temperature has returned to the upper seventies and rain is once again a possibility. Today was a very windy day in advance of a cold front heavy with rain this evening.

My focus over the weekend was very much on relaxation. I did a few chores, but mostly read and watched TV. I didn’t even take any pictures to include in this blog entry. When it started to rain, while writing this entry, I opened the door to take the one picture of the rain I’ve included here. The overall quality of this blog entry is low, but goes along with the relaxed nature of my weekend.

Thursday February 12th 2026

I made my second visit this year to Disney’s International Festival of the Arts at EPCOT. The resent cold weather and other things out of my control have kept me away. This is EPCOT’s shortest festival, It ends before the end of February. Yesterday I let a brief rain storm keep me from the park, but today I made the visit despite a similar brief rain storm.

I enjoy looking at all the artworks on display and for sale. Most of the art has a Disney theme. Everything from classic Mickey Mouse and friends to Star Wars scenes can be purchased. There is also a lot of Marvel character based art. The classic Disney character based art are very bright and colorful, while the Star Wars and Marvel art are mostly very dark.

One of my favorite art displays are the chalk art drawn on the cement walkways. They don’t last long when the weather gets wet, but there is always another artist drawing another one. Today’s rain dulled the chalk drawings a little, but they still were impressive. A chalk artist was busy creating a new piece of art.

The recent freezing cold has had impact on EPCOT’s gardens. Several planters had “pardon our appearance” signs asking for understanding. In other areas Disney seems to have accelerated the plantings for the International Flower and Garden Festival that begins in March. Several of the topiaries were already on display including Bambi in a new location.

Sunday February 8th 2026

This has been a weekend for catching up on various chores. The messiest was getting the dead palm tree trunk I’d cut down earlier in the week to the dumpster. Just moving it resulted in more little pieces on the ground. I finally managed to get all of the larger pieces into a garbage bag and the trunk into the back of my SUV. Then I had plenty to sweep up. After a drive to the park dumpsters, I had another challenge getting all the pieces out of the car followed by an even longer time cleaning out the back of the SUV. Overall it took five minutes to cut the tree down and about an hour to get it cleaned up in the dumpster.

Today was a grocery shopping day. If I wasn’t out of basic things like milk, bread and eggs I would have put it off another day. Between the traditional Sunday shoppers and the last minute Super Bowl party shoppers, it was a real zoo. I had the added complication of a shopping cart with a stuck wheel for turning. It took a lot of effort to maneuver around people practically running with chips and dip in their shopping carts. Checkout was very slow.

I wanted to watch the Patriots play in the Super Bowl this evening, but TV reception wasn’t going to let me. I could have gone to the party at the park clubhouse, but in my experience you don’t watch the game at a Super Bowl party. You talk and get distracted. I don’t have cable or an internet package with local channels. I use an over the air boosted antenna to get about sixty channels. Unfortunately, NBC only comes in a small percentage of the time. All of the other major network channels are much better. It’s all in the transmitter location. I listened to the radio broadcast of the game over the internet until it was clear the Patriots were not going to complete the miracle season.

Thursday February 5th 2026

I have been a weather wimp most of the week. At the beginning of the week the days began below freezing and peaked in the fifties or sixties. This morning began warmer, but with wind and rain. The exception was Wednesday. It was a nice seasonal day with a high temperature in the upper seventies. It was the only day this week I felt like doing anything outside.

I used the nice weather period on Wednesday to catch up on some outside chores. First up was checking on how things survived the freeze. I removed the covers I put on exposed pipes and checked for leaks. Everything looks OK and the covers are stored for the next time. On the plant front, my bougainvillea may not have made it through the cold. I thought it was hardy, but it isn’t looking very good now. I’ll give it a few days before I throw in the towel.

Another outside task I accomplished on Wednesday was also plant related, just not the result of the freeze. One of two trunks on my palm tree was completely dead. I don’t know enough about palms to understand the cause. It was clear the only solution was to cut that side of the tree down. The other trunk doesn’t look great, but I think it will survive.

Today my weather wimp behavior continued. After the morning rain ended blue sky with plenty of sun returned. I took that as an opportunity to visit Disney World for some exercise and entertainment. Then I went outside. The temperature was in the low fifties and the wind was howling. With wind chill factored in the temp already felt like the forties. One the sun set the temperature was set to drop into the mid forties. The feels like would be in the thirties. I can wait for warmer weather.

Sunday February 1st 2026

This was a weekend controlled by he weather. Friday was an overcast day with seasonal temperatures. It wasn’t a particularly appealing day for outdoor activity, but the temperature reached the upper seventies. Once the temperature started down, the heat for the weekend was over.

Early Saturday morning, before I committed to leaving the comfort of my bed, a couple of lines of storms complete with heavy rain and lots of wind passed through the area. The trend was set. The temperature made it into the low fifties by early afternoon, but the strong wind from a northerly direction kept the feels like temperature much lower. As the afternoon progressed the temperature dropped steadily.

Driven by all the media hype about the approaching cold and a degree of personal concern, I spent the day doing what I could to prepare. The real problem is my lack of experience with cold in this house. The basic house is not a problem. It has good insulation and double pained windows. The concern is exposed water lines and the uninsolated shed with my clothes washer. I don’t know how much cold they can take. I did what I could to drain a couple of lines and cover others. My plants should be OK and if not, I will replace them. So far (as of Sunday night) my preparations have been enough. It was 24 degrees Fahrenheit outside at 8AM this morning. The day peaked in the mid forties.

Tomorrow morning is forecast to be a little warmer, but still below freezing. By Tuesday, it should be above freezing to start the day. The weather talkers are predicting more cold next weekend. This is the worst winter for sustained periods of cold I’ve experienced in Florida. I had a night in Ocala a few years back that was colder, but it didn’t last. Most winters in this area of central Florida you get a night or two a little below freezing, but not ten degrees. Apparently the last time it was this low was 2010.

Thursday January 29th 2026

The Florida temperature roller coaster is back on the down slop. Morning lows in the twenties are possible this weekend. That will be a little uncomfortable, but as the daily highs dropped Wednesday was a good day for a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

It was in the low sixties on Wednesday afternoon. A perfect temperature for walking around the park and for the animals being active. During the summer months the animals are very lethargic or they are hiding in the trees. On Wednesday the bigger animals were much more active. Only some of the birds, like the flamingos were huddled together in the sun.

On the safari ride the giraffes and white rhinos were particularly active. Each species seemed to want block the trucks path. It lengthen the time for the ride considerably. The animals have the right of way. The best active animal on the safari was the male lion. He was up walking around for a little bit while we were in the area. All three lions are usually just lying around on the rocks.

Most of the park wasn’t very busy. The only ride with a real wait was the Dinosaur ride. This weekend is the closing date for the ride. It will be remade into an Indiana Jones ride as part of the conversion of Dino Land into Tropical America Land. I decided I didn’t need one last ride on the bouncy vehicle through time to capture a dinosaur. The wait was too long. My memories from past rides will have to be enough.

Sunday January 25th 2026

The last few days have been above normal weather wise in central Florida, but my attention has been on the media coverage of the ice, sleet and snow storms impacting most of the rest of the country. I don’t miss the winter storms. There is about five minutes of pleasure associated with a winter storm. Everything is clean and quiet when you are safe from the freshly finished storm, but then you have to clean it all up in the freezing cold.

Saturday’s exercise was at Lake Eva Community Park in downtown Haines City. It has a nice walking trail along the lake shore along with the usual recreation opportunities you would expect to find a a lakeside park. Other people were enjoying a party at one of the pavilions and fishing from the dock. I was hoping to find a few wading birds lakeside or in the reeds, but had to settle for a pair of ducks.

Snow was also the operative word on Sunday for the NFL AFC conference playoff game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. Before the game I thought it was a good thing the game wasn’t in New England. The stadium is in the middle of the area with a two feet of snow forecast. The game in Denver didn’t start with snow, but ended with heavy snow. It was coming down so hard that neither team could score. The Patriots won because they were in the lead before the snow started. I am looking forward to the Super Bowl.

Thursday January 22nd 2026

On Wednesday I made my first visit to Walt Disney World of the year. I was blocked during the holidays because of my “cheap” pass level. The blackout ended on January 5th, but high crowd levels because of the Run Disney marathon followed by cold temperatures kept me away.

The International Festival of the Arts began while I was staying away. It is a favorite of mine. I had to get started visiting the festival at Epcot. It ends before the end of February. A lot of other people must have similar thoughts. It was very busy in the late afternoon and got heavier after dark.

I visited the majority of the art booths and made a complete circuit of the World Showcase. At the UK Pavilion I grabbed my usual Fish and Chips dinner and at the American Pavilion I caught the end of one of the Disney on Broadway shows. Many of the food booths that are open during other festivals are replaced with Art booths for this festival, but there are still plenty of food choices.

I am not sure there are as many Art kiosks this year. The booths that have offered statues and castings in previous years seemed to be missing. Other booths seemed to be in new locations with more display space. The displays of Broadway musical costumes, sets and paraphernalia was impressive as was the chalk art on the walkway to the World Showcase.

I’ll bw back for more visits over the next month.