Wednesday December 27th 2023

The weather didn’t want me to do the things I planned today. The nearby gulf coast was fogged in last night. I’m about twenty miles inland. The fog didn’t extend this far, but by morning there were thick clouds and occasional light rain. The forecast called for a partly cloudy afternoon.

Once the light rain let up and it looked like it was clearing in late morning, I headed out for the beach. I’ve been here for more than a week and I haven’t visited the Gulf of Mexico yet. Mother Nature didn’t think that was a great idea. As I was on my way the clouds darkened and it started to rain harder than it had all day. Rain at the beach isn’t my idea of fun, so I moved on to my second plan element of the day. I stopped for groceries at Walmart.

The shopping went fine, but I was puzzled by all the new shopping carts. They are different and I don’t like them. The child seat is a built in cage above the original cart height. This raises the height of the handle six to ten inches. It doesn’t feel natural and it makes reaching into the cart from that direction impossible. The number of times I had to check my action and walk to the side of the cart to put something in the cart was excessive. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable the height is for shorter people. It is unlikely these new carts are cheaper than the originals, but they may be “safer” for kids in the seat.

By the time I got out of Walmart the rain had stopped. The clouds were starting to clear. Unfortunately, with a load of groceries including a few frozen items, I couldn’t continue my trip to the beach. It was necessary to return to my RV home with the supplies. A trip to the beach will have to happen on another day.

Lake Manatee attracted a lot of men in boats today. There were nine empty boat trailers in the parking lot this afternoon. All of the boats I could see on the lake were on the far side. The fishing must be good. On my second walk of the day just before sunset there was only one empty trailer remaining, but there were six people fishing from the docks.