Tuesday August 20th 2024

The wind direction has changed to the southwest. It is bringing more humidity and a return to the normal daily showers. The temperature rapidly climbed into the nineties this morning. The relief came quickly around 11AM in the form of thunder storms. A new storm arrived about every hour until 4PM. They were brief showers of about ten minutes in duration that kept the afternoon temperature in the upper eighties.

After staying inside during the late morning and early afternoon rains, I set out for Disney’s EPCOT for some late afternoon and evening exercise and entertainment. The park wasn’t too busy when I arrived shortly before six, but it increased rapidly while I was there. The Magic Kingdom had the Halloween party this evening. All of the people that didn’t have the special event ticket came to EPCOT instead.

I rode a few rides, but mostly I walked around the park taking in the scenery, quirky people and entertainment. It wasn’t the best conditions for a lot of walking. The temperature was down in the eighties, but the humidity was still high. I didn’t let too many water fountains pass by without a stop. Half way around the World Showcase area I decided to sit down and take a break. That was a mistake. The bench was still wet from the afternoon rains. I had to finish my walk with a wet posterior. Time to go home.

Monday August 19th 2024

Today’s weather continued the trend of the last few days. The temperature climbed a degree or two, but the humidity in this area remained low. To the north of here humidity was a little higher. I got caught in a couple of heavy downpours while driving north of Orlando. These cloud burst style storms send conditions from sunny and dry to solid rain with very little visibility in seconds.

Getting back on my soapbox about kids getting to and from school that I started last week with a new wrinkle. Today I was stuck in the traffic in front of an elementary school at the end of the day. I waited while a long line of big yellow buses departed before I was able to follow the last bus. It only went about 100 yards from the school before it stopped in front of a housing development and discharged about five kids into the parents waiting hands. Granted there wasn’t a sidewalk along the road, but a bus for 100 yards. Is this a good use of tax dollars?

The occupancy in this RV park went up again today. The idea that Monday is a big arrival day continues to confuse me. There are a least six new residents on the way from the entrance to my site. On my daily walk I noticed a few more new rigs. I didn’t extend my walk into the lower half of the park today, but I suspect there are new residents in that area as well. It just seems to be an odd occupancy pattern. The majority of new arrivals seem to be Floridians.

Sunday August 18th 2024

Today’s weather was a repeat of Saturday. I don’t think you can ask for better Florida Summer days. It was a sunny day with below average temperature and humidity.

This evening I returned to Disney Springs determined to hang around for the first drone show of the night. The drone show is at 9PM. They start to let you into the prime viewing area at 8PM. It is a long hour long wait in ever increasing crowds.

I arrived at Disney’s shopping and entertainment district shortly after 7PM. I wandered through the various shops looking at all of the Disney Halloween merchandise. For the theme park giant, halloween begins in the middle of August. People seem to believe in that, but I just want to enjoy summer. In addition to wandering the shops I got a hot fudge sundae for desert.

Soon it was time to join the masses heading for the viewing area. I was in a different, slightly less ideal, viewing location for this show. I had a better view on my first visit in June. This will be my last visit. The show ends on September 2nd. It is fun pure drone show. The drones outline all kinds of characters from the Disney catalog. The don’t add fountains, projections or lasers to enhance the show.

Saturday August 17th 2024

Today’s weather was a repeat of yesterday with a few degrees more temperature, but the same low humidity. I didn’t have a very eventful day, so this blog entry will just be some of the pictures I took during my walk around the RV Resort.

Friday August 16th 2024

Today began a stretch of beautiful Florida summer days. The temperature peaked in the upper eighties with lower than normal humidity. There were a few clouds, but overall the sun dominated. This pattern is forecast to last through the weekend.

This was a chores and errands kind of day. While I was out this afternoon I was reminded that school is back in session. I passed by one school with a long line of cars waiting at the closed gate. Mom and or Dad was in line to pick up their students. Inside the school yard yellow buses waited for their load of kids to transport to Mom or Dad at the end of their subdivision road. Elsewhere this afternoon I got stuck behind other yellow buses slowly dropping off kids into the waiting arms of Mom and Dad at the end of the subdivision roads. This is the beginning of the school year so heavy parental involvement in getting the kids to and from school is understandable, but it was the same last spring at the end of the school year. I don’t really get it. More than half a century ago students had a lot more responsibility for getting to and from school on their own. Was it really safer then?

For the first time in more than a week I got a full walk around the RV resort. The trip through the lower part of the resort to Lake Davenport was interesting. A number of the RVs that departed in late spring have returned. They are in the process of settling back in. One set of residents were in the process of building a deck for their trailer. They had already assembled a plastic shed. The area still isn’t full, but I believe all of the sites are reserved for returning guests.

The landscape guys were here today to mow the lawn. They wont have to spend an overtime Saturday this week. The grass looks nicer after a good cutting. I don’t think the rabbits I usually see have the same opinion. There were no rabbits out this evening. The water level in the retention ponds continues to go down. Only the biggest pond seems to still attract the water birds.

Thursday August 15th 2024

Today’s weather ran according to plan. It was sunny in the morning followed by a period of rain from about 2:30 to 4. That freed up the late afternoon and evening for outdoor activity.

I set out for Disney Springs. My last visit was in June to see the night time drone show. The show ends on September 2nd so I want to see it one more time. It didn’t happen tonight. I got board with my own company while waiting and also had suspicion that the wind was too strong so I gave up on waiting. To see the show you have to line up at 8PM for the 9PM show. Waiting for the second show is even worse.

Disney Springs was busy, but not jam packed. All of the stages had entertainment on going. The Disney store had two things; lots of people and lots of Halloween merchandise. There were plenty of pumpkin colored decorations, ghosts, ghouls and other Halloween stuff in the shops. I didn’t see any Halloween decorations actually decorating the outside of shopping and entertainment district.

Wednesday August 14th 2024

It was another beautiful day with lots of heat and only a little bit of rain, but once again I let the threat of rain control my day. The forecast in the early part of the day called for an elevated chance of rain shortly after noon and greater chance of rain in the late evening around nine or ten.

With that forecast, my plan was to visit one of the Disney Parks in the late afternoon into the evening. The heat climbed into the mid nineties during the day. An evening visit would have a little bit cooler temperatures. The early rain never arrived. As I was preparing to drive to Disney the sky started to rumble and the rain arrived shortly after. The forecast now called for a chance of rain until about seven. Time to change plans until another day. Of course, the rain stopped shortly after that, but it was too late to start an evening visit.

Today was a chores day. In addition to the usual cleaning and decluttering I found another splatter from yesterday’s fake butter incident. This one was inside one of the heater vents. I had to get out the tools to take the cover off before cleaning up more Country Crock fake butter.

Concern for the weather shortened my daily walk around the RV resort. The water level in the retention ponds is going down and there are fewer water birds. Today I saw a few in the trees getting a broader view of the situation from the relative safety of the high position.

Tuesday August 13th 2024

Today was sunnier with a lower chance of rain than yesterday. The humidity was also down a little. Generally positive things that have one down side. All the bright sun warms the interior of my RV home faster than the air conditioning can keep up. It got warm inside this afternoon, before a few passing black clouds helped a little. Today’s high temperature was in the mid nineties. The feels like was above 105 degrees.

Everything was very relaxed and slow today. I found traffic on the roads to be light. My foggy brain seemed to think it was a Sunday morning until I did some analysis and determined it to be Tuesday. It really took a minute and I still wasn’t sure until I pulled out my phone.

It didn’t help that I was a klutz this morning. Trying to put the fake butter (Country Crock) back in the refrigerator I dropped it. The resulting explosion sent fake butter all over the floor, rug and cabinets. The TV even got a splash. The clean up was done in two phases. The first part was with paper towels to get all the globs picked up. The second phase required a run to Walmart for supplies. Armed with a new sponge and a couple of brands of cleaner I finished the job.

My analysis of the appropriate day of the week occurred while I was at Walmart. The store was empty compared to other visits. Navigating the aisles was easy and I didn’t have to wait at the checkout. The schools are open again. Maybe that is why shopping patterns have changed.

I finished the daylight portion of my day with a walk around the upper half of the RV resort. There hasn’t been any sustained heavy rain in about a week. The retention ponds are starting to returned to their grassy field disguise. The water birds that remain are starting to cluster together and some of them don’t seem to get along. Watching the posturing and occasional attacks is interesting.

Monday August 12th 2024

Today began with a bright blue sky. It gradually became cloudy then stormy. The daily thunderstorms occurred a little earlier today. Around two in the afternoon the sound of thunder in the distance started to warn of the approaching storms. About an hour later a brief storm passed through the area before the precipitation to let up. The temperature dropped a good ten degrees, but the humidity remained very high.

As the storms cleared I headed out to Disney’s EPCOT for supper. The parking lot was not as full as I’ve come to expect. The crowds along the walkways when I arrived were sparse, but seemed to increase as the evening approached. The dinning and entertainment in the evening tends to draw in crowds. My plan for the afternoon and evening was to wander the park for exercise and to get some food. I wasn’t there for the rides until after my first mission was complete. As it turned out the high humidity zapped me enough that I departed after one loop around the park and some food.

For dinner tonight I had a brisket sandwich at the Regal Eagle Smokehouse. It was good as usual, but the inside seating area was very full. Everyone was trying to get away from the humidity at the outside seating area. I found a seat at a small table between two big families in the middle of the dinning room. It was a little bit like being in a people sandwich, but at least I was in the air conditioning.

After my meal I completed my loop around the World Showcase. Disney has started to bring out the food booths and kiosks for the Food and Wine Festival that starts at the end of the month. It will be interesting to see how the park changes as they bring the mobile buildings out from the back stage area. This summer has been the first time in a long time with a big gap between festivals. Maybe they have taken the time to do maintenance on the buildings.

Sunday August 11th 2024

Today’s weather was a repeat of Saturday. It was very humid and seemed like it might rain at any minute. Other than a few passing mini showers, the real rain came after 4PM and seemed to be finished by about 8PM. The pre rain temperature was in the mid nineties. It got down into the seventies during the storms and was in the eighties after the storms.

Most evenings when I write a blog entry I reflect on how much I allow the weather or threat of weather to influence my day. Both days this weekend have been those kind of days. On Friday, I planned to go to Sea World Saturday morning. When Saturday morning came around a combination of sleeping in and the weather caused me to push the plans to Sunday morning. I did the same thing this morning. If it is something time sensitive or important, the weather wouldn’t be an issue.

It was a good day for inside chores. I didn’t get my walk around the park in today. The humidity early was a major deterrent and the rain was an issue later in the day. A very light rain was falling when I stepped outside to start my walk. I don’t need an outside shower. The shower in my RV has better conditions.