Florida riding, soot in the basement, various stuff
The Lake Okeechobee ride sounds mostly beautiful. My spouse is now in West Palm Beach for the work week, taking 20-mile rides on his folding bike every morning before work. Not sure either of us would be able to manage daytime Florida riding, at least in the summer.
SO....we are back in the house, living in the basement for the duration of the remodel. While we spent those two weeks in the Paine Field Hilton watching airplanes, they had to replace the old furnace chimney because the clay liner had totally crumbled. They cleaned up mounds of soot, but there is still a fine layer of soot dust over all our belongings in the basement. You know--the place where we now have to live for the next few months. Probably the soot soaked up any remaining moisture from that flood, though, don't you think?
When they started banging on the floor, bits of the hideous acoustic tile ceiling in the basement started falling down, sifting in my tea. So that has to come out too (boy, so sad. I hated that ceiling). But not till everything else is done, so that means in approximately a million years, I think.
But the exterior walls are up and dried-in, the new roof is on, and the inside rooms are framed so you can start to see what it'll really look like when it's done. The new windows are all in. And the four skylights.
Brief Mom report for those of you who were following: She went from the hospital to skilled nursing facility for rehab in mid-September, but has been back in the hospital twice in the last week as they try to balance her fluids (not enough Lasix---some CHF; too much Lasix--early kidney failure). She's gamely sticking with it but not getting much better so far. We are still hoping she can, though. Still has her sense of humor, but you can tell it's hard work.
I am going to get gold/copper-colored streaks put in my hair tomorrow morning and will do a 40+ mile ride after that! Gotta take your fun where you can find it, you know...