A beautiful day dawns over Paradise Coast as the kids clamor to go out for their morning constitutional. Rolling over to look at the clock – it’s 7:00 am, and suddenly a warm, wet, fuzzy face is peering at me as if to say, “Wakey, Wakey!” No, it wasn’t my good buddy Don, it was Wicket... and Punky was getting Tina awake, heh, heh (inside joke).
Needless to say
we promptly leaped out of bed and staggered to the bathroom, quickly followed by
the kids looking for their leashes or breakfast, either one. After our eyes
were finally open and pills swallowed, teeth brushed, etc., I pulled on my
shorts and tank top, leashed up the dogs and led them out for a quick run.
After they had
their constitutional and everyone ate breakfast, Tina and I headed for the car
to start our day. Our first stop was the Comcast office – our third time in
four days. Let me back up a bit. When we moved in we had very basic cable (17
channels) but our HOA pays for the next level up which gives you 99 channels. Since
we wanted HD as well (only $13/mo), we called Comcast and they said to stop by
their office and they’d give us a couple of boxes we could install ourselves.
So we drove out
to their office the next afternoon (trip 1) and the place was packed, so we
decided to come back the following morning when they opened. We did that,
getting there five minutes before they opened (trip 2) we found a line 20
people long. Our turn came though and we got to the counter to find that the “cable
boxes’ we needed weren’t available but they could have an installer come out on
Friday to get everything set up.
 |
| The Comcast Cable Box is just below the TV |
Yesterday a
Comcast installer came out in the afternoon and after setting up the cable boxes
and connecting everything, tried testing the system and couldn’t get it to
work. He claimed there was an equipment problem at the sending end, told us he
would get us a welcome package from his truck, went out the door and we never saw him
again. Tina spent several hours on the phone with Comcast support trying to get
the cable box to work – they concluded we had a faulty “Remote Control” and
suggested coming in for a new one.
Thus today’s
trip. Fortunately we had a whole day of activities planned so this was just our
first stop. This time we arrived 15 minutes early and the line was about 30
people long. Finally they opened the door and told us to go directly to the
counter to get a replacement remote. Yippeee! A break. We got the remote and
headed for our next stop, JC Penney. But this is another story, heh, heh.
We have been
getting a lot of small things done since we got here. Putting up mirrors,
cabinets in the bathrooms, assembling furniture for the guest bedroom, etc. One
item was drapes for the living room and dining room. We found what we wanted at
JC Penney’s in Naples and bought drapes and
rods for both rooms. Bringing our purchases home we plugged holes and painted our
repair work.
 |
| The missing panel in our drapes covering the sliding glass doors which lead out to the lanai |
After the paint
dried Tina measured and I installed the rods. Once that was done, Tina started
hanging the drapes. We had five panels 84” long and one panel 94” long. Calling
the sales lady at Penny’s we found out they were all out but she’d call around
and see what she could find and call us back. Well she found a set of drapes
but they were at the Estero Store, 30 miles away. We agreed to go pick them up
since we were going to Ft Myers Beach.
Stop two. We
got to Penney’s and found the drapery department right away. Explaining the
situation the clerk went and found the replacement panel with our name on it.
Ooooops! It was the wrong style and color. Dang! Finally a sales manager came
to our rescue and after searching through their entire stock found what we
needed on hold for somebody else. Since we were there she gave us the one we
needed and also gave us a discount on our original order – finally something is
going right for a change – heheheh!
 |
| Heading for the beach at the Gull Wing Beach Resort |
Leaving Estero
we got back on I-75 south and drove ten miles back to the Bonita Springs exit.
Getting off the freeway we drove through the sprawling city of Bonita Springs
and out to Lovers Key State Park. There was a large grassy field across the
road from the park and the local boy scout troop was directing cars to parking.
Once we got parked we walked back to the entrance and boarded a large tour bus for
the ten minute ride to Ft Myers Beach and the Gull Wing Beach Resort where the
festival was being held (http://sandsculptingfestival.com/).
 |
| All the vendor booths |
Getting off the
bus at the entrance to the resort we walked past a line of food vendors and out
onto the beach. What a beautiful setting! A bright blue sky, white sand, vendor
tents and the Sand Sculpting area roped off with an entrance and exit. We bout
our five dollar tickets, got out wrist bands and went into the artist area.
 |
| Cinderellas Castle under construction by the"Amazin" Walter McDonald |
 |
| What amazing talent! |
I’m only putting a couple of photos here on the blog, the
rest will be on our photo album page (http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski).
 |
| Pretty impressive! |
We wandered
around for an hour watching the artists work, then went out to the vendor area
to walk around and admire all the crafts available. Tina found a small silver
dragonfly so she scored – heh, heh! By now it’s after noon so we headed out
towards the bus, stopping to get a couple of huge polish dogs for lunch
followed by a small ice cream cone. It was a quick trip back to the car and
then we were headed back towards Naples.
Stop three of
the day was actually a whole series of stops at furniture stores, thrift stores
and consignment stores looking for a chest of drawers for Tina. It has to fit a
spot exactly so we need to find something that had specific dimensions – only 36”
wide and 42” tall – exactly. Not easy to do. By 3 o’clock we located one
dresser and only one at our eighth and last stop. It would work, it looked nice
but it was not very high quality, so we left it and decided to head home.
Arriving back
at the condo we took the kids out for a long awaited walk then Tina got started
on trying to get the remote to work. Remember the remote? The one Comcast said
needed replacing? Well, it didn’t work. So Tina went back on the phone to
Comcast Support. After nearly an hour of waiting on hold and then working with
the tech, Comcast said they’d remotely reset the cable box and within an hour
everything should be working. Right…
After dinner, after
checking to see if the box had been reset, Tina called Comcast again. Another
frustrating hour and the support people finally through in the towel and agreed
to send out a tech person, on Monday, sometime between 7 and 10 am. We’ll see.
This saga is to be continued.
On a lighter
note, we are almost finished with getting everything set up in the condo, we’ve
started our workout routines in the gym and on alternating mornings we are
going for bike rides to get back in shape. We expect to be comfortable riding
to the beach within a couple of weeks. In the mean time we’re enjoying the nice
(warm) weather and planning lots of things to do.
Signing off for
now.
