Dorothy's Florida Adventure: Settling In and the Holidays

Once we had settled in, David and I decided to explore one of the state parks for which we had seen several signs. John D. Mac Arthur Beach State Park is 317 acres of coastal uplands and another 120 of submerged. It is a unique area of estuaries, hardwood hammocks, beach dunes, and reefs. The visitor’s center had a resident a large turtle along with some other reptiles found in the park.  After crossing the estuary along a long wooden bridge, we took a sandy trail to the beach.  It was a beautiful warm day, but with very few people actually in the water.  At a time when South Florida’s natural coastal areas are almost nonexistent, the park is one of the finest examples of subtropical coastal habitat remaining in southeast Florida.  If you ignored the high-rise buildings to the south, you would think you were in the middle of a wilderness.

After spending several weeks arranging the apartment, it was time I did some job searching as the holidays were coming quickly.  We had arrived at the high season so finding a position at the local Hallmark store was no problem.  After being my own boss with my own style of dress, I had to go shopping for the required black slacks and white polo top.  In addition, my closed toed (required) black shoes decided to wear out as soon as I put them on. (To those who remember, I wear a very narrow shoe, so finding a pair to fit is almost impossible.)  A desperate e-mail to Margaret and a package containing two pairs of shoes arrived the next week.

          I became one of the official greeters at the Hallmark store.  It was my job to greet everyone and to direct him or her to the proper section of the store.   Captain Peacock in "Are You Being Served" had nothing on me.  I enjoyed meeting all the customers, saying hello to the children, and exclaiming over the dogs that came shopping as well.  Soon after that, I was offered a position at the local Barnes & Noble working almost full-time.  There was no uniform needed, but close-toed shoes were also required.  This was the holiday season, so every day was a busy one.  I met customers from all over the world, as well as from all over the United States and Canada.  When I mentioned I had a store called "Horton's," most of my Canadian customers offered to send a sample of Tim Horton's coffee to me.  It was great fun, but very tiring.  My hours often meant I would leave the apartment at 3:00 p.m. and not return until after 11:00 on weekdays and midnight on Friday or Saturday.  Right up until Christmas, I worked one of my off days at the Hallmark store, as they were still busy with the holiday shoppers.

Alice in her favorite bowl

Christmas tree in bowl and presents all around the coffee table

            As we did not have space for a big Christmas tree, I opted for a very small already decorated one from Michael's.  There was a large bowl (one of Alice’s favorite resting places) in the center of the glass coffee table, so it became the official spot for the tree.  To give it some depth, I put a decorated wreath around the bottom of the tree covering the bowl.  As for the presents, the space under the table became the spot.   It actually looked pretty good.

            I had also brought down several unpainted plaster "Santa's Village" buildings.  Setting up on the small dinning table, I painted buildings and matching trees for several weeks.  As there was a small buffet with a mirrored display case, I placed the houses on fake snow on the bottom shelf of the unit.  Christmas stockings and pillows completed our decoration for the season.

On one of my weekend days off, David and I traveled to Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park.  Inhabited since the Archaic Period over 5,000 years ago, the park had been the scene of two battles:  Powell’s Battle on January 15, 1838 and Jesup’s Battle on January 24, 1838 during the Second Seminole Wars.  Trails led us by wild and scenic rivers as well as through scrub and palms.

Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park

Since my work schedule would not allow us to travel back to Carrollton, Margaret and Kenneth made the journey down here.  It was a little crowded, but we survived.  Kenneth slept on an inflatable mattress in the living area while Margaret took over the guest bedroom.  For several days, I had been at work at 8:00 a.m., so I left everyone sleeping.  The kids and David took several day trips while I worked.  They had a great time exploring the Jupiter Lighthouse and the state parks in the area.  Together we visited the Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden in Delray Beach.  After the park, we found a “Friendly’s for lunch and a “Happy Ending” dessert.  The ice cream was just as delicious as we remembered from Maryland.

   On January 30th when I arrived to work for my 8:00 a.m. shift I slipped on the wet floor in the staff room and fell on my knees.  My left knee just hurt at first, but within an hour, I could not stand on my left leg at all.  Luckily David and the kids had not set out on any adventures, so he was able to take me from work to the Emergency Room at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.  The bad news was that my kneecap was broken; the good news was that Workman's Compensation would take care of the expenses.  With my leg wrapped in a knee immobilizer and walking with a pair of juvenile sized crutches, I crawled into the back seat of David's car on the way to the pharmacy and home.   Needless to say, I would not be returning to work anytime soon.

Dorothy’s Florida Adventure: The Big Move-In

We drove down to Palm Beach Gardens in my little red car.  It was great fun, except for the cat, Alice, who complained all the time she was in her carrier.  In prior trips with felines, I had found classical music would have a calming effect, but not this time.  She made it very clear she was not happy with the situation and was going to make certain that we knew it.  In the hotel room in Ocala where we stopped for the night on the way down, she was fine. She stayed in the room and was quiet during the night.  The next night at the Doubletree in Palm Beach Gardens we had a room on the ground level corridor room all to ourselves.  Alice had a great time looking at the wildlife through the sliding doors.  Once we had moved into the apartment, she was in heaven.  There were large patio doors and multiple windows from which to view all the wildlife -- ibis, wood cranes, osprey, and lizards (lots of them).  And, of course, there were golfers and golf carts out on the course every day.
          

Alice settled in at 526 Club DR

 The truck with our “stuff” arrived on Saturday morning and was quickly unloaded. There were boxes filled up the whole living area.  We unpacked out clothes and washed the bed and bath linens from the master bedroom.  When we made up the bed, we discovered that the king bed was actually two twins beds placed together with one headboard.  In addition, the beds were shorter than regular single beds so the fitted king sheet was loose around the edges.  Most of that day and the following were devoted to cleaning the drawers and unpacking our clothes.

 David left for work that Monday with a few boxes still left to be unpacked.  There was packing newsprint paper everywhere.  The kitchen was fully furnished with lots of pots and pans, but no microwave safe cookware.  There was a coffee maker and a toaster, but it did not last long as the first time we put bread in it, it caught on fire!  (I thought that only happened in movies, but I was wrong.)  As we were avid coffee drinkers, we had brought our own mugs and a set of dishes and glasses to supplement what was in the kitchen.   Unlike my own kitchen, the cabinets were set up high – so high I had to have a step stool just to shelve the clean dishes.   As there was no real space to store the bath towels, I took the top two shelves from the food pantry.

This was a two bedroom apartment, but there were five (5) televisions in the place -- one in the living area, one in each bedroom, and two in two different closets; and three (3) vacuums cleaners.  There were bedspreads, extra rugs, pillows and other household items in the closets. With the help and understanding of our landlord, I was able to clean out the storage closet and box up all the items we would not need from the other closets.  We had tried to use the large TV in the living area, but found it would not work with our DVD player or Apple TV.   It joined the five TVs that found a home in either the dumpster or a charity.  Ditto for two of the three vacuum cleaners.  We upgraded our television experience by adding a new flat-screen HD TV and a Blu-Ray/DVD player to the existing cable box.

Lucky for us, one of the TV units in the second bedroom had had a rotating pullout TV stand that would be perfect for our computer.  With a little creative wiring, we were able to attach two printers and have the extra wires out of the way. 

Because the telephone cord from the modem to the base unit ran from the kitchen along the sidewall to the far east corner behind the sofa, I had to do a little creative moving to relocate the modem and our router under the bedside table in the master bedroom.  Connecting the telephone unit there activated the base unit, so the base unit no longer needed the long wire.  There were enough cables around the apartment to attach the TV and use the wireless router for the computer and Blu-Ray player.  Now the modem in the bedroom was out of sight, but still provided a soft glowing nightlight for the bedroom.

Alice was settled in the second bathroom. She spends her evenings there sleeping in the cupboard under the hand basin. (We have to open the doors for her, or she will keep us up all night trying to open them). I purchased her one of those x-shaped scratching resting places as well as one shaped like a bowl -- they soon became her favorites.  The white L-shaped sofa unit was covered with the beige sheet covers I had made for the sofas in Maryland.  They could be easily washed and would not show Alice’s yellow fur.  Actually, the tiger stripped pillows already there looked better with the beige. A couple of tables and lamps moved and we had a comfortable and smart looking living and dinning area.  The second bedroom became the computer room, office, and craft supply room.

Our apartment was small, but it was becoming a little more like home.

Dorothy's Florida Adventure: And the winner of the apartment hunt is . . .?

After a lot of discussion and thought, we decided to take on Palm Beach Gardens as an adventure.  But we first had to find a furnished apartment within our price range that would take pets.  Before our “house-hunting” trip, we had visited the local furniture rental store to check on costs and terms for renting.  After looking at that option, we decided it would be better to just look for a furnished apartment.  There would be fewer items to take and the total costs would probably be lower.

We traveled to Palm Beach Gardens by car for our apartment-hunting trip.  Prior to the trip, we had become very discouraged because our relator’s preliminary review of available apartments that took pets had not been very productive.  After talking with her, she tried another type of search and found several possible units for our review.  The first stop for us was the Club Cottages in PGA.  These “cottages” were all one level in conjoined buildings of four to eight units set back so that each entrance was separate circled around a center area for dumpsters and mailboxes.  The first apartment was a challenge because the key safe would not open until a lot of patience and determination opened it.  From the moment we walked in, I knew this was the apartment for us.  It had tile floors with two sliding glass windows overlooking a golf course, two full baths, and two bedrooms.  A compact washer/dryer and new appliances made the kitchen welcoming.  Even after looking at other apartments in PGA, we kept comparing them to the first apartment. A quick telephone call to the relator handing the rental and our offer for a year’s rental for 526 Club DR was accepted.   Once that was done, I asked if we could have a final look to take photographs of the rooms and kitchen utensils so we would know what was already there.  I would have to pack some plates and kitchen things, but all the linens were already in the apartment.  There were also three vacuum cleaners, two TVs in closets, and a TV in each room, but we would deal with all that later.   Our move-in was scheduled for October 21^st.

Living Room

View of Patio

Front door of 526 Club DR

When there was some free time, we set out to visit the Norton Museum of Art.  It seemed strange that the entire parking lot was deserted.  An employee explained that the museum was closed because of renovations.  So that we would return, he gave us two passes for the museum.  These were safely stored in the glove box in the car.

During the whole time staying at the Doubletree in Palm Beach Gardens, I had a headache and the AC did not seem to work correctly.  It was either too hot or too cold – resulting in very little sleep for either of us. When I complained, no one seemed to respond. One morning at breakfast when I told the waiter I didn’t feel good, he brought me a wonderfully hot pot of soothing tea and two pieces of toast.  I also had trouble trying to print items from the computers in the business center, so eventually one of the desk staff let me us her own computer to print pages.

(When the online survey came from the Hilton group, I told them about the wonderful waiter in the restaurant, but I also told them of the AC problems and the other things that were just not right.  Within a day, an e-mail arrived to apologize and offer a free stay in the future.  That had been unexpected, so we planned to use it when we came down prior to our move-in.)

The company offered to move one automobile down for us, so we decided that the Prius would be it.   About a week before the movers were to come pack up our “stuff,” a gentlemen came with a tow truck to pick up the car.  He could not actually load it from our driveway, so he took the tow truck to Center Street and then drove the Prius up the ramp.  After it was secured, we waved as he drove off with our little blue car.

Our moving company was not one that either of us knew.  They were supposed to be the best, so we gathered our items into boxes in the hall and kitchen.  We also noted that the computer, printers, and the modem were to be packed as well.  The only real furniture we took was a filing cabinet and my sewing table.  As we not certain just how cold it was going to be, we took very few winter garments.   It took them only a few hours to pack everything in boxes and secure everything in the front of the moving van.  As our “things” had completely filled a moving van on our move to Georgia, seeing our belongings in just one small section of the big van was a little disheartening.  We were taking the minimum, leaving a large part of ourselves at home in Carrollton.   They were scheduled to deliver our boxes the day we were to take possession of the apartment.  After waving goodbye to the van, we started getting ourselves ready for our move.   The “adventure” had begun.