My Dirt Road

My road has been torn up since January 27, 2010. They put in new sewage pipes, new water pipes and drainage. We are supposed to be getting curbs and finally a new paved road. Well it rained really bad for over a week and what a mess! Then it dried up and the road was good to drive on, but they didn't work on it. They haven't worked on my road in almost a week. And now the rains are back. Last time it rained and the road got all tore up, the garbage men wouldn't even try to pick up the garbage. I had to get up and drive Liz to work one morning because her car wouldn't make it down the road. Well we are at that point again today. And I'm at my braking point so I will be calling the paving company to find out what's going on. In the meantime here are some "lovely" photos of my wonderful road.

This is right in front of the house. You can't even tell where the yard ends and the road starts, it's such a mess.

The kids down the road love playing in the mud. They are the only ones.

A couple of shots of the road as you leave my yard to drive down to the highway. Keep in mind we live on a dead end street so there is only one way in and one way out.

A shot of the overflowing garbage. It has since been picked up but I'm afraid with the rain and the road being tore up again, we have this to look forward to again.

The poor lady down the street. Her house is only 3 up from the paved road. She couldn't even get into her driveway, the front end of her car sunk into the mud. Even the tow truck driver wouldn't try to pull her out.

However a local redneck in a 4 wheel drive pick up was able to get her out and into her yard. I really hope I don't have to go through this much longer.

More of Mother Nature at Work

I just love this HUGE flag that is hanging in our building. I took this picture from the 2nd floor balcony.
Here was a guy I really didn't want to run into last Sunday when I was working. I was in the vehicle, he was sunning himself and he could have cared less that I was taking a picture of him.

This picture gives you a little idea about how long he was. These are called Black Racers and we have them all over the property. They are not venomous and they eat rodents and bugs. So they are pretty good to keep around. And they are QUICK!
As I was driving around I spotted something in the tree line by the pond. No it wasn't Big Foot.

Oh no here it comes.

Look it's just a raccoon.

Good morning Security Officer!

He came right up to the car. He must have known I had some Dunkin's Munchkins.

And yes I gave him(or her) some. Here he is with one in his mouth.

Another one in his paws. He was a hungry little bugger. I had 25 munchkins and he probably ate 12.

Posing for a side view.

And my last view before he got his belly full and wandered off.

I was so thrilled to see a raccoon and be able to get some photos. This made it worthwhile to work on Father's Day.

Father's Day...Finally

We celebrated Father's Day the Thursday before. Liz and I both had to work on Father's Day and Wade, Diana and the girls had a chance to go to Disney with some friends that day. So Hut and Scott spent Father's Day together, which was nice for them. But on Thursday we told Hut that was going to be his Father's Day and we were just going to take him out to eat. He picked Longhorn's to eat at. What he didn't know was that Scott told me about a tool set that he wanted. So all the kids chipped in and we bought it for him. Liz made him a Father's Day card and everyone signed it.

Hut's reading the paper but spies someone coming around the corner with something.

Here is Hut reading his homemade card which he really loved better than a store bought one.

Santa Claus is coming to Town wrapping paper. What better wrapping for you know who (wink).

Here's the proud Daddy with is 117 piece tool set. The kids really made his day. We all love you!

I hate my computer

I don't really hate it, but it just aggravates me. I spent 1/2 an hour this morning waiting for it to quit freezing up and stuff. Our friend hasn't had a chance to look at it. If I can just get photos uploaded, I can do posts from work. I have the photos uploaded to the computer I just haven't been able to upload them to the blogger system. So bear with me, friends, and I'll have some more posts coming your way soon. I hope.

Mother Nature at Work

Just a little play on words there. I took some pictures of Mother Nature while I was at work. I am so lucky to be able to work in a beautiful location. And I'm lucky enough that I can carry a camera with me and take photos whenever the opportunity arises.

Even inside the building. This flag hangs in our Atrium in the middle of the building. It hangs from the balcony on the 3rd floor to just past the balcony on the second floor. This flag is HUGE. They don't hang it all year round but they do put it on for special holidays, like Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, 4th of July.

We see lots of these guys around, Sandhill Cranes. This one walked right up to the car. Unfortunately they really have no fear of humans anymore.

Here is a Momma and a Daddy Sandhill Crane.

And their two babies. Notice the babies don't have the red markings on their face yet. Sandhill Cranes mate for life. If something happens to one of them, the other goes on in life alone.

Here is a very dangerous Florida Squirrel. Just kidding. They are not dangerous. And they are everywhere.

This is an Ibis. It's the mascot for the college football Florida Hurricanes.

A painted turtle that I saw crossing the road. It was so hot I picked him up and put him in the grass in the shade. He tucked himself all in and wouldn't let me get a good picture of him. A few minutes later he was gone. He was heading towards the pond we have on property.

We have Magnolia trees all over the property. Here is one of the blooms in the tree.

Pansies that border the parking areas.

Cracker Roses that are planted on one side of the building.

I'm not sure what type of flowers these are. Or the next two pictures either. I just know that they have some beautiful flowers on the property.

These border one of the three employee parking areas.

These are down by the pond. I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but these are purple flowers with some white flowers mixed in.

This is a Bird of Paradise. I just found out these are considered to be trees. Not sure why, lol. These are planted by the Cracker Roses and the other pink flowers.

A close up of the Bird of Paradise. See the snail. I thought this was pretty cool, so I tried to get a clear close up. Like I said before....I am very fortunate that I get to not only work, but work in such a beautiful place for a company that truly believes in keeping things as natural as possible. Alot of the land that this company owns is undeveloped. They also have working orange and grapefruit groves around the building. By working I mean that they take care of the groves, and the grove produce fruit. They then have someone come in and pick the fruit, which they then sell and they donate all the money to their charities. It really doesn't get much better than that.

Old Town

A couple of Saturdays ago we went to Old Town. Old Town is a "shopping center'' based on the old " cobblestone Main Street" days. On Saturday nights they have a classic car show and cruise. The Saturday night we chose to go just happened to be the 20th anniversary. It was so busy and it was VERY HOT!!!!!. Scott went with us ( Liz had to work) and Wade, Diana and the girls met up with us. Scott's friends Matt and Nicole also met up with us. It's kind of a central meeting place between St. Cloud and Winter Haven. Here is Daddy trying to make Rossi giggle.
She's thinking about it.
Rossi trying to figure out what Grampy is, lol.
Nana got Rossi to giggle.
Nana and Rossi playing some more.
Rossi is such a happy baby.

Layla didn't even know Nana took this picture. You can tell how miserable hot it is just by looking at her face.
My handsome hunk of a husband.
His goofy side. He was imitating some of the kids who think they are so "gansta".

A face only a mother could love ( yeah right). Uncle Gotty being goofy, too. Must have been the heat.
One of the shops had some cardboard things that you could use for photo ops. Here's Layla escaping with Stitch.

Rossi trying to escape to. Had to be the heat.

Layla on Mission Space. I love how she made a face to match the other two faces.
Here are some photos of some cars that were there. I'm not sure how many were there that night but the cruise took 2 1/2 hours for all the cars to cruise. It's usually only 45 minutes to an hour.

This car probably at one time ran moonshine. How exciting. And moonshine cars are actually how NASCAR started.
I'm not real educated in cars, but this one was cool in that some of the engine components were painted to match the exterior of the car. I tried to get a picture to show that.

This picture doesn't do this truck justice. This truck had the longest front end I have ever seen in my life. If I had an extra $64,000 laying around I would have bought it. Yes, I said $64,000, with 3 zeros. It is a beautiful truck.
I took pictures of this vehicle because my husband and his friend Daryll made up an imaginary band a few years back and called it the Possum Band. No one played...they just talked a good story, lol. When I saw this I just had to take a picture for the "band". I wish I had taken more photos but I would have filled a months worth of blogs with all the vehicles that were there.