How to fill time in retirement

As the tenth month of the year is completed, I should be at 43 new restaurants for the year, with only nine left. But in reality, I have 15 left for the year with only 9 weeks remaining. This week, I caught up a little by visiting two new places (from 17 to 15). One was local to Melbourne and one was all the way at the south end of Brevard County in the small town of Micco. My first stop on Wednesday was at a place called Joey Palermo's Pizzeria & Sports Pub located on US 1 north of Melbourne. It used to be the site of a Florida DMV.  It was kind of weird having a beer in the same building I use to have to take a test to get my driver's license. Front entrance to Palermo's Pizzeria in Melbourne Florida The lunch crowd was just finishing up and the bartender/waitress was very friendly and said I could sit anywhere. I choose to sit at the bar. The menu was full of Italian choices but I was really in the mood for some pizza. Menu cover at Palermo's Pizzeria ...

I had made plans to have lunch with my good friend Jim Middlebrooks.  He had called me to go to lunch a few months ago, but I was in Vermont and said it would have to wait.  After a few more months of playing phone tag, we finally set a lunch date for today, October 27. But last night, on my way to Oviedo with my cousin Patti, Jim had called. I did not answer at the time because the traffice was very heavy on 417, so I hoped he would leave a message. He did, and he was canceling lunch because he would not be able to make our noon date. I continued with my good time at the Rock & Brews in Oviedo with my niece, her family and some friends. I have included a picture of a part of the group... Family Get-together at Rock & Brews in Oviedo Florida We had a great time in Oviedo and I had a few Jai Alai IPAs and Patti had a mango mojito.  We ordered a variety of appetizers and it was just a lot of fun. I knew I did not have to meet up with Jim so Thursday would be ...

Having survived my excursion to the Deep South down in Sebastian, Micco, Grant and Malabar, I decided when I got home that I needed to get out and smell the roses. Currently, I do not have roses but I do have a wonderful orchid which has been blooming for years...too bad it does not smell like much but it is very pretty. BJ's Orchid blooming on my front porch I decided I would take a walk with my camera in hand to the local watering hole call Squid Lips.  I knew on Sunday afternoon there would be a live band. It is about 1.5 miles to get there but I was do for a good walk. Before I could even get off my street, I saw what I first thought was just a big leave. On closer inspection, I saw that it was a giant moth just sitting in my neighbor's yard. Giant moth in neighbor's yard Further down the street a neighbor had removed a large tree and left the stump. Someone carved in three bear cubs. Another tree stump across their driveway has the mommy bear. Bear cubs c...

The problem with retirement is not finding time to do things, it is finding the time to do all the things you want to do.  What I am learning after two years of being retired is that a lot of the things I like to do seem to happen at the same time.  In other words, I still do not have enough time to do all the things I want to do, even though I have all my time available. Does that make sense? You still have to be in sync with other people's schedules and that is hard. So, I am learning to keep busy with the things I like. If you cannot go with me, I am sorry...Well, that was a waste of a paragraph. Here is how I have been keeping busy... I renewed my Orlando Magic season tickets.  It is the 20th year I have been getting the tickets so I have earned a few perks. My nephew Brandon likes to go to games with me, but I am willing to take anyone who would like to go. We went to the pre-season game against the Atlanta Hawks last week.  Dwight Howard, who use to be a st...