March 3, 2016 - Jacksonville, FL

Partly cloudy, but very pleasant.  Erwin was up at 6:45 am.  Tony, the handyman, started working right away at 7:30 am.. 

Tony finished what was left in the workshop, added board to the affected one.  Tiles were added near the entrance door.  All looked good.  He then worked on the garage side door, patched up on one side of the door jamb, but had to replace a small part of the other side.  

Erwin called Edith’s brother, James, to see if he was going to be home today. He mentioned that he was meeting friends for lunch at Deerwood Park, not too far from here.  Since he was going to be near we suggested that he stop by the house to pick up the stuff that we saved for him and his wife, Betty Lu.  

Barely half an hour later James came by. It was good to see him again.  We gave him a quick tour of what repairs were being done. We gave him some boxes for him to take home.  The stuff once belonged to Edith's momma and she did not have any place to keep them while traveling full-time.

James and Edith

Tony removed the 4 rotten boards above the guest bedrooms.  Only one end of each board was slightly rotten, not as bad as the inspector said. After removing the old boards Tony cut out a small piece and gave it to Erwin.  He needed it for a color sample so Home Depot can make a quart in that color.

Boards looked only discolored, not rotten or decayed!

Erwin asked Edith the other day if there was a particular restaurant she would like to eat at before we hit the road for the Rockies.  “I want try the Greek Street Cafe, the new one”, Edith signed back to Erwin. A couple weeks ago she read her friend’s post on Facebook about the restaurant and she gave raving reviews on the food she and her family ordered.  

Before heading to Greek Street Cafe we made a couple stops along the way. First stop was to check for white bowls at Goodwill off Beach Blvd, not too far from St. Johns Bluff.  We were hoping to find some bowls to replace the broken ones. The store did not have any.  We have to say that this one is the cleanest Goodwill store we have been to.

Next stop was to check out Woodcraft that was just open not too long ago.  It is relocated from the area near Regency Square, almost a defunct mall now and other stores were either closed or relocated and Woodcraft decided to go elsewhere. It is a great store for woodcrafters, like Erwin.  It carries a wide variety of wood boards, blocks, power equipment and many more.  It has a classroom and offers different classes on various topics.  

Erwin checking out the Pyrography tips for woodburning

Greek Street Cafe is in a new shopping area that we did not know about.  We had not been in the area for over two years.  Parking spaces were pretty tight however, we managed to find an empty spot.  

The restaurant is not too big, not too small, but … The decor was mostly about Greece.  Seat yourself and the waiter will come to the table to take your order with an IPad! Erwin wanted Angus Burger without the lettuce ($7.99) and Edith chose to have Gyro Pita ($7.99) and dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with meat/rice).  The red cabbage slaw came with the burger and Gyro Pita had a small bowl of pasta salad.  Erwin really liked liked his 1/4 lb burger, said “It is the best burger I ever had”.  The gyro had plenty of sliced meats.  The tzatziki sauce was very good.  

Edith wanted to activate her Wells Fargo debit card at a bank near the restaurant, but Erwin missed the entrance.  On way back home we swung by Wells Fargo ATM machine near Winn Dixie store and Edith’s debit card is now activated!

Kevin, the contractor, was here doing small projects while we were out for about two hours.  He replaced two out of three GFI receptacles, sealed the corners in the master shower area, put a cover on one electrical box in the attic that was exposed. Tony was done with the front boards, started painting the french door, the panels at the workshop.  

The boards are up, but need to be painted

Audrey and Harold, our dear friends, invited us to eat supper with them. When we got to their house we were surprised to see another car parked in the driveway.  “They have company”?, Edith asked Erwin.  We were very surprised to see another dear friend of ours, Diane who wanted to see us and to say good-bye before we begin our long journey tomorrow. 

Audrey prepared a main dish that is a favorite of ours.  How sweet of her!  It is shredded chicken mixed in with yellow rice.  Very delicious! Glazed carrots, creamed corn (cut from fresh corn) and green beans were served, as well.  Everything was cooked to perfection!  We enjoyed our time with Audrey, Harold and Diane. We spent hours chatting and sharing memories of our school days.  All of us except Erwin graduated from Florida Deaf School in the early 60’s. It was hard to say good-bye to friends you hold dear in your heart.  We just hope to see them again when we come back to Florida during the winter months.   Many many thanks, Audrey and Harold, for the wonderful supper and company.  Bless your heart!  Thank you Diane, for surprising us and for the desserts!

                                         Erwin, Diane, Edith, Audrey and Harold

Well, it is our last night staying at our house. We checked the house once more to be sure all is okay and we did not leave anything behind.  All looked good.