The Life and Times of Captain D and his Pretty First Mate

The First Mate and I have been watching and waiting to see if our small, double-grafted citrus tree will have fruit this year.  A couple of weeks ago, the First Mate spied some growing buds on the Myers Lemon portion of the tree. The Key West Lime side is taking its sweet time, but buds are slowly coming along as well, though much smaller and completely white for now. Over this past weekend, the lemon buds started opening up and, if they all set, we'll have to find some way to feed and support the little tree. I had to check and make sure blooms self-pollinate, both types do, but I may also help them a little just to make certain so we can make a few pies this upcoming late summer and fall.  

The little gym at the fitness center is tight, but has nice equipment.  They also have a "yoga" room, but their primary focus is outside on the tennis and pickle balls courts, along with a large community pool for aqua aerobics.  Nowadays I get my forehead temperature check when entering with a mask on, but can remove the mask when working out.  We also have sanitizer to clean the equipment after use, which truly needs to be a thing after the pandemic. I'm solo for about half the time I work out, so I pedal to the center on my trusty cruiser, all 1 mile of it. There's ample parking for my cruiser, on the rare occasion there is maybe half a dozen bikes if there is a tennis or pickleball event going on.  Most folks arrive on golf carts, followed by cars or on foot. It's a short walk to the center from the parking lot. The courts take up most of the property off to the east (right). For right now, I'll do a fast walk for a couple of miles and then cool down.  I&#

Our LG dishwasher, a nice stainless model that is whisper quiet, decided to just not work when I had it all loaded up the other day. It has capacitive touch buttons on the control panel, and the entire assembly was dead. Did the usual and checked the breaker, pulled the schematic, and saw there was a power filter. There were multiple instructions on where "things" were located, so I pulled the dishwasher, disconnected the water and drain lines, flipped it on its side, and connected the power to check the three electronic boards.   The power filter was on the lower back of the dishwasher.  All checked out good with this board.  I truly did not need to flip the dishwasher, just pull it enough to get to the back. Next up was the actual "brains", and it checked out as powered up.  It's encapsulated in a gel, so no testing of any power output components without removing the gel. No chance of testing the dishwater interface, low voltage signaling, and encapsulated lik

 I've eaten lots of conch fritters since my days cooking at Florida Festival, just have never made any until these last few weeks. Easy prep work, just a few minutes with the knife. The main ingredients All diced and minced up Toss everything in the mixer, season, add an egg, milk, and flour Chill for a couple of hours, then scoop and fry to a golden brown  I cheat a bit with the internal thermometer, 185F and they are ready Pull them and let cool All ready to serve

  My new trusty cruiser bike, just add your own horsepower. Nothing like my twenty-something speed mountain bike I had in Nevada, but everything is flat around this part of the country.  10 mph is about what it will comfortably do, more in a pinch. With the help of my iPhone, it can give me just about any information I'd like about my travels, even linear heat maps. The travel shown in green is going with the wind, a stiff breeze from the south, which caused more slowing heading back into the teeth of the wind (yellow). The touch of orange is me wiggling through the gate arms at the side entrance to the community, which allows just enough room to squeeze through on a bike.

With the upcoming repairs and renovation, "G" Dock is all but vacant, with just a few transients tied up and soon to be gone.  Many of the boats slid back to "H" Dock, to the west/left as space permitted, with our SV-Time and Tide among them. It's a mixed bag on H from the looks of it. Much more active with many of the boats sporting old, retired guys "fixing" things and such. One such sailor had all his chain out and was marking it with a "better" color scheme. Personally, the older scheme seemed to be just fine to me, but everyone is the Captain of their own boat. The winds were a bit gusty, but this captain managed to "twirl" the boat between the docks and glide her into her new slip. The First Mate took over the helm as I left the cockpit to secure a few initial lines. Easy-peasy. I have got a few items to check off my preparations list, then the First Mate and I will cruise a bit on Charlotte Harbor, and anchor out as the winte