30 July 2024
Pay day! The Florida Retirement System deposited my check a day early and with a $122.46 increase (our 3% annual increase mandated by state law which, after taxes is really 2.5%). Let’s face it, Florida doesn’t pay teachers well. Our community college in Broward was paid less than K-12 teachers in the same county. The one thing Florida had going for it was the state retirement system and it’s nice to get an inflation raise every year.
I was a little lazy getting out of bed this morning – around 7 am. My morning walk was a shorter route than normal which I do occasionally to see what’s going on down a street I usually miss. In this case, I walked 1.16 miles. Along the way, I saw a very pretty shrub I used to have in my yard but eventually died out.
You might be able to tell from the specific epithet that it is native to the Philippines. A red variety is known as Bangkok Rose. It’s a member of the coffee family (Rubiaceae). What’s unusual about this flower is the very large, showy sepals. Normally, you think petals are the showy part of a flower or bracts, not the sepals.
Last night’s dinner with Joel, Keith and Barbara was fun. We shared a huge chopped salad and ordered 20 wings (10 original with caramelized onions and 10 garlic Romano). We decided not to order a pizza after stuffing ourselves with salad and wings. It was a very cost effective meal at $12 per person before tip. It was good to catch up with everyone and Barb and I had to regale Joel and Keith with tales from our trips.
I managed my yoga stretches this morning. It took a great deal of thinking to remember the order I usually do and I could tell that it had been a while since I last did yoga. There was some real muscle burn. I count that as a good thing.
In for a penny…. I decided to try my hand at swimming laps. I managed to get through three sets of warmups when I realized I was getting some pretty sharp pains in my right thumb. Looks like I might be at another watershed moment and have to start doing water aerobics instead of laps. Both thumbs have arthritis and it’s strange the right one is the one giving me pain and not any pain in the left.
I could do without some of these watersheds. If I’m not careful, I’m gonna watershed out of existence.
Stay tuned!