St Pete 23

Oct 5, 2012
We hung out at the lovely pool.  I even took a little nappypoo.  I'm sleeping better at night, though not the entire night.  And now I can even take a short nap in the afternoons when time permits.

Bob and I went to the First Friday street party in St Pete.  Because Romney was at The Pier (close by) at the same time, mucking up the downtown traffic on a Friday at rush hour, we parked across from Grand Central Station, whose local name is Central Plaza (who knew?), and took the 50 cent trolley to downtown.  We got a build-your-own burrito, bought a couple of beers, and set up our camp chairs in front of the same bar as last month.  There was a good band that played rock n roll, heavy metal and blues.  Sandy and Judith stopped by for a while (see photo).  Mike, a guy from my swing dance class, and I danced for a while, practicing the steps we have learned.  He comes down from Spring Hill - over an hour away, just to dance. 

Somehow, I lost my old favorite prescription bifocal sunglasses.  I feel like I lost a friend.  I am waiting for my new glasses to be made stronger; they should be ready sometime next week.  In the meantime, I am wearing my old clear glasses, minus an arm that I broke off when I stepped on them, with clip-on shades.  I need something to protect my eyes from the sun.

When Bob's foot had had enough (he hurt it at swing dance class), we lugged our chairs to the trolley stop.  We just missed a trolley back to Central Plaza, so we had to wait at Williams Park for the next.  According to a cop I talked to last December, this park is feared even by the police because of the criminal druggies who hang out there.  Bob and I weren't afraid, though, being the San Jose survivors that we are.  A nice black woman hung out with us, and kept saying how bad the park was.  A drunk came by and sat next to me.  I didn't think anything of it, but Bob told me to go sit somewhere else while he sat next to the drunk and gave him his bottle of water.  The trolley finally came and we went back to get the car, which thankfully was still waiting for us.