February 7 - February 14, 2026 - Dehumidifier - Art Festival - Valentine Dance - Happy Hour - Black Music - Greek Festival - Candlelight Concert

My Blog Reflection

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of others.

Charles Dickens

February 7, 2026:

The new dehumidifier arrived late yesterday afternoon and we got busy unpacking it today. In reading the directions it was obvious that we could not place it in the hallway as we did the old one. It needs to have fifteen inches of air flow on the back side. It would take up too much room where the old one sat. This machine is much more sophisticated than the old one. We placed it in the guest bedroom near the door. We will turn it off when we have guests because it is a little noisy.

Today is the 11th Annual St. Petersburg Fine Art Festival. It is a sunny and a much warmer day so we headed down to the waterfront park to check it out. By the time we got there the crowd was huge. We had to drive around for quite awhile to find a parking space. I finally found a parking meter - $2.50 per hour to park at a meter. Times have changed. I remember putting a quarter in for an hour.

We walked all through the art booths, admiring many pieces which were quite appealing. From there we headed to the waterfront to find a place to sit and enjoy the water. To our surprise there were very few benches provided but we lucked out and found one after walking away from the park. We sat for an hour people watching, enjoying the weather, and watching the sea birds in the water as well as a dolphin or two swimming around. 

We then headed to the "Fourth Street Fish Store" for a late seafood lunch. We have been to this place a number of times over the years and have never been disappointed with the food. Kelly's clam chowder and shrimp were excellent as was my shrimp basket with new potatoes. We will be back.

Once back home we settled in to enjoy the Olympics.

February 8, 2026:

This afternoon we attended a performance of "The Roots of Black Music in America" at the Seminole Library. It was a performance of 100 years of black music in America from 1850 through 1950 performed by Karlus Trapp. Here is Mr. Trapp on the guitar. Additionally he played the piano for certain songs. Chuck Berry, from St. Louis, was one of the last music influences he performed.

I estimated about sixty people were in attendance made up of about fifty women and ten men. I thought that dichotomy was interesting. There were no young people in the crowd. The Seminole Library has these free musical performances once a month. Next month there will be a performance of "Women in Country" music. We plan on attending.

Once home we watched the Superbowl. We were rooting for the Seahawks and weren't disappointed. 

February 9, 2026:

I headed back to the podiatrist while Kelly attended the ladies "Red Hats" meeting at Roberts RV Park. The "Red Hats" are a group of ladies who do service projects, visit with one another, and have lunch once per month. 

February 11, 2026:

We took a drive with Celine and Joann to check on Celina's property near Naples, Florida. She inherited a residential lot many years go from her uncle and hangs on to it as prices escalate. It is a total jungle. I'm sure the neighbors would like to see her sell it to get it cleaned up.

In the evening we attended the "Valentine's Day Dance" here at the park. The music was decent. It consisted of a guy who sang along on many songs with his sound system. There was a nice-sized crowd with a lot of dancers. The room was much darker but I enhanced the picture so you could see people better. Lots of people wore red.

We sat at a table with people we had never met before. They were all quite friendly. I hope I remember their names for future encounters.

I coerced Kelly into getting our picture taken in front of the Valentine decoration backdrop. I think it is a good picture.

We enjoyed the evening. This is something we never do at home - go to dances. The charge is $10.00 per person to pay for the music and decorations. You bring your own bottle and snacks. 

February 12, 2026:

This afternoon we hosted a "Happy Hour" by inviting two couples over who live nearby. One thing we've learned to accept is that in a mobile home park like this there are no "impromptu" gatherings like we had almost every day as RVers. Rvers are out and about, park dwellers are not. We miss that. We had a lovely visit for almost three hours. Mike and Susan are retired teachers. Their home is one a lake in Maine. Dave was a master welder and Renee was an RN. They live on a small lake in Southern Illinois on the Indiana side of the state. We had lots to talk about because they are all anti-MAGA, a respite from the majority of the folks in the park. 

February 13, 2026:

While cleaning the bathroom yesterday one of the plastic brackets holding on the shower door handrail broke. It is plastic. It had broken before and I superglued it. It held for about a year. I was surprised to realize that I had no superglue on hand. A quick trip to Walmart next door took care of that problem. 

The bracket attaches to the door on one end and the handrail on the other. It broke on the edge. The arrows point to the point to where it broke. 

I took the broken pieces off and superglued them to hold them in position so I could melt some additional plastic over the edge to reinforce it. The edge is now a little rougher but much stronger.

Instead of reinstalling it on the same handrail I moved it to the other handrail, which is used much less. It should last forever, but then again it is plastic.

Kelly went clothes shopping with Celina and Joann. She should buy nothing but shopping is a compulsive activity for women. She didn't buy much but had a nice "girls day out". Kelly bought me a bag of Gummy Bears for Valentine's Day. I will share them with her since I didn't buy her anything. I only got her a card.

Today our oldest daughter, Alexa, turned 50 years old and our youngest daughter, Annie, turned 45 years old. They were both born on Friday the 13th, five years apart. A 50th birthday is a big deal and we didn't want Alexa observing it by herself since we are in Florida and her sisters are in California. A few weeks back Annie, Erin, and Kelly and I, pooled our money and sent Alexa on a trip to Sweden where her friend, Aaron, is residing for a while. She will be there a week. We talked with her in the evening and she is having a great visit both in Sweden and Denmark. She noted it is quite cold there. She said a saying there is that "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes". Luckily she took the warm clothes she needed.

Annie's 45th birthday was supposed to be spent in France with her husband, Adam, who was going over on business. Due to tearing her ACL skiing in Tahoe in January, and getting it operated on, that plan went out the window. We talked with her and she was having a relaxing day hanging out with her two girls. They celebrated with an ice cream cake. We sent her a nice "techy" carry-on suitcase for her birthday. It is high tech for today's business travelers. There is a place for your laptop, it has a charging station built in, and a cup holder that folds out. It is much nicer than the carry-on that I purchased for us at the Salvation Army last year.

For several days I have been trying to get in touch with a Canadian friend, Ralph Ross, an RV neighbor we met at Avon Park when we were there a few years ago. We have been visiting with each other ever since. I called and left a message and I emailed him to see if he was in Florida so we could visit. I received no response to either. This was unusual and it gave me a bad feeling. I got online and found that he passed away at age seventy-seven in November of 2025. I have no idea what happened to him and have no one to contact about it. He was a widower with a step-son in Florida for whom I have no contact information. It was a sad ending of the day. I am losing too many friends. 

February 14, 2026:

St. Stefanos Greek Orthodox Church in St. Petersburg held their annual "Super Greek Festival" this weekend. It was a beautiful day so we headed there to get some great Greek food and watch some entertainment.

The festival is all about Greek food and Greek culture. There were a few food and trinket vendors under a huge tent.

The entertainment, and full Greek meals, were inside the auditorium. We wondered around outside for awhile and then went inside where we purchased a couple of Greek beers. The pull tab beer bottles were the first I had ever seen. The beer was quite good.

We found a table and sat to enjoy our beers as we waited for the dancers to begin. 

The first to dance were the children, who did about three different dances. Here are a couple of videos. It is tradition to throw money at the dancers to express appreciation.

For the last dance they encouraged parents, grandparents, and siblings to come up and join in the dancing.

After the children finished their program the adults performed several different dances. Here are some videos. The dancing was quite entertaining and worth the wait. 

After the dancing finished we bought some Greek food from the "Greek Taverna". Here is the menu. It was quite impressive for an event like this. I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into this.

I ordered a "Pastitsio Platter" (Greek style Lasagna) with Greek Salad and Lemon Potatoes sides. All were delicious. Here is a picture before I dug in.

Kelly had "Avgolemono Soup" (chicken, lemon, egg, orzo) and a "Spanakopita" (spinach and cheese phyllo pie). Her items were delicious as well.

Although the many fabulous desserts were tempting, we had left no room. Upon finishing our meal we headed back to the house to sit and digest the great food. LOL

For Valentine's Day Kelly purchased tickets to an evening Candlelight Concert. All lighting was by candlelight, including the steps to the balcony where we sat.

The venue was the "First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg". The church is huge, has all theater seating, a large balcony, and interestingly an industrial feel to it. It must hold a thousand people. Here is a picture of the stage as the musicians played.

The playlist consisted of music from the last thirty years played by a string quartet of three women and one man. 

The church was about half full. I was surprised at how young the audience was but Kelly attributed that to "date night" on Valentine's Day. It was interesting that the dress code ranged from "dressed to the nines" to blue jeans and shorts.

It was an enjoyable evening but not exceptional.