We Have Concrete !!!

 

Yesterday, on what was our 26th wedding anniversary, the concrete finishers poured our concrete slab for our future beach home. The house will be an approximately 2100 square foot, three bedroom, two and a half bath three gar garage home. This is the view looking into the garage from street view. Our future neighbors will be closer than we are used too but that the life of living in Florida communities, everyone wishes to live in paradise. 

Our Future Home and Pool Renderings

The house and pool design we chose are here, with one exception, we did not choose to add the second story to the home, having steps in retirement seemed like a bad idea. With mosquitoes basically being the largest nuisance in Florida, of course we chose to add the standard Florida " bird cage" over the outside living / pool areas. We also added an outdoor kitchen near the left side of the lanai.

We Finally Did It

 

Today, we revealed to anyone that knows us we placed a hefty deposit on our future home, located in Venice Florida. We took this photo on our .25 acre lot of Florida sand that will hold our dream beach home. This was a dream come true after nearly sixteen years of planning, dreaming and saving. We will one day retire here and live in a small 71 home community six miles from the Gulf of Mexico beaches. Projected finsih date will be July 2022. They plan to break ground this December.

Animal House 1987

During the early to late 1980's, the Bronx in New York City was burning down, and these men here from the 183rd and Jerome Avenue firehouse known as the Animal House (Engine 75- Ladder33) were taxed with protecting a very busy area of the Bronx. I got to know many of these men very well while doing ride along's on weekends, going to more fires in 48 hours than some firehouses in the country do in a months time or longer. ALL of these men are now retired from the job, with all surviving the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001. Ironically I choose this image on the 26th anniversary of the first bombing of the World Trade Center.

New Knee Please

Today, my nearly life long friend Tim down in Brooksville Florida gets himself a brand new knee. Too many years of fire trucks, farming and just plain ole old age caught up with him, so today, it's titanium knee time. Welcome to the club my friend. Get well soon brother!!

Fist Bump

A touching image I captured in 2017 of my friend, retired Hanover Police chief Dwayne Smith approaching the finish line. One of his former police officers escorted him to the finish line, congratulating him just prior with this fist bump. 

In Flight

A large pelican takes flight across the Gulf of Mexico in Clearwater Beach Florida recently while we were on vacation. These birds are large and fly with such grace.