Chanukah Without The Yedlins, The Blockchain & Frank Sinatra

This is Pleep's first Chanukah Without Jay and Nancy Yedlin. Their December visit has always been a lot of fun as it involved cooking, drinking, outdoor activities and even a bit of dancing. He dug out the gift bags in hopes that something would materialize but no such luck. He was thinking that the geld that is usually included in traditional Chanukah celebrations would come in handy. Also, he says it's actually real and edible which is more than he could say about bitcoin.

Because Ed watches a good bit of CNBC during the day, Pleep's been following the bitcoin/blockchain phenomena for some time. He also had plenty of opportunity to discuss it with Beau and Perry. As far as he can tell, Peggy's crochet action which involves blocking and chains makes a lot more sense to him.

Today is Frank Sinatra's birthday. He was Alice's favorite performer. In fact she ditched school to hear him in concert. Unfortunately, as she coming off the subway, GOC caught her and grounded her for a few weeks. Thanks to Alice, all her children and grandchildren have a great appreciation for Frank & his music. In honor of Frank, today's Sonos choices will be all the music from his Centennial collection. Cheers Frank.



Peggy Heidkamp
Go Irish! Hotty Toddy! Go Packers!


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Crazy Headlines Keep Pleep Amused

Pleep Insists On Hallmark Cards

December is a big card month because, in addition to the holidays, George, Alice and Ed all have December birthdays. Before we leave home, Pleep always makes certain to hit one of the local Hallmark Goldcrown stores to pick up the Christmas cards, December birthday cards and Chanukah cards. Not only does he like the assortment and the UNICEF cards, he points out that it helps fund Patti Gates' Hallmark retirement.

Watching it snow on family and friends in Chicago, Mississippi and Atlanta, Pleep was especially happy to be writing notes about how nice it was in Florida in all the cards. Ed's blaming him for jinxing things, accusing him of bringing cold temps to Daytona and the rest of the state.

Settling Into Being Back At The Beach

After being back almost a week, we are settling in nicely. High tides that reach to the sea wall comes with the full moon in winter. The result is daily beach hikes take place midday rather than first thing in the morning. The weather has been great with temps in the upper 70s but is turning cold this weekend. It's still far better than back in Kansas where the temps have been running in the teens.

Pleep is very happy to be back at the beach because it means he gets to visit all the local micro-breweries and local hangouts, aka, as dive bars. We've managed two trips up to one of his favorites, Beachside Brewery in Ormand Beach. Dan, the brewer/owner, has released several great new brews including Star 58 Porter, Dan's Colt 45, and the Big Kahuna. Needless to say, we tried them all and sampled a few others.

With the colder temps settling in, Peggy will have some time to work on a few crochet projects.  The ninth great niece/nephew is due to arrive in Idaho in the first months of 2019 and will need to stay warm.

Christmas Decorations On Display

After unpacking and a bit of tidy up activity, Pleep jumped right on decorating the place for Christmas.  The first things out of the box were the crèches - two from visits to Santa Fe and the other a gift from The Collins’ family cruise through Spain and Portugal.

Next up was Santa and his reindeer.  Delete thought he should be hanging out with the reindeer with his Generali red ribbon.  

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It took almost no time for Ed to assemble the small tree.  In fact, he spent more time vacuuming up the “needles” that fell off and figuring out how to set up the timer for the lights than he did putting the tree together.  Most of the ornaments on the tree are handmade from a Heidkamp Thanksgiving in the late ‘70s, spent at the log cabin just north of Green Bay.  A number of them have certainly seen better days but sentiment tops appearance on this tree.  One of Pleep’s favorites is Alice’s hand painted, signed on the back boy which has been broken and glued back together several times.  The yellow taxi cabs (gifts from the Parker boys) bring back many fond memories of NYC Christmas times.

With the decorating complete, Pleep donned his Santa hat and decided the best place to hang out was on top the liquor cabinet.  He knows Alice gives up Glenlivet for Advent and is contemplating doing something similar.  However, he is more inclined towards George’s approach - give up giving up.

Annual Winter Migration

Every December we join other snowbirds in the winter migration.  This year, in an effort to minimize the horrendous traffic in Atlanta, we opted to depart early Friday morning and stop north of Atlanta.  Pleep was very pleased with the plan as it meant we would be driving thru Metropolis, IL.  He is always hopeful that Ed could be convinced to stop and visit Superman’s birthplace.  As we neared the stop, he demonstrated his Superman flying skills but had no luck getting Ed’s attention.  In one last desperate attempt to divert, he grabbed the wheel but by the time he was steering, we were well past the exit.  Thanks to Peggy’s excellent navigation and technical skills, we were able to divert around traffic jams in Nashville and only hit minimal traffic issues in Chattanooga.  Friday’s drive was certainly successful doing 790 miles in just under 12 hours driving time (13 hours clock time with the change to Eastern time).

The Residence Inn in Kennesaw, GA turned out to be an excellent choice for the overnight stay.  It was far enough north of Atlanta to avoid the bad traffic.  Pleep thinks most of the drivers in and around Atlanta must think they are on the NASCAR circuit.  There are certainly a significant number of drivers who weave in and out of lanes at excessive speeds and love to run right up behind each other.  The resulting accidents lead to the greater Atlanta metro area being one of the worst areas we encounter in our travels.  Pleep was grateful for the decision to stop early as it meant he wouldn’t be required to spend his time monkeybutting all the bad drivers.

Saturday morning we headed out around 7:45 am and had absolutely zero issues with traffic.  Sailing thru Atlanta in record time, we were happy that none of the tailgaters from Auburn or Georgia decided to head to the Mercedes Stadium early.  With only a little more than 550 miles left, the drive was uneventful.  Pleep was able to convince Ed to stop at the Florida Welcome Center for a restroom break and free OJ.  He had a great time checking out all the exhibits. And when they pointed out the no pets allowed notice, Pleep explained he was a service animal.  He did think adding a shot of vodka to the free juice would be an improvement.

We got off I-95 around 3:15 and drove straight to the car wash.  This was the first long road trip for the 2018 Audi S5 Sportback and Ed wanted to make sure the car was washed up before we did the final few miles to the beach.  The Superwash fit the bill nicely even with the long lines.  Pleep was impressed by the Lava wash and free vacuum.

After 19 hours driving time, the worst part of the trip was hitting the Daytona Beach Shores Christmas parade.  Because the parade was right on A1A in front of our condo, all the routes were closed.  It took over an hour to navigate a route in and even then Peggy had to get out of the car and move a barricade allowing us to sneak in from the north.

It’s good to be back in our winter home and we’re looking forward to visits from our Northern snowbird friends.

Wheels Down: Heading South Where It's Cooler

Hitting the road again and decided to reactivate the blog after a 4 year hiatus.  Figured it would be the most efficient way to communicate with (or bore to death) family, friends and Facebook followers (assuming the IFTT recipe functions properly). This is the first summer in quite a while that Pleep won't be tied up editing and managing a new Collins blog.  (At least he's planning on having the summer off although Facebook rumors about a Collins trip to Cuba may alter those plans.)

We are always asked about why we head to Florida in July.  It's actually a no-brainer decision: 1) Temperatues & humidity in Daytona are typically better than Kansas.  2) Always a nice breeze off the ocean. 3) Our neighbor graciously manages all the landscape & lawn mowing action. 4) Family and friends love visiting us on the beach.  

We're looking forward to arrival of Maggie,Crieghton & June Deasy for a long 4th of July vacation.  The Ida & Perry Parker hit town with Pleep's best buddy, Oscar.  Oscar should get to enjoy the dog beach this trip and he certainly won't need his down coat and boots.  Perry's sister Nan & brother Roger are joining them at the beach too.

Organizing the homefront for departure is always a firedrill - packing, cleaning, hand watering new trees and landscaping, backing up all the mobile devices.  Watching all the activity, Pleepleus starts getting nervous about being left behind so he tests various staging positions to see which one is the best:

With the boxes? Not very comfortable and other than the crackers not much to interest or entertain a monkey for the 1,256 miles.

With the beer? That could be a great place expect it gets loaded in a cooler, packed in a lot of ice blocks then covered with blanket and stashed in the back of VW Jetta TDI.  Plus he's been warned not to attempt drinking as these are special beers reserved for Creighton Deasy.  He's looking forward to spending lots of time with Crieghton including trips to New Smyrna Brewery and Daytona Beach Brewery.  Plus a trip to the surfer bar is always a must do.

With the finding nemo cocoon crocheted up for great niece June?  That is certainly a comfy idea but not very practical in the 90+ temps.  Having tried it on, Pleep's a bit concerned that while it is clearly long enough it may not be wide enough for June.  Good thing one of the boxes is filled with more yarn & tools for crocheting another one.

ETD is 28 June at 16:00 following Ed's pt session.  With luck we'll hit Fort Campbell, KY 7 hours and 35 minutes later.  TDI mileage means no stops necessary but Ladbrokes betting line is on at least one. Pending construction & traffic issues, next update might be tomorrow night.