Florida day 3

September 22

Because our chat last evening went on so late into the night, we awoke later than usual this morning and lounged in bed a while. It was a leisurely morning. I brought most of our bags in from the van so we could sort through their contents and reorganize them. Among other things, Razelle wanted to get all our dirty clothes together to put them into Brenda's washing machine. It also seemed like a good idea by now to finally put together the next parcel we wanted to ship back to Israel. This required some decision making as to which items we should include with the dolls in the box that had been bought in Columbia, MO for that specific purpose.

For lunch, Barry and I went outside to the grill by the swimming pool to grill chicken and hotdogs and asparagus for lunch. While these were cooking Barry and I had a chance to talk about life here in southern Florida. The weather was a bit too warm and humid for me, but Barry said it was ideal weather, in his opinion. A small greenish "iguana" (Barry's name for it, even though I think it was some other kind of reptile) with a curly tail scrambled part way up the coconut tree beside our picnic table and changed to a darker grayish brown color to match the tree trunk as we watched it. Barry explained that iguanas are ordinarily quite large, but now there are only these small ones because a killer freeze last year decimated their numbers. They froze and dropped out of the trees in a massive die-off. Their population is just now beginning to recover. While we were cooking, a young woman came out to the pool to get some sun, despite the gathering clouds overhead. As we headed back to the apartment with our food a light rain began to fall, and a more intense downpour ensued shortly afterwards, while we were inside eating. I don't imagine this young woman got much of a tan in that short time.

After lunch Razelle and I rode with Barry and Brenda to tour the area and also to take care of some "errands" along the way. Our first stop was the CVS where Razelle dropped off some film for development. I wanted to buy a $50 card here to top up my T-mobile cell phone, but because I couldn't figure out how the card worked I didn't buy it. Instead, Barry took me to a T-Mobile store nearby, where I was informed that I still had $40 worth of credit on my account and only needed to add $10 to cover the next month's usage. Good thing we went there! That saved me quite a bundle.

Barry and Brenda then took us to see some of the area's sites, including the Deerfield Beach waterfront, the condominium where Daniel lives, and high-end homes in Boca Raton, which we passed on our way to a "Babies R Us," store where Razelle wanted to buy something specific for our granddaughter Noga. While they all shopped for this item I went next door to the Chuck E. Cheese's emporium. They insisted I had to have a number stamped on my hand to enter, so I left un-tallied. We then drove to a large indoor flea market. As we parked, Barry fielded a call from a customer who wanted to buy his merchandise. The conversation was on speaker phone and it was fascinating to hear the repartee. Barry made the sale! Way to go Barry! Pretty enviable that Barry can earn a living while driving around in his car!

Inside the flea market I drifted over to the food-market section while Razelle and Brenda looked at other merchandise. I was impressed by the selection of acorn squashes they were selling in every color you can imagine. These were specifically bred as thanksgiving decorations for cornucopia, etc. I asked Barry what color the interior of these squashes might be but neither he nor the vendors could answer that question. Apparently no one was buying them for food. I returned to the ladies to find that Razelle had finally bought the dress watch she'd always wanted.

Barry and Brenda then took us to a favorite restaurant of theirs, called Carrabba's Italian Grill. I ordered the house salad with blue cheese dressing (my good old standby when there isn't much else for me to choose from). Razelle and I wanted to pick up the tab, but when I handed the waitress my credit card at the end of the meal she came back with it to tell me it had been rejected by the credit card company. Barry paid as an anxious knot formed in my stomach. My worst-case scenario of a useless credit card was happening! We stopped to pick up Razelle's developed pictures and Barry paid for those, too. Our cash had nearly been depleted by now from purchasing gas with it so often, so it was time for us to withdraw some more. But how? I was afraid to try my credit card in an ATM machine for fear it would be permanently lost. I was really discouraged by all of this.

We returned to Barry and Brenda's place with me thoroughly upset. I went out to the van and sat there alone in the dark to try and gather my wits. The heat of the Florida night was still quite oppressive in that van. My discomfort out there influenced me to take the remaining half of our Wyoming snowball into the apartment to put it into Barry and Brenda's freezer for safekeeping in case the van's refrigerator battery drained in the heat here in Florida as it had in Palm Desert, CA at the beginning of our trip. I asked them all to remind me to take our half snowball back at the end of our visit. We've left enough things behind along the way by now that I didn't trust myself to remember. Considering my agitated state of mind this evening, it seemed like a good insurance policy to ask others to help me keep track of this.

Because of Barry's private business, he had the means to check the validity of my credit card and of Razelle's credit card. In doing so, he discovered that Razelle's card was still OK, but that mine had been blocked. I tried surfing the Isracard website via our bank's website but the link wouldn't open for me. I tried calling the phone number in Israel on the back of the credit card but the recording I got when I called said that it was after business hours (it was already Friday in Israel) and they were closed for the weekend. I couldn't come up with a work-around solution at this point and neither could Barry. We weren't entirely up the creek without a paddle, though; we still had two other credit cards to fall back on. It just disturbed me beyond rationality that something I must have done caused this predicament and I couldn't fix it until after the weekend. I went to bed with this hanging over my head and fitfully dreamed all night long about possible scenarios for solving this mess. The sleep I did get wasn't worth much.