Visiting Parents in Florida =Day Four

Visiting with Parents in Florida is a unique experience.

It is going to 32 tonight or lower and the grounds people are covering the flowering bushes. I should go around and take pictures but I will not -Florida lazy. I did get Dad to ride around with me as I drove the car. It will not be much longer till I have to escape to - ah- less heated enclosures. I had not driven this car much, so I needed to practice. Mother was not joking when she said "oh ,we don't go out in the cold". OK, it is cold for everyone but the Canadians who are still riding bikes but have found long pants! LOL

Dad and I just rode their three wheel bikes up to the club house and the little gym the retirement community has for the residents. Three tread mills (two work) /two bikes (one works)/ one rower/one leg lift/one leg press/ one arm lift and a universal with five stations. A separate weight room but no weighs under eight lbs (all the lower weights are missing). Another separate room has a desk and file for work out cards and you can do Swedish exercise balls and steps , both of which are stored in that room. Pretty good if everything worked.

We went up to learn the equipment from a trainer who works at the gym around the corner. Where, I think , the hard core exercise boomers belong. She teaches some classes in the retirement community and has individual clients she works with; in their homes. She also said her gym has Silver Sneakers and lots of instructors. I am calling Mother and Dad's insurance to see if they will cover that wonderful exercise program for Seniors. Anyway it was a good hour of instruction and how to use the equipment and she wrote down all Dad's settings and weights and exercises. She was great -I would hire her! Maybe Dad can get Mother to go with him? I brought Lysol whipes to use on the machines & I left it there.

Yesterday we watched the Inauguration all day.

I have a 1958 memory of a little white girl, moving South. from up North -wanting a drink of water in DC but not being able to use the water fountains for "coloreds only' and wondering why?

I remember wanting to sit in the back of the bus and the bus driver admonishing my mother for allowing us to go back there. She never could explain to my brother and I, Why we couldn't sit back there with the other children. They were black.

What an amazing and awesome day. Over a million plus people on the mall waving American Flags !

I still have tears in my eyes.