Monday, September 25, 2017

Blue Marlin Bombers rule the Destin Kickball League!

I know what you are saying…Destin has a kickball league? And why does the Blue Marlin Bombers (I hope I remembered their name right) rule this league? They rule because they are the champs again for the second time in a row. They are the 2016 and now 2017 champs. We all know how hard it is to repeat as champs. The team is made up of folks from the Century 21 Blue Marlin reality company. And these old geezers (the oldest team in the league by probably 20 years) beat all them young’uns! Congrats to Jerry and the team! Since the paper won’t give them any love I had too!!!

This week Sunshine Cindy and I continued our quest to get the remodeling of our new house done. Chad and his team are almost done with the inside stuff. We had John and his team work on trimming the forest that passed for a yard. He is over half done. A new gas line was installed to our patio. Things are getting closer.

Sunshine Cindy and I went out on Friday to pick out granite for a new kitchen counter. The old 24 year old granite looked like…well, 24 years old. We took Chaos with us to help pick it out. Actually we didn’t want her to be home alone with the guys and all the nail guns and noise. She did great too. After getting granite ordered we stopped at Home Depot to buy a gas BBQ grill to hook up to the new gas line. We took Chaos into Home Depot too and everyone loved her. We saw Steve and he joked that Chaos didn’t look like a service dog.

After all this running around was done we were hungry for lunch so we stopped at Tailfins. It’s very dog friendly at the lower outside bar. One of the regulars, Ken and his friend Joe were sitting at the end of the bar. We all ended up talking for a long while. Victoria was behind the bar taking care of us. Johnny the owner came by and gave Chaos some treats. She was in heaven! We had a nice relaxing time.

Friday night was a parrot head Phlocking in Fort Walton Beach at the Tipsy Pig. By the time we got home it was late and we had things we wanted to get done around the house so we skipped the Phlocking. It looked like a fun time with Gunner playing for us and even Ron Adams sang some songs with the band. Ron is a big name musician in our area.

Saturday was spent around the house. The gas grill was delivered. Now we are waiting for the gas company to come and hook it up after the city inspects the line. We got a lot done but really we can work on things for a month straight and not be done.

Sunday I went to Landshark Pizza for the Browns game. The big buzz was all the players taking a knee for national anthem after Trump made his remarks about the players. I’m sure glad he has solved all the other problems in the world and can concentrate on NFL players. My only observation on this whole thing is the people that are up in arms the most seem to root for teams that suck. I guess it’s easy to jump off a bandwagon when you are the only one on it.

The Browns were the Browns. That means they lost but it was kind of close. One of these days they will put it all together and actually win another game. But there were a bunch of good games at the same time as the Browns were playing. Jerry, Leslie and Jason were sitting with me and they were all rooting for the Falcons who won on a last second stop at the goal line. A couple that was rooting for Giants also sat with us. They Giants lost on a 61 yard field goal as time ran out. People were hooting and hollering for the Saints and Jets who both won. All in all it was a fun time.

Around town it has been quiet. In a couple weeks will be a bump for fall break and the fishing rodeo. Then the snowbirds will start to come back but for now it mostly locals.

Have a great week. See ya next Monday!

Destin Steve

Monday, September 18, 2017

Irma still dominates the news in Destin and Florida

Last week Destin and the western panhandle were spared the wrath of Irma. But we were about the only place in the state that was not hit. We had a little wind and no rain at all. The Keys were hammered. Flooding occurred in many parts of the state. Power is still out despite an army of power crews from all over the country and Canada helping. Slowly the state is getting back to normal except for the Keys. Just yesterday they started to allow people to return to Key West that had evacuated. But there is little power, almost no water or gas so it will take time to get back to a semblance of normalcy there.

Back here in Destin the remodeling of our new house continues. It is coming along great. Big steps this coming week is a new front fence and gates, a landscaper coming to trim all the trees and a gas line being run to our patio so we can hook up a gas grill.

Speaking of the new house, Chaos loves her new big backyard. Her new favorite activity is chasing squirrels. I’m not sure what she would do if she caught one but she sure tries. The squirrels just sit up in the trees and squawk at her while she runs around like a crazy dog. LOL

A musician friend of ours from Key West evacuated to our area. I didn’t know he was here till he messaged me to tell me he was playing at Kenny D’s on old 98. Allen Holland goes by the name of Frankendread on stage. He plays island/reggae type music. Kenny let him play for tips to try and help him out. Sunshine Cindy and I went to see him on Saturday night. Allen is ready to get home but he knows until tourist can come back and basic needs like power and water are working there is no reason to go home yet.

He had a lead guitar player from his band with him. They did a fun show. The folks loved him and I hope he did well with the tips. He will be there for the next couple nights. I also put him in touch with Carlos from Crab Island Cantina. I hope they can work out something so he can play there too.

There are a lot of other stories like Allen’s. I know of a Key West musician who is staying in Navarre and some up in the Chattanooga area. It makes the destruction Irma did more personal when you know people who were affected and how they are trying to cope.

Sunshine Cindy and I had a busy day on Saturday. The Parrot Heads had rented a party boat for a trip to Crab Island. We paid to go but ended up not being able to go due to the work being done at home. We could not leave Chaos home alone. But before they got on the boat some folks were meeting up at Harry T’s for a pre-Crab Island Bloody Mary morning. So we got Chaos and went to join them for that.

Chaos was the star of the show. You can have dogs at the bar and everyone loved her. Dan the owner came and saw Chaos, he walked up to her and he started barking at her. Chaos started barking right back at him. Then Dan brought her some treats and now Chaos was his best friend.

When the Parrot Heads left we walked down to the Cantina. Monica was working the bar. An Octoberfest celebration was being held in Harborwalk Village and a lot of people were walking around. We got to talk to Carlos for a while. We have not seen him in months. Once again Chaos was the center of attention and she loved it! We headed home after a couple beers and some food. It was such a perfect day we decided to not do any work but get in the pool instead. That was a good decision. We stayed there swimming till we headed to Kenny D’s to see Allen.

Sunday was Browns football again. We were playing the Ravens and we met up with our Ravens friends at AJ’s. Baltimore kicked our butts but we had a good time with our friends like we always do. AJ’s is not the best place to watch the games so we won’t be back but we had to try it once.

Around town I have noticed Panini Pete’s has already closed. They were only open about a year. This was a lunch place. They closed about 4 or 5 each afternoon. We stopped once and really liked the food but it would have been nice if they had stayed open a little longer into the early evening. We would have gone more often if they did. It will be interesting to see what goes into the building as a lot of work was done on it.

Have a great week. See y’all next Monday!

Destin Steve

Monday, September 11, 2017

I’m back!!!

It has been several weeks that I was offline with our move from our old house to our new one. But we are now settled in and I am ready to start getting everyone back into the “Living and Playing in Destin” mode.

A recap of our last few weeks had us closing on our old house on August 23rd. On the 22nd we had movers move all of our stuff into storage except for a couple suitcases of clothes and some boxes of important papers that we took to a condo at Sandpiper Cove that we rented while we waited to close on our new house. We had to find a place that we could bring Chaos and luckily this unit in Sandpiper Cove worked for us.

The condo itself was just a one bedroom/one bath and it was very run down. It also had some bugs but it was a ground floor unit and Chaos loved taking walks in the big yard outside our sliding glass door. For ten days it was our home away from home.

On August 31st we closed on our new house. It went right down to the wire waiting for all the paperwork to get to the lawyers office but by 5:00 we were officially the new owners. Chaos was being watched by our old neighbors, the Sue’s as we didn’t want to leave her alone in the condo. After we left the lawyers office Sunshine Cindy and I stopped into Tailfins for a celebratory drink. It was on July 4th as we sat at Tailfins we decided to look into moving. It was hard to believe that in about 7 weeks we sold our house, found a new one and got everything done in that short time span. It was an exhausting time but well worth it.

We could not have pulled this all off without the efforts of our realtor, Jerry Sullivan. Jerry is the owner of Blue Marlin/Century 21 in Destin. He is top notch and I highly recommend him to anyone looking to buy or sell in the Destin/30A area.

On the flip side, the listing agent for the house we bought was not someone I would ever recommend. Ron Hinkie didn’t return calls and didn’t follow through on some things he said he would do. The house sold in spite of him, not because of him.

Friday September 1st we had a contractor lined up to start work on some remodeling we are having done. All Service Construction of Destin is doing our work and they are outstanding. Chad and his team started by repainting the entire inside of the house. When they say they will be there at 8 am, they are there on time. I hear horror stories about contractors all the time. So far we are very pleased with their work.

Last Friday September 8th we had our furniture moved from storage into the new house since almost all of the painting is done. PMS (Professional Moving Services) did a great job moving us twice. Now we have the fun task of unpacking.

Okay, enough about all that. The other big news is obviously Hurricane Irma. We are lucky here in the panhandle as we are about the only spot in the state of Florida that was sparred her wrath. A lot of damage was done and about 1/3 of the state is out of power but all in all, it could have been worse. I guess all the weather folks can now put away their poncho’s and come in out of the rain. It gets pretty ridiculous how they hype this. Yes, the storm is dangerous and especially for people that live right along the coast but keep some perspective. I have rode out several hurricanes and know that if it gets up into the “3” range it’s time to get out. But they stress people out with the 24/7 coverage. You can only stare at that little radar box for so long.

And what’s with the people up in Atlanta buying out grocery stores of bread and water because Irma will bring them some rain and wind? You would think they are going to be off the grid for weeks.

This past Friday the Parrot Heads had our monthly meeting at Landshark Pizza. Paul Roush, an excellent Trop Rock singer from Port Charlotte came to stay with Wayne to escape Irma. It was good seeing him and he even played a few songs while BT took a break. Sunday I went back to Landshark to watch the Browns first game of the season.

The usual Sunday football gang was there. But we and the staff at Landshark was in for a surprise. With all of Destin filled with evacuee’s, Landshark filled up with families and others who were in town running from Irma. They were not staffed for it and when a couple of cooks called out they were really scrambling around to take care of everyone. There were a few tense moments but mostly everyone was good natured about it. Oh yeah, the Browns played better but still lost. But I do have hope that this season they will turn it around. It looks like it.

Elsewhere around town, the new Friday’s that is going up in place of the torn down one has walls going up now. At the rate they are going I can see them being open before the end of the year.

We are back to our regularly scheduled weekly updates. See ya next Monday as we Live and Play in Destin!

Destin Steve