2010 Jan. 11, Monday.
Still very cool this morning, but at least it’s sunny. For our morning break, we went to the bookstore at the Gulf Coast mall where they have a Seattle’s Best coffee shop (with scones and donuts!). I worked on the computer, and we came back to the 5th wheel for lunch. After lunch Linda did the wash and I finished reading my fifth book - too much coolness to be doing much outside, so I read a lot, as does Linda. She had to make two trips to the wash house, because all the machines were being used on the first trip. Then she had to make the third trip to put them in dyers and the fourth trip to get them when finished drying. Staying at resorts will make this task much easier for her.

WEATHER: Sunny all day, only a slight breeze, high of 58. Low tonight of only 36, but they still forecast a freeze inland. Last night, it got down to 25 inland, and some vegetable farmers lost ALL of their crops - NO tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. survived in some areas. One man lost 40 acres of cucumbers. He said, “I promise you, this has been 12 days of hell. It’s been unbelievable.” It’s too early to know the damage to the citrus crop, but some farmers have already reported frozen oranges. Many orchards sprayed the fruit with water so that a protective coating of ice was formed. When the air is 25, the fruit surrounded by 32 degree ice is protected.

FL NEWS: The big news is still the weather. The local power companies have set usage records the past two days, and the high demand has resulted in some power outages in Lee County, as well as other areas across the state. Some local schools did not open this morning to conserve energy and several others closed at noon. Snow flurries were reported in Melbourne, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, and Port Orange. A light dusting of snow clung to trees and patio furniture near Daytona Beach. Tampa had a run of eight consecutive days with temperatures never reaching 60, and this broke the old mark of seven set in 1956. In Miami, the temperature fell to 35, tying a record set in 1970. For the first time in at least 30 years, the Miami Zoo shut its doors because it was too cold. Large green iguanas became catatonic from the cold and fell from trees. In Titusville, more than 160 cold-stunned turtles were found floating in a lagoon. Near Miami, about 100,000 tropical fish died on a fish farm. Near Titusville, Highway 1 was closed for about two hours because of ice Sunday morning.