2010 Jan. 27, Wednesday.
For our morning break, we went to Panera Bread at Coconut Point mall for coffee, treat, and computer work. Their WIFI is faster than at the bookstore, but instead of 3 miles away, it’s more like 7 miles. Linda read and walked while I worked, and then for lunch we went to 5 Guys, a new restaurant at the mall. We had been to one last year at Panama City Beach, and it is unique. It serves only hamburgers and hot dogs, with lots of choices of what you want on it. You order and then pick it up yourself, and it is all open to where they are cooking and preparing. They have boxes of peanuts in the shell all around for you to eat while you are waiting. The name comes from the 5 guys in N.J. who got the idea and started some places there. After lunch, back to the 5th wheel for some more packing. The biggest items are the folding ladder and the rubber raft. We have them packed in the van, along with some other things that we aren’t going to use before Sunday. Linda went for a long walk, and I went for a long bike ride. Supper here.

WEATHER: High 71, low 49. With no breeze and no clouds, the sun made it feel warmer than 71. The humidity is at 25%, which is very low for this area. Forecast says near 80 tomorrow.

FL NEWS: [I lied before - this may be the last story related to the cold earlier this month.]
“Manatee deaths from cold a record” This month’s bitterly cold weather has added another species to its list of victims: endangered manatees. A record 77 manatees have died statewide from cold stress through Jan. 23. The previous record of 56 was set last year. No one knows what this will mean for the manatee population. A statewide survey in early January counted a record 5,067 manatees.
According to a biologist, this year’s cold has affected manatees differently from previous cold-stress events. During normal extended cold periods, manatees stop eating and use up their fat reserves, so their immune systems shut down, and they die. This year, the manatees that went to warm water areas eventually needed to go out of those places to eat. [The cold lasted much longer than usual, and the warm water food sources became depleted.] Once the manatees got into the cold water, they died right away. This year, 59.7% of the manatees killed by the cold were calves. Calves make up a higher percentage of deaths in normal cold weather - last year, 83% of the deaths were calves. Young manatees are more vulnerable to cold stress for a combination of reasons. They have more problems finding warm water sites, they have more problems keeping their body heat, and they might have trouble finding feeding grounds.