2010 Jan. 28, Thursday.
Drove to get the paper, did some reading, and did some more packing this morning. Lunch here, and for our afternoon break we went to Panera Bread again. It’s on the way to Barefoot Beach, which is just south of Bonita Beach. To get to it, you have to go west until you are almost to Bonita Beach. Then you turn south and drive through a very nice subdivision - on your right are beautiful condos on the beach, very nice landscaping with lots of royal palms and geraniums, lots of big boats in the canal on the left. We met Larry and Judy Ahearn at 5:30 to walk the beach and watch the sun go down. Perfect weather, nice sunset. Then we went to the Fish House on Bonita Beach Road for supper. Linda and I shared a fried oyster basket - okay, but not great. We enjoy being with the Ahearns and hope we can still come to this area in the future, at least for a week or two. We have a lot in common and agree almost completely on political issues. I taught both of their girls, and Larry was counselor to our three kids.

WEATHER: High 78, low 48. Still a little chilly at night, but that’s going to change. It sounds like the jet stream is moving a little south, so we will get more normal temperatures and more rain in the near future, if this is accurate. At home, they will get more cold weather. Right now, it’s very cold there with highs in the teens and lows close to zero.

FL NEWS: (1) “Borrowers, lenders meet” A workshop sponsored by the Obama administration aims to help people reach an accommodation with their banks to avoid foreclosure. In the Cape Coral - Fort Myers area, more than 3,600 families are in the Making Home Affordable program. They are paying a reduced amount to their bank while their documentation is checked to make sure they can pay the new amount. This area had the second highest foreclosure rate in the country in 2009, behind only Las Vegas. This area had an 11.87 percent of its households receiving a foreclosure notice, while Las Vegas had more than 12 percent.
(2) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started freshwater pulse releases from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee Estuary. During the dry season,, water managers release fresh water from the lake to maintain the balance between salt and fresh water in the estuary. This release will be an average flow over 11 days of 4,855.5 gallons per second. A recent release that ended Jan. 20 did not reduce salinity to target levels in the upper estuary. The target is a 30-day average of no more than 10 parts per thousand at Ft. Myers, with daily salinity levels not to exceed 20 parts per thousand.