Neonred

That's enough to keep me from fat tire (or flat tire) biking here in the mountains of south Florida.

We did the same yesterday , Wife and I and our two little ones (four legged ones) visited my mother for the same reason, well not because of parking but we just wanted to get it over with. Guess we are bad. Did bring some expensive perfume for her.

Sounds like you fizzicle therapy is helping. You will need a regular relationship with the FT lady. 90% of my warehouse purchases are from Costco, and 10% from Sams. It seems Costco has better quality goods, but Sams does have some things that Costco doesn't/ I knew there was still hope... Just a moment ago, as I prepare to wind down my career, I was thinking about my full life and some of the major purchases during it. Certainly my best purchase was my Russian wife. Very expensive but well worth it.

A few years after my wife arrived her Russian passport was expiring. We were able to renew it through the embassy in DC but it took about 6 months. At that time renewals were valid for 5 years. Five years later my wife decided she wanted to go to Russia to renew it because it could be done there in a matter of days. When we were ready to book the trip I noticed that her passport had just recently expired. A call to the embassy informed us she would NOT be allowed to enter Russia on an expired passport. Not only had her international passport expired but also her internal passport. We sent off to the embassy to get her international passport renewed, but they needed additional information and money of course. In short they were never able to renew her passport saying they could not determine that she was a Russian citizen! Since she had her US passport we kind of just gave up on the Russian one. Now her mother is turning 80 and she worries one day soon she may need to travel to Russia, so she is again pursuing the renewal but this time has enlisted the help of someone that does this sort of thing for a fee. Now comes the part we need help with. Of course when we married she took my last name but in our state as in most others there is no written indication of the new last name on the marriage certificate. And of course at naturalization she changed her first name to a less Russian sounding name. What we need is some solid document that shows the new last name after marriage. Of course they can't just accept that it is normal policy based on marriage. They need a document that spells out her new last name. I tried telling my wife it would be so easy to get the Russian passport in her old last name, but her stubborn nature won't accept that. The person we are working with wants us to go to the county courthouse and do another name change in front of the judge to prove the new last name. More paperwork and another $400+ Seems like there should be an easier way, but I don't know. Any ideas? Thanks for your help.

Spirit Airlines, the pioneering discount airline that shook up the budget travel business, is shutting down its operations. The company is in its second bankruptcy and was in serious financial trouble well before the Iran war sent jet fuel prices surging. America’s eighth-largest carrier tried to reach a deal with the Trump administration on an 11th-hour rescue package, but a key group of creditors balked at the proposal. Spirit is the first major US airline in 25 years to go out of business because of financial problems. Its demise has stranded millions of passengers: Spirit canceled all flights, shut down its customer service and instructed customers not to go to the airport. Customers with Spirit tickets will be issued refunds, and they have been instructed to rebook travel on other carriers. https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/02/business/spirit-to-halt-all-flights No surprise here. Back in December I needed to book a flight for January and it looked like Spirit had the best deal. I booked it then the next day an article came out that they were in such serious trouble and could fail any day. It was fortunate I was within the 24 hour period were I was able to cancel and get my full refund.

It seems our Polish babe, Asia, has left us so there is no reason to use Polish math any longer. That one? What about the cute young girls working there? We want the whole titilating story...

It's amazing what you see down here. From 16 ft Carolina skiffs to pontoon/tritoons to 21-24 ft center consoles to huge deep vees with 4 or 5 outboards off the back, to even larger yachts. There is an exclusive resort right next to our island that attracts a lot of super high end yachts. Several years ago my daughter and I were fishing right off that resort in the morning and saw a beautiful yacht. Saw the owner on deck drinking his coffee. Knew right away who it was without even seeing him as the yacht was named "Neon Rainbow" but when he stood up and said hi (we were close) it was Alan Jackson.

We have the same exact situation with our close friends. They have been in the US for nearly 25 years and have two US born children, one who recently turned 21. The parents entered on visas, but I don't remember if they were student visas or J-1. They may have assylum cases. The daughter has filed I130 and I-485 for the parents. For many years life was relatively normal. Now they avoid travel not wanting to use airports. They do have drivers licenses and EADs but that could change at any moment.

Well I may have been wrong. Surprising, right? It's just a few minutes after 7am here on Friday morning, and the start of another beautiful and calm day. I'm on the back porch just 20 feet from, and overlooking, the main canal that is the boaters "highway" for our neighborhood. Just 8 houses away from the open water. Even at this early hour I have seen more boats than I expected heading out. A lot of people going fishing. Point is the price of gas is not hurting most boaters. Heck, even the wife and I took advantage of the perfect weather yesterday and made the trip out to the reef in our relatively new boat. And boats get terrible fuel mileage. I've got a 2025 200hp Mercury with a cool feature where I can monitor almost every function of the engine on an app on my phone including fuel milage. If I keep it down to under 25mph, about 1/2 throttle, I do well...abot 4.6 mpg. The 22 mile round trip only cost me about 5 gallons. Open that baby up and it drops to just a little over 2 mpg. (2.3) There goes a boat passing by sporting twin 300's. Wonder how much fuel he will burn today.

And when that state is China....that's scary.

Captive aduience, or consumer. And the prices I mentioned here, $4.77, was roadside. I can only imagine what it must be at the marina. I run through it fast enough that I don't even bother with ethanol free. I do usually throw some stabilizer in however.

Ouch. Just went and filled up the Neonmobile and filled 4 5gal containers for the boat. $131 and change. And that was up in Marathon where gas is much cheaper @ $4.19 a gallon. On our island it's $4.77. Bet there won't be as many boats on the water this weekend, that and the fact a lot of our snowbirds have headed north. On the way to Marathon (had to stop at Home Depot anyway) drove past the local waterside RV park and noted almost half the spaces are empty. That's a good thing for us locals! A big change from just a few weeks ago when it was full. Of course it will be full again with Floridians for Memorial day weekend and 4th of July. Of note: I was in the water yesterday to make improvements on the dock and the water temp was 84 so no chill here.

Your posts got me to thinking about my adventures with milk and dairy. Mama Neon likes to tell the stories of when I was a baby and could not tolerate milk. I used to throw up all the time, especially when my father would come home for lunch. While he was holding me I would bless him with my stomach contents. Then of course he would have to change before he returned to work. They switched me to soy milk. Of course I don't remember any of this. I must have outgrown this problem early because as far as I can remember I've always been drinking milk. Still do. Used to drink whole milk, then as an adult worried about "fats" in the diet switched to skim milk...yuck. As my father always said "skim milk is just colored water" After that for a long time I drank 2%. A few years ago I switched back to whole milk, and have some every day. Of course in coffe it's 1/2 and 1/2. I am also addicted to ice cream, but I try to control myself. For the past few years I have usually had no sugar added or carb smart ice cream. They use sugar alcohols which are OK in moderation, but there are times I am not moderate. Then I'm kind of gassy and stinky, but who cares...LOL.

I (almost) always get up before the sun does. After several days in the Keys I start to decompress and then I'm getting up with the sun. Or maybe it has something to do with the alcohol?? And besides, there is no Walmart here. Just hate wasting so much time sleeping... In the free state of Florida we have no such intrusive inspections.

Just wanted to report that I drove past Alligator Alcatraz this morning and there were no protesters in sight. Apparently they only show up on weekends, if the weather is nice.