I only have five minutes

to write this and hit post.

It really is frustrating to be away from internet access. I mean, I can facebook to a certain extent and email, but I can't do much with this blog. There's so much to tell you. It takes forever to type anything in an SMS and text it here, and I can't add photos. I don't think I can add any now because I don't have time.

We've seen dozens of properties and have narrowed our search to two. Of course, they're the two that'll need the most work. The Cat House has a pool (including algae), is owned by the bank, and appears to have been deserted for years, although in this climate, it might just be a few months. Great yard, fenced, house is big enough and we could do so much with it. Unfortunately, it has to be gutted and redone; outside, the deck has to be demolished and remade. Plus whatever is wrong with the pool.

The other one we didn't see till yesterday. I'd been watching it online for months. It appears to be tiny, but it has over 1400 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and even has a shower out on the deck. It has lots of cool touches the current owner has added. We could move right in and make any changes as we wanted to and had the money to do. It's also the least-expensive of all of the houses we've seen.

It has a smaller yard, but it's all fenced with coral, which really makes it look like Florida. We could do a lot with the yard. And to seal the deal, a Key deer buck wandered up the driveway while we were in the back yard. One of the owner's dogs, a small Pookie-like male, went to greet him. The deer shook his antlers at the dog, who then casually turned and came back toward us. The deer didn't bolt, and the dog didn't bark.

J and her family are coming in tonight and will stay through Sunday. I'm looking forward to it. Then, unfortunately, we have to leave Tuesday morning so the family who owns the condo can use it. There was a death in the family so they'll all be in the area. We plan to take it slow going home.

Later! Hope you're all well.

Tonia (Knitted to a T) had her second child this afternoon, a beautiful BIG boy! Mother, father, big brother, and baby are doing great. Congratulations, Tonia!

Testing 1-2-3 Is this thing on?

Let's see if this works!

Looks like it might. But I sent a test photo that hasn't shown up yet. I wonder where that is?

Well, crap. I tried sending it twice. Maybe I'll eventually get it.

Maybe.

Slow down!

Good grief. The summer is going by far too quickly.

I don't seem to be able to post with the Crack. I've totally forgotten how to type on an actual keyboard. Today is the first time I've driven in a month.

Let me tell you, living in the Keys is tough, dude.

We're looking at houses and have actually seen a few that we could move right in to. Many are disgusting dumps. Not a whole lot of choice in our price range, but more open every day. We saw a brand new townhouse in Key West, but it's really small and we have a lot of stuff.

I'm going through emails from realtors, looking at the properties they've emailed me. It takes forever, and we only have internet access at the library. The Crack is useless for something like that, but I'm having a blast keeping up on email and Facebook (Rita Knits is my name--join me!) and I'll miss that when we go back to the mountains and don't have cell phone coverage. It works well here for that.

Gotta run. We love it here. We can see ourselves living here. When I have time/opportunity, I'll post some photos. The Key deer are very friendly, very cute, and I've gotten to rub the velvety antlers of several males. Males are friendlier than females. We've seen tiny fawns, about Zippy's size.

Zippy is happy being a Key dog. He knows he has to go to the elevator to go O-U-T. There are huge iguanas all over the place, some as big as he is. He doesn't chase them. I think they could take him in an instant.

Later! I hope you're enjoying the summer. I really miss reading all of your blogs and hearing from you. I'll catch up when I can.

OH--Eric Brace has a new song and video, "Tranquility Base", an homage to the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. Beautiful song, available on iTunes, and the video is on YouTube.