Ariella, the granddaughter of the 103-year-old-man Ed was helping with as an ombudsman for the elderly, came down to Florida to see him and make sure he would be okay. The marriage to the illegal his ex d.i.l. made him marry is being annulled and she is being deported. Ariella came by our house two days ago with him in tow and we helped him into the house with his walker, and onto the pool deck and served iced diet coke and had a pleasant chat. He was very cogent although, Ed says, he has his confused days.

Ed told me she was coming about an hour beforehand, and that she might be staying the night with us. Zounds. I scrambled around putting stuff away, particularly in the spare bedroom that somehow manages to become a catchall, and its bathroom that Max loves to hang in and get cat hair all over. Ed helped and actually cleaned the kitty litter all on his own. What a noble fellow is he. But she decided to stay in a hotel. I told Ed it was okay, because we got the house clean. Nothing like an unexpected guest to get the juices flowing.

I had lunch today with Nadine and friends and we went to a little restaurant in Cape Coral called Brew Babies and it is much more elegant than it sounds, with a European-style patio and the food is very good. However, we won’t be going back because since the last time we were there, they have made the portions much smaller. I had grilled salmon, 3 oz., for $12 and served on a long oval dish about 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. What there was of it was very good.

Toni, who had this dish before said, “What happened?” and had the waitress check with the chef. The chef assured her and she reported that the salmon was carefully measured and it was, indeed, three whole ounces. I was thinking maybe I ought to write them a letter along the lines of, “I’m sorry you are going out of business. I know you are because you are obviously struggling and trying to save money by cutting the portions of your dishes. You must know this will only lead to losing even more customers until you have to close your doors. Obviously I and my friends who lunched with you on Wednesday and left still hungry, won’t be coming back.”

News of the pool: The new pool man added a chemical that chelates phosphorous that he said can build up in a pool and interfere with the chlorine that keeps algae from forming. The phosphorous coalesces on the bottom of the pool and must be vacuumed up. So Ed put the robot in. Adding to the gross look of the stuff on the bottom were about 300,000 flying insects that fell into the pool from somewhere, died (happy?), and massed into little clumps here and there. I was not about to swim in this. So before going to lunch, I skimmed for about an hour. Pesky little things.

Later, Nadine said her pool was full of them too and said they are the annual flying bug things that we get in these parts, except in former times they have been so numerous that they mass on your windows, and find their way into your house somehow and cover your bathroom and lampshades and people have to hose down their houses. Honest. But this time, it was just the pool.

xx, Teal