Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal 7000-1 Radio

The Zenith Trans-Oceanics are among the most iconic of all portable multi-band radios ever produced here in the United States. 

This one belonged to my dad. It's considered a vintage collectible. Made in the early 1970's.
It has the power cord attached, but also runs on batteries. It does work, I was able to hear local FM stations, the weather channel and some other channels that I couldn't understand the language. I'm not sure how it all works, but I do have the manual as well. 

See this radio and more in my vintage Etsy Shop!

Icicles, Winter 2010

Icicle in Florida, winter of 2010.

Icicles in Ohio, winter of 2010.

No comparison. I'm staying in Florida.

Is My Butt on Fire?

It was 38 degrees here this morning with a wind chill advisory in effect. "Here" would be South Florida. While I spend most of the fall bitching about never having cold weather for the holidays and having to spend Christmas with the air conditioning on, I'm always surprised when we really do get a cold front. Not cold by most standards of course, but still I'm never prepared.

This morning I had to get up and go walk dogs in flannel pajama pants, Crocs with socks and two T-shirts covered by an old flannel shirt. Thankfully, the rest of the world never sees me during my rounds (except maybe the nosy neighbors of the homes I'm pet sitting for).

My son on the other hand, is always better dressed than mom. He actually got some warm sweat pants for Christmas (thank you KT!) and has a sweater to match. He even had on matching socks and sneakers!

The one thing I am very grateful for is that my car is always prepared. I discovered last winter that my car had heated seats. I've own the car for five years now and found the button by accident. I must of hit it by mistake while trying to do something else. All I know is I was riding along and suddenly my butt was on fire! Or so I thought. I pulled over off the road, got my son out of the car and waited for it to blow up.

Nothing happened. I didn't smell smoke, nothing was melting, so I decided to investigate.
That's when I noticed the little icon on my dash that was suppose to look like a seat, with a red light next to it. There was a matching icon and light on the right side of the dash. Huh? I touched the passenger seat and it was cold, so I turned the button on.

Low and behold, the seat got warm.

How could I have owned this car for five years and never known this?! My butt, not to mention my aching back was angry and thrilled at the same time. Ever since then, I have taken full advantage of this wonderful and self indulgent feature. I'm not much of a car enthusiast (I just need one that works) but this thin skinned South Floridian with no clothes would like to shake the hand of the person who invented heated car seats!

*Photo Credit:US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Spring Fever

I seem to be plagued with spring fever as of late. I can't get motivated to move outside and the weather here is not helping. The yard is so dry and yet the air is humid. We really need some rain. Only in Florida can you have a dead dry lawn and humidity that could choke you.

I used to love to garden, but honestly it wears my out. I plan to get the yard in shape so my son and I can enjoy it but there is a lot of work to be done. We have a problem with fire ants and wasps like everyone else here and I won't use a pest control service.

So I will be looking for natural ways to control them. I may have to hire someone to get it started and then I can just maintain it. I mean really, what good is living in Florida if you can't use your back yard?