Further Ramblings

1. My number one driving action that gets me more riled than anything else: long stretch of road with no one behind me. Car comes up to an intersection up ahead. Sits. and sits, and then pulls out in front of me, and slows me up. Man! Seems to happen all the time out this way.

2. I like my Kindle. Just downloaded "The Art of Racing In the Rain" on a recommendation from Karen in England. It is about a dog who believes if he does everything right he will be reincarnated as a human.

3. Speaking of dogs, I received Missy's ashes this last weekend. I have to say it was a bit of a letdown: no kisses, no wagging tail, no begging.

4. Saw this in the paper last night. I know Rose and Greg, and this must have been a good one.

5. I haven't totally embraced recycling. Out here in BFE there is no recycling but I do try to save my aluminum. I remember taking a truckload of cans to G & M and getting enough back to have one of those great "Wow!" moments and then being able to order Pizza Hut for everyone and having some cash left over. Well, I took 6 bags of cans to town yesterday and had enough to get a medium butterscotch sundae at DQ. Not exactly a "wow" moment, but, hey, enough for a "mmmm" 5 minutes.

6. Its 45 degrees in the house as I write this but with forecasts of 80 by Friday I refuse to turn on the heat.

7. My fantasy baseball team sucks as we head toward the third week of the season. Right now I am in next-to-last place. I made three trades in the pre-season and may have out smarted myself.

8. I fixed liver and onions over the weekend and they were great.

9. Adam Lambert is phenomenal. Strange kid but a great singer. Best of American Idol this year.

10. I'm going to Florida on May 22nd for a long Memorial Day weekend. I'll be back Tuesday the 26th.

11. Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meier to Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat: "Sir, I can forgive you for killing our children. What I cannot forgive is you making us kill yours."

12. Thanks for breakfast Mark.

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Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless. Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001. It was one of those things that can generate crime: two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job. Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things. Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold. But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find. His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead. He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds. He will be paralyzed for life. None of this is pleasant. Reading the f...

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

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Statuary In North Straub Park

The Vinoy is not the only park in town. The place is fairly littered with them, and almost all, except Bum Paradise, are pretty nice. This is North Straub and they have some old pieces in that seem to have suffered from time and perhaps human folly. These and some 30 other statues were imported from Italy by local developer C. Perry Snell to help beautify the city. Mr. Snell was in real estate and during the depression he went on a European shopping trip to collect items for the city. He obtained these from Italy and installed them in this park even after the bottom fell in the markets. He fulfilled his obligations at great personal loss to his own company and wealth. Halso continued to pay his staff during those tough times. He developed many areas in the city, Vinoy, Snell Isle, Crescent Lake and the beach area down around Fort DeSoto. He lived from 1869 until 1949 and then buried in Kentucky. I wo...

Existing In BFE

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