One Thing Different...One Thing The Same

The Bums Are Gone...

One bit of news that may interest you guys who have followed this blog (and of course Patti and Gary, my new friends from Creve Coeur, who have just started) for awhile. What do you see in these pictures?

The City of St. Pete has banned the bums from peddling at the street corner. I wrote rather extensively on this issue last winter, explaining that it is a lucrative profession. Most made around $45,000-55,000 by begging around here. You couldn't go very far without seeing another bum claiming homelessness/joblessness/and general hard times. St. Pete Times had a major spread on them, and they were very well off with their chosen profession. They all had hard-scrabble card board signs that they alternated depending on the day and traffic.
I am very pleased about this legislation. They have all gone over to Tampa and I hear they are having turf or corner wars with existing entrepreneurs over there. Likewise, other more reputable endeavors are banned as well like the MDA firemen on Labor Day and Sunday newspaper hawkers.

...But The Loons Are Still Here.

First day back and this dumbass is walking in the middle of the road and wouldn't get over. We had to wait for him and the Hindenburg to drift so we could get past. I was about to light it with my Bic and let history repeat itself. "Oh the humanity...". I wish Tim would have been here: he would have done something memorable with Joe Zeppelin here.

He was still messing with it when I checked on him later.

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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 facts of the murder and attempted murder are most unpleasant

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week. Except for me. I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers. These pics need no words. Why muddy the waters? They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley. The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter. If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one. But, please, no more.

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida. There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife. In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride. He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much. He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A. But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here. If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying. He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed. Note the propeller

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