Existing In BFE

In scrounging through what is left of my belongings after the Great Flood of BFE I recently came upon this gift certificate.  There is no date.  It is made out to me in my mother's writing.  It was, I'm sure, a Christmas gift for greens fees at the Aledo Hawthorn Ridge golf course.  It was signed by her for both of my parents.   On the back is a detail of an outing I used for $8.00.  In edgy state-of-the-art pre-digital or pre much of anything, save an abacus, this seems awful quaint.  The subtraction is clearly noted.   I have just a couple comments, then we'll dispense with this Flashback for today.   Is it me or does $24.00 seem a little off?  Traditionally aren't gifts are $20, or $25?  What's with $24? This is creepily ancient.  I wouldn't mind taking up a little golf again.  Unfortunately Holly threw my clubs in the garbage a few years ago.  Wonder if Hawthorne would honor this? ...

It was a slow week at the Spare-The-Rod Daycare center so Norah and I decided to shake things up and go to the Vinoy for a walk.  The sea breeze, the birds flocking out in the Bay, the soon-to-be-demolished Pier, the power people-watching, and all she is interested in is a squirrel.  That's life as an 18-month old, I reckon. Take a walk with us, but sssshhh, you'll scare the wildlife.  And while we are Ssshhhhh-ing it, I'm not going to say much more.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Let's just walk. By the way, the Vinoy is on my top 3 places to go here in St. Petersburg.  This is where one can find a park bench and look out at the Bay, watch people jogging, biking, and walking.  It is next to a small airport and you can watch planes practicing their takeoffs and landings.  On special days you can catch a cruise ship entering or leaving.  There are freighters, big planes heading to Tampa from all over, to just simply watching...

We are a strange lot, we bikers, we revelers of the open air.  Take a bike, any bike.  Engineers painstakingly build it to ride without vibration from a large mechanized engine straddling its loins.  They consider stress points, weld joints, weight, torques, thrust, braking, centrifugal forces, all the while throwing onto this frame a tank with gasoline, wiring that stretches around the block, and untold bolts, gauges, pads, tires, forks and springs. Engineers build it and the art department beautifies it.  They do the color coding, matching, accenting, what to chrome, what to black out, what to blink, what to open, what to hide and what is slick or rubberized.  The engineers do their thing, the art department does its thing, then they give it to the sales and ad people to sell it.   And what do we buyers do when we get them home?  We modify it.  We change it.  We take things off, then replace and tinker with it, tweak it and indirectly s...

We are wrapping up the Mugshot Mondays, so we can start our Cub Reporter pics, vids and comments from YOU!  Send anything to bfe reporter@yahoo.com and we'll post them on Mondays. Bad... ...hair day. Hmmm. Let's hope he's got a great personality.  Pretty in pink. The look of someone who had a rough night but enjoyed it. Intense.    Wearing a tux but has that Rasputin look going on.  Would love to know how his night went South. There is nothing this red on the color spectrum, except maybe that guy's nose below. His 'grille be gleamin'...and proud of it. Ouch!!

You remember this holiday don't you?  It's the minor one squeezed between Halloween and Christmas. Whatever your plans are, be they large or small, give thanks to yourself, your God or your Guardian Angel for the things you have.  It can all change in the beat of a heart.   Tell your family you love 'em, your friends they matter, and while you're at it give yourself a big hug, you've made it this far.  This year we will be honored to have dine with us Sgt. Robert Jumper of the 101st Airborne out of Clarksville, Tennessee.  Sgt. Jumper is a an old friend of Brendan's and will travel to Florida this week to see him and join us on Thanksgiving.         HAPPY THANKSGIVING There will be no Flashback Friday this week. 

I've watched too much Mad Men.  My marketing tagline for Kumho Tires: Put Some Rubber On Your Rod.  Huh?  Huh? Speaking of rods, spotted this at LA Fitness Center on 4th Street.  Damn fine 57 T-Bird to be used for such a chore.  Only about a $70,000 machine to get you to a $300 treadmill. Something bad happened at this intersection.  Bent bike tire and rescue and cop cars is never good. Poor Little Lily Lu cowering from the nasty crows outside at the Sutor residence.  She has learned to watch her flank.  (Wonder how high she'll jump when Santa comes down the chimney?) But a future as a mighty hunter is in doubt.      Santa arrived at the Mall down here on Saturday, November 10th.  I realize it is marketing to boost sales, and I'm sure it works otherwise they wouldn't do it.  But this early brings into question the whole spirit of the Holidays.  I must be naive. In this ...

As I have mentioned before we live in a condo community. The living areas are a miss-mash of one-floor, two-floor, single and double occupancy residences. Everybody gets a garage. I'm in a 2-story but the woman next to me is in a single. The other day I opened the garage and saw this. The paint from the ceiling was coming down in clumps and it was raining inside.  This surreal vision was something new to me.   What had happened was the neighbor's water heater had sprung a leak and come down on   my garage.  Good thing I didn't have an old car in there.  Although I always kept mine under cover, this wet, soppy, paint and drywall plaster would not have been good for my car.  As it was, nothing was damaged. I post this just so you know that things happen in Paradise, as well as in God's Country, the Midwest.   After a 4-car garage this one isn't much, but its better than nothing.   They tell us some people wi...

We are ending the Mugshot Mondays, so we can start our Cub Reporter pics, vids and comments from YOU! Send anything to bfereporter@yahoo.com and we'll post them on Mondays. This is a video submitted by Russ Foust, fellow Phi Delt and Iowa Wesleyan alumni. This is what he had to say. "You've goaded me into responding.  Unfortunately, I am no video shooter (??).  For your consideration, though, here is a link to a video I put together for a 9/11 ten year memorial service for church a little over a year ago.  It has no original pictures - just a collection of on-line pictures and videos.  I thought it was good at the time, but perhaps now a bit dated.  Use or embed as you see fit; if it's not what you would like, go ahead and pass.  I'll keep working on my journalistic skills, and try to send a little bit of the "Life in Nebraska" as time goes forth. I should point out that the rather poor quality photo of a group of people going into...