Existing In BFE

It was a hot Friday, November 1st, and I was antsy.  I determined I needed a spin on the bike.   I decided to take a brief trip to Parrish which is across the Skyway and east a few miles.  (I also wondered if I could put 4 "I's" in two sentences.  Ordinarily I would change that out but it is a bit of a power-trip to "me", so I'll leave it alone.)  There was a road that I remembered over there that the old boys and their Goldwings and I would take on one of our Sunday trips as a group.  (See how good I am: 10 I's in 6 sentences.) This was the canopied road outside Parrish I remembered.   Eerily beautiful on either side of the road.   Kind of a strange looking backyard.  Some sort of lily and palm bushes. Lillies?  Canna's?  Don't know but pretty.   This is kind of a strange sign on a couple levels.  Not the least of which is the mangled spelling.  And goat rustling?  I've heard of Amber and Silver Alerts.

On Sunday, November 3, I finally made it to the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum, spurred by a pamphlet that I had picked up somewhere a couple years ago.  I never went but decided it was time.  I wish I would have gone sooner.  For an old car enthusiast (read "nut"), this was a truly exciting place and was much better than watching football.   Just up the road a ways on Rt. 34 and then turning into the Gateway Centre, nestled in some industrial buildings rests the nicely designed site.   When I walked in (there were only 3 or 4 in there at the time), I was met by John who took my $6 and gave a brief explanation of the cars.  This is what he said:  All of the cars are owned by a private family (Cerf) headed up by the guy who invented shrink-wrap.  He is from France so most of the cars are European.  All of the cars are fully licensed, have their keys in them, and are driven by family members, or taken to car shows, or just around the block to keep them in great working order.  

1.  I am beginning my 27th month of boycotting Wal-Mart.  Except for a trip to one in Aledo sometime this summer and maybe once down here in an emergency, I have avoided Wal-Mart.  I detest them.  Long lines (one that lasted 42 minutes once) sealed the deal and I haven't missed them a bit.  In fact, I have even applied for a Target card that gets me 5% off on all my purchases.   I was curious as to whether my not being a customer has affected them so I looked at their chart.  In the past year this is what I discovered.  On October 9th of last year the stock price was 74.14.  On October 9th of 2103 it was $73.00, a drop of $1.14.  Clearly my absence has made a dramatic effect on Wal-Mart.  Sadly, however, my egomania falls apart when looking at the stock price for two years.  It has risen $18.99 cents since October 12th of 21011.   Given that statistic it doesn't look like they have missed me at all.   But they still won't get me back.   2.   If you can r

We lived at 492 East Grove Street before heading kitty-korner to 515 Chambers.  The years were 1983 to 1988.  Here are some weather related pictures during that time. I'm not sure of the year but this hail storm was considered a pretty big thing in these parts.  Most roofs in town had to be re-done.  It caused a great deal of damage and we kept a few of these stone sin the freezer for awhile.  They were golf-ball sized and smaller.  This is on the front porch looking east.  That fellow on the bike must have had a rough ride.  I don't remember but I wish I offered him shelter. This was not the first flood that we experienced here.  The house sat at the lowest point in the street next to Cedar Creek.  When it rained hard and rained a lot we suffered.  These were taken from the back porch looking east and south. My present Nikon was not the first fancy camera I had.  My first was a Canon Rebel back in the film days.  Then, like now,

There's Mama!  Let's finish our walk at Sawgrass.   I do believe he is eating something.  Which is how I spotted him, he lunged and caught my eye. Hard to count but there were maybe around 15 little gators here under the watchful eye of Mom. Some of the wildlife is on the boardwalk. Thanks for joining me once again for a walk at Sawgrass Park Nature Preserve, where the trail must have been designed by a giggling 12 year old kid.