Take Out the Trash Day

Whizzbang

The way the dog trots out the front door
every morning
without a hat or an umbrella,
without any money
or the keys to her doghouse
never fails to fill the saucer of my heart
with milky admiration.
Who provides a finer example
of a life without encumbrance-
Thoreau in his curtainless hut
with a single plate, a single spoon?
Gandhi with his staff and his holy diapers?
Off she goes into the material world
with nothing but her brown coat
and her modest blue collar,
following only her wet nose,
the twin portals of her steady breathing,
followed only by the plume of her tail.
If only she did not shove the cat aside
every morning
and eat all his food
what a model of self-containment she
would be,
what a paragon of earthly detachment.
If only she were not so eager
for a rub behind the ears,
so acrobatic in her welcomes,
if only I were not her god.

~ Billy Collins

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Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor. Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE . They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too. Count Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery. Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians. The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's. This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here. This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area. This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out. The place is full of oak and ...

Flashback Friday

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Warsaw Brewery

Roadtrip! That word is like a dog whistle to me. The Wombie's played coy with me a couple days but finally we loaded into the Chevy (sadly, no Jeep) and headed south to Warsaw, Illinois. They tried to keep it a secret as to what was down there but loose lips sink ships but it was good anyway. Warsaw is a small town around Hamilton and to get there you get to travel the Great River Road along the Mississippi. You get to go through Nauvoo, too and get to see the magnificent Mormon Temple overlooking the river. Its a great couple hours of scenery and juicy things to see and then, before you know it, you are trying to find an old closed brewery that has been transformed into a restaurant and bar. There are many overlooks and scenic cut outs along the Great River Road. There is even a little history if you are into it. This marker notes the place where a vanished town, Montebello, used to exist. It was also the...

Existing In BFE

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