As usual, M. Lee has us on the run like rats so gotta go but here are a few photos for now. Have a great day.
View from the "courtyard" |
Saddest street sign I ever saw |
View from the "courtyard" |
Saddest street sign I ever saw |
Sunny the dog |
Morning from the mid-levels |
Morning descent |
Hong Kong waterfront from the ferry. |
Street scene from the tram |
Reflections in a mud puddle |
Keyboard Cat readies for our departure. |
Next stop China then Thailand |
Those are Frankie's feet in the lower right hand corner. |
Bird on the Century Plant |
Leo in the fronds |
Meeting the mammoth of long ago |
Father, son and the sea |
Winds of Change....
CORRECTION: It has been called to my attention that, according to Snopes, Warren Buffet did not write this Act though he did inspire it. Sorry. I should have checked myself. You know what they say about something being "too good to be true". Anyway, it's still a good idea. Of course, getting Congress to pass it would be...well...you know, impossible.
*Congressional Reform Act of 2013*
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.
2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?
But what the hell? Pass it on.
Alachua temple |
Cool Al's code. Behave or leave. |
Rainy day on Alligator Creek. |
The last of it. |
One last screen porch wildlife rescue. |
From the screen porch it looks like a candle casting flickering light on the ceiling. From another room it looks like a glowing blue faerie imprisoned in a lantern covered by a cloth. It's the fried modem blinking on top of the dead TV, both left awestruck by the visitation of last night's lightning and it's mind-numbing EMP. It doesn't matter about the TV but we need the cable for internet. That does matter. And it would be nice to have A/C when Thea Bella and her parents arrive tomorrow. M. Lee opened the screen porch sliding door today and all the windows to cool off the house. They will be open until the A/C gets fixed. It's nice. Welcome to Real Florida, chillins.
19:30 GMT
Just now Swami, Minerva and I had to come in from the screen porch. Rain is getting my laptop wet. This is only the second evening since getting to Florida that we've been inside. I don't like it a bit I can't afford to ruin another computer.
21:59 GMT
I'm posting this from my phone. It's very quiet around the house now. M. Lee is getting up early to do a Metric Century so he's already sleeping. Swami, Minerva and I are still inside. The storm fried the router and the modem so no internet. It was fast and furious.
A low pressure center settled over Cancun, squished the topical storm brewing there and spewed it out over the Gulf, or so says Weather Underground. A wisp of that must have made it up to Alligator Creek. Something did anyway. And it dropped two, count them.....ONE.....TWO..... bolts of lightning right on our little cracker shack. Holy FUCKING GOD!
The house is on stilts and the lightning dropped below the upper level. I swear I saw it possess my computer screen for a moment. I know that's impossible but my new theory about lightning is that, like rainbows, it has an aura surrounding it as well as being the "thing" we see with our primate vision. Anyway...TWO...
BAM!!! BAM!!!
My teeth could have exploded right out of my head and it wouldn't have shocked me more. There was only enough time after the first blast to babble and huddle together before the second bomb exploded somewhere between us and Frieda's Pineapple Palm (which touches the house). Did I say Holy Fucking God?
And then it was over but for the rumbling and the rain. Now frogs are happily croaking outside in the lagoon otherwise known as the lawn.
Leo munching a tasty peanut butter sandwich at the beach |
Frank says NO to hats! He won. |
The gods mock me. My bday fortune from the Chinese buffet |
Snooty the Manatee celebrated his 65th Birthday with a tower of fruit last week as the Ancients sang Happy Birthday. |
Misters Leo and Frank |
Billy the Kid via wikipedia |
"You gotta have heart. That's what I put on the internet too. You gotta have heart."
"......my daughter, her own cousin says, what a beautiful Italian woman."
"I read the whole biography of Billy the Kid the other day... Died on July 14th, 1881. 21 years-old. Blue-eyed. Weighed 120 lbs... The first time he went to jail he escaped... Went to Arizona on a horse, alone.... Went to New York on a horse, alone.... Mexico, on a horse.... alone.... before he was 21.... He was in the desert by himself.... He had to go to to the Indians.
He has (Yes. He said "has") some brains.... Five hundred miles of desert.... You know his mother was an immigrant... Came over on a boat from Ireland... His mother died when he was 15.... 15... so he started runnin around... got in trouble, whatever... his step-father didn't want nothin to do with him so he went out west... He looked at Florida and said "what the hell?"
Kewpie doll via wikipedia |
"They had a kwepie doll, know what I mean?... I lost everything I had....bowls, furniture, my gun, everything.... Left me in a little bit of shit.... But anyways, I was packing up to leave, the house was full of crabs and fleas. I had no vehicle, no money, my social security check was cut off..."Then Mom returned from the ravioli run.
"What the hell is this? Who wrecked this chair? What the hell happened here?"Sonny Boy,
"I put tape over it."And thus ended the Sunday bull session.