Yesteryear
One year ago today: August 6, 2024, uncoordinated apologies.
Five years ago today: August 6, 2020, please silver, panic!
Nine years ago today: August 6, 2016, planning the electric.
Random years ago today: August 6, 2009, now, it’s a crime.
A trip is pending. It didn’t take me long to realize building shingle walls was not a substitute for adventure—by my standards, anyway. The gulf coast seems the logical place to visit, I had a great time just driving the area between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs. Florida maps are misleading, distances often seem smaller due to the popular Mercator maps. You know, I’d give a lot to know a lady that just likes to go on day trips, but with a few conditions. I knew twenty years ago that would be hard to find. The reality is you find countless women who say that is what they want, but they are all husband-hunting or hovering. For my conditions, see addendum.

Saying to hell with it, I stuffed the $321 in my pockent, picked a place called Howard Park Causeway off the satellite map (because it looks like a parking lot near a beach), and piled in the van at 9:54AM. Let’s see how far we get and what I want money cannot buy. Let’s see how far I get and if we can extract any fun from it. I got more than I thought, see this photo. This is a $1,600 electric bicycle parked on a nearly empty street in Tarpon Springs. So what? Well, it is not locked up or chained to a post. It is just sitting there.
Okay, six hours, 1/3 tank of gas, and 159.2 miles later, we return to base after one of the most unusual trips in Florida yet. I drove through Pinellas County, an area known to may only because of the extensive crime reports in the media. I was not much past Brandon when I noticed something was different. I’ve only been in Tarpon Springs, where I went today but I’ve driven through this area. I was on the freeway east of Oldsmar right at noon hour when it hit me. Traffic was moving at the speed limit. I began to look around.
Unbelievable. Traffic was light, polite, and spread out. There were people in their yards and women on the sidewalks. Nobody was cutting me off, the system was working, and then it hit me. All the illegals were gone. I don’t know they are deported, but they are certainly nowhere to be seen. The people in the yards, the women, even the teens working at the car washes were all White. All I’m saying is I know this area and this is a major shift in public atmosphere. I do recall hearing that ICE has been aggressive in the area and there is no comparison to last time I was here.

I didn’t make it to the beach. The drive itself was pleasant enough, this is remarkable in that part of town. Instead, I pulled into the tiny historic district of Tarpon Springs, attracted by this bookstore sign, alas it was closed. A block away I found the street I had visited by sidecar seven years ago, it was. Lots of small shops, more shops than tourists. A couple beauties in a coffee shop when I notice just across from where I was standing in 2018, a railroad museum. I’d missed it because the signage was on the side street. I love railroad museums.
But I don’t care for railroads. On the leg out the four-lane was stopped for twenty minutes by this phosphate delivery. Notice how the train crawls along, not late at night but just before noon. If that does not disrupt traffic enough, they stop the train completely for ten minutes. I swear, the engineers are repressed jocks who think they are showing off to female motorists or something.
One thorn in this trip was using GPS. The system lacks depictions of obvious landmarks like rivers and bridges. Instead you get millennial icons like Taco Bell and psychic readers. But worst is the lack of a 3N setting. (No Nog Neighborhoods.). The device showed a route on Orient Drive, and it was scary. It showed as a link between Hwy 60 and E Hillsborough. Mercifully, it was daylight and only a few miles. This was not immigrants, it was the hood.
ICE has also removed its former age limit of 37 for investigative and administrative positions. It caused 80,000 applications for the approved 10,000 jobs. They must give priority to vets so the positions are not like to be filled by the bleeding hearts found in other government positions.
Current events? In a swing away from social media (which is just mass media by another name) we see a rise in the number of member’s only networks. This blog is safe for now. Huge numbers of whales, sharks, and dolphins have begun washing up on the beaches in south Australia.
Picture of the day.
European underwater cables.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
The building was an old railway depot. I was disappointed to find it was not strictly a railroad museum, but a historic collection of the general area. One section was about the Greek sponge fishers who began arriving in 1905, around the time the original railway station burned down. Most of the artifacts went up in flames and was replaced by various displays of model fishing boats and wooden tools. But nothing took me by surprise as much as this old photo of a boat captain. My business partner 55 years ago was descended from Greece and there he was staring me in the face. That is precisely now I imagine he’d look at around age 50. That, people, could be my longest term childhood friend, I’ve to to sent his photo to his brother.

Two other items got my attention. This is an actual set of telegraph keys and sounders from the period. I have no doubt they were still in use during WWII. There are three sounders and four keys shown. Just last day, I found an old relay in the silo and rigged it to m bench supply to see if it worked. Yes, and it was surprisingly loud for it’s size. I now have my own sounder.
Sadly, the museum lacked much by way of labels and descriptions. They still got me for a $5 tip. I was the only person present other than the staff. Some over-talkative grandmother types. Don’t say it, because I am not the grandfather type. At all.
This canceled any trips to the beach, between the growing heat and my back decided it did not care for the streets of the town, which is built on small hilly terrain. It’s a sleepy town and the only place I spent any real time today. I did not stop for coffee, unusual for me, but I had skipped breakfast and grabbed a salad and sandwich where there was easy parking. Wal*Mart, the lot was nicely empty. It’s amazing how once the illegals are gone how the system begins to work like it was designed to do. This is not racist, this is a direct opinion based on what I saw myself.

TMOR, no America is not “built by immigrants”, that is a debunked political talking point. We are being treated to a secondary bonus—the number of outlets that are closing mysteriously now that USAID has been cut. While there was no direct connection, say to all the MSM news outlets and talk shows canning staff and NPR/PBS who claimed “only 1%” of their money came from the government, the pattern is blatant to all but the deliberately blind. And 2/3 of the subsidized non-English radio stations are gone.
Nor did I stop in New Port Ritchie, which I roundabout intended. Most of these places are former fishing villages with an historic downtown. I had a spring in my step earlier in the day. It went away, making me glad to beeline it home and crawl under the A/C.
There was something else that typified the change in Florida now that we have Alligator Alcatraz. The illegals not yet rounded up have gone into hiding. There are no protests blocking the streets, no shirts and handbags sporting Guatemalan flags, and the general arrogance is absolutely gone. No trace of it, it is truly amazing. But one of the greatest telltale signs is the return of public cleanliness. I noticed all the city drinking fountains were working again and the water bowls appeared clean. I did not dare, but as I say, the signs are unmistakable.
The total cost of this adventure including my $5 donation to the museum, but not the gas, was $13.22. I returned home down I-75 as there is a serious lack of east-west roads through much of Florida.
Another signal the economy is rebounding is new construction. One that has some worried around here is the massive truck stop and fueling station on the west end of Bartow. It is a far more convenient location than the downtown stations built before the freeway. They’ve had a virtual monopoly until now.
The long trip gave me time to listen to most of “Cross Country Murder”. It’s pretty disjointed and easy to lose track of who is already dead. This is characteristic of Pattison, who does not write his own stories. Yes folks, it is all ghost written. All the original people in the plot are dead except two women and a police guy or two, but there is still two disks left. They are sitting around pointing fingers and I would not be surprised if the twins turn out to be triplets or something.
Las Vegas reports a decline in young people spending their money on booze and gambling. The public radio stations mentioned earlier to are screaming about the
loss of tax money they say is not there. My dislike of the US hotel-motel mafia may soon be less isolated, as UVeye is installed in private rooms. It seems Lowe’s and Home Depot are under scrutiny for using license plate readers in their parking lots. The Polish train manufacturer Newag has been zapped for installing software that disabled the engines if repaired by anybody else.
ADDENDUM
I like to think I’m flexible on this, but since this is not a “date” but a quest for some interesting company, here’s what I’d like. Ideal for openers would be a gal who chips in for half the gas, just like I would if we took her vehicle. Sure, I’ll spring for the small stuff, coffee and such, but a meal these days is $20 plus tips, so make that dutch treat. Now, here is where it gets tricky. I don’t want anybody just along for the ride. How about somebody that is actually interested in the places visited, who doesn’t mind stopping just to see, who goes along with a little fun, and has some intelligence about the situation.
Maybe I’m spoiled. By fun, I mean you’ve seen the comic photos and various posed shots of the Reb & I. It seems with most other women, even that is asking too much. They seem to lack that spark that makes each date memorable. Zero sense, they have zero sense of taking an ordinary touristy situation and turning it into fun. You are darn rights I miss that and why I love spending time with the Reb. You just can’t find that, I hate to say it, after a certain age it seems.
I don’t dream much as I used to but today I featured a character I did not like. He was a band leader assistant in the only marching band I ever played in. I tried to learn the saxophone but was never very good at it. But the rest were even worse, so the band guy would have me play the parts solo, knowing I would make mistakes. His name was in my dream, Phillip Tacit. He was an asshole but nobody would say anything in those days because he was adopted.
He was also 15 when the rest of us were 12 and he was apparently a rather talented trumpet player. This three-year gap is supreme at that age, and one year later old Phillip learned to hate me. What happened? Well, at age 13 I had two things he never did. My own band and with it a free ticket to almost every gal in junior high. I doubt he even knew such was possible, but jealousy and hatred were commonplace. Once I figured out that was what was eating the guy, and most of the other heroes in town, I dropped the marching band and went on to exploits the rest of them could only fantasize about. I doubt many people know Phillip Tacit today if he’s still around.
Last Laugh