May 9, 2024

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 9, 2023, Agt, R is fading.
Five years ago today: May 9, 2019, he forgot to mention . . .
Nine years ago today: May 9, 2015, it never ends.
Random years ago today: May 9, 2010, still got that hammer.

           I’m a wreck. So I took the day off and went for a drive, turned out to be 190 miles. Here is the water tower in Howie-in-the-Hills. I wound up driving around Grand Island to discover it is urban residential with a lot of orange orchards not touched by the fungus. Nope, nothing here. They do all their needs in the nearby towns of Eustis, Tavares, and Leesburg. Taken most of seven hours, I stopped a couple of times, but am not well.

           While the tummy pain has abated, other aches abound, so is it the flu? A stabbing pain at times above my left eye, a terrible aching left elbow it I try to straighten it, and an intermittent ringing in my right ear. Other than tat I’m fine. I threw a load in the dryer and was ravaged enough to make a huge helping of fried rice. My specialty, with coconut and sesame oil, extra onions, and a hint of chili. Sorry, no samples, it is all gone.

           I took the side roads north from Polk City, so some of it was familiar turf. But like the stretch southwest of hear (toward Sarasota) I’’ve only seen it out the window. It’s the Gulf again creating major humidity, it’s like driving in a cage, with the heat just a foot away hrough the auto glass. The radiation still gets to you, I made the whole drip with both A/Cs cranked. What a find, a fully restored and operating Twistee Treat. The sign said in operation 35 years, but that’s only since 1989. Many like me long for the days of old America, where it was a society dominated by hard working taxpayers and everybody else was kept in check.

           In too much pain to walk around, I took some of the side streets to see what’s there. Wanting an ice cream by now, I scouted Grand Island and Eustis, but nothing, not even a sign saying where to look. I miss the old America where you could get a coffee and a soft ice cream at the same place. The America we knew died in 1999, the year I came back from abroad. That’s why I noticed the downfall vastly more than those who it crept up on.
           There were some arrows pointing to the history district of Tavares. I almost missed that as well. You come up on these multi-lane intersections, and unless with a few seconds you guess which lane to stay it, you won’t find downtown. I finally doubled back and got there. Meaning I saw their historic electric substation, their historic tattoo parlor, and their historic pesticide outlet.

Picture of the day.
Goldern spitzhauben.
(rare Swiss chicken)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           So you won’t think the trip was no fun at all, here is a shot of a fire plug beside a tree somewhere in Howie-in-the-Hills, near the post office. I mailed notes to Hersh & Marion, and found a metal curbsided metal shelf. This photo is a restored wartime house, probably in Eustis. I cannot see such places without nostalgia, and often with deep resentment. These houses were already slum-like when I reached college age and I was pretty much forced to live in them, often working half a month just to pay the rent. Don’t had me that nonsense about working through college. Show me the person who claims they did, and I’ll find the shortcut they’re concealing. Remember Mark, who claimed he put himself through but then it turns out his parents had a mansion across the street?

           Houses like this two-story are now unaffordable to mere mortals. The countryside seems quite affluent but anybody who inherited anything nowadays is automatically wealthy. Orchards don’t get hit with the same level of inheritance tax as farmland, where most of the value is tied up in the soil, not the operations.
It was a pleasant trip with the three lacking features that used to make road trips nice. No mom & pop coffee ships, no young pretty women to be seen, and bums around every sidewalk and shopping mall. I pulled up to a Thrift and seeing this Nog on the sidewalk, plainly positioning herself to bother people, I stayed in the van hoping somebody else would get out first. No dice, two or three pulled up and backed right out. So did I.

           The on-line news reports somebody has found the “Top Secret” stickers the Feds used to plaster on the boxes in Trump’s mansion. Ooops! Here’s a video of the robot dog firing at a target. All I can say is these terrorists deserve what they are about to get. JZ found a house near Ft. Meyers in the $290s, but I dunno. He has no experience with the extra time and commitment of maintain a place that big. I reminded him how busy this place keeps me at a third square footage.

           That’s when I could understand him. He still goes to those rotten meetings that are doing him no good. Last Sunday he got a cold and I can barely hear him talking. But these days you do not go to an America hospital with a cold or the diversity hires well kill you for the COVID reward. It’s those meeting, as far as I’m concerned all those people have some unspeakable disease and it is best you keep away. New evidence is showing most of the casualties of the Spanish Flu died instead from pneumonia. From wearing masks.
           Something I stress is that JZ and I do not hang out with the same crowd. Other than a few chance meets with robot club members, we have no common acquaintances. That means he is unaware that of my original crowd from Miami, we are the only two left. He does not keep in touch. I asked about appendicitis, he says if the first bout goes away, that’s fine. But it will come back, and depending on the level of pain, go to the doc. It’s abating but I know a warning sign. JZ says it is definitely not appendicitis and overnight the pain will localize elsewhere.

           The accounting for today’s excusion. Gasoline was $24 and the soft ice cream cone was $2.39. That’s it and a good time was had by all. Radio reception was spotty, but we got some Linda Ronstadt. She never married, you know. But I don’t care for the portrayal of how she “bravely” sang many types of music. When you are born with talent, what’s brave about singing anything you want? Most people were too busy gobbling up news of Trump’s court proceedings, the US dollar was quietly downgraded by Fisk.

Last Laugh