September 12, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: September 12, 2024, the museum won.
Five years ago today: September 12, 2020, I built that myself!
Nine years ago today: September 12, 2016, moving costs.
Random years ago today: September 12, 2019, Spartanburg to Jacksonville.

           It was a fast-paced but ho-hum trip, unless you truly like necessary shopping. The two big changes are JZ is now finally converted to eating grits. That took twenty years and so did getting him to spring for a real coffee maker. I told you, it’s old-school shown here, but quite the giant leap forward. That’s why it’s bloggable along with my first and hopefully final stop at Gatorama. It is so different from the exciting spot I was advised that I wonder if I got the right stop. If you look close enough, it is really brewing coffee, though I had to give instructions on how to get it perfect with these ancient artifacts.

           Another noticeable change is the much shorter distances we travel when we leave the condo these days. Even five years ago we’d think nothing of zipping up to Ft. Lauderdale. The surprise is not this slow-down, but that it happened 25 years later than the rest of the pack. We proceeded to walk another couple miles, not bad.

           I was back home by mid-afternoon, two days late, but happy that everybody has made it this far. Miami has turned into a real shit-hole, although the behavior in the nicer parts of town is quite improved by the ICE raids. As the supply of illegals dries up, prices are rising, though that is to be expected. JZ and I had to drive 8 miles to find a place to pay my phone bill and were famished enough to stop at a breakfast spot he remembered as great. It wasn’t. A dreary rainstorm didn’t help. What’s happening is the shops are having to hire Americans and pay real wages. It’s become like California ten years ago, where instead of lowering prices, they start shortcutting the customer.
           We walked in to find everything was behind glass and even the condiments are now priced separately. JZ likes hot sauce and that was 50ȼ extra. Nothing is on the tables because if the customers don’t steal it, the staff will. I stopped for coffee five times, and ordered food twice and whenthe atmosphere is markedly different in the same manner, half-way across town, figure out it is definitely the system that is changing. I picked up on it right away, as I’ve not been in south Miami for a year. Maybe it is better described as a faint sense that the free ride is over.

           I stayed yet another half-day to get the chasing around done that needs a vehicle. JZ finally admits he may have had a stroke last week. You know he won’t go to emergency but he made an appointment with his primary. He’s stubborn so who knows how bad it might be. It could be that overdue wakeup call. If so, he made it 22 years longer than I did. Ah, but what’s always a treat for me is people who disagree with my attitude and method until they try to get something done. What an amazing transformation.
           Quick news, silver closes above $42, Kirks assassin fits that typical blank-faced stare of the thoroughly indoctrinated. The fake media will make him a hero and start a GoFund for the little bastard. And of course, the FBI will make sure all the evidence never really adds up. The kid once dressed up in a pro-Trump Halloween costume which the worst of the MSM are parading as “proof” he was a Republican, as in, “see, you people kill same as us”. Kind of an odd thing to say, that one.

Picture of the day.
Platinum refinery, Zimbabwe.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           On recommendations, I made a point to stop at the Gatorama attraction between Moore Haven and Palmdale. Or where Palmdale used to be. I’ve been past it and it never seemed that busy. I stopped in to find the admission was $22.50 plus tax for a 15 minute show of feeding the gators. I declined. There were T-shirts for sale $34.99, I mean everybody has to make a living, just no entirely off me. There was a plastic gator head, see photo, I didn’t check the price.

           Of more interest was the territory some 25 miles further, that huge orange grove area that was wiped out by the fruit flies, or was it the blight? It’s sat for years and I’ve not seen it since the Zolfo Springs road was too rough to drive. It has since been resurfaced, which is why I used the route. It looks like they finally just dug up the dead orange trees and even scraped away the topsoil. It is bare to the sand except for some 10% of the space planted with trees of some sort, individually wrapped.
           I was tempted to drive down one of the orchard trails for some closer photos but there were too many people standing around. It is being expensively coverted to some other fruit and there is a sign advertising strawberries. I spent most of the trip thinking through the situation and Miami has really lost most of that dazzle needed for tourist money. At the library we pulled up live camera of the Miami Beach area which used to be alive with scantily-clad babes and it was deserted.

           Finally done with the crazy chick audiobook, I got another into the slot and immediately liked it better. More details soon, but so far is it about a nothing town called “Wheatfield” with a one-legged mayor who was elected as a joke, and then elected again. His major duty is running the town’s ride-on mower over the only park in town once a month. His hobby is shooting flies in his single-wide with a pellet gun. Then this 17-year-old kid comes up with this crazy idea to bring in money.

           They buy up all the abandoned shacks in town and fake an apparition of the Virgin Mary in an old Catholic church. The media jump on it and soon the town is booming again, with no vacancies due to all the pilgrims. The kid is not making $1,800 per week. And this is a recent audio book as it mentions Trump and contemporary issues. Then a turn of events as a mystery sniper is shooting tourists in the hip. Afraid of losing their gold mine, the mayor calls in the state crime bureau. And this is only half of disk one. I love it already.

           I’ve already closed the books on this trip, $155.24. Enough to make me question if four trips a year are worth it. I spent $10 on those 3-inch #8 screws [for use here] and did not have to eat $12 meals, but tht0tap is twice my $71 monthly travel money. Mind you, I’m just only caught up to last month on that budget, so there is still hope for a weekend out and about here yet. Alone, of course, because while all the single women around here are perfect for JZ, to me they are still too grandmotherly for even company.
           It won’t pass the censors but I got a few minutes of an increasingly rare sight. Both JZ and I have now had heart and back problems. I had the new Vivitar [camera] which has a remote control and got us walking full speed to the mailbox and out to the van. Increasing rare footage indeed. Um, JZ was slowly getting his basic hand tool kit together again. They reminded Kar too much of work, so she set them out on the balcony. They are now all ruined.

Last Laugh