Our first picture of the day is one I took on the way to the beach. As you know Tropical Storm Fay dumped a lot of water on these parts and it's still around. This is the normally meager St. John's River that meanders North. I say meager because although it is quite wide in some areas this spot off the Beachline (formerly known as the Bee Line Expressway) is usally hardly detectable. As you can see the water covers everywhere in sight.
Secondly, yesterday I dropped off a picture at Judy's house in Altamonte Springs. Notice where her jet ski is parked in the upper right corner--yes, that is where the lake typically stops. She tells me the water was even higher a week ago. Until I saw it with my own eyes I couldn't imagine it. Sadly, the grass underneath all this will be dead when the waters finally recede. I was wrong about yesterday being rainy, in fact it was unusually pleasant, however, it is raining as I type; Hannah is off the coast thankfully, but producing rain nonetheless.
Water was topic #1, politics, #2. Speaking as a former PTA president, you've got to think Sarah Palin has something special about her. She's turned a thankless job into a paying gig!
While PTA president I raised a few eyebrows when I brought a doctor to one of our general meetings to talk about AIDS. You have to remember this was nearly 20 years ago when AIDS was misunderstood by most. At the time I worked 16 hours on Saturdays running our Radiology department. The hospital had a large AIDS population primarily because Dr. Robbins was one of the few in our area who would treat them. Sadly, so many of the patients died, mostly from pneumonia. I will never forget one portable chest x-ray I did--the man's lung had collapsed to the size of a kidney. Taking matters into my own hands, calling the radiologist at home, and urging him to call the man's doctor. The outcome--the usual in those days--death. My children were so full of life then which made these young people dying all the more painful to me. Hardly anyone came to the meeting with those who did asking idiotic questions. There is still a long way to go in conquering AIDS, but as someone who saw it first hand in the early days, the treatment options are a vast improvement.
The lawn guys were terrific; a three man crew worked for over two hours filling many trash cans with weeds and trimmings. Bruce will be delighted when he finally returns home tonight.
I did some furniture rearranging in our bedroom yesterday evening. Baxter was going crazy trying to figure out what the heck was going on. I bought some new curtains, prompting the changes. Tomorrow we'll see what you think of them.
Lastly, you all know that my neighbor Regina is the source of some great stories. I was telling her about the exhibit at the museum which opened up the floodgates of her memory bank. Although 72, her memory is much better than mine; I can hardly remember any of my childhood. She told me her father took her to Times Square for the big celebration when WWII was finally over. Living in a mostly German neighborhood in Brooklyn, her mother put two stars in the window showing she had family members in the war. As you can picture, this did not endear either her mother, or Regina with the neighbors. One night her father took her down to the basement showing her how to protect herself from the bullies--a bar of soap in the bottom of a sock swung at the perpetrators would leave no marks. Imagine a parent today instructing their child in the art of neighborhood warfare!
So much to share; alas fair readers I suspect by now you've had enough for one day.
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