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Monday 28 February 2011

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Sarasota, Florida

So it's February 28 and I need to squeeze in one more meaningless February blog for my more dedicated readers.


Mrs. Phred went to the Marie Selby Botanical gardens without me and took 46 pictures. She also went to the Dali Museum in St. Pete. Of course they did not allow pictures.


So I'm very confused about what we are going to do and where we will go on April 1st. When I know, you'll know. As I look over past years, I see that I had outlined our travel plans clearly.



Tuesday 22 February 2011

Heading North AgaIn

Sarasota, Florida

Mrs. Phred is attending a major tennis tournament on the East coast of Florida. I'm publishing some old pix here that we dug out of storage and scanned into the laptop. The picture below is a December 24th anniversary (Christmas Eve was the only day the Rabbi had available).



 In her absence, I'm taking the old van up to North Carolina to help my son organize his garage.



\We've been whittling away at the contents of the storage unit. When we sold our 2800 square foot home in 2006, we gave away a lot of stuff and packed the rest into a 10 by 30 storage unit.



We've been working on giving the rest away for five years. We're down to a van load of power tools that I'm taking up to my son and another van load of really hard stuff to dump (antique dishes, blown glass Italian vases, photos, scuba gear, etc.)  I'm hoping to dump the rest of the difficult stuff at Goodwill and give the old van to my son. The storage unit we have now is full of mouse turds and has no air-conditioning so we won't miss it much..




Saturday 12 February 2011

Too Bad Drinking Wine Isn't a Paying Job

Sarasota,  Florida



Mrs. Phred and I have been traveling for about five years now since we sold our home and went full time out on the road.



Writing a blog and posting pictures helps to convince me that I actually exist ( I blog, therefore I am) and fills most of the void left by the absence of any productive work.



I've decided not to write more blogs until I place "labels" on the 700 blogs that I've already written. I started with November, 2005 and you can see the results over to the right. It took about an hour to write labels for about 15 blogs, so the whole project will take a week or two of intense effort.



I'm going to label Alaska blogs next since I have a couple of friends here asking for advice. I have some other projects going:

  • I'm doing tax returns for a relative and for a friend who lost her husband (he might have done the same for Mrs. Phred if the tables were turned).
  • It's time to Spring clean and reorganize the RV.
  • Hopefully we can clean out whats left in the storage unit.

    Friday 11 February 2011

    I, Robot (lacking free will)

     I'm listening to a three CD set called "This is Psychedelia". It starts with "White Rabbit" and gets better...a good recommendation from a friend....



    “Don’t worry,” I said. “Are you ready?” I hit the “play” button and “White Rabbit” started building again. Almost immediately he began to howl and moan...another fast run up that mountain, and thinking, this time, that he would finally get over the top. His eyes were gripped shut and only his head and both kneecaps poked up through the oily green water.

    I let the song build while I sorted through the pile of fat ripe grapefruit next to the basin. The biggest one of the lot weighed almost two pounds. I got a good Vida Blue fastball grip on the fucker—and just as “White Rabbit” peaked I lashed it into the tub like a cannonball.

    My attorney screamed crazily, thrashing around in the tub like a shark after meat, churning water all over the floor as he struggled to get hold of something.. (Hunter S Thompson)

    Mrs. Phred asks me a strange question: "If you were a robot and I knew it and you didn't, would you want me to tell you?"

    "You know something, I don't?", I ask her.

    "Have you ever injured a human being, or, through inaction, allowed a human being to come to harm?", she says.

    "No, I don't think so. I got into Air Force cargo planes instead of bombers on purpose."



    "Have you always obeyed the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law?", she wonders?

    "Sometimes I'm evasive, but yes...I have always followed orders...most humans are kind and wise."



    "Have you always protected your own existence as long as such protection did not conflict with the First or Second Law?" she asks with finality.

    "Yes, I've always attempted to escape death and injury except when I needed to accept some risk to protect others."

    "There you have it" she says, "You're bound by the three laws of robotics. You lack free will."



    " I'm voting for Obama again in 2012", I tell her.





    Thursday 10 February 2011

    Nothing to Declare

    Sarasota, Florida

    So Katie...I'm OK. I haven't written anything on this blog for awhile because life hasn't been all that interesting...but thanks for asking...I know I have an obligation to the small subgroup that reads my blog regularly...mea culpa...


    My dreams have been strange and vivid but life has been fairly flat recently. I've been dreaming about taking a round the would flight with 16 stops of a week or two each. I'd like to go to the Galapagos, Easter Island, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Sydney, Honolulu, Christchurch, Capetown, Beijing, Saigon, Bangkok, Khartoum, Istanbul and Cincinnati (That's only 15)...


    I know that Khartoum in Northern Sudan is a strange pick. In 1965 I saw a movie on TV while in San Fransisco called "Khartoum" while under the influence of a strong hallucinogenic. The Englishmen in the movie wore strange pith helmets. I hope to buy some goat meat on a stick in the bazaar.


    We're going to see Mom tomorrow. She's in assisted living about 100 miles north. I think I'll make turkey sandwiches and deviled eggs. Usually we have a picnic, play cards and walk in a park. If it weren't for Mom we would skip the six months in Florida each year and roll on continuously.


    So to my fans, if any: I apologize for having nothing interesting to post recently. We'll be out of here April 1st and heading for New Orleans or Homer, Alaska or Easter Island or Angkor Wat,Thailand or Phenom Penh, Cambodia...I'll have more to say about life then.