the cat house

Tammy the cat has her own little house now.

Mary had gotten this a while back for her first Chihuahua that she had. The dog’s name was Mokey. The Chihuahua liked staying in the house. It was in storage in the shed. We got it down and cleaned it up. However, the picture was taken before we had cleaned it. I thought that the silhouette of a little cat carved into the side of the house for ventilation was cute.

Mary wanted it put under a juniper bush in her backyard to give it some shade.

The cat hasn’t used it yet. She still prefers to do her resting in the house on the bed.
On Friday, the weatherman predicted 70% chance of rain here in Orlando. I think that we got the entire 70% because it had rained most of Friday afternoon. Everyone have a nice day because where ever you are at it is probably sunny since we seem to be getting all of the rain here. As C-3PO said in star wars, “It’s our lot in life to suffer” as he was walking across the desert with R2-D2. Well, if we are getting the whole 70% rain then maybe the same saying applies here, “It’s my lot in life to suffer this rain”. Now isn’t that a really pessimistic outlook to take. Partly cloudy vs partly sunny. Is the cup half empty or half full? Think positive and everyone have a nice day and hopefully it is partly sunny where you are at today. I think that we are in for some more showers here in Orlando (more pessimism) in the afternoon but the morning should be sunny (optimism). Take care and stay dry. Lew

Brer Rabbitt

Song of the South. A movie by Disney with a character called Uncle Remus telling various stories. I always remember the one story that he told about Brer Rabbitt wsho is always being chased by Brer Fox. Usually Brer Rabbitt is too fast for Brer Fox except one day Brer Fox manages to catch Brer Rabbitt. Brer Rabbitt begs Brer Fox not to throw him into the briar patch with all of its thorns which Brer Fox proceeds to do. Are you starting to remember the story? Brer Rabbitt is at home in the briar patch and the thorns are not a problem and it was all a ruse to escape Brer Fox.

Well, these little flowers growing among the cactus thorns reminds me of that story. The flower is well protected among the thorns from anything that might want to eat it. Plus here are these thorns which are tough and these pretty yellow flowers that are delicate.

It is as if the cactus is a big brother to the flowers by protecting them. Or perhaps like a beauty and the beast story or the hunchback of Notre Dame helping the woman. By the way I thought that the actor Charles Laughton did a wonderful acting job as the hunchback. In closing this was a moment of wonder when I saw these beautiful flowers growing amongst the cactus thorns. It was a moment to stop and reflect and normally I smell the flowers but not in this case. Too many thorns. Beauty is everywhere. Lew

calling all trekkies

This is a star trek trivia quiz. Who can name all three ships. No peeking. I remember the blue ship from the first star trek movie called Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In the beginning of the movie they had a lot of close-ups of the blue ship and the music that they played during those scenes was very powerful. The first time that I saw the movie I saw it in a movie theater in Miami. The second, third and fourth times were at my brothers house in Lakeland. His son had just bought a new VCR and the Star Trek movie on tape. I watched the movie three times in a row, one time right after another. I was enthralled by the movie. Everyone went out for a walk by the lake except me. I told them that I wanted to watch the Star Trek movie one more time. This I did for a total of three times in rapid succession. Since then I have only watched it about another 5 or 6 times. I have watched all of the star trek movies multiple times. Have you guessed the names of the space ships yet? Lew

Grumpy's

I don’t have a degree in marketing but is Grumpy’s a good name for ice cream? It sounds unhappy. I think that I would change the name to something a bit more cheerful or appetizing.

Mary and I elected not to eat at the concession stands but to go to the Speckled Bean Café instead. We had eaten at various concession stands in the past and I was surprised by the prices that they charge (high) and the quality of the food (poor). But I guess that they are a traditional part of Americana. Plus they all usually do a pretty good business at flea markets, parades, shows, etc. I like hot dogs but Mary has spoiled me by broiling them when she makes them instead of boiling them. I like fried or broiled better. We had chili dogs for lunch a couple of days ago. The chili was mild and good and the hot dogs were of course broiled. Some people actually like to put ketchup on their hot dogs. I have tried it because I saw someone else putting ketchup on. It tasted terrible. I scraped the remaining ketchup off and put my traditional relish, mustard and onion on. Sometimes at the fairs you can get food treats that are only available only from concessions at those type of events. Fun food. Now that you know everything that there is to know about the Webster flea market from these three blogs, this is the last blog on the flea market. I promise. Everyone have a nice day. Lew

speckled bean cafe

This is the dining area of the Speckled Bean Café which is cozy and rustic. All of the waitresses dress in a country style with white aprons that are ruffled. The café has a lot of charm and ambiance to it. The food is good, plentiful, and cheap. You can order off the menu or eat at the buffet. The drinks are in giant size glasses. I guess that they know that the customers will be hot and thirsty from all of the walking around at the flea market at the heat.

This is Mary enjoying the last of her lemonade after having had a sumptuous meal from the buffet. They have everything on the buffet including various main dishes, an assortment of side dishes, a salad bar, a cold salad bar with things like cole slaw, egg salad, tuna salad, etc. and of course the dessert bar along with the soft serve ice cream machine. They had a banana budding that was really good with a very deep and rich flavor with large pieces of banana embedded in the pudding and of course the traditional vanilla wafers on top. I had that plus a piece of their chocolate cake with chocolate icing which gave me my chocolate fix for quite a while. We had a good time at the flea market and bought a hodgepodge of items. On the connecting road from highway 50 to Webster there was a plethora of wildflowers on both sides of the road. It was just a solid carpet of them. They always seem to be in bloom and they as so thick with so many flowers. I regret not having gotten a picture of them. But it was good to get home and we watched a DVD video from the library. It was a long drive but made for a fun day. Today is senior Tuesday but there isn’t anything that we want to see at the movies so I don’t think that we will be going to the movies today. This will probably be a work around the house day and a day of complaining of “it’s so hot”. Have a nice cool day, just as cool as you can make it even if it means standing in front of the refrigerator with he door open. Go in peace. Lew

Webster

So here we are at the Webster flea market. You notice on the sign that it says every Monday. It doesn’t say every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, just Monday. Yep, it is only on Mondays. Seems a bit strange to me because everyone is at work except for retired folk. It seems to me that they would do more business if they included the weekends, like “every Saturday, Sunday, and Monday”. Wouldn’t that make more sense? But even with just Mondays there were quite a few people there shopping and quite a number of vendors selling everything imaginable. The flea market is so large that you get quite a workout from all of the walking, up one aisle then down another and then back up one aisle and back down again another, ad infinitum. I met a vendor who had lived in Phoenix, Arizona at the same time as me. He also attended Arizona State University at the same time that I did except he graduated two years before me. Amazing that I should run into a fellow Sun Devil at a flea market in the small town of Webster, Florida and that our paths should cross. He was interesting to talk to as we compared notes on our memories of Phoenix. He sold fine antiques at the flea market. I met another vendor and started to chat with him about metal detecting. After we were a couple of minutes into our conversation I saw that he also sold metal detectors. He gave me a catalog of the metal detectors and his business card. He is from Ocala. I told him about a friend who sends me pictures of the beach at New Smyrna and how so often there seems to be people there with metal detectors. I also asked him if he had read the book Diamonds in the Surf and said he had and we started talking about that. The premise for the book Diamonds in the Surf (a book on metal detecting) is that when people go wading into the ocean, that over time the salt water draws fluid from the body and as fingers lose their puffiness, rings will easily slip of unnoticed. So instead of walking along the dry sand with a metal detector, it is better to get a waterproof one and wade into the water about waist deep and try using the metal detector there to find jewelry which the author of the book had pictures of a large number of rings that he had found. I found his theory to be true when I was snorkeling in waste deep water at the beach in Miami. I was looking at the small critters on the bottom. As I swam along I suddenly spotted this very large solid gold ring with a large rectangular onyx stone. I dove down to get it (diving was no big deal since I was in about four feet of water but it sounds good). The ring was heavy and had to be valuable because of its solid gold content. I never sold it and it was later stolen from my house along with my high school ring and other jewelry. I guess as they say, easy come, easy go. There was another time when I was playing with my daughter in the sand at the waters edge. We were digging into the sand with our fingers and my daughter snagged something with her fingers. She had found a beautiful gold crucifix with gold chain. This was also stolen later at the same time of the other jewelry. But it points out that you can make some significant finds at the beach. I think that the name of the game is persistence. But with respect to the flea market, it was very rustic as you can see from the weathered wood, faded paint, and sheet metal roof of the main building. This is definitely countrified as they say. Being a Monday, the vast majority of the people were senior citizens. The waitress at the Speckled Bean Café said the place was packed last Monday and people had to wait for 45 minutes to get a seat in the café. Then I remembered last Monday was Memorial Day and so people were off from work. The first time that we went was last Memorial Day and the place was packed. See, that just proves my theory that they should be open on week-ends and they would do a lot more business. But I don’t think that the harried waitresses at the Speckled Bean Café could stand a packed restaurant with a crowd waiting to get in every weekend. I am way over on my word count. Have a nice day. Lew

ancient indian burial mound

The mound in the yard of this house is actually a drainfield. Normally drainfields are below ground but in an areas where the water table rises during the rainy season the drain field must be above the water table during the wettest part of the season. But how can you tell how high the water table comes during the wet season. You do a coring of the soil with a special manual auger and look at the different strata of the soil. In the case of this house, the drainfield actually had to be built above ground and then covered over with dirt. Sometimes the homeowners complained about the ugly mound of dirt in their yard or were embarrassed because friends and relatives would ask them what the mound was in their front yard. Someone told me of a good response to this and I would pass it on to the people. I would tell them to tell people that the mound was an ancient indian burial mound which they were proud to have in their yard because it had been studied by historians and sometimes school children were bussed to their yard on field trips to see it. The people always loved this fanciful tale and we would all have a good laugh about it. So as you drive about and see these mounds in peoples yards just think of them as ancient historical burial mounds. It sounds much better than being a depository of you-know-what. Or as I once saw on the side of a septic tank pumper truck “We’re number 1 in a number 2 business”. Enough of the tacky jokes. I hope that you are not reading this blog just before meal time. Have a nice day. Lew