BEARley Motivated

It's been a almost 2 weeks since I sat down & really did any writing. Hopefully that will change tonight. Seems like there's always something else to do or I just procrastinate & never get going. This weekend - we enjoyed the beach on Saturday - it was a perfect day - & yesterday just chilled out at home.

I'm going to make a real effort this week to get motivated & build some momentum.

JaxBel

Our grandkids (Jack & Isabel) live in Pennsylvania. Actually, our entire family lives in Pennsylvania. The little ones are growing up fast. Jack turns 5 in July & Belle will be 3 in less than a month. We're debating a trip north - but there's not that much to do up there. On top of that, our sons have their careers, so they can't just take time off because we're in town. That limits us to seeing our boys only on the weekend. It's a tough call - what to do. We miss the kids but it's an expensive trip that doesn't offer much bang for the buck. I guess we'll decide what to do soon. It's been a year since our last get together (down here). It would be more fun if they visited us. I'll suggest it today - maybe.

A Pissy Start To The Weekend

Never open emails from work after arriving home on Friday afternoons. Ever. There's no sense in it. I made that mistake today & ended up in a really pissy mood for about an hour or 2. Cost me the price of dinner at Amici's over on the island - a lame effort to get past my 'pissiness'. Then I was pissed that we spent so much $$$ on dinner. It was good but not $$$ THAT good. I did have fun teasin' Deb about eating poor defenseless calf meat (that would be Veal Marsala). She damn near got herself schnockered (maybe to escape my pissiness) - the beer was nice & cold & ... well, I better stop in case she reads this post.....

Me, I could pretty much do without meat altogether, prefering seafood or pasta over everything else. Despise green vegetables & I only like salad if it's cold & served on a chilled plate. There are some things that I'm just a pain in the ass about. Clean & neat, being organized, clean (again), my food, & uh ... my shoes.

I'm going out to get shoes this weekend. Deb WILL NOT go with me - she hates when I buy shoes. She says I'm too picky & whiney & it's the only time she sees me being totally indecisive & cranky. When I finally decide, after trying X # of pairs, I always complain after I get them home. The complaints usually subside after a couple of weeks - though I've been known to get rid of new shoes without ever wearin' them.

So for a quick wrap up heading to the weekend - I was pissy about a late day email, pissy that my salad wasn't cold, pissy that dinner was overpriced, & I can look forward to being pissy when I go get shoes. Oh well - guess it's male PMS.

(Does look like a nice beach weekend though....)

Next On The Agenda

Rumor has it that I'm going to be taking care of an MRI job in the upcoming weeks. The building in the photo is one that I completed last spring. It's a medical/surgical center in Jacksonville. That's where the work will be done. It was a good job, made plenty of money, won awards, happy clients, etc., yadda yadda yadda.

The problem? We have to get the unit into the building. The magnet, by itself, weighs 192,000 lbs. It has to be placed inside a copper lined pit (We did the pit & lining a long time ago) & to do that, we have to remove a section of the outside of the building. Since this is an occupied building, there's no margin for error. The scheduling will be intense, everything removed, equipment installed & building buttoned up within 5 days. A rigging & logistics challenge.

The room where the equipment will be situated will be lined with shielding & then all of the finishes are completed to make everything look, well, like a finished facility. At least it's 30 miles closer to home & I already know everyone at the facility. Oh, almost forgot, there's a great coffee shop about a mile or so away. That's the biggest plus.

Eatin' Outta Her Hand

These pics are from our visit to Silver Springs.

I'm a lucky guy 'cause I'm best friends with my wife (Deb), & we've been happily married for a long time. As unusual as it may sound these days, we actually enjoy each other's company & get along great. Hint - Hint - we like to have conversations & we work hard at trying to spoil each other. (I'm spoiled rotten.) Like the giraffe above, she's got me eatin' outta her hand.

Deb's great with a camera. In my book, The Bad Latitude, the character 'Nan' seems to have the same traits & hobbies as Deb. Hmmmm.... even photography, especially pics of flowers & wildlife. Butterflies are another big thing for her - somehow she manages to get them to hold their pose.

If I can ever find the picture of the pygmy rattler that she caught, I'll post it on the blog. Deb wanted close ups. It was coiled up next to the front porch so she grabbed it, put it in an orange juice bottle, snapped the pics & then let it go. Didn't seem worried at all that it was poisonous.

Nah, guess that story's not as interesting as the one where she caught the small hammerhead shark by the tail down at our beach. It was swimming near shore, in knee deep water, right next to her leg. It didn't phase her. She reached down & plucked him outta the sea & click click click. Unfortunately, those pictures were lost when her computer crashed. What she'll do for pictures is crazy, but it's always pretty funny. That's important - 'cause we laugh a lot.

Guess I'll have to post the gator pics in the future..... TOO CLOSE!!!!

Debate Demeanor

A salesman for one of my suppliers, a great guy with whom I do a substantial amount of business, decided to go on a bit of a diatribe about politics.

As I'm prone to do, I let him go through his proclamations & opinions without interruption. (You learn more when you listen.) This lasted about 10 minutes or so. When I had 'my turn', I smiled & disagreed with him on every single point, providing very concise explanations for my positions - no preaching, no condescension, no 'attytood'. His face turned beet red, the vein in his neck was popping out, his teeth were clenched & his tone changed to almost a screech. He was furious, confused & lost for words. The dude was actually tongue tied. (In the world of debating, that's called a TKO in the first round.) It was funny as hell.

Needless to say he left in a quite a poor state of mind. Probably ran home to practice his 'speech' again in front of a mirror. Me, I didn't get upset at all. Calm, pleasant, totally under control. If I disagree with someone - that doesn't make either of us idiots - well, it certainly doesn't make me an idiot. Now I would get aggravated during a debate if it became a personal attack. If that happened, all bets would be off. My good nature has limits. I'm no less passionate about my political views than many others, probably more than most, but what the heck, I'm not going to have an aneurysm over it or turn into some meanspirited nutcase.

My beliefs are what they are but I still manage to respect the opinions of others. I pay attention to the issues & do more than my fair share of homework. There's no pied piper out there getting my vote because they look or sound good - let's see their track record & their plan - then I'll decide based on how my thinking meshes with theirs. In this country, we have the freedom to have & express our views & opinions. Some of us just happen to be right more often than others.

Today's Visit To Silver Springs

Spent the day at one of our favorite hang outs - Silver Springs. It's about a 90 minute drive from where we live. This is part of the Silver River & it is fed from a natural spring. 550+ million gallons of fresh 99% pure water is pressed through the limestone from the Florida aquifer 15,000 feet below each day. Some of the limestone gets forced through the holes onto the river bottom & when it picks up the sunlight, it's shiny like silver - hence the name. The picture of the fish is at one of the spring feeds, you can see the bottom in the shot, 88 feet below.

There are 3 groups of glass bottom boats, operated by the park, that travel through the Silver River & tributaries. Each ride takes about 30 minutes & the cost is covered in the admission price. (We have a season pass - about $100 total, unlimited visits.) During the rides you see gators, turtles, snakes, wild birds, cyprus swamps, & lots of fish. There is also some entertainment history to check out.

Because the water is absolutely perfectly clear, SS has been used as a set location for several movies including the Tarzan flicks of the 30's, The Creature From The Black Lagoon in the 50's, and the underwater battles in some of the early James Bond movies. On the small screen, the TV show Sea Hunt, & at least one episode of I Spy with Bill Cosby were made there. The list is longer but this will have to do.

Inside the remainder of the 365 acre park are animal exhibits, botanical gardens, quaint little shops & eateries. All of that will be covered in another post.

Overall, today couldn't have been better.

By the way - notice the turtle being leaned on by the young gator? He's hanging out in one of the swamps - looks like pea soup.