Easter Week in Florida

The past week has been a busy one here in Florida.  It all began one week ago Saturday, with trips to the airport to fetch first mother and then the Beggs.  We all returned to the Robert Brown’s abode on Redington Beach, and enjoyed afternoon cocktails and lunch in the Florida sunshine.  Eventually, Jennifer (Begg) came calling for her parents at the Browns, and the maneuvers getting to the car, which became quite tricky for some, were indicative that a good time was had by all at afternoon cocktails.    The remaining Brown contingent decided dinner might be in order, so we headed down Gulf Blvd. to Shells seafood restaurant. 

Comfortably ensconced at a table in the bar, we enjoyed the basket of cheese bread which accompanies the entrees, when who should come through the front door, but the Beggs.  The restaurant management foolishly seated them at an adjacent table which resulted in lots of noise and some wandering back and forth between the two tables.  The Begg table graciously sent over a bottle of wine to the Brown table, and it was a J Lohr no less, which is my regular cabernet at my regular hangout, O Bistro.

Sunday saw further arrivals, Randy, Trudy and Wayne.  The Browns and Beggs reconvened again on Tuesday at the Salt Rock Cafe for another fine meal in the sunshine and to celebrate the birthdays of Trudy and Margaret. We all studied our menus carefully:

And comfortably fed, the women convertibled back to the gulfront digs of the Beggs for post dinner cocktails:

The next night my friends from Michigan, Tom and Jane Rodgers, visited my home for cocktails, along with Glen Wirtanen, and we all continued on to Beak’s Old Florida for dinner and, well,  more cocktails.  It was such a nice visit, we repeated the outing the next afternoon, for a late lunch at Philthy Phil’s, on St. Pete Beach.  I was then conveniently located to motor up Gulf Blvd. to the Redington Beach abode of the Browns for more food and drink.

For me, the special last minute news was that Reg IV would get an Easter weekend  pass from Fort Benning, and after I returned from dinner at the Browns, he arrived late Thursday night, actually early Friday morning; and I was delighted to welcome him to Florida, right after he woke me up from my strategic nap on the sofa. 

The next day, the “other” Reg and I, after a trip to Clearwater to check on his BMW, recently shipped down from Michigan for some work, joined the Browns on Redington for some pool, hot tub, and beach time.  The evening ended with a Lincoln load of Browns heading to O Bistro for dinner, where we worked hard on reducing the Pinellas county stock of J Lohr cabernet.

Saturday, mother returned to North Carolina and the Beggs traveled back North to cold Canada.  Reg IV and I had breakfast outdoors on the water in Gulfport, at Water Witch; enjoyed an evening dinner sitting outside again at Thai-Am ,with spicy Thai food and cold Japanese beers; and also watched a couple of movies on the new DVD player IV gave me for Christmas, including seeing my former black Lincoln gliding across the screen in American Gangster.

Easter Sunday morning, which was a beautiful sunny day, IV and I returned to O Bistro for a large breakfast, then joined the Robert Browns at St. Dunstans for Easter Sunday church.  After church, alas, Reg IV had to return to Ft. Benning in Georgia,  and I spent the afternoon with the Browns, having a home-cooked Ham  dinner.  And, yes, more cocktails.  In fact, I’m a little light on photos for this week.  Seems like every time I was reaching for my camera, I found a wine glass in my hand instead.  Don’t know how that happened.

And my never ending Florida vacation continues….

The Bridge is a Republican

The mainstream press again today shows us how it isn’t biased.  The Democrat Detroit mayor was indicted today on multiple criminal charges, yet NBC, CBS, ABC and the Associated Press all managed, just as they did the other day when the Democrat governor of New York resigned in disgrace, to cover the story without once mentioning the party affiliation.  Yet this same day, an Associated Press story was released regarding the results of an investigation of last summer’s Interstate bridge collapse in Minnesota.  In that story, relevant to nothing, prominent play was given to “Republican governor Tim Pawlenty” having vetoed a gas tax increase which would have paid for bridge repairs, and that the Democrats had favored the measure.  No mention that the bridge wasn’t on a repair list, or explanation of how it was the governor’s fault given that the investigation concluded the original construction of the bridge was faulty, which wouldn’t be remedied by yet another tax increase. 

So just to summarize:  Mayor of Detroit, Governor of New York, apparently without a party affiliation.  But Minnesota bridges, or at least the ones that collapse, are Republicans.  

An Evening at Beak’s Old Florida

I like to think of retirement as a never ending vacation. I’ve been on vacation here in Florida now for coming up on two years. And what do we do on vacation? (Or at least what I do on vacation) Go out for food, drink, and good times, in places that are new to us. In that vein, I tried a place new to me the other night, Beak’s Old Florida.

Link to St. Pete Times article

The mood is set quickly when you arrive….a bowl of bar snacks awaits, consisting of  of popcorn, m&ms, and wasabi spiced snack mix. All together. In the same bowl.  Works for me: I’ve always been a fan of sweet and salty mixed together.  The bar stools are large, leather, and comfortable.  Why don’t all business establishments realize that a proper stool for cocktails and dining includes a back and some padding?  The decor is, well, eclectic.  But good ecletic.  Vintage photos and illustrations of old Florida, pin-up girls, and parrots.  A huge, lighted pink flamingo (this is Florida after all) shares space at the bar with the patrons. 

The bar itself is has lots of seating capacity, flowing from inside to outside, with good views from the indoor bar of the outdoor bar and vice versa.  (I like to keep an eye on things)  The small indoor portion of the bar is supplemented by a large enclosed patio which includes, in additon to the continuation of the indoor bar, dining tables and a bandstand.  And yes, there’s entertainment too, which began at a suitably early hour, just after dark, appreciated by those of us who are now hamming our way through life’s third act. 

There is a list of red wines by the glass; I chose a California Cabernet called “Big Yellow Cab,” and received a generous pour with a happy hour price of just $4.50.  The menu has interesting and good bar food, and after studying it for awhile, I settled on what was described as a wine lovers pizza.  Thin crust, with a nice blend of good cheeses, and…walnuts.  Yes, walnuts he said.  Like the snack mix, it worked, and went well with the cabernet.

I quickly felt right at home.  The owner and staff are friendly and can be joked with.  Another customer began visiting with me, it turned out we had a mutual aquaintance….Chrissy, who tends bar at O Bistro.  Then another couple came in that I knew from here in Gulfport.  They, like me, used to hang out at Cahill’s before it closed, and they updated me on the whereabouts of the old Cahill’s crowd, which has moved down the street to O’Maddys.  Guess I’ll need to make a visit.

I’m developing a pattern here.  Starting out from O Bistro, which is on Central Ave. at 67th St., I’ve now moved East to Beak’s Old Florida, which is on Central Ave. at 25th St.  Next I plan to try a new (to me) Southern cooking place, Savannah’s, which is on Central Ave. at 10th St.  Also on my list to try is BellaBrava, which is on, you guessed it, Central Ave. at 6th St.  I’ve actually been there once already, had cocktails, and planned to have dinner, but there were three women at the bar from Prague, and hey, I got distracted. 

Even in retirement, it’s good to have a plan.  I can eat my way East on Central Ave. until I reach the end at Beach Drive downtown, then turn North and eat my way up to Pepins on Fourth St. North, where Chrissy from O Bistro works one night a week.

And the days of wine and roses continue here in Florida…

Weekend In Georgia

 I’ve returned from my visit to Fort Benning, and Reg IV, having successfully battled a blizzard, arrived in sunny Georgia in a very dirty Volvo and has reported for officer training.

I had an easier trip up, as it was sunny but windy on the drive up old US 19 through the Florida of my youth.  IV came through what was described as the worst snowstorm in 100 years in the Ohio valley, and reported he spent many miles on I-75 unable to exceed 25mph. 

It was a great visit with IV, and we enjoyed some fine Southern food together, a big plate of barbecue at Country’s Barbecue.  I drove around and got the layout of the land, and also ventured across the Georgia border into Phenix City, Alabama, just because I could.

Reg IV will remain at Fort Benning (outside Columbus, Georgia) until late April, then he will cross the state to Fort Gordon, outside Augusta, to commence his second officer school.  He gets weekend passes, so I’ll be returning for a visit in due course.

After seeing IV off, I continued across the state to Brunswick.  This afforded me the opportunity to play with my cars still in Georgia, have a fine cocktail outing at Spanky’s, and a delicious home-cooked meal (lasagna soup) with Bill and Beth, accompanied by a fine red wine.  Bill and I enjoyed outstanding after dinner cigars, and I managed to bring two of them back to Florida with me.

A large time was had by all.

The Road to Fort Benning

Reg IV sets out Saturday morning from Michigan, heading south by automobile to begin his officer training program in Georgia, at Fort Benning, outside Columbus Georgia.  At the same time, I’m also heading north, from Florida, to be in Georgia to see him start off his training. 

I’m traveling the old road, US 19, which will be a journey past the Florida I first saw as a child with my grandparents,  such places as Weeki-Wachee and Homassassa Springs.  I’m looking forward to seeing Reg IV again, and I know he’s looking forward to commencing his training.  And the fact that he’ll be escaping winter won’t hurt either…but it looks like he’ll have some slippery roads en route. 

Interesting…I followed a similar route many years ago, beginning the training for my new job at our training center, also in Georgia,  after graduating from college in Michigan.  Like IV, I left cold snowy Michigan for mild and sunny Georgia, but behind the wheel of an old Lincoln rather than a new Volvo. It seems like only yesterday, but it was a lifetime ago, and now it’s time for the next generation of Reg to follow the well worm path.   

Family Dinner at the Conch

  I joined the Watford Browns and entourage last night for dinner, at the Conch Republic on Redington Beach.  And unlike last time, I managed to get some photos snapped.

It was a fine dinner.  Several appetizers and drink specials were sampled, including tuna sashmi, calamari, and oysters.  Rumor has it the peach martini was a hit. I enjoyed an entree of mahi-mahi oscar, and will be enjoying the rest of it for lunch today. 

Of course, no visit to the Conch is complete without the Bananas Foster dessert, prepared tableside and including important ingredients for dessert…about a pound of brown sugar, a stick or two of butter, and flames reaching halfway to the ceiling when the alcohol is set on fire.   I was a good boy;  having given up dessert for Lent I only looked and didn’t sample.  The fact that I was too stuffed to eat another bite helped my willpower though. 

I’ll be posting these photos to my Facebook photo album too. 

Friday Night at O Bistro

I had dinner Friday night at my local hangout, or if you prefer, my Florida “headquarters,” O Bistro.  And for reasons that will cause this to be posted in politics and not dining, I may be seeking a new place to be my regular haunt.

First, it has nothing to do with O Bistro.  The food is superb, the service attentive….Lucy and Suzy take good care of me, even to the extent of answering me when I call them Lucy and Suzy, given that their names (I think) are Karin and Chrissy.  The owner, Sharon, and her husband, Jack, are gracious and generous hosts.  Friday night, I had another excellent meal;  rather than my customary steak or veal,  I ordered a dish new to me: “adult chicken fingers.”  The chicken is breaded in crushed pecans and the mac and cheese side dish is actually a rich blend of very good cheeses.  Hard to think of chicken fingers with mac and cheese as a gourmet meal, but it succeeds. 

So what’s the problem?  Alas, it’s some of the customers at the bar. 

For reasons which escape me, the bar (or maybe it’s just Florida in general) seems to be a magnet for far-left types and conspiracy theorists, who, like crackpots everywhere,  seem to have an irrepressible urge to share their drivel with everyone within earshot.  And since I’m there frequently and within earshot, this includes moi.  As those of you who know me would expect, this  does  not  go  well.

Friday, the crackpot du jour at the bar wanted, after praising that statesman (and sometimes rapist) Bill Clinton,  to lecture on the topic of oil prices.  Since I actually understand economics, I know that oil prices are arrived at by a combination of factors, including, primarily, supply and demand.  I also know, unlike the windbag du jour at the bar, that they are not set by George Bush.  They are also not set by a) Dick Cheney, b) Halliburton, c) Karl Rove, or even d) George Bush in conspiracy with the Saudis he’s “in bed with.” (the latter was presented to me, quite loudly, as a “FACT.” )  I guess facts are more convenient when you just make them up. 

After posing a couple of simple, pertinent questions which the dumbass du jour couldn’t answer, such as: from what country does the US import the most oil? (as my Canadian relatives all know, the answer is Canada, not Saudi Arabia or any other Middle Eastern country…Middle East oil goes primarily to Europe and Asia); I decided it was time to utter the famous words, “check please.”

Of course, this caused the cretin du jour , sensing my imminent escape, to begin a new lecture that “everyone is entitled to their own opinion.”  In response to that, I think Ann Coulter said it best: “everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but everyone is not entitled to their own facts.” 

If this were but an isolated incident, I’d laugh it off.  But it isn’t.  A recent previous visit involved an otherwise attractive young woman, who, unsolicited, slid down to sit next to me, bought me a drink, and then proceeded, out of the blue, to launch into a harange about Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfield blah blah blah,  all being war criminals, or Satan, or Hitler, or whatever charming accolade those “tolerant” liberals are offering up these days to anyone who dares disagree with them.  (Truth be told, she was so drunk I was having trouble following her thread of McThoughts)  Eventually, she managed to incoherently repeat that cherished left-wing dogma, that Bush wasn’t really elected.  Riiiight.  Guess he wasn’t reelected either?  

But perhaps I’m being unkind; after all, she was nice enough to take time out of her busy schedule of alcohol abuse to lecture me on an election that happened nearly eight years ago, all without taking the time to learn anything about a) the Electoral college system, or b) the five recounts in Florida, every one of which Bush won, even after votes were counted for Gore that actually weren’t for Gore,  but the Democrat doing the counting decided the voter really meant to vote for Gore.

 And we’re not done there.  As they say in the Ronco commercials, but wait…there’s more!  Just before I met this woman; I endured on two consecutive Wednesdays, occupying my favorite chairs at the bar no less, an equally charming metrosexual couple, who, among other inanities, assured everyone within listening distance (sometimes the wife would pull the string on her husband’s back that made him talk) that they couldn’t understand all the fuss those evil crazy Republicans were making about the Muslims, when, after all, we all know the real danger to America are those contemptible Christians. 

Wow!! really??  I must have missed all those times then when the Baptists rounded up some Catholics, beheaded them, and then circulated the videos on the internet.  Or the day a New York city landmark vanished, killing thousands, after the Methodists crashed into it with a hijacked plane.  Little did I know, in a world filled with terrorist attacks committed by radical Muslims, in Spain, England, Indonesia, and the United States among others, that the greatest menace to western civilization is Americans who go to church on Sunday.  The things you can learn from liberals!

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  And you’re wrong.  I do not start these conversations.  I have witnesses that I do not start these conversations.  I take a book when I go to dinner, and attempt to sit quietly reading, minding my own business, and drinking my wine, at least until Lucy turns the lights down too dim for me to continue reading. I consciously try to avoid these conversations, knowing what kind of people seem to be around here, and knowing my own shortcomings vis a vis the amount of drivel I’m willing to listen to before I put a none too polite end to it.   And it certainly isn’t that I don’t enjoy an intelligent conversation….I’d relish one if I could actually find one.  But parroting cliches  heard on CNN, or repeating asinine conspiracy theories  read on the internet, DOES NOT constitute intelligent conversation. 

Perhaps, before I give up on O Bistro altogether, (after all, the food and service are really good) I’ll try moving from the bar to a table.  A table for one.

Some days, I really miss Spankys in Georgia.

Obama’s First 100 Days

What an Obama presidency might be like:

Link to the Washington Post column

My favorite quote from the column: 

“Obama’s 100-day agenda would be designed, in part, to improve America’s global image. But there is something worse than being unpopular in the world — and that is being a pleading, panting joke. By simultaneously embracing appeasement, protectionism and retreat, President Obama would manage to make Jimmy Carter look like Teddy Roosevelt.   Which is why President Obama would probably not take these actions — at least in the form he has pledged. Sitting behind the Resolute desk is a sobering experience that makes foolish campaign promises seem suddenly less binding.   But it is a bad sign for a candidate when the best we can hope is for him to violate his commitments. And that’s a good sign for John McCain.”

The Olevolos Project

  I have added a link to the website of The Olevolos Project, under Blogroll to the right.  As you may recall from my Christmas Letter, this is the charity begun by University of Michigan students, of which my son is an officer; engaged in building an orphanage in Africa for AIDS orphans.  There is lots of good reading on the page, including updates on the progress of the building, and an explanation of how it all began, by the building of chicken coops.  I particularly recommend spending some time in the photo galleries.  Some of you have already seen some of the fabulous Africa photos in my online photo album or in my son’s albums on Facebook.  You can also click on the photo above and see Reg IV, among others, in traditional attire. 

Sunday Dinner At The Browns

The Robert Browns have returned for their annual March sojourn in Florida, comfortably ensconced in a spacious condominium at the Redington Shores Yacht and Tennis Club; complete with sweeping views of the Intracoastal and the Gulf of Mexico.  At this point, there was to appear a lovely photograph of the water view from the balcony, but, hey, there was wine there, and I got distracted. 

Joining Uncle Bob and Aunt Gail are grandchildren; Randy’s son Jason Brown who, with Cassandra,  drove down also, starting out following snow plows out of Ontario and then ending up enjoying a coatless stroll around Statesville, North Carolina while en route.  Trevor and Troy Adams, and a friend whose name already escapes me (and I knew there would be a quiz later…I should have studied) flew down shortly after the Bob Browns arrived via automobile. 

A fine home-cooked meal ensued at my visit last night, together with much merriment and good conversation, and you’d now be enjoying photos of us dining and laughing around the table but there are no photos because, well, it’s the wine thing again.  All the family looked well and seemed pleased to be in the South, although I thought they looked a bit pale. 

It promises to be a busy month, as the Browns are joined by more visitors, and the Beggs, and perhaps mother, will be just up the street on Gulf Blvd. shortly.