Our Wander Years

Why I love living in Florida, reason #76

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Sparky

Feral peacocks, encountered recently while walking in the resort.

Categories: Commentary, FL, Places | Leave a comment

My music education

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Sparky

Thanks largely to dating two women who love music, the past 12 months have been my most intense music education since the 60s. First and foremost is the Buckingham Blues Bar, an amazing (and amazingly inexpensive) bar/club that hosts some first-rate blues jams twice a week. Ooma introduced me to The Buck and I am beholden to her for that. But Marlene loves the place too and when brother-in-law Ray visited recently I had to take him there. He loved it too.

The jam is mostly some regular local musicians – all with their own bands who mostly play rock – who get together for some blues twice a week. And every now and then there are guest appearances by some touring musicians. On the night I took Ray there, Bobby Capps from 38 Special sat in on keyboards.

In addition to hosting great music, it also is home to a mule that loves beer.

Fort Myers also is home to MusicWalk, a once-a-month event in which downtown Fort Myers is cordoned off and music groups – some soloists but mostly bands of 5 or more pieces – set up and play for free. Dancing is encouraged and Marlene and I don’t need much encouragement. The event was cancelled due to the pandemic and then Hurricane Ian but is now back in full force. The event drew a HUGE crowd this month – probably more than 50,000 people.

Marlene has introduced me to many of the local night clubs, too. I have learned to appreciate the wide variety of talented musicians who call Southwest Florida home. One of the best is Deb and the Dynamics who have been playing for free in Cape Coral every Wednesday night. This draws a smaller crowd – maybe 1,000 – but the music is fine and everyone dances.

Categories: FL, Music, Places | Leave a comment

Four months and still a mess

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Sparky

I visited Fort Myers Beach for the first time since Hurricane Ian, on the 4-month anniversary of the storm. I didn’t expect to see a fully-recovered city, but what I saw was pretty shocking. I guess the good news is that the main drag – Estero Boulevard – is passable. But many structures are completely gone – including the famous pier – and the structures that remain are still badly damaged. Even the high-rise structures that held up well in the wind were badly damaged by the storm surge. It will be years before the city fully recovers. Heartbreaking.

Categories: Adventures, Commentary, FL, Places | Leave a comment

“The Matarese Circle” by Robert Ludlum

Posted on January 21, 2023 by Sparky

I take a break from mysteries occasionally to read popular books in other genres.. This one falls into the “epic struggle of one man against a worldwide conspiracy” category. The protagonist is Brandon Scofield – also and somewhat inexplicably called “Bray”. He is an aging and increasingly more jaded senior spook who is drawn into a web of deceit and terror by his Russian counterpart, Vasili Taleniekov, the man who engineered the murder of Scofield’s wife 10 years before. Through a series of mysterious events both become pariahs in their own organizations and are forced to work together to thwart the unseen enemy.

The plot is fast-paced and global, running through not only Moscow and Washington but also Corsica, Leningrad, France, Germany, England and ending up in Boston. The body count climbs at each stop with a big bump at the end. The plot is deep, somewhat plausible and, of course, includes a beautiful young woman.

A good read, but pretty standard stuff for Ludlum. And the plot shows its age a bit – it was written before cell phones and wide use of the internet so phone booths and snail mail are used extensively. It doesn’t spoil the plot but is a constant reminder of how old the book is.

5 out of 10.

Categories: Books | Leave a comment

Hand, Knee and Foot in my future

Posted on January 20, 2023 by Sparky

A few days ago I learned that Marlene plays Hand, Knee and Foot regularly. As you may recall, Jett and I played this game frequently (with frequent losses by me). I miss both Jett and the game. While Jett is gone forever, it appears that the game is not. I am looking forward to getting back into it.

Marlene also plays a mean game of gin rummy – another of Jett’s favorites. She taught me the “knock” version. Interesting game. So far we are pretty even. But I can tell you that Marlene takes her card games seriously. She will be a worthy adversary.

Categories: Games | Leave a comment

Volunteer fail?

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Sparky

I started a volunteer gig when I returned from Thanksgiving in Tillamook. One day a week, for four hours in the afternoon, I drive a golf cart at the Lee Health Regional Cancer Center in Ft Myers, shuttling people from their cars to their cancer or rehab treatments and back to their cars when they return. It is an easy job and a small way to repay the care that they gave Jett before her death.

In most cases these appointments at the RCC are not the highlight of the day for these people. Yet they are, for the most part, cheerful and pleasant. I try to be cheerful and pleasant myself on the theory that I can be a bright spot in an otherwise dark day.

So I was surprised when, last week, a woman in a car stopped to talk to me. I was sitting, idle, in the parking lot. I should mention that the parking lot that I troll is L-shaped. There is just one spot where I can view both the entrance and the entire lot: at the bend of the L. So I was sitting there, admittedly looking at my phone but still scanning for potential passengers. The woman pulled up in her car and the conversation went something like this:

Her: What are you doing?

Me (unsure what she was asking as it should have been obvious): Um… waiting.

Her: Why are you out here hiding? Why aren’t you doing your job?

Me: Are you complaining about the job I am doing? My VOLUNTEER job?

Her: This is the SECOND TIME. You are USELESS!

She then sped off. I had never seen this woman in my life, have no idea what she meant by “second time” and she was in a car, driving away from the entrance so it doesn’t seem likely that I had failed to give her a ride.

Anyway, it amazed me that she would take the time to berate a volunteer who was simply idle when there was nothing to do.

People.

Categories: Adventures, FL, Places, Work | Leave a comment

New Year’s Eve at the American Legion

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Sparky

The original plan was to attend the New Year’s Eve party here at my RV resort. But the tickets were $50 each, the band was the “house band” – a bunch of residents who jam together and are decent but not great (especially on vocals) and the food last year was just awful. Marlene found a party at the American Legion in Lehigh Acres that was just $50 per couple and included a dinner choice of prime rib or fish. So we went to the Legion.

Accompanying us were Marlene’s neighbors, Chris and Lynne, and her bff, Dottie, and their friend John. The band was good, but not great – as was the food – but we all had a very good time. Kudos to Marlene for finding a better option for ending 2022.

Categories: Adventures, FL, Friends, Places | Leave a comment

2022 in review

Posted on December 31, 2022 by Sparky

Another year in the books. So let me review what was good and bad about 2022.

Highlights:

Meeting Ooma. Meeting Ooma was, at the time, not just a highlight of the year but a highlight of my life. I said at the time that I was “smitten” and that is an apt description. The first two months were two of the happiest months of my life. Sadly, it didn’t last.
Meeting Marlene, I was fortunate to meet a second wonderful woman in 2022. It is too early to tell if this relationship will last, but we were still having fun as 2022 ended.
The Buckingham Blues Bar. Ooma introduced me to this establishment and I fell in love. Great music and cheap beer – a winning combination.
The Thanksgiving trip to Oregon. It was a grueling trip both ways, but worth it as I got to meet my sister’s grandchildren and reconnected with her kids.
The 10-week trip north (TN8 and TS8). This was a very long auto trip that had a mix of good and bad, but more good than bad.
The trip to Austin (TX1). This was part of the “good months” with Ooma. A fun wedding and a chance to see some family for both of us.
The trip to Orlando. This was a fun trip to a book award event – a first for me – and a chance to explore the Orlando area.
The weekend in Naples with my cruise (PCL2) friends. A fun weekend with some fairly new friends.
Getting the damage to the truck repaired (finally!). It took nearly 6 months to repair the damage from the tire blowout, but it finally got done. A relief.
A visit from my son Frank. This was a lot of driving, but, overall, a nice visit.
Winter softball. We didn’t win but my team did pretty well. And so did I.

Lowlights:

Hurricane Ian. It is hard to describe the devastation caused by this storm. The whole southwest Florida area – which I now call home and have grown to love – will take years to recover. Heartbreaking.
The breakup with Ooma. Two months of pure joy were followed by 4 months of conflict and, frankly, bafflement. A woman who I thought I knew became an enigma. I still don’t fully understand what went wrong, but it certainly did go wrong. The most devastating breakup of my life.
COVID-19 for both me and Ooma. Three vaccinations were not enough to keep me and Ooma safe. I got it first and, fortunately, it was mild and I had recovered by the time Ooma got it later in July. Her case was worse.
The floor rot in the RV. This was a surprise but shouldn’t have been. I should have questioned, when I first discovered the rot several years ago, what was causing it. I should have taken more aggressive preventative measures then, but didn’t. I think I have dealt with it now, but it was a lot of work and the fix is not flawless – the slide, when I bring it in, is not as smooth as it was pre-rot.
Dodging tornados. Both hurricanes and tornados are things that I have a desperate need to avoid while living in an RV. But hurricanes provide more warning. Getting a tornado warning, grabbing the dog and escaping in the truck – twice – is not fun.

Bottom line: 2022 provided some intense highs and some intense lows. It is hard to say that it was a good year. But it wasn’t a totally bad year, either. It was a year that I finished. And at my age that is a good thing.

Categories: Commentary | Leave a comment

“Bloodless” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Sparky

This is #21 in the series of books by Preston and Child featuring Aloysius Pendergast, FBI agent extraordinaire. Probably the last one I will ever read.

I have complained before about the Pendergast stories being too weird. This one is the weirdest of all. The mystery that Pendergast is trying to solve this time is the baffling series of deaths in Savannah GA in which the victims are completely drained of blood. The press hangs the label “Savannah Vampire” on the unknown killer. But the truth turns out to be far more fantastic – and hard to swallow – than a bloodsucking serial killer.

I don’t want to ruin the “fun” for anyone who wants to subject himself to this nonsense, so let me just say that the story begins in 1971, jumps to 2021 and ends in 1880. Yes, it involves time travel. But it also involves D.B. Cooper. Yeah – D.B. Cooper, time travel and a Savannah vampire.

Too much for me.

4 out of 10. It would have been 1 out of 10 were it not for the fact that Preston and Child are skilled authors and can make even a ridiculous plot interesting.

Categories: Books | Leave a comment

A not-very-Florida Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2022 by Sparky

The high temperature on Christmas Day in Ft Myers was 51. The low was 39. The resort groundskeeper covered the flowering plants to prevent damage. People walked dogs in winter parkas and mittens. Rusty didn’t want to go out.

Definitely not your typical Florida Christmas.

I didn’t have a lot of Christmas spirit, but, fortunately, others did. I did help Marlene decorate her tree.

Categories: FL, Friends, Places | Leave a comment