Good time last night!
Donna and Terri threw a small dinner party in honor of Mark Watson’s 44th. The food outstanding. Donna is a terrific cook. The company good. Enjoyed myself!
Donna and Terri have done a magnificent job with the apartment. They have been in about two months. I saw the place when first rented. Terri’s heart attack slowed them down. The place is now completely decorated. Deserving of a Florida housing magazine spread.
Big afternoon ahead! Syracuse v. South Florida at 3:30. Hope not a repeat of last week’s debacle against Louisville.
Poker Run in full force and effect. Bikes driving down US 1 to Key West. Big time noise. Most of the ladies I saw this year were not riding seated behind the driver. They had their own bikes.
I plan on walking a bit of Duval tonight to see the bikes. Several blocks of Duval will be closed off. Only bikes will be permitted to park. Beautiful machines!
Jim Young’s Key West Codes Department has always impressed me. The group does a good job. Professional.
The cosmetic stores continue to be a Duval blight. The law does not permit closing them down. They can be fined however for failing to follow existing local guide lines.
There are seven cosmetic stores. The problem is overcharging, irregular bills, etc. The overcharging is by hundreds of dollars. Sometimes thousands. Credit cards misused.
Codes did an all at once investigation of the stores. Hit the seven stores at the same time. Five were handed violation warnings requiring them to correct their processes in 48 hours.
Too bad they cannot just be closed.
Key West High School has a group known as the Conchettes. An athletic dance group.
The Conchettes have been extremely good in recent years. They have twice appeared in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They have been asked to return this year for a third time. Sixteen will make the trip.
The school does not put up the money for the trip. The young ladies have to raise it. $45,000 needed. Each girl asked to raise $3,500.
Help the Conchettes. Make a contribution. Call the high school to do so.
Government departments and agencies keep getting hacked. High ranking officials, also. Disgraceful.
Could prove helpful, however.
Trump has not released his tax returns. I keep waiting for a hacker to get them and do so. Makes sense.
I grew up and worked in Utica, NY. Fifteen miles away from Herkimer, NY. A small upstate community. Many the case I tried in Herkimer Supreme Court.
Herkimer was previously known as German Flats. On this day in 1778, Mohawk Indian Chief Joseph Brant, 150 Iroquois Indians, and 300 British loyalists burned down German Flats. Only three residents killed. The residents had a warning and escaped to two nearby forts.
Sixty three houses, 57 barns, 3 gristmills, and 1 sawmill destroyed.
At the end of the Revolution, the Brant family and their Iroquois followers escaped to Canada where they remained the balance of their lives.
A poet for the ages left England this date in 1820 for Italy. John Keats. He had tuberculosis. He thought the Rome weather would help his condition. It did not. He died in less than six months at the age of 20.
Keats did not write poetry till the last three years of his life. His works amazing and multitudinous in that short period. Ode to Grecian Urn and Ode to a Nightingale two examples.
I mention Keats because I was fortunate to visit his home and place of death some 35 years ago. I was in Rome. Wandering around while my wife and daughters were clothes shopping. I was at the foot of the Spanish Steps. Immediately to the right was a small 2 or 3 story building. A brass plate on the door was labeled John Keats. I went in.
Exciting! Saw Keats’ bedroom where he died. Another room had many of his transcripts. His poems hand written on pieces of paper. I was familiar with a few. Chilling to read the original product.
Enjoy your day!