Author Archives: Sparky
Volunteer fail?
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 … Continue reading
New Year’s Eve at the American Legion
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 … Continue reading
“Bloodless” by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Copyright 2021 by Splendide Mendax, Inc., and Lincoln Child. Published by Grand Central Publishing, New York. 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 … Continue reading
A not-very-Florida Christmas
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, … Continue reading
“Live Wire” by Harlan Coben
Copyright 2011 by Harlan Coben. Published by Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. This is #10 in the series of books by Coben featuring his crime-solving talent agent, Myron Bolitar, and his skull-cracking aristocrat buddy, Windsor “Win” Horne Lockwood III. I have read seven books by Coben now – three of … Continue reading
Tuesdays at Gilchrist Park
Gilchrist Park is a large public space on the south side of Charlotte Harbor in Punta Gorda FL. On a nice day it is a great place to walk, bicycle or skateboard. But at sunset on Tuesdays it is home to a jam session by local musicians who serenade, gratis, anyone who cares to take … Continue reading
Farewell to Ooma
When Ooma and I embarked on the 10-week auto trip north we knew it would make us or break us. Well, it broke us. We discovered things about each other during that trip that we found intolerable. We hung on until the trip finished and even attempted to reconcile after we had each had a … Continue reading
Tillamook Thanksgiving 2022 – Day 4
This was a “getaway” day. Everyone who stayed with my sister and her husband – and she had 7 houseguests that last night – packed up and left. I visited a casino on my way out of Tillamook (Spirit Mountain where I dropped $100), had a farewell lunch with my sister, Lois, and her husband, … Continue reading
Tillamook Thanksgiving 2022 – Day 3
Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was, as is often the case, a day of rest and recovery, with turkey leftovers. It was a raw, rainy day in Tillamook, so it was spent indoors, at my sister’s house until dinnertime, then we moved the party to the beach house of her son and daughter-in-law, Michael and … Continue reading
2022 in review
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 … Continue reading »