The Little Shack Out Back

This is the preserve, a nature area outside my back door.  My home sits on a corner of Winding Oaks Drive and Harbourside Lane.   We bought here in 2010, when the preserve was far more wild and far less gravel - that was under the old Homeowners Association board, governed by a tightwad who never spent any money on common elements.  If you've read my blog, you recall the story of the pool that was promised with 60 days, but didn't open until 360 days later.

Well, once we had the new pool, then we had to have a place to store the pool furniture.  Mind you, at Cedars Tennis Resort we dealt with the issue of any pending "named storms" that threatened to turn pool furniture into aluminum missiles, by simply THROWING THE DAMN FURNITURE INTO THE POOL.   Of course, this is Winding Oaks where we have an image to protect.  Now, mind you at Cedars (where I lived before) the furniture only took one person to "store" and two to "retrieve", and the last hurricane to hit the Tampa Bay area happened in 1938.

So, without so much as a never mind, the Trustees (none of which can see this travesty from their homes) pour a concrete slab six inches thick, topped by the aforementioned shack measuring 10 foot wide by 20 foot deep, and a pitched roof reaching another 1.5 feet at the peak.  All this for pool furniture (half a dozen stackable chaises, 20 stackable chairs and five tables) and some paint?

 So, having promised that this "super shed" would be screened with appropriate plantings, we'll see how quickly that happens.  Probably be like to pool - we were told it would be done in October when we purchased our new home in July of 2010 .........they just didn't tell us what year.

Sunday morning coming down

Turning onto final, runway 14, at KSRQ

Always fun to give a blog entry a clever name, and while the title references a Country & Western song, sung by Johnny Cash, this is a story about another Johnny and his cash......paying for a great cause.

That picture is of the final approach back to Sarasota, Florida.  It was taken from the back seat of a Cessna 172, being flown by my John B, as PIC (pilot in command) with his flight instructor sitting right seat and observing.  I went along for the ride, having sat in on the "cross country navigation" class taught by Universal Flight Training's John Andrews.  Sunday morning, I should have been in church, but I had scheduled a flight lesson of my own.  In the end, my son took my time slot, and I was happy to be the guy in back, taking pictures and enjoying the ride over to Sebring, Florida and return.  It was the highest that JB or I had flown prior to this date, as we went over at 5,500 feet, and came back at 4,500.  If you are a FaceBook friend, go there and you'll see about two dozen pictures.  Since I'm moving very slowly in my own training, perhaps my future will be aerial photography.

Now, with all this beauty on a Sunday morning,
I think this would be a good place to reprint a
favorite poem, written by a Canadian pilot in the Battle of Britain.  It's called High Flight:

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds, - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung. High in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air........

Up, up the long, delirious blue, I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace.  Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

About the author:  John Gillespie Magee, Jr., born in China in 1922 to an American father, a British mother, both missionaries.  In school, he wrote poetry and sonnets. In 1940, rather than go to college he chose to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, and subsequently was sent to Britain.  His most famous work, High Flight, was inspired by a training flight in a Spitfire during August 1941, where orbiting at 33,000 feet, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem - to Touch the Face of God.  He wrote the poem upon landing that day.

Now, we were a long way from 33,000 feet, and the 172SP was nowhere near a Spitfire Mk 1, but the feeling was easy to understand that Sunday morning.  Someday, hopefully, my son will be at the controls of a jet flying at 33,000 feet, and look back to that first cross country where he was above the clouds and experiencing that same sense of wonder I had, a proud papa sitting in back, wearing the JAFO hat.

Cole explores Jungle Gardens in Sarasota

This blog entry has a few pictures, but if you're wanting to see more, go to my FaceBook page.

This past several days, we were graced with the presence of Caitlin, our daughter, and 22 month old Cole Robert Kreienkamp, our only grandchild.  He will turn two full years on November 11, 2013, but this visit is just a "tune up" for my wife, who'll go north following the Rock & Roll cruise - which will be followed by the Hawaii cruise.

So, we organized our events around the local weather, and since 19 of the last 21 days featured rain, we had to work quickly.  Yesterday we get to the point where Dad put on his jungle "boonie" cap and and lead the family patrol deep into the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, where fierce alligators and crocodiles (yes, they have both) and snakes share space with parrots and flamingos.

Elizabeth had been there, MANY, many, years ago, but it was a first for me, Caitlin and of course Cole.  I found the place surprisingly nice, tucked away in a very small (in terms of acreage) property between US 41 and the Sarasota Bay.  The place was one property, with the fellow who developed it living there for a number of years.  The house he resided within is not a small restaurant/snack bar.  No lions or tigers, but plenty of birds to view.  The place is classic Old Florida, where these type of facilities used to be along all the major highways, BEFORE the Interstates came along.  It may be nostalgic, but I did enjoy it immensely.

Today, the ladies are headed out to St Armands Circle, the local shopping mecca, while I hold down the fort with Ripley who has been one of Cole's newest playmates.  After all, I have leftovers in the refrigerator from our visit to Outback Steakhouse that second night of the visit - somethings are new each time Cole visits, including the visit to the airport to see his Uncle's flight school and look at the small private planes, but somethings remain the same (the perfunctory Outback visit).  Tomorrow, depending on how tired they are, Caitlin and Cole may accompany us to church.  I'd blow it off, except that I volunteered to be the lay reader, and Elizabeth and our friend Mark will be singing a duet during the offertory.  Fortunately, we have two cars here.

That's it from Longboat Key and Jungle Gardens, Sarasota.  Go view my Facebook page for more.

2013 Scholarship Breakfast

This is the day the Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key awaits every year, when the selectees for our Scholarship Program come in to receive their awards.

I took a bunch of pictures, of some of the students, some of the parents, and of course at least one with me along with the club President and the Scholarship Chairman.

We had 25 awardees, fifteen of which were to begin or continue Associate or Bachelor's degrees from Florida schools.  All came from our two counties, Sarasota and Manatee.  There were also ten students who attend Manatee Technical Institute, where they were learning life skills and trades - of these students, only six were there (the others were at work).  Our college bound students were headed off to move into dorms or apartments, a few couldn't even stay till the traditional group picture was taken.

This is the group to the left, and the program leaders are pictured right below.  Weldon Frost chaired the committee and emceed the breakfast, after President Richard Crawford opened our meeting with a song, a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence from those present to reflect on the promise of those youth we recognized this day.  

I've posted many more pictures on my Facebook page.  Most of the readers of my blog are FB friends, so please go there.  Ultimately, the students ranged from the traditional to those re-entering the workforce with dependents to care for.  We had two single fathers (both tech school and both unable to attend), three or four moms with children of their own.  Ultimately, Kiwanis is about the kids and our motto is "serving the children of the world, one child and one community at a time.  We work hard at projects to earn those dollars we invest in our young people, and on days like today, we see the fruits of our labor in the grateful smiles of awardees.

  

Stays in Vegas

 Obviously, I had a good time in Lost Wages, Nevada, where I had gone to participate in a Retiree Reunion, held during the annual meeting of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

NASFAA is made up of all sorts of educational professionals, mostly college financial aid officials. but also those who supported the financing of students - which would be guys like me.

I was the chartering CEO of a student  loan secondary market, which purchased student loans from lenders, and subsequently collected from the borrowers after they graduated and started repayment.  I was there from 1982 to 2003, before retirement.  At the time, we were a secondary market.  We'd buy loans, with borrowed funds from selling bonds on Wall Street, and then pay off the bondholders with the money we recovered from the students.  We were not taxed, so we had less expensive sources of funds, and our investors also paid no taxes on our bonds.

Ten years later, the world of student lending is much different, without banks.

The federal Treasury Department makes loans now and the organization I created has evolved to servicing Direct Loans, and the margins are tight.  The "legacy portfolio" of loans purchased during my tenure are said to have helped the organization have the wherewithal to survive some lean years as the current administration and the Congress changed the rules of the game.

Fortunately, the management team I left behind has persevered and now is the fifth largest holder of loans in the country.  They invited me to attend with their staff, and I had a chance to see a lot of old friends while also seeing some sights, including Hoover Dam along with other retirees.  All in all, I had a good time and the days went quickly by.  The Fremont Street Experience was my last night in Las Vegas, with a buddy from Florida who came into town for another meeting.  There is this huge mall along the street where it all started, and it has a sort of "JumboTron" where images are displayed several times an hour for about ten minutes.  It was really cool, almost better than "the Strip" where the convention hotel was found, and I spent most of my time.   Thanks for my friend Will for suggesting I attend and to Ray, who graciously picked up some major costs.  My buddy Rick proved to be a good photograhper with my iPhone too.

What happens in Vegas.....

Boy, that tower is a real eye full.

My hotel, Aria is only four years old, get lost there daily!

 OK - here I am in Vegas, by myself, and coming up on 24 hours in town.  I stayed in last night, after arriving around 1900 hours - my body thought it was 2200, so grabbed three slices of pizza and two diet cokes, took it to the room, and crashed. My friends got in after me, and stayed out in Vegas, and had some real stories to tell about the night time here.  Looking at the trash on the pavement at 0600 today when I went out foraging for food, I believe it.

This is a town where short skirts seem to be the uniform of the day, as well as the night.  Lots of homeless vets (or alleged vets) on the walkways above the streets.  You'd take your life in your hands by waling at street level to cross the main drag (main drag also has it's own meaning here).  I noticed what  I thought were playing cards left on the sidewalks, but on closer inspection there were not any Jacks, but a whole lot of topless Jills on the cards, advertising various nightlife locations.  Clearly these were handed to men, by other men, then snatched up by wives and immediately thrown down to form a carpet of licentious litter.

New York, New York has a roller coaster too

First cousin to one-armed bandit

Now, the casinos are full of gambling machines, but the only machine that has a guaranteed
payout, and it is
shown here.  I suspect the letters stand for Absolute Tourist Madness.

 Maybe I'll venture out tonight, so stay tuned to this blog locations for the dirt. Damn, I'd hate to be a street cleaner in this city.

Taken early morning before the sun went absolutely crazy......but it was a dry heat.

A Longboat Fourth

On Longboat Key, the Fourth of July is celebrated by the "world's shortest parade" followed by what amounts to an "old fashioned social" at Bicentennial Park.  The parade this year featured one station wagon (with tailgate open and patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers), three convertibles, a fire truck, an ambulance, a police car and then perhaps 150 individuals walking, on bicycles, skateboards, and various other wheeled conveyances.  The parade starts at Sun Trust, goes perhaps 100 yards to the Post Office turn, and then reverses course as it proceeds westward along this divided parkway, ending at the Town Hall entrance. Like I said, the world's shortest Fourth of July parade, darn tootin'.

 Now, after the parade, in which I was convertible number three, all participants and spectators proceed to the nearby park, where they have face painting for the children (yes, we actually do have a few), a hula hoop contest, water squirt guns, and various other games.

There were also waffles topped by strawberries and whipped cream, and the main event, the traditional butterfly release.   This was my first time to witness this up close, as individually wrapped (in paper triangles) butterflies were passed out to children and parents to all release on cue.  Of course, this being sponsored by the Longboat Observer, the Chamber of Commerce, and several smaller donors (including Kiwanis' $100 donation), we also featured the singing of the Star Spangled Banner (ballpark edition) and the Pledge of Allegiance.

We have seven elected politicians, nine appointed Planning Board members (often referred to as the Farm Team to the Town Council).  Convertible number one, driven by past President of Kiwanis Bob Gault and his wife, carried Mayor Jim Brown (and Shannon Gault's dog).  This may have been a tacit endorsement of dogs on the beach, eh Mayor?  Convertible number two was Commissioner Zunz, driven by her son.  Commissioner Gans chose to walk, being a man of the people.   So, three of seven showed up, and for P&Z there were two, one being myself.  My Corvette was number three, with the Chairperson and the Secretary of the Planning Board as featured political aspirants.  Aspirants hell, we're both ex Mayors, but we got elected by the people, not the other six Commissioners.

Oh, here's the funny part - Kurt Schultheis of The Observer did a great job of making up magnetic signs that read "B.J. Webb, Chairperson P&Z" and my name, as "Secretary P&Z".  Nice try Kurt, but magnets don't stick to fiberglass doors on Corvettes........never have, never will.  Happy Fourth of July, anyway.