Memorial Day 2008

Went for a walk this morning, down to the Bay and the beach there. Lots of people out there celebrating on a beautiful Memorial Day. Cookouts, volleyball games, windsurfing, kite flying.

I was thinking of blending into the crowd so that I could get some of the great smelling grilled food!

Someone had set this up. American flags with state flags lined on both sides. There are little soldiers and tanks, and in the background in front of the flags is a model of the World Trade Center.

This dog sure was having a good time!

Caught this scene on Coffee Pot Boulevard.

This is what happens when the palms shed their fronds. I'd hate to be parked under one of them. I always check the palms in front of my apartment before I park.

ELEANOR RIGBY

I decided to spend some time at the beach this afternoon. I went "minimally", meaning, only with a towel, a bottle of water and some sun screen. Of course, I forgot my hat. The sun was playing hide and seek behind clouds the entire time I was there, which was only for a little over an hour.

Since this is a holiday weekend, the beach was the most crowded I had seen it. It actually took me a little while to find a parking space, which I did on a side street several blocks up from where I normally park.

I went for a walk along the water after I first got there. The water was nice and warm, and the waves were pretty decent too.

As I was laying there on my towel, I was thinking about this holiday weekend. A lot of thoughts ran thru my brain as I lay there. Being Memorial Day Weekend, I was thinking about my family. My sister and brother celebrate their birthday (they're twins) on this weekend. The family always gathered for a cookout at my sister's house; a family tradition. And just being back from visiting Gina yesterday, I was thinking a lot about my children and how we're all scattered now. And add to the mix, the fact that Wayne is out of town and we always have been doing things together on the weekend, so I have a lot of solo time to think.

I was thinking about loneliness. Loneliness can sometimes hit us for a moment, or sometimes it hangs around for a longer period of time. We can be in the middle of a huge crowd, yet still feel alone. Waking up alone. Going to sleep alone. We can be very happy for the most part, but loneliness can creep in suddenly when we're not looking for it. And when family and friends are not close, it can be downright depressing at times.

But, I'm not meaning for this to be a downer post. Although I feel alone at times, life is good. I did get to talk with some friends on the phone today, and met up with some friends tonight to hang out for a short while. And at the risk of sounding pathetic, I even stopped at Publix on my way up to Clearwater to check on Tommy (Wayne's cat) and bought myself some baked beans, cole slaw and potato salad and had me my own little Memorial Day "cookout" (only without the cooked part!) I am meeting Otto for lunch tomorrow, so it should be a fun day. At least work is on vacation for a day.

On my way back to my car, I spotted this in the sand. Someone had made a heart and filled the lines in with rose petals.

I also spotted this. What do you think? Is it a coconut or did someone loose their hairpiece?

A Day in Orlando

On Saturday I spent the day with Gina in Orlando. I wanted to spend more time there with her, so I left St. Pete at 7:00 am. Luck was with me and I hit very little traffic anywhere, even when driving past Disney.

The first order of business was to take Luke for a walk. He greeted me as he always does, jumping up and licking me. Some things never change!

We then headed out to Perkins for breakfast. After a very short wait we ate and loosely planned out our day.

We headed over to the Winter Park area Regal to check out movie starting times. The new Indiana Jones movie was about to start in 10 minutes, so we got our tickets for that. After donating a dollar to the Regal "Stars of Hope" charity, I mentioned that I had done that for several years when I worked at the Regal up in Albany. The box office cashier said that their general manager had just transfered up to New York State to be a regional manager with Regal. Small world at work again.

Indiana Jones was actually much better than I had anticipated. Maybe because I didn't expect much, but it was fun in the traditional formula Indy manner.






After the movie we browsed in some of the shops in the Winter Park shopping complex. While attempting to take a photo of Gina and me, I kept cutting me out. Poor aim or the Universe trying to tell me something?


The woman in this shop saw my attempts and offered to take a picture of us.

Gina had a gift card from Sephora (I know....I never heard of it) so we next headed over to the Florida Mall. Where else to spend a hot humid day in Florida than in an air conditioned mall? Stopped in Harry & David's for a few things (think onion and pepper relish). Then over to Sephora. Next to Old Navy and then dinner at Salsa (YUM!).

I headed back to St. Pete just before 9:00 pm. Another smooth ride with no traffic backups and the passing thunderstorms were long gone.

May do a quick visit to the beach this afternoon, then up to Wayne's to check on Tommy (his cat) and make sure all looks peaceful up there. Wayne is in Texas with his family to celebrate his nephew's wedding.

Memory Lane

Not sure what led me here . . . but this song brought back memories of Joe and Adele when they took gymnastics at Yuri's and the class use to warm up to this song. Gotta love those 80's!

A Message of Love / Do You Believe in Love?

Una Voce: The Florida Men's Chorale with the Pinellas County Center for the Arts (PCCA) presented a benefit concert "A Message of Love" for The Hospice of the Florida Suncoast this past weekend. Performances took place Friday and Saturday nights at the Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg.

Two works were performed. The first was Song of Wisdom from Old Turtle. Douglas Wood, the author, did the narration. "Soon there will be a message of love from God to the earth, and a prayer from the earth back to God."

The second part of the concert, When We No Longer Touch: A Cycle of Songs for Survival was performed. This is based upon the book How to Survive the Loss of a Love by Peter McWilliams. The music is by Kris Anthony. To paraphrase the notes in the program:

When We No Longer Touch is a cycle of songs about the grieving process. Each movement describes the emotions one faces in grief according to Dr. Kubler-Ross: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Kris Anthony carefully chose the text from How to Survive the Loss of a Love and the Requiem Mass to represent each emotion. The result was a score that not only communicated these texts but also chronicled the deep emotion behind their creation. Kris was writing this piece in the midst of his own death.

It was a very emotional program. The orchestra and both the PCCA Symphonic Chorus and Una Voce were amazing. The PCCA Chorus and Orchestra are made up of primarily high school young adults!

The above photo was taken in February 2006 in Carnegie Hall when Una Voce took part in a performance of When We No Longer Touch.

Lastly, as a fundraiser, Una Voce is sponsoring a benefit raffle to raise money to benefit their general operating fund. The prize is an All Expense Paid Las Vegas Trip which includes:

• Two (2) VIP tickets to the Cher concert on August 23rd at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace - Rear Orchestra Fourth Row Seats

• A Two (2) night Luxury Accommodation at Caesars Palace

• Round Trip Airfare for Two (2) from anywhere in the continental US; maximum value of $500

• And $500 Spending Money

Tickets are $20 each and only 1250 tickets will be sold. The drawing will be held on Monday July 21, 2008.

Tickets can be purchased online line at Una Voce's web site. If you decide to buy a ticket, please indicate that Wayne Cooper sent you there!

Bay Healing

This has been a not so good week. This head cold has been going around at work and I've been fighting it ever since Tuesday night. Mostly just a stuffed head. Not really much more than that. I ended up staying home today and resting all day. I'm feeling much better now.

I decided to take a walk tonight to get some outside air. I walked down to the Bay and brought my camera. It was such a beautiful night. I decided to focus on 'palms' tonight. So . . . here are some of the sights on my walk tonight.

A ShortCut

For a while now I've been kickin' it old school, using a Wahl "professional" hair trimmer to buzz my hair. It was not easy, but I got used to it.

Heard about this new fangled gizmo from Remington, called the "ShortCut". Wayne saw an article about it in the newspaper and it sounded good. Fortunately, Target had it in stock. Picked it up, charged it up, and gave it a whirl. For the maiden voyage, I think it did well! A lot easier for sure!