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...Continued from yesterday: On Friday morning, though heavy rain was promised throughout the day starting any minute,
   
 ...which reminded me of the shells inlaid in some of the sidewalks along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (see post from 8/28/2017) to show the way to the pilgrims walking the Camino.  The St. Armands sidewalk shells ended up showing us the way to a nice breakfast spot, La Creperie Caffe, 
  ...followed by an out-of-this world raspberry cream cheese crepe that we shared for dessert. 
   ...where we strolled around the neighborhoods, admiring the plant life,         
     ...including this lovely palm gracing the lawn of the Beau Lido (see post from 8/28/2017).  We decided that in spite of the overcast skies the rain must be bluffing, so we drove from Lido Key back to the mainland to visit the Sarasota Audubon Nature Preserve, 
 
   By afternoon it was obvious that the rain had changed its mind or at least postponed its intentions, and as the previously overcast skies were now sunny and blue, we decided to spend some time on the beach after lunch. The day before while eating our Cuban sandwiches at Columbia in St. Armands (see yesterday's post) we'd caught sight of some good-looking rice dishes on the table of some nearby diners, and so today I had a hankering to return to Columbia and try one of those dishes for lunch, which we did. 
 ...while I had a tasty rice, vegetable, shrimp and chorizo sausage dish called Salteado.  After lunch we passed a gelato shop displaying selling the most irresistible-looking, not-to-be-denied gelatos,    Then we returned to our suite at the Beau Lido from which we walked to the nearby beach,  ...by which time the rain clouds had reappeared and the wind had picked up, making for rough waves,  ...too rough for me, myself being a person who more enjoys looking at the ocean than getting wet even in the calmest of seas. 
 ...and headed back to the Beau Lido.  Romaine made it back just before the belated thunder storm finally broke from the heavens. The rain pour down for the rest of the night, while we spent the night all cocooned and cozy, listening to the rain,
 ...and watching "Ghostbusters," still a great movie, even many watchings later.  To be continued... 
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...Continued from yesterday: I arrived in Sarasota last Thursday around noon, and on the ride from the airport to Lido Key I fell under the spell of the Florida palm trees, the most common of which appeared to be of a different variety, smaller and spikier, than the palms I've seen in California and Hawaii.  I love palm trees, 
 ...for the people who live where they grow, 
 We arrived at Lido Key where Romaine had rented a bungalow for us on Lido Key Beach (see yesterday's post) and, as lunch time was fast upon us, decided to make procuring some nourishment the first order of things. So we drove directly to the island's beautiful town center, St. Armands Circle,  
 ...wasn't crowded.  A Lido Key resident had told Romaine about a good Caribbean restaurant called Columbia, which turned out to be a really cute place,   ...with really good food. Romaine had the original Cuban sandwich made with layers of ham, salami, marinated roast pork, swiss cheese, and mustard pressed between the freshest, most delicious warm bread, slightly crisp on the top but soft in the middle, served with a side of thin, crunchy, yummy plantains. She also had a side of fresh gazpacho, which is a thin tomato and vegetable soup served cold.  I had the Mahi Mahi Cubano made of grilled Mahi Mahi, sauteed mushrooms, peppers, and onions and topped with melted cheese between slices of the same wonderful bread and served with a pile of the same wonderful plantain chips. Mucho yummy!  After lunch we drove back to the mainland, through downtown Sarasota,  ...then about 15 miles north to Bradenton, a pretty town on an ocean inlet, where we walked along the waterfront,  
 ...except for these arty critters, 
   
 ...then stopped into the police station to use the bathroom, as we were told that was where the public restrooms were.  I'd never before heard of public restrooms in a police station, but I for one think it's an excellent idea on so many levels. We then returned to Lido Key Beach and our bungalow at the Beau Lido from where we walked to the beach to catch the sun set,  ...which we did catch.  Then we walked back towards the town center, St. Armands Circle,  ...which is actually an island joined by a small bridge to Lido Key Beach.   
  We did a couple of turns around the Circle,  ...tried to decide if we were hungry and, deciding that we really weren't after our gargantuan lunch followed by gargantuan scoops of ice cream, then walked back to Lido Beach and the Beau Lido and called it a night.  To be continued...
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay is available at http://www.blackrosewriting.com/romance/equalandoppositereactions amazon.com barnesandnoble.com Kindle Nook ...Continued from yesterday: For the information of the Florida uninitiated, among which I, until recently, numbered, Sarasota is located on the southwestern Gulf Coast,  ...and includes within its boundaries several keys, as the small coral barrier islands that ring the southern coast of Florida are called, .including Lido Key, where Romaine rented us a cute little bungalow on Lido Key Beach,  ...at the Beau Lido Suites.  Our Beau Lido Suite.  
 ...view from our back door,  ...and the back yard, complete with chaise lounges, a double-wide hammock, an old-school shuffle board, 
 ...the above clothesline being such a one as weary pilgrims walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela through the mountains and plains of Northern Spain (as Tom and I twice did - see www.pattiliszkay.weebly.com for Camino blog #1 and www.andlightenyourpack.com for Camino blog #2), 
 ..as we were always hanging our clothes out to dry, 
 ...or on our backs to dry.  But back to Sarasota. As for our Beau Lido suite's interior,
    (loved the pink and grey retro bathroom)   ...for Romaine and I as well as for the perky little lizards who also occupied the premises,  ...and made themselves perfectly at home in our suite, one of them invariably zipping inside whenever I opened the door.  These tiny locals didn't really bother me all that much, they were friendly and harmless enough little critters.
 To be continued...
Though some of the people I most love and cherish live far away,
... and there are moments when I miss them with the most terrible longing, I console myself that having them live far away gives me places to travel to. Arizona, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, the Minnesota prairie, Ithaca, New York, New York City (not counting a couple of day trips when I was young), and Portland, Oregon are among the wonderful places in this diverse, beautiful country of ours that I had entered middle age without having seen, nor likely would ever have seen had the presence dearly loved ones not brought me to those places. Now I can add another wonderful place to that list: Florida. As of a few days ago I had never been to the Sunshine State. But thanks to My sister Romaine, who lives in Portland but who last week had some business in Sarasota,  ...I was finally given a reason to visit beautiful,  ...and, as we learned, seasonably torrentially rainy,   ...Sarasota, Florida.      
  ...nice to meet you, 
 To be continued....
 Afghanistan? Say what? What happened to ISIS, Syria, and North Korea? And what about Yemen? Where’d Afghanistan suddenly pop up from? With all the other conflict-torn hot zones on the planet currently threatening our existence, wasn’t Afghanistan just sort of in a holding pattern of violence and misery? After 16 years, close to a trillion dollars spent and a million American and Afghan soldiers and civilians dead or wounded, didn’t we Americans think that Afghanistan – if any of us ever even thought about it at all anymore - had long ago been filed under “Been There, Can’t Do That?” How did the same old tribal and guerilla warfare that's been ravaging that shattered country since we bombed it halfway back to the stone age after the 911 attack - which was planned and carried out by the way, by Saudi Arabians, not Afghans - suddenly become such a great threat to the citizens of United States? I mean, wasn't it just last month that we were on the verge of a nuclear war with North Korea? So why has Donald Trump decided out of the blue to escalate the war in Afghanistan instead? (A war he promised during his campaign to immediately extricate us from? ) Well, I'll tell you why.
 ...left a void that Trump's generals apparently have rushed in to fill. Instead of Steve Bannon it's now Donald Trump's generals who are telling him what to think and what to do. And so Donald Trump has given free reign and unchecked power to his military commanders to send an infinite number of troops to Afghanistan for an unlimited time - maybe forever - to fight for...what? Until we win? Win what? A victory? And what might a victory in Afghanistan look like? How will we know when we've won? And if the United States couldn't win - whatever that means - when we had 100,000 American soldiers fighting and dying in Afghanistan, how many more young men and women will we have to send over there to fight and die for...what? And if the trillion dollars our country has already squandered on Afghanistan hasn't been enough to buy a victory in Afghanistan, how many more trillions will have to be spent, how much more debt will our country have to be plunged into, how many more American and Afghan lives will have to be sacrificed before Donald Trump and his generals will admit what they already know. That there's no such thing as an American victory in Afghanistan. Our Congress won't allocate the funds for universal health care or for repairing our crumbling infrastructure or for updating our airports and building a high-speed railway system. But there's always enough money and expendable lives for war.  Reference:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/08/22/daily-202-a-dozen-key-lines-from-trump-s-afghanistan I miss The Eclipse. It was so nice yesterday, having something to be excited about, something happy and good that everybody could all talk about, share, celebrate and marvel over. Something that brought us together as a country, for a change. I loved that people from all over the world traveled to the areas where one could see the Totality, as the total eclipse was called, or even to get a little closer to the Totality. Some of my children took Eclipsecations to places closer to The Totality zone: Claire and Miguel traveled from Chicago to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, where they watched the event on Dinosaur Hill;   ...while Callie and Theresa took a day trip from Cincinnati to the Kentucky-Tennessee border, from which they caught a good view of the night descending upon the day.    As for me, I'd been intending on going about my business throughout the day without looking up at the sky for fear of hurting my eyes (see post from 8/20/2017), then looking at the pictures later on the internet. But then a couple of my afternoon students cancelled their piano lessons - to watch The Eclipse - so I decided to make use of my free time to drive over to the Gahanna Library for a book. But there was a traffic jam in front of the library and the library lawn was crowded with children and adults wearing eclipse glasses and holding eclipse boxes and other eclipse-viewing paraphernalia. The sight of all these people who'd come to share the experience of this natural wonder in community filled me with such a feeling of warmth, positivity, and over-all gemülichkeit that I decided to forget about getting a book - besides there was no place to park anywhere near the library - and went home to hang out in my backyard. When I arrived home Tom was already outside eclipse-watching,  ...with our next-door neighbor. Though I'd sworn I wouldn't look up, not even with glasses, what the heck, now I couldn't resist taking a few peeks,  ...and saw the amazing sight of the sun looking like the moon, as captured in this photo posted on Facebook by someone who placed his eclipse glasses over the lens of his camera.  I too, had the idea of trying to catch a photo of The Eclipse at the moment of Totality - or as close to Totality - 80% - as it would be where I stood - but I didn't think of putting the glasses on my camera; rather I looked through the camera's screen while wearing the glasses. Here's what my camera captured:  A different perspective of The Eclipse, but sufficient to inspire me, as I'm sure it inspired other part-time poets and dreamers the world over, to put together a few lines of verse. I say "put together" because I borrowed some words from some famous verse-smiths and glued them together with some thoughts and words of my own. I don't know if that sort of thing is allowed. It's probably not. But here it is. No iambic pentameter, trochaic tetrameter, or dactylic hexameter, just my brain shaking its booty to the music in my head on the dance floor behind my eyes. There Went The Sun By W.S. Gilbert, William Shakespeare, St. Paul, George Harrison, and Patti Liszkay  The sun whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory Did deny his majesty, but oh so briefly, While his flame, that placid dame, the moon's Celestial Highness Teasingly stole for two minutes the light she nightly borrows, That mankind may all acclaim her and say, "Though she be but little, today she is mighty," And recall that sometimes the weak confound the strong In wonderful ways. Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
Today, August 22, and tomorrow, August 23,
...will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle!
It's my FREE eBOOK GIVE-AWAY! So, today or tomorrow just click on the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0732Q34LT then when you get to the link click "Kindle Edition" and "Equal And Opposite Reactions" will be yours for free and forever to read on your Kindle! So grab yourself a free Kindle copy of "Equal And Opposite Reactions" on August 22, or 23. If you already read the book and loved it, then share this with everyone you like! 😊 If you already read the book and hated it, then share this with everyone you don't like! 😉  Tomorrow’s the big day. That much anticipated celestial spectacular, the Great American Eclipse, is almost here and there’s great excitement in the air. While driving along I-270 this morning on my way to Cincinnati to visit Callie and Theresa,  ...and their kitty Dory  ...I saw along the highway an electronic billboard time clock that was counting down the time until The Eclipse would arrive to grace the heavens above Central Ohio. At that time, around 8:30 am, there was, according to the time clock, 1 day, 4 hours, and 38 minutes left until the event. Which means that The Eclipse will arrive a few minutes after 1 pm, or so. But as it might not have been exactly 8:30 when I saw the the billboard, maybe a few minutes before or after, I could be few minutes off about the time of The Eclipse. Still, a few minutes is - from what I understand - critical when one is eclipse-watching, as - from what I understand - the show lasts only a couple of minutes. But it doesn't really matter. Before I saw that billboard time clock this morning I didn't have any idea what time the the Totality - the moments of the total eclipse of the the sun (or as close to total as will depend upon one's location) - was taking place. Nor was I intending to seek out that information. Because I'm not doing The Eclipse. I won't be outside tomorrow afternoon looking for it. I figure I'll just go on about my business while that placid dame, the moon's Celestial Highness steals for a few moments from the sun the light she nightly borrows,* and then later I'll look at the beautiful pictures that will be posted all over the internet. But I won't be watching The Eclipse in real time. Because I've always been afraid of eclipses. I'm afraid of eclipses the same way I'm afraid of water because I don't know how to swim and bees because I'm very allergic to their sting. I'm afraid of eclipses because looking at one can make a person go blind. Or so it was drilled into myself and all the other youngsters who, back in 1963, experienced our first eclipse. "Don't look!" we were told by the adults, "not even a quick peek!" Rather, all kids back then were given instructions, carried in every newspaper in the country at that time and passed on to us from our worried parents, to build this sort of camera obscura box thing, which involved poking a pin-hole in one side of a large cardboard box then holding the box over your head while you aimed the pin-hole at the sun just before the eclipse then watched as the circle of sunlight produced on the inside of the box was decimated to a thin corona before reappearing in full. Of course the dang thing didn't work for me or any of my friends who stood holding boxes over our heads hoping to see a shadow play of The Eclipse. But it did keep us all from going blind. So I intend to keep from going blind this time, too. I know there are approved glasses you can wear. Callie and Theresa offered me a pair from the stash they've acquired for the occasion.  But I said no thanks. I'll probably stay inside, anyway. But if I do happen to go outside during The Eclipse I will not life mine eyes heavenwards to see the stars and planets come out.
    Hear Ye, Hear Ye!
On August 21, 22, and 23, ..."Equal And Opposite Reactions," ...will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle!
It's my FREE eBOOK GIVE-AWAY! So, on August 21, 22 or 23 just click on the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0732Q34LT then when you get to the link click "Kindle Edition" and "Equal And Opposite Reactions" will be yours for free and forever to read on your Kindle! So grab yourself a free Kindle copy of "Equal And Opposite Reactions" on August 21, 22, or 23. If you already read the book and loved it, then share this with everyone you like! 😊 If you already read the book and hated it, then share this with everyone you don't like! 😉 Of course I'm against fascism. I mean, I'm not a hundred percent clear on exactly how fascism distinguishes from Nazism, Communism, totalitarianism, racism, anti-semitism, white supremacism, homophobism, or any of the other -isms the core tenant of which is the suppression of freedom, human rights, human dignity, justice, and the requirement to do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. Maybe fascism includes all of the above. Or only some of the above. Whatever. I'm against all those bad -isms, as is any decent human being. But I'm also against Antifa. Or the Antifa. Or the Antifas. Or however one refers to this newly uncovered far-leftist militant group whose mission at this time in this country appears to be to fight back - physically - against armed alt-right groups during white supremacists hate rallies.
 The Antifa. 
 Where Donald Trump errs, where all of those who equate one side with the other err, is that, take away the Antifa's weapons, what they stand for is right. Take away the alt-right's weapons, what they stand for is still wrong. So while I stand for what Antifa stands for, I stand against using violence to make my stand. (Not that, in a real war, Antifa would stand a chance against the American fascists; Antifa shows up to protest hate rallies armed with sticks and pepper spray, while there are always cadres of fascists who show up at their rallies armed to the teeth with assault rifles.  In fact, who remembers the scenes from last summer of downtown Cleveland outside the Republican National Convention?)  So now anyone who supports what the Antifas stands for without endorsing them (or is it endorses what they stand for without supporting them? I should ask the Congressional Republicans who ran on Donald Trump's coat tail what the correct phraseology is), will be forced to try explain that no, the Antifa's method is not right, but, no, they're not the moral equivalent of alt-right neo-Nazi white supremacists; that there have been circumstances in which citizens have been justified in taking up arms against the Fascists, such as they did in the 1930's in Italy against Mussolini's Blackshirts,  ...and that, while it's not outside the realm of possibility that such a thing could happen here (I mean, if Donald Trump could get elected here, then let's face it, anything could happen here), it probably won't, so at this moment in time, when we still have the right to vote and the fascists don't control the government or the police force, a movement like Antifa is not only unnecessary, ineffective, and counterproductive in dealing with neo-Nazis and white supremacists - in fact there's nothing they'd love better than a good thuggy rumble - but it blurs the line between peaceful protesters and itself and gives ammunition to people like Donald Trump; and people will get hurt; but all that being said, the Antifas are still not the moral equivalent of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists. So thanks to Antifa, people like me will have to explain, and explain, and explain all of the above to smug "gotcha now" Trump supporters. Or what remains of them. (Sigh). I'm exhausted already. Hear Ye! Hear ye!
On August 21, 22, and 23,
...will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle!
It's my FREE eBOOK GIVE-AWAY! So, on August 21, 22 or 23 just click on the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0732Q34LT then when you get to the link click "Kindle Edition" and "Equal And Opposite Reactions" will be yours for free and forever to read on your Kindle! So grab yourself a free Kindle copy of "Equal And Opposite Reactions" on August 21, 22, or 23. If you already read the book and loved it, then share this with everyone you like! 😊 If you already read the book and hated it, then share this with everyone you don't like! 😉
 ...mother of Heather Heyer, the anti-racism activist who was murdered by a 20-year-old neo-Nazi last week at the white supremacist hate rally in Charlottesville,  ...was speaking for all decent-hearted Americans when she said at her daughter's memorial service that she would rather have her child, but if she had to give her up we were going to make it count. We'd all rather have this strong young advocate of social justice still alive and well. And yet her death has brought about a seismic social upheaval that has shaken our country to its core, from sea to sea and border to border, and has caused a national examination of conscience that compels every one of us to look into the mirror and into our hearts and to ask ourselves the questions, "Where do I stand?" "Which side do I support?" "What do I believe is right?" "What do I believe is wrong?" One realization that many Americans came to very quickly, that they were perhaps shocked into in the wake of Heather Heyer's murder, was that the remaining Confederate monuments that still mar our public spaces had to go. Immediately. In the days since the violence and death in Charlottesville, all across the United States Confederate statues and monuments have been coming down,
 
  ...once by citizens who in an act of civil disobedience took the matter into their own hands.  And in solidarity with the four protesters who were arrested for pulling down the above statue in Durham, North Carolina, hundreds more lined up inside and outside the Durham courthouse and tried to turn themselves in to Durham authorities for the act.  And so, one blessing that Heather Heyer bestowed upon our country was the realization - by most of us - that these monuments to the people who led the the terrible war whose aim was to put an end to the United States of America and ensure the continued enslavement 3 million human beings - that these monuments are a national shame and that they must go, sooner rather than later. These statues may represent part of our country's history, but it was a hateful part that no one should wish to enshrine. And of those who believe that the statues should continue to stand where they are, of those who are sad to see the Confederate monuments taken down,  ...of you I ask this question: Would you keep in constant view a photo or reminder of a person who was once part of your life but who caused you terrible pain? Would you want to have to look at such a reminder every day? Would you want to see other people paying homage to this reminder of your suffering throughout history? I say to those who want to keep the statues, their legacy obviously does not cause you enough distress,  nor do you feel distress or empathy for the people for whom those statues are a constant reminder of the suffering of their ancestors as well as the racism that is still, sadly, pervasive across this land.   We can, indeed, do better, by reserving monuments for true heros.  References: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J7vHogeubI http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/protesters-arrest-confederate-statue-durham_us_5995b749e4b0acc593e5ef8b https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/16/us/confederate-monuments-removed.html?mcubz=1&_r=0 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-confederate-monuments_us_59959586e4b06ef724d6c37a Hear Ye! Hear ye! Want to get my book for FREE? On August 21, 22, and 23,  ...will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle!
It's my FREE eBOOK GIVE-AWAY! So, on August 21, 22 or 23 just click on the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0732Q34LT then when you get to the link click "Kindle Edition" and "Equal And Opposite Reactions" will be yours for free and forever to read on your Kindle! So grab yourself a free Kindle copy of "Equal And Opposite Reactions" on August 21, 22, or 23. If you already read the book and loved it, then share this with everyone you like! 😊 If you already read the book and hated it, then share this with everyone you don't like! 😉 Surely you recognized Donald Trump's response to the violence and death that came from a white supremacist hate rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Backed into an uncomfortable corner from which he was required, as President, to respond to the tragedy of the murder of a young social justice advocate by a 20-year-old Nazi and the ensuing distress, grief, and turbulence our country has been thrown into, Donald Trump's response was to equate the mass mob of neo-Nazis, KuKlux Klan members and disciples of bigotry, racism and anti-Semitism who stormed the city wielding torches, clubs, shields, assault weapons with the protesters who arrived to stand up to them.
 Did anybody really expect better from such a man as this man has shown himself to be? All those of his aides and staff members who professed to be so shocked by Donald Trump's appalling response, were they really shocked? Really? But surely most of you recognized the substandard judgement Donald Trump showed in his poor handling of a situation someone in his position of authority should have had the capability to handle properly; it's the same ineptitude as that of the jelly-filled school principal, teacher, boss, supervisor, judge, or other person in a position of adjudicative authority who, when dealing with a conflict situation involving misconduct or wrong-doing, blames the victim as well as the victimizer, the offended as offender, the innocent as well as the guilty, the defender as well as the attacker. Weak-spined authority figures, especially those of such anemic moral character as Donald Trump, lack the courage and integrity to make fair, just decisions and pronouncements. They placate the bully because it's easier to placate him than to confront him. Especially when the bully happens to be one's own kid.  Hear Ye! Hear ye! Want to get my book for FREE? On August 21, 22, and 23,  ...will be available for FREE on Amazon Kindle!
It's my FREE eBOOK GIVE-AWAY! So, on August 21, 22 or 23 just click on the link below: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0732Q34LT then when you get to the link click "Kindle Edition" and "Equal And Opposite Reactions" will be yours for free and forever to read on your Kindle! So grab yourself a free Kindle copy of "Equal And Opposite Reactions" on August 21, 22, or 23. If you already read the book and loved it, then share this with everyone you like! 😊 If you already read the book and hated it, then share this with everyone you don't like! 😉 |
"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY 
"Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa or from The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, Ohio 
Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
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