Our Visit to Pine Mountain, Georgia

The Pine Mountain/Warm Springs area of west-central Georgia is probably best known for where President Franklin D. Roosevelt spent much of his presidency in the Little White House at Warm Springs, where the spring water there seemed to help him with the aftermath of his polio affliction that immobilized him in his later years.  Melissa and I visited here last week for a couple of days, lodging at a place about halfway between Pine Mountain (on the west) and Warm Springs (on the east)...Picture #1 shows a field on the property where they hold outdoor weddings.  It is very hilly here...mountainous, especially by Florida's standards...and the scenery is beautiful.  Although the spot had great historical significance due to FDR's legacy we focused on just relaxing, partaking of the area's shops and eateries, and hiking on the Pine Mountain Trail...which snakes through the woods, across streams, and up and down hills through several miles.  Thursday morning we entered the Trail at its start, situated next to a TV tower on the west side of ALT-US 27 just north of SR 190...see the map, Picture #2.  On the trail Melissa fashioned her own walking stick from a branch lying nearby and we trudged down (and up) the very uneven path, with large roots, stones, and abrupt drops and rises forcing us to look down while we walked.  We met several different parties of hikers along the way...this Pine Mountain Trail is very popular, and some hardy souls chose to pack up and camp more deeply along the trail.  We eventually decided to turn back in order to get out before dusk set in...Pictures #3 and #4 show the trail, with the latter displaying a stream crossing on unstable rocks...

In Warm Springs we ate at the Bulloch House, a famous restaurant where Roosevelt ate and which showed many historic pictures, one of the President smilingly about to cut into a large roast turkey and my favorite showing him actually standing up, on the rear car of a train at the Warm Springs station.  They still have a railway there...albeit probably now just freight...while in Pine Mountain to the west they got rid of theirs in favor of a walking-biking trail.  We shopped and ate in Warm Springs on Thursday, supping at Mac's Barbeque behind Bulloch and did the same the next day in Pine Mountain, breakfasting at Eddie Mae's Country Kitchen and trying out UniquExpressions Coffee Shop...Melissa's in Picture #5 in front on one of their Main Street shops.  Then we headed on back homeward.  I recommend this part of Georgia to those, especially from Florida, who just want to get away for a little while but don't feel like having to navigate through and past Atlanta to get to the northern Georgia mountains...that last picture was taken off the side of SR 190 where they offered a place to pull off the road to see the scenic view.  There wasn't a person we met anywhere there who wasn't overly friendly and helpful...can't beat that!  I'd like to return someday and extensively check out the Little White House and the nearby Callaway Gardens.  Still, it's good to be back home again...

Our Chicago Visit to Its Museum of Science and Industry

Melissa, Will, and I on our final full day visiting Chicago, Illinois last month decided to divide it between exploring their Museum of Science and Industry and experiencing the top of Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  We got on the Metra line...separate from the Chicago Transit Authority trains...to take us to the Hyde Park area south of downtown, where the University of Chicago lies to the west and Jackson Park, the site of our museum destination as well as a short strip of Lake Michigan beach, on the east side of our rail station.  On the train the conductor...unlike on the C.T.A. rails...punched our tickets like Tom Hanks did on The Polar Express, but alas, no words like "Believe" or "Learn" appeared on them.  And dang it, no hot chocolate either...but I still liked the more traditional train ride experience.  At the museum we first descended to a lower floor where the story of the U.S. Navy's capture of an intact Nazi German U-Boot (U-505) in August 1944 during World War II was elaborately presented...after the war they even took their prize around the country for display.  Then we entered a large room where we discovered the actual submarine...much, much bigger than I had imagined it to be (see first photo).  The Museum of Science and Industry has a lot of different areas to explore...we had to pick and choose, watching a planetarium-style presentation of what it's like to be hit by a tornado, reliving the great Apollo 8 moon flyby in 1968 with the spacecraft itself on display, exhibits about elements of life prolongation, the innovation of vertical urban farms, different types of bicycles (including an inexpensive-but-resilient cardboard bike, description in second photo), genetics (including a display showing newly-hatched chicks), the history of transportation, and electricity...to name a few.  There were countless stations for visitors to interact with, and we felt that...as was the case with our Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian museum visits last October...a full appreciation that what this place has to offer required a much greater investment of time than we were able to make...

After leaving the museum, before returning to our Metra rail station, the three of us walked eastward to the beach area, which you can see in the third and fourth pictures.  Melissa said that Lake Michigan was very cold...not surprising...but there still were folks out in the water enjoying it all while a lifeguard watched over them.  At least with their fresh water they didn't have sharks, although rip current presents a danger there as it does on our Atlantic beaches.  We made our way back to the station and decided to have dinner at a downtown restaurant that Melissa's friend had recommended: The Walnut Room, on an upper floor within Macy's.  As we were seated for what would be an excellent meal, I looked southward out the window and, lo and behold, on the building across from us was a huge, beautiful mural of the late blues great Muddy Waters, finished three years ago by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra...spectacular, of course my final photo is of that mural...

Later in the evening we three trudged on down the road to Willis Tower...sightseeing like this in Chicago was greatly aided by the fact that we all are seasoned walkers.  Besides, there's usually more to see and experience when you're moving more slowly.  I'll write about Willis Tower in a future article...

A Walk Through Chicago's Wicker Park

Wicker Park is a small commercial and residential area of Chicago, surrounding a little triangular park of the same name and located a little to the northwest of the downtown area, just west of I-90. Melissa and I probably would have missed it on our recent visit here were it not for our son Will, who made the journey with us, mentioning a few places he wanted to check out there.  It's a place known for attracting hipsters and being a little counterculture in nature, not exactly Greenwich Village but more working class.  After our excellent Architecture Tour on the morning of Monday August 12th, we got on the C.T.A. Blue train at Lake and Clarke and rode to Wicker Park, getting off at the Damen Avenue station.  Like myself, Will digs bookstores and coffee shops, so we checked out Quimby's on North Street and Myopic on Milwaukee Avenue for their books, after which we stopped off at Wormhole Coffee further down Milwaukee.  Quimby's Books more or less specialized in radical and counterculture-themed books and was big on poetry as well...I imagine that it would be the kind of place that the Goth Kids on South Park would hang out at.  Myopic, on the other hand, was loaded with many, many used books, fiction and nonfiction, and reminded me of the sorely-missed Book Gallery on Main Street many years ago in Gainesville...now that kind of bookstore I could relate to.  Wormhole was cool, the coffee was good, the alternative rock music was good and loud, and the barista there recommended Handlebar, a vegetarian restaurant further west on North, as a good place for lunch.  Handlebar's food was great, although I'm not a vegetarian.  I ordered their sloppy joe and a side of chili...both meatless and delicious.  After lunch the rain began to fall and we made it back to the train station before needing to take out our umbrellas...

Wicker Park...at least the North Street and Milwaukee Avenue section we walked through...seemed more to be oriented for tourists as the sidewalks were full of people who were obviously visitors and not just residents.  I imagine that Chicago has a lot of little enclaves like this, each with its own personality and attraction...but we simply did not have the time to explore around.  The brick buildings in various shades of brown were a lot shorter than the downtown Loop's skyscrapers, so for a change of scenery and atmosphere Wicker Park suited us just fine...

Quote of the Week...from a Fortune Cookie

Each day, compel yourself to do something you would rather not do.    
                                                        ---fortune cookie from local Chinese restaurant.

There is a very good little Chinese restaurant close to my workplace.  Although I wouldn't want to eat that style every day, sometimes the mood hits me and I'll call in and order on my way and pick it up or eat it there.  Yesterday I got my usual hot and sour soup with eggroll and took it to my break room at work.  Usually they throw in a fortune cookie and sure enough, there it was.  I cracked it open and looked at the little slip of paper: lucky numbers on one side and a saying on the other.  This time the saying, which I copied above, actually carried some meaning to me.  Of course, each day I am already compelling myself to do lots of things I would rather not do...that's just a part of toughing it out in this sometimes demanding and unkind life.  What I think the sage genius who came up with this "fortune" really meant, though, is to do something new that I don't want to do...and of course, something that is constructive and relevant.  And if it is something that carries on the next day or is a regular activity, then I keep it up while the following day I find something new I don't want to do and do it.  This way, after a year...or maybe just a couple of months...I have completely transformed my life by throwing away old bad habits, adopting good ones, and prioritizing what's important and what isn't.  H-m-m-m, and all from a happenstance fortune cookie somebody slipped into my bag of food...

Evening at Chicago's Millennium Park

After checking into our hotel on Wacker Street late afternoon on the Sunday before last, our party of three tourists intent on exploring Chicago (Melissa, Will, and I) decided to walk a short distance south to try some of their Chicago-style deep-dish pizza at Giordano's, a local chain.  The pizza's preparation took a while, and it wasn't until the sun had set that we finally set out for the nearby Millennium Park.  I was wondering whether the sightseeing there would be diminished without the sun shining down on everything, but from the above photos it's clear that nighttime is THE time to go there! In the second picture is Millenium Monument, situated in  the park's northwestern corner against a spectacular backdrop of lit-up skyscrapers.  Photo #1 is of the park's main draw: the imposing Cloud Gate, more commonly referred to as "The Bean", constructed by a British-Indian artist and finished in 2006...with very shiny stainless steel throwing off incredible curves and reflections.  We walked around it, taking selfies and examining the peculiar optics...I'm not quite sure what it was for, but it was definitely intriguing! Further south we walked and encountered the Crown Fountain, which is essentially a wading pool bordered by two tall vertical rectangular slabs facing each other.  And I mean "facing" literally: the slabs feature close-up faces of random people from diverse backgrounds, each gradually changing his or her expression and then, at the end, blowing a spray of water out of the mouth into the pool...where little children scream with delight and run around while their parents and family patiently put up with it all. It's cute and interactive...and totally unique as far as I can tell...

 We were getting pretty tired at the end of this travel-intensive day, so we ended our walk through the part soon after the "face slabs" and returned to our hotel.  There is a lot more to Millennium Park...and the adjacent Grant Park further south... than we experienced.  Next to the Millennium Monument is a sophisticated bandshell for concerts (none were held this evening), and other parts may have been only available during daytime hours.  But we knew our stay in Chicago had some serious time constraints so we subsequently moved on to other things.  On any return trip, though, I plan to completely cover this area...

Gainesville's Cheesecake Factory to Open in September

When our son Will was attending the University of North Florida in Jacksonville a few years ago, we'd visit often, and while there in the pretty southeastern section of the city near the campus, frequented their excellent Town Center with its many stores and restaurants (and multiple Starbucks). One area we tended to concentrate on was their huge Barnes & Nobles bookstore (with an embedded Starbucks, naturally) and the adjacent Cheesecake Factory restaurant. Since then our own local, smaller Barnes & Noble off Archer Road closed down and we've been long anticipating a brand new Gainesville Cheesecake Factory somewhere in the newly developed store area off Archer as well.  Well, we're not getting B&N back, but I just read on my local newsfeed that on September 17th our own Cheesecake Factory will open its doors.  It is said to be located next to the Whole Foods store, which is in the lot where Wal-Mart and Lowes used to be before they both closed and moved further west.  I love their dinner menu and even more their extensive list of specialty cheesecakes...can't wait! H-m-m, let's see...I think I'll try their tiramisu cheesecake first...

Walking and Dining in San Antonio

During our recent visit to my sister and her family in Austin, we made a little detour...to San Antonio in order to experience this important city, especially the Alamo and the Riverwalk.  Melissa and I went with Anita and my nephew Greg on this little adventure and spent the Sunday afternoon and evening walking and dining in the downtown area...

First on the plan, after checking into our overnight hotel a few blocks east of downtown San Antonio, we all walked down Commerce Avenue and then veered northward to the Alamo site.  The weather was a bit hot and stuffy, and whenever we had the chance to duck into an air-conditioned building I was grateful for the relief.  The Alamo itself was a little bigger than I had imagined...later I found out that the decorative, curved top front part was a later addition, built around 1870.  The Battle of the Alamo took place in March 1836 when dictatorial Mexican president Santa Anna, wanting to fully consolidate and centralize his power, undertook a military expedition to outlying Texas, then still a part of Mexico but increasingly populated by English-speaking settlers from the east.  Resistance to his forces culminated in a siege of the old mission and resulted in a "no quarter" massacre of the fighting men there by Santa Anna's forces.  A few days later, Sam Houston's forces defeated and captured Santa Anna at San Jacinto River, forcing him to officially concede defeat as Texas declared its independence.  At a gift shop within the Alamo complex (a nice, air-conditioned gift shop) an author by the name of John R. Knaggs was holding a book-signing for his historical novel of the Alamo and San Jacinto River battles, titled The Bugles Are Silent.  Anita bought a copy...maybe I'll read it someday.  Next to the Alamo building that most of us recognize is a long building appropriately called the Long Barrack, containing a great museum about the Alamo, a short explanatory movie, and also more air-conditioning.  These two buildings are the only ones left intact to this day from the Alamo battle.  By the way, cutting through the Alamo grounds is a narrow creek/pond stocked full of koi fish...many visitors seemed entranced by them...

As the afternoon progressed, we left the Alamo and headed south back to Commerce Avenue and an entranceway down the steps to the San Antonio River, on both sides of which are restaurants, shops...and even an outdoor theater.  We made our way to the Casa Rio Mexican restaurant and sat out by the riverside to eat our dinner.  The river was marked by a nearly constant stream of tour boats...some of which were set up for dining...and a multitude of ducks, each seeming to stake out its territory near a strategic table in anticipation of crumbs.  The food was good and so was the service...I recommend this restaurant.  For some reason, during much of our meal we heard someone continuously playing a bagpipe from across the river...I wonder what that was all about.  Afterwards, the four of us walked on down the Riverwalk, sightseeing and snapping pictures along the way.  One interesting place we discovered spanned both sides of the river: the outdoor Arneson River Theater, with the grass seating curving around on one side and the stage on the other. A full-blown production at night must be a memorable event to experience...

As darkness fell, I began to sense that, more than anything, I could use a good cup of coffee, so our party walked around looking for such a place.  Unfortunately, we weren't successful at finding a local coffee shop and ended up settling for the McDonalds on Commerce...I got the largest ice coffee and quickly gulped it all down...ah-h-h, that's better now.   After that we walked down the nighttime version of the Riverwalk in the opposite direction, finally finding a gift shop to browse through.  My sister sneakily bought a large Yellow Submarine Beatles coffee mug after I had let it be known that I liked it...thanks Anita, it's my favorite!  I thought the San Antonio Riverwalk was fun, and had we been planning to stay longer in town we could have probably explored it further.  Their boat tours look interesting...maybe if we make it back we'll try going on one of them...

Our visit to San Antonio was constrained a bit by time, but I think we got the essentials down.  Most of all I enjoyed the company of my wife, sister, and nephew...and it's hard to beat that!

And now here's a description of the above five pictures:
#1: The Arneson River Theater, seen from the top of the audience seating area...with a tour boat on the river.
#2: Melissa and I standing before the Alamo.
#3: Anita and I (and a photo bomber) at Casa Rio restaurant on the riverside.
#4: Same place: Melissa and Greg.
#5: That quirky, cool Beatles Yellow Submarine mug.

McDonald's Beats Starbucks with Coffee, Prices, Seating Space

I'm sitting here about an hour before I have to go in to work, which is close by. "Here" is the McDonald's at SW 34th Street and Williston Road at the southern fringe of Gainesville, where I am enjoying their rather generous promotion of iced coffee, any size going for $1.39.  You can get it in different flavors: I prefer hazelnut.  The coffee goes down faster, but I enjoy it more than the hot version.  I can sit just about anywhere I want and, of course, get free Wi-Fi here...so why go to Starbucks when there is more than an even chance that I won't be able to find a place to sit while paying through the nose for less coffee?

McDonald's is more of a blue-collar place to visit as opposed to Starbucks' somewhat snobby, gentrified appeal.  But who am I kidding?  I'm a blue-collar kind of guy anyway...and besides, I know a good deal when I see it.  Also, this seems to one place in town where students haven't taken over, staking out tables for hours with their laptops.  This particular McDonald's is interesting because it is situated at the southernmost I-75 exit in Gainesville and is a frequent stop for travelers.  When I walk out of here, it's less than five minutes to my workplace.  So why do I even bother stopping off at another place before work? 

Went Boating With Friends Yesterday

Yesterday our friends Richard and Kelly invited Melissa and me to join them on their boat, going up the St. John's River (which is actually southward).  Their marina, the launch and return point of our excursion, is on the river's east bank in Satsuma, a small community in eastern Putnam County.  We went a few miles up river, with thick forests on its west side and numerous homes, apartments, and docks on the east.  Along the way we encountered several osprey nests, rising high above water in the center of the river, built at the top of man-made markers.  The parent ospreys were very protective of their nests, which at this time of year were full of their young offspring...our passing by didn't exactly please them as they hovered about and threatened to buzz us.  Eventually we made our way to where the Ocklawaha River empties into the St. John's and veered to the right.  At this point we encountered numerous manatees, who seemed naturally curious about our boat and its occupants.  One of them got very close to Melissa as she was leaning over the edge, and it gave her a friendly snort with its muzzle sticking out of the water as it looked at her.  Richard piloted the boat very carefully and skillfully around these gentle and noble beasts...unfortunately, we saw several other crafts that whizzed by without any apparent regard for the wildlife around them.  After hanging around the mouth of the Ocklawaha for a while among the manatees, we made our way up that river, whose flow has been greatly stemmed since the construction of the Rodman Dam in 1971 that created a reservoir behind it.  Going up the Ocklawaha River for a few miles was marked by many sharp meanderings, and we were surrounded by wilderness...much different from our St. John's River experience and probably a lot different from the Ocklawaha on the other side of that dam...

After we made our way back to the marina, we all went to a seafood restaurant, called "Shrimp R Us and More", which is in the small town of Welaka...incidentally, also situated on the St. John's River just opposite of where the Oklawaha empties into it (and where we encountered the manatees).  The food and service there was top-notch, with generous portions of shrimp for the price...and I was happy to be able to order cheesy grits, one of my favorites, as a side dish...

As you can see from the photos, the weather couldn't have been better for our trip...I only regret that during our close encounter with that manatee I got lost in the moment and forgot to take a picture, although in another I've posted you can see a couple of them breaking the water's surface in the distance.  Richard and Kelly were wonderful and thoughtful, and we deeply appreciate having been able to spend some very enjoyable hours with them yesterday...

Attended Yesterday's MLS Match Between Orlando City and Montreal

Yesterday Melissa and I traveled down to Orlando to watch a Major League Soccer match between the Orlando City Iron Lions and the Montreal Impact, two teams that are fighting for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Division...and the regular season is nearing a close.  Orlando, in seventh place, had to beat the Impact in order to at least stay in the hunt...but this match was tied until late in the second half, when Orlando kicked in the winning goal: final score Orlando City 2, Montreal 1.  In case you're wondering about the use of "City" in the team's name, it's just an affectation that MLS teams (all based the United States and Canada) use to imitate their more historically famous counterparts overseas.  For example, we have in the league "Sporting" Kansas City, "Real" Salt Lake, and the Houston "Dynamo" as well.  Still, I think it's silly to not just say "Orlando"...

Before the game we visited the nearby upscale mall where we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  I recommend their crab bites appetizer and the pulled pork sandwich (with cole slaw inside).  Sitting around there looking at the patrons made me realize what an international magnet the Orlando area is, especially with its nearby Universal and Disney World theme parks...which as I understand is a major reason that MLS granted Orlando an expansion team franchise beginning this year.  When we got into the stadium, which is the Citrus Bowl, the international flavor of both teams as well as of the fans was prominent.  The enthusiasm that the Orlando City fans showed their team was comparable to that of Florida Gator football fans at the "Swamp" here in Gainesville.  I did my part, loudly yelling "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!" with each of the home team's two goals.  After noting a friendly couple sitting nearby leaving about ten minutes before the end of the game, we decided to prudently follow suit a couple of minutes later in order to beat the stampeding exiting crowd and traffic logjam...but not before seeing that final goal...

My impression of Orlando City as a professional soccer team is very favorable, although they have an expected modest record in the league their first year (11 wins, 13 losses, 8 draws).  Their talent level probably drops a bit after their handful of standouts, but they play very well as a team and seem to be giving their utmost to the game throughout.  And that, for me as a sports fan, makes them worth following. Of course, I'm not too fond of how they rip off the fans when selling drinks at the stadium...Melissa had to pay $5 for a simple bottle of water (without a lid) and two fans sitting in front of us shelled out $22 for a couple of cans of Heineken beer...

The idea of going to the soccer match was Melissa's, as a way of honoring me on my birthday.  We both enjoyed the game (although she's not exactly a die-hard soccer fan) and created some wonderful memories together...

When in Boca Raton, Check Out This Restaurant

My wife and I were down in South Florida this past weekend, one of our destinations being Boca Raton.  I find that the Palm Beach County area is quite enough of a "South Florida" experience for someone like me who grew up further south, in southern Broward County.  Others can have Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, and the countless suburbs surrounding them: it's all just one big nasty urban sprawl to me.  No, around places like Lake Worth or Boca Raton I get all of the trademark South Floridian semi-tropical climate and, while it is admittedly crowded there, it's doesn't seem quite as insanely congested as it is in points south.

While in Boca Raton Saturday night, we stopped off at an Asian-style restaurant on Yamato Street near the Turnpike that is called "5-Spice Asian Street Market".  It has Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai cuisine.  I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed something they call "Singapore Fried Rice", which has curry as one of the spices.  Delicious.  The menu had lots of items on it, and I found myself regretting that I probably would never get around to eating there again...seeing that the one reason I had for going to Boca Raton in the first place would end this coming Tuesday.

McDonald's Sign: Thirty Minute Sitting Limit

We were coming back yesterday to Gainesville from Lakeland when we pulled into a McDonald's off I-75 in Dade City.  It was one of the friendliest McDonald's I've ever been to and the service was excellent.  There was only one problem with the place as I saw it: there was a prominent sign there telling customers to limit their visits there to thirty minutes.  Longer than that they considered as "loitering".  I've seen this sort of sign at the McDonald's in Gainesville which is on US 441 a block from the University of Florida campus.  What gives here? Isn't that sign something of an affront, essentially telling customers to pay up and then get lost?

My instincts tell me that, as long as you are continually getting up and buying stuff from time to time, these McDonald's managers wouldn't care if you stayed there the whole day.  After all, they try to bring in longer-staying customers with their free Wi-Fi and the espresso coffee drinks they offer, obviously wanting to siphon off some of those free-spending Starbucks customers (who tend to stay glued to their seats for long stretches).  The problem I see that probably prompted the signs is twofold:  sometimes people will wander into an establishment like a McDonald's just for a place to sit...many of these may be homeless.  That probably applies more to the Gainesville location than to the one in Dade City.  Also, students tend to camp out with their laptops and books and monopolize seats for hours...and some of them have the nerve to not even buy anything!  I often go out to places to study, and I usually take well over thirty minutes there.  But if I'm done with what I had initially purchased and it looks as if I may need to stay there a little longer, I'll make a point of going back up to the counter and buying something else.  That I thinks soothes the worries of anyone working there who thinks that I am trying to take advantage of their seating hospitality.  After all, they're in it to make money and have a right to ensure good available seating for paying customers...

Visit to Cedar Key

Yesterday Melissa and I drove out to Cedar Key (about 60 miles from our home), had dinner, and then walked around the place a bit around twilight.  The place we ate at was Tony's, which boasts of being a "world champion" something-or-other, but which I'm satisfied describing as a pleasant seafood restaurant.  The dining room was cramped and small, but the food was fresh, well-prepared, and delicious.  I recommend it to others.  Afterwards, we strolled around the fishing area overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, and then made our way, as the night fell, down the strip of restaurants composing this small town's "night life".  We stopped at a place (downstairs from a well-lit restaurant called "Steamers") for some ice cream, and I peered at the TV inside another (ignoring the live singer/guitarist there) at the close of the NCAA Final Four game between Louisville and Wichita State. Melissa, on the other hand, enjoyed the musical performance.

Other than have a seafood dinner there, we didn't have any special agenda for our visit other than just enjoying the ambiance and each other's company.  A very, very, pleasant experience.  Here are some sometimes blurred photos I took there...

Restaurant Odors and the Sense of Smell

Over the past few months, I have had three disquieting experiences in local restaurants.  Each of the three is part of a different national chain...either franchised out or directly run by the corporation, I don't know.  The food is good and so is the service.  And they all seem to be popular, with customers coming in filling up the "joints" and reacting with favor to their dining experience.  But in each of these places, the minute I walk in I detect a nasty underlying odor.  It is an odor of decay and dirtiness, and is in all likelihood due to one factor: old, smelly carpeting.

In a way, though, I can understand why a lot of customers don't pick up on this unpleasant stench.  At one of the places, my wife had to point this out to me before I noticed.  But once she had, I wondered to myself how I could have missed it before, it was so bad.  It's as if, as humans, we've suppressed our sense of smell so much that someone else has to tell us when something doesn't smell right!  In any event, once I was alerted, I began to pick up the same disgusting odor elsewhere.

Could it be that people in general are losing their sense of smell, or like me, have they trained themselves not to recognize unpleasant odors when they arise?  Maybe it's a bit of both, I suppose.  But I don't want to frequent any of these places until they fix their problem!

Guy Fieri and My Favorite TV Show

My cable television company provides a wide assortment of specialty channels.  There are channels for auto racing, tennis, golf, animals, and home and garden, just to scratch the surface.  There are also some channels that USED TO be specialty channels (MTV, History, The Learning Channel) but now just program useless garbage.  Usually I avoid specialty channels regardless of the garbage level.  And this usually also applies to another one, the Food Channel, because I generally detest shows on cooking.  You can have your Rachael Ray and Paula Deen...just keep 'em off my TV when I am in front of it, thank you.  And I really, deeply, detest those shows that pit cooks against each other in competitions or involve "experts" insulting the dishes of contestants.  But out of all the uselessness, there still stands one show on this channel that is so, so much fun to watch that it has become my current number one favorite show in all of television: Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

In Diners, Drive-In, and Dives, chef-in-his-own-right Guy Fieri (or just "Guy", that'll do fine) travels the USA searching for local eateries that produce excellent food for its customers.  The show is set up to filter out the "losers" in advance: all we end up seeing are just the successes, with Guy amiably chumming up with different restaurant owner/cooks as they demonstrate how they prepare their more popular dishes.  Guy has an infectious personality, with an uncanny ability to hit it off well with just about every sort of character (some pretty offbeat) that one might encounter whipping up a delicious meal somewhere.  Part of each visit (usually to three different establishments per half-hour episode) involves filming how the food is prepared, usually from scratch, back in the kitchen. The other part involves going to the dining area and showing how the food is presented to the tables, with Guy eliciting the "customary" fawning approval of customers.  I love the positive vibes of this show, something you sometimes want when flicking on the boob tube after a hard, grueling day at the office.  ...And also, I used to be one of those cooks back in a restaurant kitchen (for eight years, actually), prepping ingredients, mixing them, cooking them up, and setting them out for the server to present in the dining area. 

If you want a respite from a lot of the negative crap polluting our television programming, then take a break and watch Guy do his magic.  I dare you to watch Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and not smile! 

Loud Ignoramus

I heard Obama's going to start attacking Mitt Romney's religion soon.  At least according to an elderly fellow sitting with another couple at McDonalds this morning.  They had been talking among themselves in a relatively subdued, pleasantly conversational mode until the one man suddenly went off into heated political banter and raised his volume several decibels.  The woman sitting across from him responded that she didn't like anyone attacking another's religion and the loud-mouthed old dude replied that this strategy would backfire on Obama.  The party at this table then batted the conversation around with the presumption that Obama and the Democrats had ALREADY been attacking Romney's religion.  Then the instigator of all this drawled on (very loudly, so that everyone in the restaurant could hear his exalted words) that he didn't know why the fuss about Mitt Romney refusing to produce his tax returns when Obama wouldn't produced his own birth certificate.

There is a huge segment of our population, folks, that lives in an insulated bubble.  If they don't like someone or something, they will take any negative insinuation or speculation, no matter how unsubstantiated or even in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to the truth, and adopt it as "their" own truth. It has been the conservative Christian evangelical wing of the Republican Party that has been attacking Mitt Romney for his Mormon faith, not Barack Obama.  This while our president has been mercilessly (and hatefully) mischaracterized as being a Muslim, not that being one is anything one should have to defend anyway.  And the loud ignoramus at McDonalds will never be convinced about Obama's birth certificate, which WAS produced and shown to the world.

I don't know what to do about people like this gentlemen and his deluded, convenient notions, other than to pity him and those who have to endure his claptrap. Because, for his own reasons, he is emotionally committed to hating our current president, pure and simple...

Pleasant Trip to Orlando and Daytona

Today I went down to Orlando with Melissa as she prepared for an upcoming assignment at UCF in the pursuit of her Master's Degree.  That order of business went well and quickly, and we found ourselves with some free time.  So we drove over to Daytona Beach to spend the rest of the day and night.  We stopped off for lunch at a place next to the Intracoastal Waterway in Port Orange called Aunt Catfish.  Naturally, we had to try the catfish...all of their food and service was excellent, as well as their prices.  Definitely worth a return visit on a later trip.  Then we went on to find a hotel room, which we did without too much difficulty.  The beach was half-empty, so were the hotels; still, prices were often exorbitantly high.  Haven't they ever heard about the economic law of supply and demand?  We did find a place with a good overnight price and settled in.  The rest of today went well, and we had a good time.  But I realized as the night wore on that I hadn't gotten in my running for the day.  So at about 10:30, I went out on the beach and ran for 11 minutes, wearing a cap with a small flashlight embedded in the visor to light up the darkness directly ahead of me.  Not long, but it's a run nonetheless. My main concern was avoiding all the "shadow people" creeping around me along the way...

We'll be heading back home tomorrow.  I am a creature of routine, but this little trip was quite a welcome break anyway.

Starbucks and McDonald's

One of the Starbucks stores I regularly sit in (at the corner of NW 16th Avenue and 13th Street in Gainesville) displays on its walls large pictures showing largely third world agricultural workers picking and preparing the coffee beans that presumably eventually make their way into my cup in one form or another.  These pictures are attractive and serve the purpose of connecting the customer with the producer.  In this regard, Starbucks, with its star product of coffee, has a huge advantage over a place like McDonald's, which features its beef hamburgers. After all, who wants to sit in a McDonald's and, while chomping away on a Big Mac, be treated to murals of cattle being slaughtered and their bloody meat butchered?

Yes, the indoor ambiance of most Starbucks beats McDonald's easily, and this may be one reason that, although the latter offers cheaper (and better tasting, in my opinion) brewed coffee and espresso drinks (hot and cold), people will still line up in the morning at the former for their coffee.  What I don't get, though, are the customers who'll do this and not sit down with their drink, but rather get right back into their cars and drive off.  If you're going to do that, why not just do a drive-through at McDonald's without having to get out in the first place (and save gobs of money in the process).  Of course, one possible explanation is that some customers are finicky and particular about their coffee beverage, and can be quite complicated with their order.  Starbucks is more suited for this.

Both Starbucks and McDonald's offer free wi-fi access.  Their store hours are very comparable, too.  And I find that usually I can find decent seating at McDonald's while Starbucks is sometimes completely crammed, with no seats available.

If all you want is brewed coffee, there is no better deal short of brewing your own (or getting the free coffee offered at Publix) than what you get at McDonald's.  One dollar pays for as large a coffee as you want, and then you get free refills.  The cheapest coffee at Starbucks is the misnamed "tall" size at $1.65, and then a refill will  cost $.50 more.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I know when I go to a Starbucks instead of a McDonald's that I am paying more for the pleasant surroundings than I am paying for the actual drink.  The idea of just buying a coffee there and leaving makes no sense.  I can easily brew much better tasting coffee at home and bring it along with me...

Ahead of My Time With Seniors Look

I had a disconcerting experience recently at my local Hungry Howie's pizza restaurant. In case you didn't know it, Hungry Howie's features an all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad buffet. They used to have a Monday lunch special, with the buffet costing only $3.99. I availed myself of this many times in the past, but a few months ago they ended this special and went back to charging five bucks per buffet. I responded, expressing my displeasure by simply not going there for a while. But during the past couple of weeks, I went back. I figured that five dollars still was a pretty good deal for what I got there. But...

When I walked up to the counter to give my order, the cashier rang me up at $4.23 (the old price plus tax). I thought that maybe they had reinstituted the old special without advertising it, so that pleased me. Then, more recently, I paid another visit there. Once again, it cost me $4.23, with the order rung up by a different worker. Then I looked at the small print on a sign by the cash register: seniors and children pay only $3.99. In other words, two completely different people took a look at me and immediately sized me up a a "senior" without even bothering to ask...

So apparently I have been fooling myself thinking that I would have to wait until my 55th birthday this fall to take advantage myself of senior's discounts at different restaurants. Then again, who knows what the age cutoff for being a "senior" is for Hungry Howie's: for all I know it is 65 and I look even more ancient than I thought...

Speaking of cutoff ages for being considered as a "senior", don't you think it's weird that, as consumers, the age keeps getting lowered, while as workers approaching retirement, the age keeps getting raised??!!

Medical Common Sense and Professional Pretense

A couple of times a week I go down to one of my favorite Chinese eateries in Gainesville (usually either China 88 on NW 16th Boulevard or First Wok on SW 34th Street near my workplace) and enjoy a small bowl of their excellent hot and sour soup. Each restaurant has a small counter in the dining area on which they provide free reading material for the customers. One of these publications that they both display, slanted heavily toward new age beliefs, is titled Natural Awakenings.

The other day I was swilling my soup and looking through Natural Awakenings when I came across an article giving what looked like authoritative medical information about how disturbances in one part of the body can cause health problems affecting other parts or the body as a whole. Seeing how I already knew this (doesn't pretty much everyone?), I was still interested in the topic. I know how a localized infection can cause widespread inflammatory and even flu-like symptoms from an almost-devastating illness I incurred at the very end of 1979 that was caused by a simple skin infection. So I wanted to check out what this piece had to say about the topic.

The article was titled "Blocks to Healing: The Problem of the Chronic Dominant Focus/Foci". Huh, say that again? ...and then I realized that I was about to be treated to something I have recognized in other areas: someone has either invented or adopted a different set of vocabulary to designate concepts that could be explained more simply. To further confirm this tendency for complexity on the author's part, I glanced at his name:

Dr. Michael Badanek, DC, BS, CNS, DABCN, DM(P), NMD, MD, MD(MA), MD(h)

I mean, this is obviously one completely together, cool dude: not only is he a lot of unfathomable things of which the letters give scant clues, but he is also an MD, plus extra MD's with parenthetical MA's and h's! Wow, an "unlettered", ordinary layman like me had better swallow everything he writes uncritically because of the alphabet soup trailing his name...

After hemming and hawing through the article discussing arcane concepts like "interference fields" and "dominant focus", the lettered author finally gets to the point in the article's final, relatively small paragraph: those suffering from undiagnosed chronic conditions should seek a qualified health care professional for evaluation and treatment.

Why couldn't he have said that to begin with and leave out the gobbledegook? Then again, why couldn't anyone say that without trying to impress the reader with their professional titles? I mean, isn't this just simple common sense?

However, perhaps I'm being a little unfair to the DC-BS-CNS-DABCN-DM(P)-NMD-MD-MD(MA)-MD(p). He did point to some specific areas in the body that he believed could be responsible for generalized malaise: appendix scars, root canals, sinuses, and the prostrate were given as possible "root" causes. Maybe, armed with these possibilities, someone who feels chronically bad can go to their doctor, (or DC, BS, CNS, ...) armed with a shopping list of possible causes, and tell that health care provider to "find it"! But this sounds unpractical in today's health care insurance environment, when it is still sometimes very difficult to get insurance companies to even cover medically-necessary diagnostic testing based on very specific symptoms. What the author is proposing amounts to more or less a potentially very expensive fishing expedition throughout the body by the medical profession for some small "disturbance", be it an infection, scar, or something else. Maybe as diagnostic technology becomes more advanced, this might become more feasible and affordable. But not as things stand right now!