Povey Prattle

The N.A.L.C (National Association of Letter Carriers) has sponsored a Food Drive for  twenty five years.   The idea is to leave a bag or two of food by one's mailbox.  The mail man/woman will take that food back to a local sorting office from where it will be transported to the nearest Food Bank. Local publicity in SRQ was sub-par this year - simply a plastic shopping bag in the mail, with references to Tampa and St. Petersburg Food Banks, but not to Sarasota  (and no date for the collection). (I went on line to find the date.) So I was not surprised to discover as I cruised the neighbourhood that just about one in twenty five homes had responded.  Nevertheless I persisted and left my contribution by my mail box. I believe that that those who use Food Banks out of necessity are tired of items such as rice, beans, canned pineapple or dented cans of pinto beans. So my meager offering this year was of breakfast cereals (as it has been for four or...

Following my cardiac surgery on May 4th I had a follow up with the surgeon, Dr. Frederick Yturralde this morning. I like him.  He has a good bedside manner, and he was able to answer the list of questions I took to the consultation. He now has a very fitting beard. I like beards!  I've had mine since 1975 The news was good.  An EKG showed my heart beat to be strong.  My blood pressure is well within healthy norms, for the first time in more than four years. Dr. Ytturalde will enroll me in a cardiac rehab programme which is run by our Sarasota Memorial Hospital at their Rand Boulevard (off Clark Rd).  This programme will direct me towards good exercise and healthy eating.  It will also give me powerful incentives to continue my separation from a friend of more than 50 years -  a friend who ultimately betrayed me, did me great harm, and cost me a lot of money. Adieu and adieu to Mr. Cigarette.  Thanks for nothing! --------------------...

....  I have a Student I.D. It was issued by Sarasota's Suncoast Technical College for a four session course I am taking  "The Amish, their customs and practices".

Why is it that Church is just about the last place where a person can say "I am afraid, I am lonely, I am grieving,  I am anxious, my life is a mess?" Why is it that at Church we are supposed to say :"America is great, this is a fabulous Church, the Music is great, the Sermons are outstanding, my life is a great success"? Maybe it's because many Churches measure their "success"  by great sermons, excellent liturgy, correct theology, balanced budgets,  marvelous programmes and the like - and not by honest and true relationships.

I frequently use a local road called Calliandra Drive, the quickest route to Beneva  Road which I use to get to Church, to the Supermarket and Bank, and to just about anywhere. Calliandra Drive was "developed" some thirty five years ago when the fashion was to have houses built way back from the road, with vast expanses of lawn in the front, and pocket handkerchief  yards (gardens) at the rear   (who knows why?). It all makes for a dreary and barren frontage It is also environmentally bad.  Florida is not the place for grand lawns.  They waste so much precious water - just so they can "look good". Their need for fertilizers and noxious pest control chemicals is problematic.  If it rains soon after their application, the run off is very bad for our retention ponds.   If it does not immediately rain the nasty chemicals can leach into our aquifers. Then come the lawn mowing machines, edgers, trimmers and leaf blowers which fill the air with ...

This is a photo' of Glen Oaks Ridge, Sarasota where I live. It's a modest community for people of modest means.  None of us who live here are super-rich, though about 25% of us also own homes in northern States -  so on a world scale they are very rich. I would describer us as comfortably off lower middle class folks, very comfortable (and very white).. Above all else we are respectable, smug,  and highly complacent. Because I get out and about and talk a lot and listen a lot I am also aware of some residents who are in dire poverty. There is the 90+ woman who at one time lived high off the hog in a very wealthy SRQ community I am told that when her husband died she discovered that he had signed a/some promissory note/s which robbed her of most of his estate.  Now she lives with a sixty something son who has crones disease (or lupus),. Their car has been repo'd and their power cut off   (I thought that this was illegal). Imagine not being able to...