Late Saturday Night/Early Sunday Morning

Drinking some rum with Publix diet black cherry soda tonight. Interesting. (I prefer the Publix diet caffeine-free cola but they didn't have any when I was at the store earlier.)

Yes, I must confess, sometimes I do my bogging under the influence and sometimes I say dumb things that I regret in the morning. Sorry. I guess I am not alone, however. My friend The South Beach Bum is also guilty of "B.U.I." By the way, I don't know what he's so depressed about. He should read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. (It's all about tuberculosis before there was a cure for it, and it's very long. You're practically dead yourself by the time you get through it, but then you revive.)

Getting back into the swing of things after our visit to Homosassa Springs last weekend. I hadn't seen my father in about five years, since he and his wife moved there. (Time really flew.) Homosassa Springs is pretty much off the beaten path but is home to a lot of retirees and also a wonderful state park that used to be a privately owned tourist attraction. Natural springs well up to create the Homosassa River, which flows westward into the Gulf of Mexico. The park still contains a hippopotamus ("Lucifer") from its tourist-attraction days. It's also a haven for manatees and a variety of native flora and other fauna, many of which are handicapped but live out their lives well cared for in a comfortable state of captivity.

Aside from visiting my father and the park and eating excellent, inexpensive food, there wasn't that much to do. Thank God we had a rental car. Two nights we drove up to the mall in Crystal River to catch a movie. We saw an incredibly bad movie ("The Reaping") with Hillary Swank and an excellent movie ("Premonition") with Sandra Bullock. I bought the tickets for "Premonition" and was somewhat surprised that they gave me the senior discount for two tickets. Hey, I'm not a senior yet (not even close), but I'm not complaining about the cheap tickets.

On Sunday, we drove 10 miles or so west to a beach on the Gulf coast. B. had never seen the Gulf of Mexico. By then, the weather had turned nasty -- cold and wet. At the beach, it was windy too. We were both glad to get out of there and return to civilization along State Road 19. The terrain to and from was also pretty desolate, but a few people must love it, since they live there.

My father had picked us up from the Tampa airport when we arrived on Thursday, but I drove the car back to the airport on Monday. We took State Road 19 south, stopping off at Tarpon Springs (the sponge capital of the world) along the way. I'd been to Tarpon Springs as a child but B. had never seen it. We parked the car and walked around in the drizzle.

I upgraded our tickets to first class for the flight home, but unfortunately the ride was so bumpy (aside from being short) that we weren't able to get any freebies. The seats at least were comfortable.