Jungle Clearing; SANDS in San Jose and a FilmFest; Morning Light; A Cold Main Course; Amelia or Alexandria? Celebration of Wolf's Message; Not Calcutta...Cohutta

One of the tactical errors I made this year was not planning on the wettest summer this part of Florida has had for decades. I had arranged regular lawn care, so why was this an error? The first photo shows what the hedges looked like at the back of the house when we arrived home last week. Yes, there is a house behind those hedges, as you can see in the "after" photo below... after filling four large lawn clipping bags with hedge detritus... I think I learned my lesson.

Now, to an important matter -  food. One of the delights of living in the USA is being able to achieve instant gratification when an uncontrollable desire strikes. I'm not talking about a thick steak, fried oysters or even a juicy cheeseburger, but the main part of the meal, dessert. After dinner the other night, we adjourned with My Good Friend Bob and His Hysterically Funny Wife Jan to PeachWave, where we indulged in (small) buckets of frozen yogurt (and no kale or quinoa pellets, thank you very much).






I was walking the puppies the other morning at dawn when I glanced onto a nearby golf course. I was reminded of a scene from North Africa, such as when I took my ship to Alexandria, Egypt, back decades ago, but the Saharan sand dunes there were far more desolate than Amelia #2... and of course, we don't have camels here, except in the pockets of a few die-hards.









We are looking forward with great anticipation to this weekend. Mike and Beth Pasakarnis, Wolf's dad and step-mom, will be visiting The Villages for Sunday evening's Celebration of Wolf's Message at Temple Shalom. Tickets are still available on Suzanne's web site, www.LoveAtTheCenter.com. Hope you can make it, because there may be a surprise or two that no one is expecting...








Suzanne is preparing for a trip to California next week to attend the Science and Non-Duality (SANDS) Conference in San Jose and the Awakened World Film Festival in Santa Barbara, where the Messages of Hope documentary, produced by Rochester, NY, filmmaker Chris Lavelle, is being screened. She is very excited about both events, and suggested that while she is in California, I find something interesting to do. I was reading a book when I heard her say, "Ty, why don't you go to Calcutta?" I thought to myself, "Self, why is she suggesting that I fly to Calcutta, India for a week?" It's not on my Bucket List, that's for sure, although I do like Indian food, and I've always wanted to see the Himalayas. I asked her slowly and diplomatically, "My Darling, why would I want to go to Calcutta without you?" She guffawed and said, "Ty, Dearest, I was thinking about your backpacking in the Cohutta Wilderness north of Atlanta, Georgia, not Calcutta, India." Thank goodness she clarified that; it makes packing much easier. (But then, maybe I'll just sneak on a flight to Santa Barbara, one of my favorite cities in the US... it's also known as America's Riviera... who knows?)