Okay, it’s
time to pick on lawyers... We had dinner Saturday night with Suzanne’s mom
Ruthie and our Villages friend Gail (“The Lawyer”), and her friends Rosalyn and Robert from Miami. Gail revealed (and not after copious quantities of wine,
as she does not imbibe) that she had had a past life regression during which
she was told that she had once been a chariot driver in Rome’s Coliseum back
2,000 years ago. When Suzanne mentioned that during a reading she gave to Gail, Gail's mother
had indeed commented on Gail’s lead foot while driving, I imagined the
following, and described it to the group... “Okay Gail, here’s the scenario...
you’re driving down I-75, doing way over the speed limit in your hot rod, and the Florida
Highway Patrol pulls you over..." “Ma’am, you were doing 95 in a 70 mph zone;
what do you have to say?” “Well, officer, it’s perfectly understandable, I was
a chariot racer in ancient Rome, and I couldn’t help it.” “Yes, ma’am, I
understand how that might be an issue. If you would you please give me the name
and telephone number of your chariot instructor, we’ll have him attend your
hearing. Now, if you will please step out of your car, put your hands behind
your back, I’ll place these nice bracelets on you and give you a very slow
automobile ride to the station and you can call a lawyer.” “But I AM a lawyer.”
“Yes ma’am, well that makes it all very clear.”
Robert and
Rosalyn were also brilliant and interesting people, and great fun in spite of
their advanced educations. Robert is a mathematics PhD who specializes in international
economics and Rosalyn is a clinical psychologist PhD who includes hypnosis in her therapy.
Rosalyn is especially fun, and you would never know that she’s a shrink.
My Lovely Bride suggested that I might find her hypnosis techniques useful in resolving some
of my personality disorders; I asked her, “What the heck does that mean?” “Oh,
never mind... here’s our food, anyway.” Sometimes the woman truly confounds
me....
After
dinner we headed for the Savannah Center for a concert by Fernando Varela. He
is a local central Florida singer who sang at the Church on the Square before
he was discovered and helped in his career by several local folks, including
Suzanne’s great friend Lynn Walker. At one point, Fernando was studying at an
unnamed Florida university when one of his profs stated, “Sorry, but singing
is not in your future; you’d better try something else...” (This guy had better
not be picking stocks for himself...). Fernando ignored his advice, worked hard
and practiced a lot, and was recognized and helped by David Foster. He has just
finished a world tour, and came back to The Villages for four concerts.
It was a
truly remarkable performance. Fernando is a tenor in the mold of Josh Groban
and Andrea Boccelli. Not only
was Fernando spectacular, but his musicians and backup singers were top-drawer
performers as well. But the crème de la crème of the evening came at the end
when Fernando sang two duets with his wife Susan. Normally you might expect a
star’s wife to be an adequate performer, but when this beautiful young woman
sang, she truly had the voice of an angel. It was a fantastic end to a stellar
performance.
We awoke
this morning and I took our puppies out for their morning constitutional. What
took my breath away was this enormous object blocking the view of the mountains
from our front yard. Our friends and neighbors Bob and Jan Blythe had parked
their new bus in front of their house. I thought about calling the Neighborhood
Watch to complain, but decided that keeping good relations with the Blythes was
the gentlemanly thing to do. (Actually, I thought I might need to borrow his
hedge clippers again...) Here are the new RV’ers showing off their palace on
wheels to some friends.
Suzanne has
been wanting to go for a long bike ride on her carbon fiber Look road bike, but her chain and rear gears
(called a cassette) needed replacement. She had dropped her bike off at Village
Cycles, where Mark and his expert tech Jim completed the repairs. Here she is
holding her 17 lb bike up with one finger. As a comparison, her mountain bike
weighs almost 30 lbs. We then went out for a quick 22 mile ride (she was
pressed for time) at 17 mph, not too bad for a girl. Smack.... “Geez, Suzanne, but you are a girl...” Smacked again... sigh...
Once again, "Life As Ty Sees It" is the best way to start the morning with a smile - - imagining Gail driving that chariot has me laughing out loud!
ReplyDeleteBev,
ReplyDeleteActually, Gail had me almost in tears when she told that story and I realized how I could expand on it. She is a really good sport, thank goodness (for a lawyer). ;-)
Ty