“My Dad Wanted a Boy”; SOARing in The Villages; Ruffled Feathers; Blimpie? It’s “Silver Bells”, Dad Gum It!

As a father of two beautiful girls, I never understood how some guys had this fixation about having a son to carry on their name, play baseball with, etc. I could not have been happier with my two daughters. Today girls have just about every opportunity boys have, and maybe even more. Psychologists say that girls are even smarter than boys. (Around our house, My Lovely Bride falls into a subcategory, the “smarty-pants or smart-alecky” girl. More to follow on that...)

Sorry, I digress... back to my story... I felt sorry for the young woman I met recently whose name was Harveyella; I commented on it being an unusual name, and the woman replied rather caustically, “My Dad wanted a boy...” Well, it’s not as bad a name as that given by the government to an Icelandic teenager, Stulka, which means “Girl”, because her parents had named her Blaer, which means light breeze in Icelandic. Why does the government insist that she be called Stulka? Because Blaer isn’t on the short list of bureaucrat-approved names. (You gotta love Socialism...)

Suzanne gave her highly-lauded S.O.A.R! Workshop on Thursday to 87 energized attendees at Unity of The Villages. Bev Garlipp and Mary Wyatt volunteered all day to complete the registration process, man the book table, and brew gallons upon gallons of coffee. Rudy and Gretchen made cameo appearances and were treated to lots of love and affection. It was a great, Love-filled day! 

While My Lovely Bride SOARed, I was on a photo assignment for a friend. While driving around, I stopped by Lake Miona Park and caught this Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) preening his feathers. This fellow stood almost four feet tall, and I made sure I was out of range of his sharp beak!

Here the two cranes are foraging for seeds.  As I have mentioned before, they are quite noisy, and this pair was no exception; I heard them calling to one another a good quarter mile out while still on their approach path to the LZ (landing zone). They make quite a handsome couple, don't you think? 

Right at dusk, I happened to glance up, and there was this blimp! No, not a chubby guy with a basketball under his shirt and pasty-white legs from Hackensack, but a real blimp, you know, a non-rigid airship. You of course know that a blimp has no rigid structure inside it, while a dirigible has a metal framework to help the airbag maintain its shape (you may recall the German Zeppelin Hindenburg, which caught fire and burned at Lakehurst, NJ, in 1937; it was a hydrogen-filled dirigible, whereas modern blimps are usually filled with inert helium). 

Now, back to the smarty-pants comment from the first paragraph. You all know that I have a cross to bear, and that her name is Suzanne. The latest issue between us arose the other day when I noticed that we were running perilously low on my favorite candy treat, Hershey’s Silverbells. I dutifully wrote “Silverbells” down on the grocery list, and when I picked it up the next day, My Smarty-Pants Bride had crossed out “Silverbells” and written “Hershey’s Kisses” in its place. What insolence and disrespect! That may well be the candymaker’s name for this scrumptious milk chocolate delight, but everyone south of the Mason-Dixon Line (where we now live, of course) knows them as “Silverbells”.  Suzanne thinks she has superior, insider knowledge because her grandmother lived in Hershey, PA, up in Yankeeland, where they are made. Also, her dad was actually Milton Hershey's personal assistant. (I don't think I'm gonna win this one... Harumphhhh!)