POP QUIZ FOR BREAKFAST

Okay, boys and girls, here is a special pop quiz. What is the subject of this photo? The first correct answer wins breakfast with My Lovely Bride and Your Faithful Correspondent at Panera or some other appropriate venue, depending on your location. If you are answering from Greenland, raw walrus will not be on the menu.

Galley Slave; Lobstah! Saturday; Caravaggio; Ponte Vecchio; A Local Waterfall; On to Tuscany!

My Lovely Bride outdid herself Friday night. Instead of taking me out to a Valentine's Day dinner, she decided to prepare a romantic gourmet repast at home. Here she is slaving away at the oven.The smells were driving me crazy, as she forbade me from looking into the kitchen while she was working, and I was unable to identify many of the unusual aromas.













It was a feast fit for a king; or at the very least, a New England ship's captain: lobster tail, lobster mac and cheese, Jalapeno hush puppies, grilled asparagus marinated in olive oil, and rosemary sea salt bread. A very nice KJ Chardonnay complimented the meal perfectly. Music was supplied by our favorite smooth jazz station. It was a perfect evening, and neither of us regretted not going out; the meal we had at home was better than any we could have gotten in town, and far fewer shekels had to be disbursed (a significant advantage with tax time approaching, especially considering the reputation that the IRS is building this year.)





Saturday... that is an interesting day. Let's see if we can add a little Roman and art history to today's blog. Do you know where the word "Saturday" came from? In the 2nd Century, the Romans named the sixth day of the week Dies Saturni, Saturn's Day, after the planet. When the word was introduced into German and English, it was taken to mean the Roman god Saturnus, after whom the planet was named. (It is rumored that Saturday night toga parties were adopted by modern fraternities copying Saturnus' fashion statement.)












The drawing of Saturnus above is by Caravaggio (full name Michelangelo Merisi o Amerighi Caravaggio), one of the fathers of modern painting. In 1600 he was one of the most famous artists in Italy, but his penchant for walking about with a sword and short temper led to many fights, his killing of another man in Rome, a price on his head, and his early demise in 1610. (As a child, he must have failed Altar Boy 101, because at one point the Pope had issued a death warrant for him.)












Caravaggio was almost forgotten after his death, and it was only in the 20th Century that his influence on painters who followed him was fully appreciated. He was well-known for his use of chiaroscuro, the dramatic use of light and dark contrasts, with little mid-tones. That technique can be seen in his famous painting, The Crucifixion of St. Peter.














I've been racking my brain to find a suitable segue from 1610 Italy to 2014 Florida... let's see, okay, here's one: the first photo is of Rudy the Sailing Wiener Dog standing on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence when we were sailing the Mediterranean aboard our sailboat Liberty a few years ago. Rudy was literally a young pup then, less than a year old.











We don't have a sailboat any more, but we still find interesting sights like this waterfall, actually located a mere 2 miles from our house in The Villages, Florida. This attractive young Florida transplant (originally from Pennsylvania) standing on a bridge much shorter than the Ponte Vecchio is admiring the scenery and enjoying brisk 65 degree sunshine in mid-February, while the other 49 states all have snow on the ground. (Sorry, but I had to remind Terri of the Frozen North of our glorious weather here while it's barely making it into the 20s in the Twin Cities.)






Sticking to the Italian theme, we enjoyed al fresco munchies with our good friends Jessica and Bob at their walled villa here in The Villages. Both have Air Force backgrounds, but even with that disability, they are still friends - Bob's a laid back colonel who built his own airplane, and you don't mess with Jessica, a former firearms instructor who now teaches yoga. Jessica has decorated the aforementioned walls with colorful murals reminiscent of Tuscany. While enjoying a gourmet meal of stuffed salmon, crispy potatoes and grilled asparagus, we learned that they had recently attended a marketing presentation by Vermont Bike Tours and won the grand prize drawing, a bike tour in TUSCANY! Lucky guys... all I ever win in drawings is a fuchsia ball cap or a bag of compost... sigh.

A Piranha Connection; A Spartan Shield; Roses for Ruthie; Chaucer and a Foule Holiday; Mission Accomplished

Long-time readers of this blog may remember the incident in 2012 which "spawned" the blog banner photo at top right of Your Faithful Correspondent staring down a piranha in a Rochester, NY, sushi bar. For background, it was the week of the debut of the Messages of Hope documentary in producer/director Chris Lavelle's home town, and Suzanne had eight events in seven days, a heavy schedule even for my young bride. She woke up on the sixth day totally depleted and asked me to help her by raising her prana. I responded with a profound spiritual observation: "I thought prana was a man-eating fish from South America." After debating whether to keep me for yet another trying week, she told me how to hold my hands above her head and channel healing energy. I was amazed when my hands got very warm and she felt invigorated. Then it was time to grab a quick bite of dinner before our next event. As we were driving into Rochester, Suzanne said "How about sushi? I'll look up a candidate restaurant on our iPad." A moment later she gasped and broke out laughing; the closest place was the Piranha Sushi Bar. We arrived, had a great meal, and chatted with the sushi chef, a very friendly Hispanic guy with a shaved head and tattooed skull. But what was really unusual was the Yogananda picture behind the bar. It turns out the owner was into the metaphysical. Suzanne presented copies of Messages of Hope to the owner and the chef. The chef was going to read the book to his kids, and the owner apologized that he didn't have time to read any books, but would give it to someone who needed it.




Two days later, a woman with a terminally ill son came in for dinner, sat at the sushi bar instead of her usual table, and learned about Messages of Hope. Mary Ann would find both solace and inspiration in Suzanne's story about her spiritual transformation after we lost our Susan. She ordered copies for everyone at her son Chris's memorial service, and would later attend Suzanne's conference in Crete and get a personal reading. On Thursday, Mary Ann and her sailing friend Ned joined us for dinner here in The Villages. It was like Old Home Week when we laughed about travel and restaurant experiences in Greece, and Ned and I chatted about his home town of Newport, Rhode Island, where he is a retired fire chief, and where I had been stationed for Navy schools on five separate occasions as well as a shipboard assignment.

But what made the occasion particularly poignant was that in a reading earlier in the day for someone in South Carolina who had lost his son, a reference from the other side to "a round shield, like a Spartan warrior would carry" came up. Suzanne's client was baffled. While Ned and I and Mary Ann and Suzanne were chatting on the couch a couple of hours later, Suzanne quite unexpectedly sensed the presence of Mary Ann's son Chris.  Suzanne saw him pointing at his tattoos. Mary Ann replied, "Yes, he had a big tattoo on his shoulder - a Spartan shield." Evidently Chris had piggy-backed on someone else's reading, knowing that his mom would be talking to Suzanne that very day. Other evidence from Chris followed, and Mary Ann's visit became even more meaningful than any of us had expected.










Of course, we all know that it's St. Valentine's Day. I decided to follow my mother's advice to her then teen-aged son: "Ty, it's just as important to keep your girlfriend's mother happy as it is your girlfriend herself." It was good advice then, and even better today. So since Suzanne's Lovely Mom Ruthie lives only three miles away, I thought I'd be chivalrous and get both wifey and Mother-in-Law roses for this special occasion. Since Ruthie was out card-sharking all day, we caught her at home in the evening. I think she was surprised and happy; I also know my supply of cakes, pies and pork & sauerkraut is good for another year!

Okay, this question is designed primarily for English teachers and literary trivia buffs: what does Chaucer have to do with today's holiday? (If you are a UCLA English major, you might have no earthly idea, since Chaucer has been removed as a required topic for English majors in this new age of political correctness gone amuck, replaced by courses obsessed with victimhood. But I digress...) The answer is that Chaucer may have unknowingly "invented" St. Valentine's Day. There is no apparent historical record of the holiday prior to Chaucer's poem "Parliament of Foules", published around 1375. His poem refers to February 14th (Seynt Valentyne's Day) as a day when birds (and humans) come together to find mates.  It is believed that the original St. Valentine was a priest beheaded by Roman Emperor Claudius II in a temple outside Rome for helping then proscribed Christian couples marry.


Finally, Suzanne received the following notes from her good friend and retired US Army Colonel Charles Cunis in Colorado.  She had sent him a draft of the chapter in her new book that features him.  He replied, "Am serving as 'Trailing Spouse' supporting picking out window treatments for new home. Priority of fires to this mission. Will download your messages upon arrival home station." Later, he updated Suzanne with: "As I reported from the confines of the Pottery Barn, full support as the 'Trailing Spouse' has paid off with a successful mission. Served as an alleged 'consultant' when a selection was made. Stayed seated in a chair and arose only when called upon by my Dear Elaine. Things work better that way." Yes, Charles, many of us former military husbands understand your difficult assignment; Well Done, and excellent reporting!

Making Music; Giddyup Coach! Riding on a Rainbow; Wildlife But No Tubers

On Sunday, Suzanne and Christine Smith got together to make some beautiful music. Christine is the director of The Villages Flute Choir, and a former university flute professor. In this session, Suzanne was playing the bass flute and Christine the piccolo.It was an unusual combination, the haunting melodies of the very large bass flute complimenting the high notes of the tiny piccolo. They plan to play a special duet at the flute choir's Spring concert in April.









On Tuesday and Wednesday, we took a short vacation. Not to Paris (it's cold and wet there); not to Sochi (not only is Putin a bum, but Sochi is actually warmer than Orlando... and the IOC selected it for the Winter Olympics for why?); not to Minot (but why not?). Instead, we drove our coach on a two day trip to Dunnellon for a ride on a Rainbow (you might think that this is beginning to sound like Ireland, but you'd be off by several thousand miles). Actually, Dunnellon (pop. 1,951) is all the way on the other side of Ocala, in scenic Marion County, Florida. Why, you may ask, did we pack up and go camping (okay, that may be a stretch, too) for just two days? Well, first, we had never been to Dunnellon, second, a nice state park campground was located there; and third, we had never kayaked the Rainbow River.


After setting up our camp at Rainbow Springs State Park, we drove down to the river and got our kayaks ready to launch. There was a couple already swimming in the river; Rainbow Springs (formerly known as Blue Spring) was only a mile or so upstream from our campground; it is a first magnitude spring, and the fourth largest spring (in volume) in Florida, pumping out 490 million gallons of water a day.

Up until 1970, there were mermaid shows here. You can see an optimistic scuba diver trying to put the moves on this lovely creature, but mixed marriages of this sort rarely worked out.This could be why for every 100 females over the age of 18 in Dunnellon, there are only 76 males...














Fortunately, I've had better luck with my mermaid. Here she is paddling her red (what other color would you expect from Corvette Chick?) kayak on an undeveloped stretch of the Rainbow River.Our fiberglass kayaks are fast and very stable, having a much lower center of gravity than a canoe, for example.











The Rainbow is crystal clear; you can see the mixed sand and grass bottom clearly, and the water is between five and ten feet deep in this spot.You can make out many limestone rock formations on the bottom; the springs typically flow out of aquifers resident in the limestone substrata.

There was a plethora of wildlife here on the river; turtles, a bald eagle, kingfishers, anhinga, great blue heron and white ibis were the most conspicuous. These four painted turtles (Chrysemas picta) are warming themselves in the 75 degree sunshine.When preparing to dig a hole for laying her eggs, the female of this species displays a unique behavior that is not completely understood; she presses her neck against the ground at several potential nest sites, perhaps sensing soil temperature, moisture, texture or smell. She may lay up to five clutches of eggs per year, but two is more common.



This expert swimmer, an anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), is spreading his wings to dry its feathers. This is necessary because their uropygial glands do not produce enough oil to waterproof their feathers. This is actually an advantage, because it allows them to swim underwater very quickly to catch fish and frogs. They are also called snakebirds because being barely buoyant, they swim on the surface of the water with only their slender necks showing.

These American white ibis (Eudocimus albus) were having a confab in this tree. Ibis associate in huge colonies; the St. Johns River is also a favorite breeding location. During both mating and incubation periods, the males aggressively defend their nests and actually undergo a period of near starvation to insure the survival of the females and their eggs. Quite noble, I'd say!
















While on the Rainbow, we met a couple from northern Georgia in a tandem (two seat) kayak. They were very happy to be here in Florida and not near Springer Mountain north of Atlanta today. The coldest winter in memory, at least for most of the country, has been quite bearable here. We only expect low temperatures around 38-45F over the next few days, with highs from 55-71F.







One of the most common species of wildlife encountered on the Rainbow River and other spring-fed streams was absent for both our paddling trips. Tuber obnoxious (male) is generally found here on weekends, usually in large affiliated groups making lots of noise and consuming large quantities of malt beverages.  I was hoping to get some photos of the female of the species (Tuber toplessia) but was very disappointed by their absence; after all, the local college was in session. Darn!

Influenza; Kiss a Nurse Day; Visiting Family; SOARing

"Have you gotten your flu shot?" How often do we see that poster in doctors' offices? I thought about influenza when Suzanne told me about a client whose mother was the only survivor of her grandmother's six children; the others had died of bronchitis, but the root cause was probably influenza. Fortunately, outbreaks of influenza in the late 20th and 21st Centuries have been relatively minor compared to the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1920, which took over 50 million lives worldwide, the most devastating epidemic in history. By comparison, more people died in one year from influenza than died in the Black Death Bubonic Plague of 1347-1351 or in World War I, when 16 million lives were lost. This nurse at an emergency field hospital may have been one of the 700 recruited in October 1918 by the US Public Health Service to help the 1,000 doctors who signed up to fight the epidemic. Fewer nurses than doctors were available because many nurses had already succumbed during the initial months of the pandemic, due to their closer proximity to and interaction with those afflicted with the disease.





Trains, buses, trolleys and department stores were ideal locations for transmission of the disease, and great efforts were made to get people to wear protective masks. In this photo, a Seattle street car conductor is refusing to allow the gentleman without a gauze mask aboard his trolley. People were advised to wear masks at all times, even indoors.














The close quarters and movements of hundreds of thousands of troops in World War I contributed to the spread of influenza. Military barracks were especially hard hit; this photo taken at Camp Riley, Kansas, shows hundreds stricken with the flu. In fact, the disease was first noted in the US in Haskell County, Kansas. One report from the head of the Army's Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot reported that of 1500 workers, 1100 were out sick at the same time. The mortality rate was 20-25 times greater than in previous epidemics, and the average life span in the US was reduced by 10 years. The worst affected place on earth was Western Samoa, then under New Zealand administration; 90% of the population was infected; 30% of men, 20% of women, and 10% of children died. Strangely, the disease hit hardest in the age group 20-40. There was even some black humor associated with the disease; children would skip rope to this rhyme:
I had a little bird,
Its name was Enza,
I opened the window,
And in-flu-enza.


Okay, enough grim history... in keeping with The Villages' mission statement, this is supposed to be a Happy Blog. Our motto is "Don't worry... be happy!" In that vein, and recognizing the contributions of nurses worldwide, we will proclaim this "Kiss a Nurse Day". (I may get a different kind of smack from My Lovely Bride for this, but Oh, well... it's all for the greater good, right?) The first image, by the renowned photographer Edward Eisenstaedt, is the iconic Life magazine cover photo of a nurse being kissed by a sailor on V-J Day, August 9, 1945 in Times Square, NYC. The second photo shows the nurse, Edith Shain, standing by the statue erected in their honor. (Several men have claimed to be the sailor, and regrettably, Edith didn't get his name. Typical sailor - he kisses the girl and vanishes!)

Recently we had the pleasure of getting together with some of Suzanne's extended family who were visiting. Here are Brent, Cheryl, Olive (the shy one), Matthew, Ruthie, Eleanor and My Lovely Bride, the last two apparently having found something hysterical to yuck about. Ruthie seems to be wondering what her mom and MLB found so funny.











My back was still bothering me, so while Suzanne acted as tour guide for Eleanor, Olive, John, Beth and Chelsea on a canoe trip to Lake Griffin State Park, I walked Rudy and Gretchen and Matthew pushed Ruthie in her stroller around the park's short hiking trail.










Our fearless canoeists found several alligators sunning themselves on the shore, and everyone seemed to enjoy the pleasant temperature and sunshine; what, isn't Whitefish, Montana, warm this time of year? Actually, we've had more than our fair share of wet, raw days here in The Villages recently, but this was one of the best days this winter.










On Saturday Suzanne gave her SOAR! Workshop to over 50 enthusiastic attendees at Unity of The Villages. A hearty "Thank You!" to Karen Leonard, Marilyn Dyer and Bev Garlipp for helping Suzanne with registration and book sales.

Finally, for those of you who have called Suzanne "The Energizer Bunny", let me show you a candid shot of her after the SOAR! Workshop, a glass of Chardonnay and my Famous Chicken Marsala; I thought that only Dachshunds could look that relaxed! 

Brandy; Looking Glass; Site R; Pilot/Sailor/Biker; Green Screen Images? Apostles, Warm and Cold

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For those of you whose first reaction to today's title lead was "Ty's hitting the sauce!", I can only say "No, I am reminiscing... but not about 1972, a girl or a French liqueur." Our local radio station here in The Villages plays oldies, and on Sunday they played "Brandy (You're a fine girl)". This 1972 hit by the Jersey Shore band Looking Glass made #1 and sold over 1 million copies. I was at sea then, and while I liked the band's song, "Looking Glass" held a very different meaning to me and a small part of the US military.






"Looking Glass" was an Air Force EC-135 aircraft that looked much like any cargo plane or tanker, but instead of trucks, bullets or jet fuel, it carried the most sophisticated command and control (C2) and communications equipment in the world, and a crew of about 30. It was called the Airborne Command Post (ABNCP), or more colloquially the "Doomsday Plane", because its mission was to provide emergency/backup command and control of nuclear forces if ground nuclear C2 centers at the National Military Command Center (NMCC) in DC, US Strategic Command at Offut AFB, Nebraska, and Site R in Pennsylvania had been destroyed/disabled in a nuclear attack by the Russians. It got its name because its capabilities and mission mirrored those of the three ground centers. When at high alert conditions, pilots in the early days had to wear one eye patch to prevent being blinded by a nuclear flash. Today they wear special goggles that instantaneously go opaque in the event of a nuclear flash. In 1998 the Air Force EC-135s were replaced by Navy E-6 TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) aircraft that can also communicate with our strategic deterrent submarines (SSBNs).


My indirect experience with Looking Glass's mission was at sea aboard destroyers and Battleship IOWA, while Suzanne's assignment as Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during and after 9/11 took her to Site R, the Raven Rock Mountain Complex. Fortunately, these capabilities have never had to be employed "for real", but constant training, drills and inspections are designed to keep our forces ready for any contingency.







On a lighter note,the weather has gotten much more Florida-like over the past few days. Yesterday's high was 81, and the skies were mostly sunny. HOO-RAY!  I even got out to work on power-washing the driveway pavers, one of my annual household maintenance jobs.  My only complaint was that it was so sunny and hot, I needed a ballcap and sunscreen. And maybe a beer...


One of our long-time sailing friends, Jim Wohlleber, dropped in for a short visit. Jim is a retired Continental Airlines pilot who is now flying professional sports cheerleaders (oh, and their teams as well) around the country. He has a big motor coach like ours, and in fact first gave us the idea of getting one like his and touring the country in style. Just back from an "interesting" winter sailing voyage from Bermuda to the Virgin Islands, Jim is driving his sleek BMW Z-3 around Florida and thinking about getting a BMW motorcycle (capable of 170 mph)... can you see this guy in black leathers like Harley riders? HA! (He's not dressed in a coat and tie because we do formal breakfasts here at Das Giesemannhaus in The Villages; he's actually headed to a meeting in Gainesville.)





We recently heard from our Arctic Tundra Correspondent Terri of the Frozen North. She is well, and apparently recovered from surgery, because she has been sighted out snowboarding... not in sub-tropical Sochi, Russia, on the Olympic Half Pipe, but in Frigidly Cold Coon Rapids, Minnesnowta (temperature +1 degree F as I write these words). "Move over, Shaun White!"

Multi-talented Terri evidently has a lot of time on her hands (a common condition among snow-bound Far Northerners), because she forwarded us this "green screen" image of Suzanne and Your Faithful Correspondent...


















Those readers who followed our travels last summer may recall that one of our favorite stops was at Apostle Islands National Seashore, on Lake Superior. Here is My Lovely Bride paddling through a sea cave near Cornucopia, Wisconsin, last September. The weather was cool and sunny, but water temperatures were in the low 60s.







These more recent photos taken in the same area show that both air and water temperatures may have dipped a bit since we fled south for the winter... what is all that white stuff? (Thank you, Terri, for these beautiful images as well. I am sure they will help draw many Southerners up north to share in the joys of eternal winter!

Giving Back; Indoor Camping? Hard Chocolate; Under the Weather; Movie Call

On a cold, wet and dreary Wednesday we drove north to Stone Creek in Ocala for Suzanne's Heart Gifts presentation to the community's Metaphysical Club. In spite of the terrible weather, we had a great turnout that was held spellbound hearing about Wolf Pasakarnis, a young man who, like our daughter Susan, died when struck by lightning. Thanks to Karen Harmelin for making all the arrangements at Stone Creek. Proceeds from the event are being donated to Cornerstone Hospice in The Villages, where Suzanne's dad Bill Smeltzer passed seven years ago this month.

The weather here in central Florida has been miserable this week. We have endured day after day of cold and rain. Okay, perhaps the Sympathy Meters of readers in The Frozen North may not be pegged out, but for us, 40 degrees and rain is a pain in the neck. We are more used to 75 degrees and sunshine. Send this wet and cold back north! I had planned a short backpacking trip in a nearby forest, but was rained out. Suzanne suggested that I pretend I was backpacking and sleep on the floor of the living room in my new tent for a couple of nights. When I set it up for the first time and climbed in to make sure it was long enough, she asked if I wanted my sleeping bag. "No, Sweetheart, I am not sleeping in the tent tonight with a rug under me. This is just a test!"






We normally work at our computers at the kitchen table, just a few feet apart. I often have to get up to stretch or grab a piece of chocolate for a snack. I was delighted when I glanced up and saw a piece of unwrapped chocolate next to My Lovely Bride; even though it appeared to have melted and was a bit deformed, there was a Dove wrapper next to it, so I knew it would be good. A quick snatch, pop it in my mouth, and it would satisfy my sweet tooth for another 15 minutes... Imagine my surprise, chagrin and disappointment when what I thought was a piece of chocolate turned out to be My Lovely Bride's fulgurite, which she was writing about in her new book. Fulgurites, from the Latin fulgur, meaning thunderbolt, are a variety of the mineraloid lechatelierite. Sometimes referred to as petrified lightning, they are natural hollow glass tubes formed by lightning strikes in quartose sand, silica or soil. They are not generally edible. Bummer! 


The last couple of days have been pretty miserable, not only because of the crummy weather, but also because I was stricken (without any apparent cause) with acute lower back pain. What a stupid name; it's not cute at all. Forced to recline on the couch or bed, I have been able to read a lot. I finished Charles Krauthammer's Things That Matter (Five Stars; a Must Read) and am almost through Robert Gates Duty (also highly recommended). My Lovely Bride has been waiting on me hand and foot (as of course she should), but I did have to wait for five minutes longer than necessary when my plate of strawberries went empty. Sigh... it's hard to get good help these days... Smack! 





Last night we had Movie Call (that's the Navy term, anyway) over at our good friends Jan and Bob's house. Aboard my first destroyer (operating off the coast of Vietnam and without air conditioning), we watched movies under the stars, on the helo deck with a couple of sheets stitched together. Last night was much more comfortable, and the house didn't roll around too much. I have never been much of a movie-watcher, and had not seen The Sixth Sense. We joke that I was at sea for so long that I always fail the Jeopardy quiz questions about American pop culture, music, TV and movies. Frankly, I have never been a Bruce Willis fan, after seeing one of his ridiculous shoot-em-up flicks. I actually enjoyed this one, however, which many of you may already know is about a kid "who sees dead people" and his psychologist. But it was the surprise ending that really got me... I never saw it coming, and the acting was terrific. I'm looking forward to seeing another movie one day. Maybe even this year.