Season's Greetings from St. Augustine, Florida

Best Wishes for Happy Holidays and a Prosperous New Year.

Israel & Palestinians

I have been a supporter of the Jewish people all my life. My step-dad was Jewish. I have known and loved many American Jews. Nonetheless I believe the Israelis are wrong, very wrong in their handling of the situation in Gaza and their treatment of Palestinians.The US govt. should demand that the Israelis allow the UN to deal with the problem of controlling the Palestinians and stopping the launching of rockets into Israel. If Israel will not agree we should withhold all support until they do. ☮☯✌

BONSAI BY DORI, COTTONDALE, FLORIDA

TRAVELING BACK IN TIME for our 38th wedding anniversary Feb. 22, we went to Cottonwood, Alabama to see the remains of Sealy's Hot Water Springs where we got married in 1972. On the trip back we took our time and the back roads through the old South. We passed again through COTTONDALE, FLORIDA and found a wonderful place called BONSAI BY DORI. 

As an erstwhile bonsai enthusiast and grower, I had to stop. We pulled in and saw a large fenced yard lined with dozens of the nicest, most developed and artfully displayed bonsai trees I've seen anywhere. There was a lady watering them and I asked her if I could take a few pictures. She graciously said I could and I quickly got out my Canon and began shooting. Wow! I was overwhelmed. I just shot rapid fire snapshots of as many as I could before someone threw me out.

After a few minutes I looked up to see a guy who looked a lot like Santa Claus watching me. I shot a couple more then asked him if it was okay, if he minded. He smiled and said he didn't mind a bit. We shook hands and I was honored to meet Maxwell Hayes, Bonsai Master.

 He was very accommodating and showed me around the place, a large nursery with workstations, potting sheds, a yard busy with plants in various stages of culture and even a small shooting room with lights and backdrop for shooting pictures of the plants.

We were pressed to be home before dark so we were unable to stay long enough to do a better job of photographing the bonsai or talking to the other people of Bonsai by Dori but we are determined to go back with a little more time and find out more about the place, the people and their farm. 

Meantime if you are anywhere near the Florida Panhandle a trip to COTTONDALE, FLORIDA is worthwhile if only to visit

Bonsai by Dori 3089 Main St, Cottondale, FL 32431

• (850) 352-4390

Here's a link to a map:

http://local.yahoo.com/info-14015496-bonsai-by-dori-cottondale

Second Annual SOUTHERN EXPOSURE FESTIVAL

The Second Annual SOUTHERN EXPOSURE FESTIVAL on March i4 featured artists and performers including Lonesome Bert and Skinny Lizard,

 Willie Green,

 Anne Feeney, 

Arlo Guthrie and the Guthrie Family,

and of course , Guest of Honor Stetson Kennedy,

 appearing with Frank Thomas and special guest Doug Gauss,

 all on the main stage and all allowed us to videotape and photograph them. There was one guy, Jack Elliot who chose not to be taped and stated he hated cameras and people who used them so of course he's not shown here or on my video.

There were many other artists performing at the barn but we had to hold our great camera position in front of a tree near the stage and so missed the other acts. So sorry.

Video coming soon on YouTube

TRIP BACK IN TIME - COTTONWOOD,ALABAMA

LAST WEEKEND WE CELEBRATED OUR 38TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY.

While we ate breakfast Saturday morning Pat asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate. I had been thinking long and hard about this and I said, with some trepidation, "I'm almost afraid to say because you might want to go for it." Then I told her I had been thinking that we should go back at last to Cottonwood, Alabama; back to where we got married in 1972 at a place called Sealy's Hot Mineral Springs in Cottonwood, near Dothan, Alabama.

She brightened and smiled real big and I knew we were going to do it. Finally. We had made plans a few times in recent years to go back there, even though the place was destroyed by fire several years ago. We wanted to see what remained and look across the small lake to the very place where Dave, Dana and the other nine folks who were traveling with us made a large peace sign out of pine-cones on the ground and stood around it while we exchanged our vows and rings.

But each time we made plans to go there something went awry. One time I had a heart attack and had bypass surgery. This time, after having a third heart attack,  I was six weeks post-op from having a defibrillator implanted to prevent further heart attacks. I felt great!
Within an hour we had our SUV loaded with everything we needed for two days, including our seven-month-old dachshund, Doxie and her carrier and supplies. I packed some 'road-rations' including two of my home-made super-muffins and a cooler full of healthy munchies. By 12:30 we were out the driveway and headed west. Only 300 miles to Cottonwood.

We took the road less traveled and went through Stark, Lake city, and Lulu avoiding the interstate as much as possible. Pat drove, making great time, so we wound up in Dothan by 6:00 PM. We checked in at the HoJo's express and went to Cracker Barrel for a quick but wholesome dinner. Then back to the motel and to bed so we could get an early start in the morning.

After a quick breakfast Sunday morning we headed on to Cottonwood.

When we found The Hot Springs, not named Sealy's anymore, it was a bittersweet sight. The big iron gate out front was chained and locked, the big building was a burned-out hulk and the place was deserted, overgrown. Closed for good.

With some misgivings I stepped over the fence and slowly made my way around to the rear of the burned out building. I could see the lake that we rowed across and the opposite shore where we exchanged our vows. It was still there. Still the same.
As I rounded the corner at the back of the building and walked behind it, I saw the old swimming pool, still full of water. When I got to where I could see through the weeds, I stopped short and saw that the huge pipe was still spewing out hot water exactly as it did 38 years ago. I shouted to Pat to come around and join me. Then we both stood there and watched the springwater flow with a mixed bag of emotions from joy to saddened reverie, realizing what was and what is gone.

What a rush it was to stand there watching the warm water flow and flash back on the moments we shared there with our friends and each other 38 years ago. It brought tears to our eyes. We kissed. I took a few more pictures of the place and of Pat standing there.

Then we turned and left, reversing our trip to head home, 300 miles back to St. Augustine. On the way home we stopped at two very interesting places and I'll report on those in the next post.

Sometimes things are so bad they could only get worse if someone was whining about it. You listening Joe Lieberman? ☁☂☠

MAC OR PC?

It's New Years Day 2010. I start this decade in a quandary. I'm a computer user, have been for 15 years, since I bought my IBM PS1 and learned to use a pirated copy of Powerpoint. I did a fax newsletter before we had the internet. I graduated through 3 PCs, became an internet junkie with 3 websites, dozens of YouTube videos and this blog. I have about 50 friends on Facebook, all I can keep up with on a daily basis.

Exactly 3½ years ago I listened to my son-in-law, made the big plunge and bought a Mac. A nice new iMac with that great intel dual-core drive and a Superdrive with iMovie and I was in the video editing business at last.

Everything I had been told about the Apple computers came true. Unfailing software that never crashed. Smooth, sleek hardware that operated flawlessly and all as user friendly as a TV. I thought I died and went to techno-heaven. I even talked my best friend, an artist, into buying an identical iMac 3 months after I did. We celebrated and exchanged emails with photos regularly.

All this hummed along smoothly until about three months ago when I noticed a vertical line near the center of my LCD screen. It wouldn't go away and when I called the geniuses at the Apple store they weren't much help. All that could be done would be to replace the entire screen at a cost of about $350. Or live with it. I decided I could live with it, work around it.

Then I found out that my friend the artist had a similar line on his screen. Oh no! A flaw. LCD screens that die after only 3 years! We were both really bummed out but, considering how well the computer worked... we both just overlooked it.

Then just a few weeks before Christmas two more lines appeared on my screen. At the same time my friend's iMac crashed and the geniuses said he needed a new hard drive. He opted for a local geek and paid $250. to get his hard drive replaced and all his data saved. I thought that wasn't so bad.

Then on Dec. 4, my superdrive malfunctioned and wouldn't eject a DVD I had burned. I called the geniuses at the Apple store and they said to bring it in. I did so the next day and left it overnight with the geniuses.

When I went back the next day they said they had gotten the DVD out but that my Superdrive was shot and it would cost $250. to replace it. Or I could go to Best-Buy and get an external drive for about $150.

I had to think about all this especially considering my LCD screen which now had 3 lines in it with perhaps worse to come. I brought my iMac home and bought, online, an external Super Writemaster DVD/CD burner by Kanguru. I can't get the iMac to recognize it or its software disc.

So I can't burn CDs or DVDs. I'm essentially out of business. All I can do is create videos and save them to memory sticks or post videos to YouTube.

This was something I feared would happen, having the monitor, computer and CD/DVD drive all together in one slick compact package like a laptop. If one thing dies your whole unit is out of commission.

My wonderful, infallible iMac is dying rapidly after only 3½ years. With all the extras and some added software I have invested about $2,000. in this computer and I don't know if I can afford another $2,000. every few years.

Then too I'm stuck trying to decide whether more reliable hardware with rather clumsy and very fallible software such as Windows whatever would be a better investment.

I guess I'm back to the original question; Mac or PC?

Any suggestions?