JUST LIKE THE KIDS--

Remember the chaos of all those gift days with the children, especially Christmas, when the new toys took a back seat to the box in which they came.

That's Daisy Blue, Sue's grown-up Rag Doll kitten, who immersed herself in this newly opened box while the water fountain drinking gadget it contained sat mostly unused near-by.

WINTERTIME and the livin' is easy!*

Think of the old melody as you enjoy this photo of a Spanish Moss festooned live oak tree in the backyard of our Florida, snow-birding digs.

I am fiddling with this post as a blizzard is expected to terrorize the Northeast coast today with several feet of snow.

*            *            *

*From the hit song by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, 'Summertime;' the opening lines of which continue "...fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high."

VERO BEACH, JAN 23--

Yummy!

A LILlPUTIAN CATHEDRAL--
Leads this photo potpourri

Wytheville is in the pointy end of Virginia where two big highways collide (I-77 and I-81).  As the sign says, "One of America's Smallest Churches" is here.

As endless traffic snarls and belches along near-by, this tiny biblical oasis offers travelers a gentle and relaxing reminder there is a bigger reason for all things.

This sanctuary also serves nicely as a geocache.  It's latitude and longitude are posted so geocachers world-wide may stop by and "find" it whenever in the neighborhood of Western Virginia, USA.

After rattling down I-77 for several hundred miles from Eastern Ohio it certainly was a delightful and calming respite from the hassle of interstate travel.  Note the kneeling bench beside Sue's left leg.

A little farther South in our journey, Jacksonville, FL to be exact, Sue is pictured just north of downtown where we logged a cache in a park in Springfield, my daughter TJ's neighborhood.  We camped there that night and enjoyed a delightful dinner with she and son Eli.

 
A week or so later we had settled into our snow-birding digs and were geocaching near Port St. Lucie, FL when we encountered this critter loitering in the coastal sea grapes.  This monstrous arachnid was a toy but it certainly gives one pause when encountered in the sub-tropical brush.  Actually, it wasn't the cache we were in search of so we have no idea why it was hanging around.

On another caching outing we enjoyed lunch with Linda Adkins (Marion, OH) and Mike Friedman (Columbus), geocaching and square dancing friends who winter near us just a chip shot north of our dining venue, Cobbs Landing at the town marina in Ft. Pierce.

HAPPY NEW YEAR--
Geriatric style

Tanglewood (our Florida mobile home/RV community) rocked the new year in with this rousing--well, sort of--launch of a mid-night Sky Lantern.

This one is a commercial contraption consisting of a silk envelope, the large pink balloon, which traps the heat from the small flame being ignited until it is able to launch itself skyward.

The flame is on a little platform centered so it does not ignite the lantern.

It's ascent is remarkable, sputtering a small tail of intentional sparks as it drifts with the gentle night wind and climbs hundreds of feet until it curves upward out of sight.

Our Syracuse friends Dee Weeks, left foreground, and hubby Dick behind her, provided the pyrotechnic excitement while my lady Sue watched, facing the camera on the right.

This was the grand finale after an evening of robust card games while the younger folks blasted themselves into the approaching new year at the facility billiard table while the big screen TV glistened with Time Square's ribaldry.

Moments later we drifted into the night's silence on the walk home.

Slowly, of course.

...AND THE PARTY'S OVER

Daisy Blue got her first-ever Florida cat toy in celebration of the approaching New Year last evening.

It was a 10" round contraption with a groove in it and a golf sized ball that she could roll merrily around dispensing cat nip in modest quantity.

Turns out she is one of the 50% of cats who can experience a mild hallucinogenic response to that herbal product.

...like me with mild doses of alcohol.

Daisy and I simply want to lay down under such circumstances and take a nap.

Some would say a cat nap.

After Sue and I shared some humor at Daisy's expense she awoke and seemed only slightly miffed that we might have pulled something over on her as cats most certainly can do with any human originated shenanigans.

She squawked a noisy "Meow"at us as we headed to a senior-style New Year's celebration at our winter digs.

We, of course, took her cat-comment as her version of

HAPPY NEW YEAR!