Museum and Marching Band

Yesterday, in search of something to do that didn't involve spending a lot of time outside, Mom and I went to the Cummer Museum, Jacksonville's art museum. Yay! Air conditioning! We enjoyed browsing the museum's collection, and then ventured outside and risked spontaneous combustion for a brief walk around the gardens, beneath the shade of the gigantic Cummer Oak and the I-95 overpass.

This was my favorite painting -- "Figure in a River Landscape" by Herman Herzog, from 1910. Herzog, a German-born painter who eventually moved to Philadelphia and often visited his son in Gainesville, painted more than 250 views of west-central Florida during his lifetime. Ah, swamps!

We also saw an exhibit based on artists' responses to the civil rights anthem "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," which explored issues of race, identity and oppression, including police violence. We were lucky enough to come across two of the artists giving talks about their work to a group of patrons, so we listened in.

After lunch at the museum (grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches!) we drove to the mall so I could buy some bedsheets. As I've mentioned before, Dave and I have an American king-sized bed and we can't easily get sheets in the UK. And Olga has an unfortunate tendency to put holes in our sheets when she builds her little dog-nest each night.

Finally, we drove to the photo shop where the newly scanned photo of my great uncle was ready.

As I mentioned, the original photo is too large for our home scanner. So I had it professionally scanned and touched up, for the princely sum of $85. (!)

We don't really know the story behind this photo -- it came in a box of stuff retrieved from my great-grandmother's house in Avon Park, when it was sold in the '90s after my great uncle's death. My great uncle, Rudolph, who I also wrote about here, is shown just behind the drum. He seems to be holding a staff, so maybe he was the drum major for this band? (My mom says he usually played clarinet.) Why he was in a Winter Haven band while living in Avon Park, we're not sure -- and we also don't know what they were doing in South Carolina. So many mysteries.

Anyway, I plan to put this photo online -- maybe the people of Winter Haven will appreciate the history. As I told Mom, for all we know, we have the only copy in existence! It could be historically significant!

The Beaches

Mom and I drove out to the beaches east of Jacksonville yesterday morning. I just wanted to see the ocean.

And there it was.

I'm not a huge beach person, so I didn't even dip my toes into the water, much less lie around on the sand. Instead I sprayed on my SPF 75 sunscreen and spent about ten minutes under the broiling sun taking pictures before retreating to the air-conditioned car.

The we went to Hanna Park, north of the beaches near Mayport. We took a very brief walk on one of the trails -- just long enough to get bitten by a few mosquitoes (Zika!), see lots of banana spiders and watch this woodpecker flit among the palms. He liked to hang from the dead fronds, which I've never seen a woodpecker do. We turned around when we came to a large banana spider web strung across the trail, a formidable guard.

From there we drove into town because I had an errand to run -- I wanted to scan an old photo of my great uncle, and it was too large for our home scanner. So I went online and found a local photo shop, but finding it on the ground turned out to be a crazy adventure of wrong turns and deceptive road signage. We finally got there, and my photo is supposed to be ready today.

Finally, last night, my brother and I took my mom to the Julington Creek Fish Camp, a nearby restaurant, for her birthday. Mom had shrimp and grits -- so Florida. I had cod that almost certainly wasn't caught anywhere near Julington Creek, a tributary of the St. John's River -- but it was good!

Mermaids and Manatees

My brother and I spent yesterday afternoon in the car. He took the afternoon off to have lunch with me and show me the sights, but it's about 98º F outside and entirely too hot to walk anywhere. (Especially in the sun.) So the solution was an air conditioned auto tour. Pleasant, if not eco-friendly.

We drove around North Jacksonville, where it was interesting to check out little neighborhoods like Panama Park and to see Cleo's, home of "the best taco salad in town" -- my brother described it, and it sounds to me just like any other taco salad, so I'm skeptical. But then, I didn't eat one. Cleo's was closed by the time we got there.

From Ortega, on the south side, we got a good view of downtown across the huge St. John's River.

You may remember that my mom now lives in a retirement center on a tributary of the river. We went out on the dock to watch the sunset two nights ago and a manatee swam past. All we could see was his nose, but he left a telltale v-shaped ripple on the water's surface so we could watch his progress through the water. It still amazes me that such exotic, prehistoric-looking animals are just out there, living their lives in my mom's back yard.

Speaking of Mom, today is her birthday -- she's 79. So we're planning a little dinner out tonight.

(Top photo: A mermaid on Hecksher Drive, North Jacksonville.)

Florida Highway Oddities

I took a long, slightly winding drive through the center of the state yesterday, from Tampa to Jacksonville. It was a terrific day for a road trip, and I put my iTunes on and had a great time, driving through Leesburg and Eustis and Umatilla and the wonderfully named Floral City, and stopping here and there to take pictures.

As has been pointed out many times by many people, Florida is a weird state.

Above is the so-called Concrete Man of Citrus County. I remember seeing him about thirty years ago, standing by the side of U.S. 41 near Inverness, holding a fishing pole aloft and maybe a fish, too. Since then he's been moved and somehow lost his arms, not to mention his fishing pole.

Also in Citrus County, a huge missile. Or something.

A few hours later, in Umatilla -- where I saw this picturesque mysterious business (above) -- I stopped for lunch at McDonald's. That's not normally my idea of a good lunch spot, but I wanted something fast and with palatable coffee. (My second and final cup for the day, given my new stomach-friendly regimen.)

I sat next to two older ladies in their church clothes, talking in a slow southern drawl about their friend Betty Alice. Apparently they'd thought Betty Alice had died -- or "passed," as they said -- but it turns out she didn't. Amen!

Floridians are dreamers. This road is called "Stardust Boulevard." You can see the road on the right, there -- those two grassy ruts going back into the woods.

I was thinking that I hadn't seen many political signs. But then I saw this one: "Vote Trump. Stop Little Marco, Lying Ted, and Mitt's Establishment."

No signs for Hillary.

But there is a man running for Sheriff in Putnam County named Gator DeLoach.

I finally joined I-95 outside St. Augustine, near the farming towns of Hastings and Spuds, and got to Jacksonville about 4 p.m. My mom apparently didn't get my e-mail that I was coming, so she was surprised to see me!

Whiplash!

Some crazy decision-making has been going on around here lately.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was having trouble with my stomach -- gastritis, which I've had before. Well, two nights ago, I had a terrible night. I couldn't sleep, and I had all sorts of dramatic abdominal pain. Back in the UK I would have gone to the doctor. But here, I have no comprehensive medical insurance -- I have a travel policy which covers me for some emergencies, like accidents, but not for pre-existing illnesses.

I decided to cut my trip short and fly back to the UK. It sounds drastic, and it meant I couldn't visit my mom and brother in Jacksonville. But I didn't want to spend a miserable week sleepless and in pain, with no way to address the problem.

I changed my airline ticket to fly out today. My family took the news well, and I Skyped with my mom yesterday to make up for it.

But then, of course, having made that change, I had a much better day. I've been continuing to take my Nexium, and I watched what I ate. I skipped alcohol and drank weaker coffee. (Because I am NOT ABOUT to give up coffee entirely.) Last night I slept like a rock and woke up feeling fine.

So then I had a million doubts. Should I really fly home early? Was I giving in to my own insane health neurosis and hypochondria? I talked to Dave and decided I was being a drama queen.

I changed my ticket back. I'll drive up to Jacksonville today.

I am a nut.

(Photo: Telephone and/or power poles down the street from my dad's house.)

Nature, with Near-Death Experience

There's a wilderness park a few miles from my dad's house called the Violet Cury Preserve. I'd driven past it a few times but never visited, so yesterday afternoon, right after lunch, I went to check it out.

Turns out, it's a really nice park -- 160 acres of Florida woodlands with a big lake in the middle. Despite temperatures of roughly 900 degrees, I walked around for about half an hour.

There were some interesting wildflowers, like this rose gentian...

...and butterflies, like this colorful buckeye.

I also saw three gopher tortoises, shuffling around and eyeing me suspiciously.

Suddenly I began hearing thunder and seeing flashes of lightning. Despite the fact that I was born in Florida and know that weather on summer afternoons can turn on a dime, I was still caught unprepared -- out in the middle of a wilderness, on poorly marked trails, with no idea how to quickly get back to my car. I thought sure I was going to become a lightning casualty. I was mentally preparing to lie down in a ditch.

Instead, I walked-ran along the paths until I came to the park's perimeter fence, and then walked the fence line back to the park entrance. By then, the lightning had subsided, but I'd seen enough nature. I headed home. I'd love to revisit the park sometime, maybe on a day when I'm less likely to be electrocuted!

Sleepless in the Sunshine

Well, my post about churchgoing definitely stirred up some memories! Thanks for all your comments about your own experiences. It seems like many of us had similar, youthful flirtations (probably an inappropriate word in this context) with religion that for whatever reason didn't "take."

I feel like I should say something about Dallas, but honestly, I don't know what to say -- except, once again, the old refrain that there are WAY TOO MANY GUNS out there. And violence just feeds more violence. I don't know enough yet to go beyond that.

Remember how I came to Florida in April to be with my dad while he had brain surgery? Well, I'm happy to report that he's doing better. I've been spending the last several nights at his house -- in his guest house, actually -- and though he's still undergoing treatments, he has daytime nursing care and seems much improved. Which, needless to say, is good. He's eating well -- his current obsession is cashew nuts -- and we went to Village Inn yesterday for pancakes. He's very into a Robert Redford-produced TV series about the history of the American West, so we've been watching that.

(And news -- lots of news. A person can definitely watch too much news. Especially lately.)

I also had a chance to meet up with some old friends from high school on Wednesday evening. I hadn't seen Barbara in about five years, and Lisa and Curtis in about 20! We had a fun little reunion at Panera.

My own health has been a bit rocky. Years ago I had a problem with gastritis and it seems to have flared up again, leaving me feeling bloated and yucky. Fortunately, my go-to medicine, Nexium, is now available over the counter (yay!) so I picked some up at Walgreen's the day I arrived. We'll see if that helps.

Oh, and a full night's sleep would be nice. Damn jet lag!

(Photo: A lizard in the guest-house yard.)