Michelle spotted this silly turtle (above) on the Myakka River. "Chuck" seems damned if he do and damned if he don't.
Bad Mojo--Maybe nothing good can come when 146 years of combined womanhood suddenly meet on the roadways. For certain, nothing good came of it the other day just across the bay in Pitbullville when a 71-year-old woman ran over and mostly murdered a 75-year-old woman on her bike. The one old gal did not see the other old gal, and that’s the long and the short of it, I guess. Of course, many drivers, of all ages, do not see us, we cyclists. Then, there are those who DO see us. I was cut off the other day by some road rager who clearly saw me, clearly hated me, and clearly would have killed me had I clearly not got over in a jumpin' jack flash. It was clearly his road and none of us effete leftist health-nuts and veggie tree-hugger biker types best be in his way on his road on his planet. I was so pissed that I neglected to get his tag, the douche.
Anyway, no mention of a helmet in the above pretty-much-fatal accident which usually means she was wearing one and it still didn’t matter a thimble full of bat blank. Sorta like guns. When some warped maniac shoots a cooter full of people, international news wires crackle and cries from the knee-jerk jerks go up to confiscate guns. On the other hand, when someone with a shootin’ iron correct’s one or two of nature’s mistakes who have just tried to rob, rape, kill, or plunder—as happens so often down here in “conceal & carry” Florida--a small item gets buried on a back page.
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Move Over, Marvin—“One more for the road”--that had to be what fifty-seven-year-old John Gay was thinking when he stuck up the Bank of America the other day up in Sarasota. The robber was quickly tracked down at his digs and taken into custody after a brief standoff with SWAT. In fact, when Gay committed the above robbery he was out awaiting trial for another such stick up. In fact, Gay has 14 previous felony convictions. In fact, Gay has 22 prior felony arrests. In fact, it is clear to me and the poor cops who keep arresting this man that the courts, in fact, clearly enjoy setting this bird free to go and rob yet another day. One might imagine that with this, his 23rd strike against him, that John Gay is outta here, gone up the river, the key gets thrown away for good on this one. But one might have imagined that back with his 9th, 10th, 11th . . . 19th, 20th etc., strikes against him, as well. . . .
Just can’t keep a bad man up or a good career criminal down, I allow. _________________________________________________
And Still They Come—Grade school teacher, John Kaneski, was arrested at his Tampa home and charged with stashing kiddie porn on his computer. He admits as much. Whoa. We need to do a MUCH better job at screening teachers . . . and boy scout leaders, and college football coachs, and priests, and camp counselors, and . . . well, just about anyone with a free ticket to be around kids needs to be gone over with a fine tooth comb, I engage. This old bull of hiring these demons, then praying for the best, then expressing open-mouthed astonishment when they are arrested, that formula just don’t cut it no mo. Lots of lives can be ruined in a few months or years by such individuals.
One of my all time favorite teachers was Mr. Gordon Brown, my 5th grade teacher. I loved that man; he was a game-changer for me. My life began to turn around at that point. It makes me shudder to think that had Mr. Brown been a creeping deviant like the above, my life would have certainly went south from that point on and stayed south.
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Art of the Day
