When last I was detailing my sojurn to The Sunshine State, I hadn't even made it to my uncle's house yet. He and his wife were kind enough to allow me to stay with them for most of my week there, which, for various reasons, was greatly appreciated. So before I go any further, big thanks to Ray & Monica, along with Lenny & Grace (their 2 cats, who never really were quite sure what to make of me the whole time I was there...even so, they were more social than my parent's cat, who never came out from under the couch the entire time I was around back in October).
And, in case you're wondering about my photographic memory for all these details and things in this and other blog entries, it's actually all the photographs I take that stir the memories. I upload all of the literally hundreds of pictures I take each vacation to my computer, and by having them arranged in the order I took them, I can piece together everything I saw and did. Seeing the pictures helps to stimulate the memory, and I can fill in all the gaps after having had the brain kickstarted by a few images. So not only do I enjoy taking photographs as a hobby/art form, but it also serves as a tremendous memory aid, without which I'd be losing many valuable details of my trips. And now that I have a terrific pocket-sized digital camera to go along with my full-sized SLR, plus the camera on the iPhone, I can literally visually document my entire vacations, and enjoy many more details than I would have been able to remember unaided for the rest of my life...or however long my hard drive holds out.
My uncle lives in a very nice house in the middle of The Villages. His back yard spills out onto the fairway of a hole on a golf course. Picture perfect location for relaxing. I was provided with the cat's room for sleeping...which is actually better than it sounds. It's a guest bedroom that the cats have just appropriated for themselves, and they were less than thrilled about, and a little confused as to why, they were being chased out of it. I promise you I tried to make friends with them over the course of the week, but they weren't interested in doing much more than staring at me from a very safe distance. Oh well...
Waking up on Monday morning was VERY nice (how often does an average working person get to say that?!?). I hadn't slept straight thru, but every time I woke up, I'd sooner or later pass out again...and when I woke up for good, I still stayed in bed for another hour or 2. It must have been pushing noon by the time I stumbled out of the room and into the world, so I had breakfast while my uncle had lunch. We then took a brief tour of some of The Villages, which does seem like a very nice community, and caters nicely to your average working man/woman who has earned a retirement. We then wound up back home, where I believe I indulged in a nap (yes, there was to be lots of sleeping this trip...aaaahhhhh...). Then Monica, who is of Italian descent, made a wonderful Italian dinner, which is something always greatly appreciated by me. Even though my mother has no Italian ancestry, Italian cooking was something of a specialty of hers, and I grew up on her fantastic meals. I still have vivid memories of playing outside my house as a young child on Sunday afternoons, having fun while playing, but also slightly salivating as the aroma of slow-cooked marinara sauce wafted from the kitchen towards where I was. So it was a nice treat to have an authentic home-cooked Italian meal. Needless to say, after filling up on meat and pasta, there was more sleep headed my way...
Tuesday was actually going to be a fairly big day. I initially just picked this particular week becasue the way my schedule fell, I only had to use 3 days of vacation time to get 8 days off. Then, I figured, why not actually go somewhere and see a little more of the world. After settling on Florida, I took a look at the NHL schedules, and lo and behold, both Florida based teams had home games that week. Too good an opportunity to pass up. So after hanging around the house for a while in the morning and early afternoon, and taking many pictures of the beautiful property on the beautiful day, my uncle and I hopped in my rented Mustang and made the hour-and-change drive southwest down to Tampa Bay. We were there to catch a game at the St. Pete Times Forum between the host Lightning and the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
I enjoy watching hockey live, and in Las Vegas we have a minor league team (Wranglers) that a few of us from work will occasionally go see. To get to an NHL game requires a drive of a few hours in any one direction, or a flight. In the last calendar year I've seen games in Phoenix, Vancouver, New York (Long Island to be specific), and Los Angeles, and now would be adding Tampa and Sunrise (home of the Florida Panthers). I use it as an excuse to go to places, or, if I'm already heading to a place, I see if I can squeeze one in. So this was serendipity.
Obviously more to come...
Blog Post Soundtrack; John Frusciante, Booker T. & The MG's, The White Stripes (live), Madhouse, Pearl Jam (live, covering The Who), Vivaldi, Björk, The Doors (live), Metallica, John Connelly Theory, Judas Priest (live), The Misfits, Santana, KoRn, Audioslave (live, covering The White Stripes), Mondo Generator, Queens Of The Stone Age (live, covering Subhumans), Monster Magnet, P J Harvey, King Missile, Led Zeppelin, Bill Hicks, Fear Factory, Richard Jeni
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