Yup…the title pretty much says it all. We found a real estate agent…she and her husband are members of the parish up at St. Therese where Connie sings in the choir and we’re members there as well. I have to admit…she had a different way of figuring out which houses we wanted to see.

Usually…the agent asks you about bedrooms, bathrooms, garage, and other particulars you want and which are mandatory…along with some geographic data. Paula did that…except the first question was about where we wanted to be geographically. We told her that we wanted to be north of the river, east of Slater Road which is about 4 miles west of Seminole, and not in Cape Coral…that gave her about a 6 by 6 mile area to start looking in. Her next question was down a strange path though…she asked why we picked that location. We replied because that’s where our friends are and it’s close to the Elks Lodge, AmVets chapter,  and American Legion posts that we intend to frequent with our friends. The next question was “why do you want to be close to your friends”…and on down that rathole with “Why do you want to be near those places”…she said that our replies of “because they’re our friends” and “because they have inexpensive beer” were shallow and didn’t get to (her words)…the root of our desires. We assured her that they did and then she asked for the particulars we wanted…3 bedrooms, 2 baths, large lanai (what we used to call a veranda in the South but essentially a screened outdoor living area…lanai is actually a Hawaiian language, we have no idea how it came to be commonly used in Florida. Two car garage, den that’s visible from the kitchen as those are the two places we live our lives mostly. A few other less important wants…and off she went. Hawaiian by the way…is a Polynesian language with 5 vowels and 8 consonants…

We’ve got 8 or 9 viewings set up for today…then we’ll see if we need to expand either our budget or our geographic area…I don’t think either will be necessary though. I’ll update more later when we know something on that front.

In other news…I have to pass on some info about the obituary of
Captain Dick Stevenson of the Yukon. He died in his home in Whitehorse, Yukon last week and his daughter has a rather bizarre detail to carry out as part of his last will and testament.

Whaddya mean you don’t know who Captain Dick Stevenson was…I thought everybody knew the legend he started. Apparently not…so let me clue ya in.

Nearly 50 years ago in the early 1970s…he bought a cabin outside of Dawson City and while cleaning it out he discovered a pickle jar with a dried up human toe inside…and some anecdotal information that it had been amputated from a prospector decades earlier due to frostbite and then left in the jar. Later that night he was out drinking with some reporters…you just knew that alcohol had to be involved…and they got to talking about the toe…and in their inebriated state invented the idea of a cocktail with toe in it. The next day…the reporters were gone but Captain Dick was still there and still had the toe. So he headed down to the local pub…the bar at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City…here’s a photo of that fine establishment which you might recall we visited back in the late summer of 2015 on our Alaska adventure.

Anyways…old Captain Dick and his buddies decided as a lark to carry out the cocktail invention they had come up with the previous night…a beer glass filled with champagne and…of course…the toe…with the only requirement that the toe had to touch your lips. Captain Dick said in 2017 that he didn’t think more than 10 or 12 people would follow the tradition and drink what has become known as the “Sourtoe Cocktail”. This made the newspapers ‘round the world and put Dawson City on the map as a place to visit. To date…more than 90,000 people have had the cocktail…although there was a change made somewhere along the way. An 80 year old lady said “I don’t mind the toe, but I can’t drink a beer glass full of champagne.”…so the rules were changed slightly to include the drink of your choice with the toe in it.

The way it works is the ceremony is open every evening for 3 hours or so. You belly up to the bar and order your drink of choice…which has now traditionally become a shot of Yukon Jack which is Canadian whiskey flavored with honey…very similar to Southern Comfort down here in the US. Then you go over, pay your $5 entry fee, read the rules which specifically state that the toe must touch your lips and that if you swallow it there is a $2,500 fine to be paid.

So sure enough…back in 2015 Connie and Neil participated in the ceremony.

Neil didn’t get an in-focus shot of her with the toe/lip requirement met but trust me, she met it.

He paused while she got a good shot…needed more Yukon Jack if ya ask him.

They even got certificates to prove it…62,189 and 62,190.

So it is with a great sense of loss that we honor the passing of Captain Dick…and acknowledge our membership in his club.

Oh yeah…that special requirement of his will. His toes are to be amputated, preserved in pickling salt, and donated to the Downtown Hotel as spares to continue the tradition…the original toe got lost somewhere along the line and although they did have a spare they were down to the last one as of 2015. So as a dutiful daughter…she had his big toes amputated and will be spending the next few weeks getting them properly dried in salt and preserved before passing them along to the Downtown Hotel.

Interesting things found on the net.

Didja ever wonder why people still go out and hunt deer…or doves or duck or rabbit or whatever?

Sad but true.

More signs that humanity is doomed.

Cyas.