…and heck, I really wish I had something to report on life.

Unfortunately…the Fun Stuff© bank has been pretty empty the last while but as they say…it is what it is…and I got what I got…so here ya go.

After surviving Ian…we then had another storm…Nicole…but it came in over on the eastern coast of Florida, passed north of us, back out to sea in the Gulf temporarily but it paralleled the coastline and then made landfall again north of Cedar Key someplace before heading on up into GA, the Carolinas and essentially petered out. It was pretty much a bust here in North Fort Myers though…winds got to maybe 25 or 30 and we had a little rain but…again…not nearly what one would expect for a storm…this one was Cat 1 and then Tropical Storm once it made initial landfall. Daytona Beach and surrounding areas got pretty beat up at least along the beach though but Neil’s blogging buddy over in New Smyrna Beach had pretty much nothing where they are.

Our reaction to the second storm was pretty much the same as this pizza place though (this image goes better here but it’s really part of the “interesting things found on the net’ section)

As I may…or then again, maybe not…talked about before…Connie is going to be in a choral tour group to London next summer. They’re going to do a concert led by John Rutter who is like the Arthur Fiedler of the choral world…she says he’s a big deal but to Neil he’s just another Tunesmith©. In combination with that we’re working on some Fun Stuff over in the UK…looks like Wales, Yorkshire Dales, and Lakes Districts as of now…and we’re going to…we think…work in a Saint Saëns Symphony #3 “Organ” concert as well.

Our Elks lodge has been closed for over 2 months now. It wasn’t Ian that did it…membership voted to move because of the high rent they were paying. The story to members of the whys and wherefores kept changing along with the financial concerns…but they’re moving into a new location highly recommended by and promoted by one of our local politically minded members. In addition…it doesn’t appear that everything was carefully thought out ahead of time as the new building remodeling is done but they’re still waiting on permits and liquor licenses and such before reopening. We haven’t been involved in any of it but at least from the sorta outside it doesn’t seem like things have gone as smoothly as they could have. Hopefully not too much longer…Ian may…or then again may not…have contributed to the delay.

Thanksgiving is around the corner and we’re having smoked duck breast with maple cream cream sauce and a couple of side dishes and desserts that we picked up from some of the cooking shows we watch.

Connie went to the Ladies of Elks district meeting yesterday and was officially elected and/or sworn in as the Senior Delegate. That means she gets to vote on stuff at the statewide meeting and probably some to her stuff that I don’t know about. Here’s a snapshot of her…and her spiffy new (well, additional really) gavel. She’s already got her local chapter’s gavel as she’s currently the President…so I guess she can pound on the desk with both hands now.

Now that the weather is getting a little cooler…the wildlife is starting to make a little more presence at the pond out back…and Neil even saw a Roseate Spoonbill around the corner on his bike ride the other day but he had no camera so no picture of that.

We thought that after Election Day the other week that all of the name calling, blaming the other side, misinformation, and outright lies would stop…but nah…it didn’t happen. I guess it will never end…and Neil still thinks that his idea for elections should become a constitutional amendment. He says that whenever there’s an election that in addition to the various candidates that “None of the above” should be on the ballot…and if None wins then there has to be a new election…and none of those original candidates can run again. That way we might get rid of some of the idiots on both sides and maybe…just maybe…get some government people that believe in doing their job and compromising to get good things done for we, the people. All I’ve seen so far is that being against whatever the other guy wants and making the other guy look bad is the primary goal of just about every one of our ‘leaders’.

We did get a couple different Tricolor herons…

And a Great Blue Heron this norming…it was about 60 degrees so it was sorta fluffed up and hunched down to stay warm.

And one of our resident gators showed up yesterday.

That’s about it for wildlife though.

Interesting things found on the net.

In our ever popular Bad Ass of the Week category…

An
8 year old named Deepak in India was playing in the back yard when this snake bit him…(well, not actually exactly *this* snake but the same species).

Yep…a King Cobra. Luckily it was a dry bite which means that the snake doesn’t inject any venom…this is apparently a thing for snakes since venom is produced very slowly and they don’t want to waste any. Anyways…what makes the kid a Bad Ass is that he bit it back and killed it.

The second entrant for this category today is this pig…

And the third entrant…

They recently renamed a school in New Orleans and…amazingly enough…they asked the public to vote on it (why would they do this after recent history of public choosing names I dunno)…and these were the top vote getters. It didn’t say what the school board actually chose.

At the Coventry Cathedral…in the UK I presume…they want to be inclusive and welcome all their visitors…it says so right here on their sign.

And only in Russia.

And finally…just in case you have trouble finding the state of Kentucky on the map…somebody has put together a little explanation of how to do so.

Cyas.