representing a system of thought

This is where we fished last time. We stayed there a long, long time. I liked it because there were nice bass here and IT WASN'T AN AIRPLANE SEAT!

My lure, although it didn't catch nothing. Not that I'm saying trees and weeds are nothing. Just nothing special.
DRE's first fish. He was using a soft crawfish over the submerged tree limbs. This one got gutted and ate. Not on the spot, but eventually. He went from being a dreaded predator to being a breaded predator.
This, bigger fish was caught by DRE on a crank bait. Crank baits are a staple of our gear. If he had been caught first, he'd be the breaded predator. As it is, he was photographed and released, as is our usual protocol for fishys not bound for consumption.
My newest little tree. He's so cu-u-u-te. Although he looks like some kind of thoroughbred, he is just a ficus. I adopted him from a flea market in Bradenton for $25.

Sorry about the long blogging absence, though you likely missed nothing. I got wore out. Rode hard and put away sweating. My work is fulfilling, but boy does it take it out of you.

After I got back from Dallas, and you gotta figure that was the tail end of a Boston-Albuquerque-Denver-Dallas quadfecta, I kinda just collapsed for a week or so. Sure I mowed tha lawn and other yard work. Have to because I live in an area constantly trying to shrug off it's human oppressors and revert back to jungle. But I also napped under the tree a lot and caught up on all my recorded tv shows. Plus, me and DRE went fishing. And on that day, fishing day, we stayed twice as long as usual. Yep, we both needed the relaxin'. Pictures were included above.

County commissioners got bit in the ass down here and I am proud for it. We get a lot of friction down here between residents and homeowners associations. (Deed restricted communities-- what an utterly stupid idea!) Anyway, some little Army wife would stick a big ol' flag in her yard because her huband was deployed and the association would ask for it to come down. Sometimes even offering to move it to a public area where it was allowed.

Now let me stop here and say I am not anti-flag, anti-army wife, or pro-homeowners association. For I am none of those things. I am just pro-common sense. And I have much the same answer to someone in a deed restricted community who wants to be exempted as I do a pro football player holding out for more money in the second year of a seven year contract... If you didn't like the deal, then why did you sign on for it?

So anyway, our commissioners, in the same vein as our State politicians bum rushing both the hospital and State constitution over Terry Schaivo and her right to be a vegetable, passed a law (ordinance, proclamation, whatever it is they pass) exempting flags from most laws and calling them freedom of speech. Yep, that'll get you lots of votes in Hillsborough County, Florida.

For years the commissioners had signed a simple order honoring Robert E. Lee's birthday and/or Southern Heritage month, proclamations that had gone completely unnoticed for years and years. But 2 years back a citizen of the area, one who had migrated south and not a native inhabitant of what remains of Dixie (by her noting that "you guys lost the war" I was able to surmise her transplantedness), complained that we let the Sons of the Confederacy get a proclamation in the same month as Black History month. Because, you know, it's not like different people might be able to appreciate different things at the same time. Or that a month on a national level is a bigger honor than , say, a single day decreed by a county commission. Nope, gotta be one or the other. Choose up sides and call each other names. County Commissioners sided against the "rednecks", who they are finding are a bit more numerous than they had thought.

After being snubbed for a couple of years, one little squirrely dude went and filed papers for a memorial.

Hillsborough County: "Public or private land?"

Son of the Confederacy: "Private"

HC: "A memorial for what?"

SotC: "Veterans and war dead."

Question not asked by HC: "Of which war?"

HC: "What type of memorial?"

SotC: "A granite marker beneath a big, 30X50 foot flag."

Question not asked by HC: "What flag?"

So all legal documents filed and approved, on R.E. Lee's birthday, visible from 2 major Interstates, the Confederate Battle flag went up and hung there for nearly 2 minutes before the howls wailed out from all corners and the county's phone banks lit up. [news story] It hung there the rest of the day. Soon, when the monument is finished, it will fly daily. Supposedly.

When the commission told them to take it down, they were shown the documents making it legal, including the part where flags were protected as free speech. And even though the commission probably only meant the Stars and Stripes, that is not what the legislation said. It just said flags.

So they appealed to the civic pride of the Sons of the Confederacy, think about others and respect their sensibilities, what kind of message does it send to visitors from other places, but the urgings were to no avail. As the squirrely dude said, "Now that we got tired of being disrespected ourselves... now they're willing to talk. That's too bad 'cause your wife done left you."

While I used to be an in your face southern partisan, I have mellowed somewhat. It is probably not the best way to promote the area to others. Still, I respect the hell out of them taking the law, folding it to fit their needs, and tossing it in the faces of those sanctimonious commissioners. You know, the ones who choose which constituents are worth their time to represent.

So now I am off for a week in Detroit, or actually Romulus, which surely leads to a good Star Trek reference somehow, followed by a week in Miami. Will fly home from MI for a single day, then hop in the car and drive to Miami. It's just as quick to drive as it is to fly, when you factor in arriving early, security lines, waiting for baggage, etc. Plus, when I'm driving, the next flight out is RIGHT NOW!! It is a better schedule.

This is Hoyt Axton. It's pretty pro-South, circa 1865 or so. If you have delicate sensibilities you might just want to skip it. And, the klan hood reference is unfortunate. I don't condone that.


Aio okuritai kara*, out
Ramblin' Ed

*We can get along together