Nice home. Front and back views of a Bialik alumnus’ classy place shared with his wife and two kids. There are alligators in the man-made lake in the back of the property. Otherwise, it’s swimmable. So if you ain’t afraid of gators, dive right in.
They had an experience with a six+ footer when they first moved in. They called animal control who used raw chicken (as opposed to KFC or other facsimiles thereof) to bait the gator which they tired out completely and simply dragged the reptile out of the lake and took it away in some sort of truck.
They then took it somewhere and shot it in the head.
Given that for reason(s) unbeknownst to this writer, the gator had to go.
The alternative to shooting it would have been to release it in the “wild” as it were, where it would have been forced to fight for its survival with other gators whose territory was being invaded by the first terrapin.
Apparently, in Florida, the second alternative is considered inhumane, more so that shooting it in the head, that is.
I’ve been on the road for over five weeks at the moment, first landing in Charleston and picking up my trike. After spending a nice week with friends Willie, Phil, Joan and Albert (all pictured below), I decided to take off and go south, young man, go south. First, through the rest of South Carolina, which isn’t much, followed by Georgia, a smallish state from north to south, and finally through northern and central Florida and all the way to Miami. While in northern Florida, I stayed in Jacksonville, the largest city in the state in area, not pooulation. In central Florida, I spent a nice week or so in Tampa, passing part of my time there with an old friend, Brian, and a new friend, Tish. The former and I met while waiting in a doctor’s office in 2015. Tish was introduced to me by Brian.
Willie, who in his own words when we last saw each other, is 83 1/2, still rides.
Also pictured is me flanked by Phil and Willie.
Finally, we see Joan and Albert with a 400 year old Oak, near Charleston, SC.
Here’s a pic taken after our trip from Charleston to Columbia, a 2 1/2 hour ride each way, to visit Phil, someone whom I’ve known since 2012, when Hilton RIP, his brother was stricken with cancer and was my roommate for a while at the JGH – Jewish General Hospital, Montreal’s best hospital centre, – that’s how I met Joan, Hilton’s sister and her husband, Albert.
Pictured below is Willie and his ride.
Now back to Florida.
My plan is the following. I will leave Miami tomorrow morning, planning to spend the next two days in Punta Gorda, just north of Port Charlotte. I hope to see the Tampa Bay Rays play a Grapefuit League game on Wednesday, vs. Boston. The Rays‘ home field is in Port Charlotte just a short ride from where I’ll be staying in Punta Garda. I’ve already seen the Rays once this spring, along with seeing the Tigers beat up on the Jays in Lakeland and that ain’t all. I’ve also been to two NCAA games, the University of South Florida vs. Fordham, andtodayI went to see the Miami Hurricanes whip the Maine Black Bears by the score of 7-1. This game turned on a bases-clearing three run double in the fifth inning by Isaac Quinones. Quinones’ hitting supported the ten strikeout performance by last week’s ACC Pitcher of the Week, Evan McKendry, who scattered five hits over the six innings that he worked.
Detroit vs. Toronto at Lakeland
USF vs. Fordham at Corbett Field in Tampa
Tampa Bay Rays vs. Baltimore Orioles at Port Charlotte
UM Hurricanes vs. Maine Black Bears at Alex Rodriguez Field
Tropicana Field Previous Grapefruit League home of the Rays prior to their move to Port Charlotte. The “Trop” is the present day home of the regular season Rays.
I got a ticket in the Tropicana Field parking lot during a spring training game in 2015. It was due to my having parked my trike in the handicapped section of the lot. I did have a handicapped vignette (sticker) on my bike, however it had expired. $250 USD. Thanks St. Petersburg, for your hospitality which is what I wrote on the cheque. They could see that I was from Quebec and they still ticketed me. I did have time to take care of this but I remember thinking that they weren’t gonna nail a person from Canada. Maybe they didn’t know that Quebec is part of Canada. Who knows.
A la prochaine.