Another cool day in Fla, but we're not complaining

Remember our neighbor, Charles Manson, well turns out, when he is sober and not stoned out of his gourd, he's actually a very nice guy. He came over to apologize for the first night, said he had just been laid off from his job and was understandably depressed. (Not really a good time to decide to meet the neighbors, but we all have lapses in judgement.) Because he is home during the day, we asked him if he could dog sit so we could go to the Edison Museum in Fort Meyers. He agreed to do it for a case of beer. Randy thought this was a pretty good deal... who wouldn't want to be paid in beer. Edison was an extrordinary man... I knew about the light bulb and the phonograph, but the list of his inventions was incredible. He was such a forward thinker. He realized that we would become too reliant on foreign oil and thought we should be looking at the sun to meet some of our energy needs. At the end of his life, he was trying to find a way to grow and harvest a plant on American soil that would provide a source for domestic rubber. He tried many different plants and trees, including the amazing Banyan Tree. His original sapling is now a tree which has spread over an acre. That is the Banyan tree behind his statue. Eventually, he developed a hybrid of the lowly Goldenrod which stood 12 feet tall and could provide many pounds of latex. Sadly, he was already 84 and died before he could bring his final dream to fruition.

Now that we have an on site dog sitter who we can pay in beer, we may try to go to Sarasota and the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Musuem. Randy does not know about the fabulous art collection and I think it best to let him find out after we have driven the fifty miles to Sarasota. Now if I could just figure out a way to trick (I didn't say that) him into seeing a professional production of West Side Story, playing in Naples, my trip to the Gulf Coast would be complete. Maybe dog sitting neighbor Dominic would go with me for a case of beer. You never know...