A Christmas angel

The Longhorn Steakhouse - Waiting bench

The Longhorn Steakhouse is one of our favorite restaurants. And if you have to wait for a table, this bench offers a place of respite. Unless, of course, it's summer and very hot. Then you'll want to look for a shady spot.

Evening settles over different parts of Ocala...

Marion County's Neuter Commuter

A fine guitarist entertaining the folks at the Ocala Arts & Crafts Festival

Adding more "security" - sign of our times

Just in time for the after-Thanksgiving sales which begin tomorrow (Black Friday), the Belk store in the Paddock Mall has added security gates to all of their entrances and exits. If you try to leave the store with an item that has not been paid for, an electronic device will start wailing loudly, alerting everyone to your chicanery!

I watched as these were installed a couple of days ago.

Ocala Arts & Crafts Festival - Oct. 2010

Lots of good stuff to eat, but I couldn't find a turkey anywhere!

To my U.S. friends: Happy Thanksgiving, anyway!

The longest par-5 in Florida

I don't get it. I'm sure the sign is supposed to entice people to play the Candler Hills Golf Course. But what moron wants to play a 662-yard par 5? Golf is hard enough without creating a ridiculously long hole like this one!

Tailgate party at Jenkins Acura...

...honoring, of course, the Florida Gators...

Food court - Paddock Mall...

...with a fisheye effect...

Batteries only

I suppose it's due to our technology. Most everything we use takes some kind of battery. Thus, in Ocala we now have two new stores that sell nothing but batteries and their accouterments.

This store mailed a coupon to local residents for a watch battery (installed) at a very reasonable price. Of course, when I brought in my watch, the clerk was unable to install the battery. He didn't have the right screwdriver.

Oh well.

Even dogs have to eat - breakfast!

Our daughter is doing well. We are back home in Ocala. Life is good. Thanks to all who have expressed their concern and good wishes!

Yellow rose

A yellow rose holding healing and warmth as those of us in the northern hemisphere head into the winter season.

As most of you know, we recently flew to Colorado to be with our daughter who was recovering from major surgery. She is improving and doing well. Ironically, about 36 hours ago, I contracted what is euphemistically called a "food-borne" disease, but should be more accurately termed "gastro-intestinal hell"! I'm improving, too, but it will be awhile before we're back home and back to normal. At that time, I'll do my best to catch up on your blogs and commenting.

Thank you for your various expressions of concern and care. This is a great blogging community of which to be a part.

Like driving the freeway...

...no matter how fast you go, someone's always on your tail!

Joahn's

I'm not sure why I took this photo...there are a number of these little shops in strip malls in Ocala. But I think the reason had to do with the name, "Joahn." I've never known anyone named "Joahn." Joan, JoAnn, Joanne, JoAnne are all names that I've seen. "Joahn" did catch my attention, though.

Truck wreck

This is a story ala B Squared of Fort Lauderdale Daily Photo:  Trucks of all types roar down I-95 and I-75 and the Florida Turnpike 24/7.  Some of them crash.  We think this is what happened here.  But we can't be sure, as it appears no other vehicles were involved.  Thankfully, so far as we can ascertain, no one was hurt.  

And the truck was in good condition - it looked driveable.  It just needed to be tipped upright.

Another Ocala mystery.