Ford Mustang for $70 Grand?

It looks much like a "normal" Mustang, but everything is supercharged. Only a relatively few were made. And the price, which I cannot fathom, is about $70,000 USD. Insanity rules! This is a Ford!

It it itches...

Christmas Goodies ... only 117 more days!

Window Dressing - downtown Ocala

Old city post

I couldn't find much on the history of these old limestone posts (they flank one of Ocala's older streets) but I'm guessing they were city markers from when Ocala was a much smaller place.

High Maintenance

Mother & child reunion 2

Dog in training...

...and it's not working too well! :)

Elegant and mysterious

Name and address on a dish...

Tower of Prayer

This is one of hundreds of small Christian churches in Ocala. The word, "tower," must be used metaphorically.

Family gathering

How high the moon!

The Scientology building...

...in downtown Ocala, doing a little advertising.

As you may recall, the Scientology building was a "gift" from the actor, John Travolta, who has a home in Ocala

Ferocious guard lions

Rather than put up a fence with a gate, some folks would rather rely on ferocious lions like these to guard their property. Roar!

Scenes from historic downtown Ocala

Tacky Christmas stuff...

...is now in the stores for your buying pleasure!

Feels so good!

Parking ONLY for patients of Internal Medicine...

...you will be towed! Away!

La Cuisine Restaurant

La Cuisine is located in downtown Ocala. A French restaurant, it offers a fine ambiance and excellent food. Patrick, the gentleman in the photograph, is a partner in the business and notes they've been in operation for three years. During that time they have received the prestigious "Golden Spoon Award" from Florida Trend. We wish them many more years of success in Ocala.

For more information on La Cuisine, click here.

A good old fashioned barber shop...

...these are getting harder and harder to find. They've been ousted by such as "Shear Drama," or "A Cut Above," or "Hello Gorgeous Hair Salon," or "Cala Cutz," or "Dezine's Hair Artistry." What's a fellow to do?

Green grows my grass...

...in the bricks of downtown Ocala...

Home Inspection

When you sell your home, it must be inspected by persons authorized to inspect homes. In this case, the home inspector drives a wee blue car. Such a car doesn't seem to demand much respect. In Ocala, a home inspector should drive a great big pickup truck. It could even be painted bleu. In Ocala, pickups are almost mandatory if you want respect. Yes?

Ocala morn - Candler Hills Golf Club

Yardwork

The gentleman on the lawn tractor does not have extra large ears. He is wearing a headset to cut out the noise.

One of the nice things about Ocala is that we still have various tracts of land, as well as large and small horse farms, within the city.

This area consists of homes on acreage and some small horse farms and is located just a few blocks from a major artery.

Truck trouble

Cow at Chik-fil-A

Chik-fil-A has been much in the news of late. The owner of the restaurant chain made a public comment that as a Christian he opposed gay marriage. That set off a fire-storm of protest as well as support. A couple of city mayors entered the fray announcing they didn't want Chik-fil-A restaurants in their cities because they felt the owner's comment smacked of intolerance and bigotry.

Then a famous (or infamous) evangelical Baptist preacher/cum FOX News commentator suggested the establishment of a "Support Chik-fil-A Day" or some such thing. Some fundamentalist Christians gathered around Chik-fil-A outlets to show their support for the anti-gay marriage stance.

To counter the supporters, pro-gay marriage people have been busy organizing boycotts of the chain as well as setting up their own protests.

And so it goes. Certainly, the Chik-fil-A owner has a right to his opinion and the mayors were wrong in threatening to disallow him to do business in their towns. The protestors also have a right to disagree with the Chik-fil-A stance. They can march and shout and carry on but I think that's not ultimately effective. The best thing they can do is not eat at Chik-fil-A and enlist their friends to shun the chain.

If a Chik-fil-A outlet should discriminate against people because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc., then that's a horse of a different color and we have laws to deal with such discrimination.

Maybe what we need in this country is for people to shut up if they can't say something that is helpful, healing and contributes to the building of community. And that goes for both sides!

Racing thoroughbreds, Hunters and Jumpers

When I saw this painting, I realized it was an iconic Ocala scene. Probably most of our hundreds of horse farms/ranches raise thoroughbred race horses, but there are also many horse farms in Ocala that produce hunter/jumper horses and each year Ocala hosts the HITS (Horses in the Sun) series (January - March).

Our header photo is from one of the HITS shows.

WWII U.S. Navy plane - #706