The only alligator we saw today.
RHD

The launching pad for the beatiful Wacissa river.
RHD

My daughter and "Mr. Bob" who sorta owns the Wacissa,
and was instrumental along with my dauughter in getting
me in and out of the kayak.
RHD

The start of a kayak ride with daughter on the Wacissa
RHD

Wish I could find a picture of the first bird feeder Deb put up about 3 months ago. No birds!
I kept saying they'd come. Well, they never came! Deb finally convinced me to try a "bird friendly" feeder. These pictures were taken yesterday after the new feeder was up about
a week. Obviously she was right!
If I get any unusual birds like the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, I'll post them.
RHD

One of the successes

I am finding it hard to illustrate how pervasive rce prejudice was when I was a
young man,nd we didn't even know it!
My mother was head of the volunteer blood bank in Detroit before and during the war.
It was a big job and she had a big staff that worked well. One day she and her crew
were setting up a bank in an automobile factory. She was almost ready, and she needed
something moved. She looked at the waiting employees, and said " boy, will you give me a hand" There was a great commotion, and most started to leave. The point is,
she didn't even realize she had used a racial putdown. This was the way about 90% of the country felt! When I got older, and understood the horrers of the holocaust, I began to recognize and hate racial intolerance. It's still here of course, but far less than 70 years ago, which is a heartbeat to me.
I am a lifelong Republican, and will vote for McCain. However I believe if O'bama is elected we'll have a fine, intelligent president, but one lacking experience if only because of is age.
I hope I'm getting thru to illuustrating the profound change in one lifetime, that has covered about 3 1/2 generations.
This long dissertation should have preceeded the one below
RHD

Race reflections

All the publicity about race because of O'Bama makes me realize how old I am. A whole
genaration that I was raised in has virtually disappeared. I became an adult when Pearl Harbor happened and I was a freshman at the University of Michigan. In this era, we had Father Coughlin for instance.Look him up on Google. He was finally stopped from his weekly broadcast by Pope Pius. His talks consisted of constant abuse
of Jews, and to a lesser extent, Blacks. He was listened to by a vast audience of adults, like my parents, on the radio. Several points need to be made. He was not vilified. His medium was radio.Think about that. There was almost no other medium for entertainment or information. Cell phones had not even been imagined except possibly beca;use of Dick Tracy's wrist radio! No television,The movies showed newsreels, and you read the newapaper, either the aft. edition or the morning editon.
I'm a slow typist, I'll add to this in a few days.
RHD

 

Klondike got a haircut,and looks like he lost ten pounds!

 
Klondike got a haircut!

Charles Krauthammer - Obama's Metastatic Gaffe - washingtonpost.com

Charles Krauthammer - Obama's Metastatic Gaffe - washingtonpost.com

 
This was my first sailboat, and below is my last sailboat. { I also had a small catboat for about a year after I thought
I was through sailng}
RHD

 


See below

RHD

A lifetime fo reflections: booze
REFLECTIONS

I was born in 1923, the Volstead act was passed,making the consumption of alcaholic beverages illegal, in 1919. When I was very young, my father bought a small power cruiser, {power boat}. He bought it as did many others, to bring back beer from the Riverside Brewery, which was in Canada just across the river from Detroit. This really shaped a big part of my life. My Dad never became a skilled boat handler, but I did. I accompanied my parents to Georgian Bay, in Canada, several times in my teens, and I was really the boat captain. My Dad joined the Detroit Yacht Club, then the world's biggest yacht club,in 1933. I took sailing lessons there, and it led to a lifelong love of sailng, and racing sailboats. Marge took to it too, and we cruised all over the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay in the first years of our marriage. Then when we moved to florida in 1969, we moved aboard our 41 foot Bounty sail boat, and proceeded to race offshore and in the Bahamas. Even when we got older, the water still dominated our lives as I tought bridge and ran duplicate games aboard cruise ships. Well I got that off my chest, if anybody reads this, I hope they enjoy it
RHD

YesterdaY, May 4, our grandson, Nathan Dollar, graduated from Flagler College
with BA in business! What a day! Long time coming! Deb, Marge, and I are as proudas Peacocks. Below are some of he pictures.
Proud Grandfather, RHD

 
Bill Martin, Deb, Marge,Bill Dollar

 
Bill Dollar, Nathan, Bill Martin, and Me

 
Bill Dollar, Bill Martin, Nathan, Marge, and JMe

 
Bill Dollar, Nathan, Me,Marge

 
Nathan, Marge, Me, Bill Dollar, Bill Martin

 

Here's a picture of Marge and me, Nathan, and his father, Bill Dollar.
Bill is here for Nathan's graduation from college, see above.
RHD

 

a few political thoughts
Last night I listened to O'Reilly interview Hillary Clinton. I have voted a straight Republican ticket since Tom Dewey. I will vote for John McCain this fall. However,
I thought the interview was very good. It made me less afraid of having Hillary for president. She's obviously very bright,ans well prepared. Doesn't come throgh as far to the left as I expected. I was convinced that Obama would win the nomination, and then the presidency. Because of Wrigth, of course, I no longer think he will win the presidency even if he wins the nomination.
Yesterday, we went down to the capital, and listened to a lot of the debate in the Senate on the bill to force women to have an ultrasound in the first trimester. To me, this seems altogether wrong. Government should stay out of the pro-life debate, and make no mistake, this bill is anti-abortion. I am neither pro life, or pro abortion. But I do believe the government should stay out of it!
Oh well, at 84, I don't have to worry about the long range consequences!
RHD

I've been bragging about my dog's ability to walk on two legs. Until yesterday, I seemed to be the only one to see it! Finally, he did it so Deb could see it and take a picture. Here it is!
RHD

 

 
Tuesday arrived, and we found we had nothing planned.
So we decided to drive to Panacea for a great lunch
at Angelo's. What do you know, it's closed on Tuesday!
So we turned around, and lo and behold, we found this one.
Turned out to be a great day!
RHD

 
We met two nice gals, and one offered to take our
picture. Lunch was great!
RHD

 
Here's a shot of our car, with our dog guarding
it while we ate. Temp. was mild, so we could safely leave Klondike
on guard!
RHD

 

Any question about who rules the house here?
RHD

 
Here is a picture of our state senate. The seats are virtually full, and though the comments are few at least they are listened to. Quite different frm the house.I feel better from seeing them in session, as opposed to the house, pictures below.

 
at the risk of being redundent,here is the house in the midst of discussion
about a state bill on abortion. It is quite controversial, and will probably
take a lot of this kind of talk to get it either passed, or defeated. But the
point is, look at the floor, the seats are virtually empty! That's how our
lawmakers get the knowledge they need to make laws controlling our lives!
RHD