This afternoon I sit wearing a T-shirt and watch and feel a warm breeze sweep through the open windows of our camper.  What a change even from this morning when we left in the dark dressed in long underwear and heavy jackets.  Dawn found us sitting in a creaky metal blind on the Cimarron National Grasslands.  The first sound, not our own, was of a Western Meadowlark prematurely greeting the day. 

Noon finds us in the Newton library.  We were up before dawn to find a foggy drippy morning.  We went to Prairie Ridge State Preserve anyway to find it equally gloomy.  Still, when we approached the Greater Prairie Chicken viewing area we heard the eerie calls coming from the booming ground.  We stayed until 9 a.m. when the birds became silent.  Only later did the warm sunshine clear the air and sky.

This late afternoon we have settled in at Sam Parr State Park in southern Illinois after a successful two days of travel in our Winnebago Minnie motorhome, or “Harley” as we call this vehicle.

I completed my taxes this morning.  Or, at least I did for now.  Quarterly filing means I have to spend a few more frustrating hours on the activity this year.  I had hoped that the time would be less than twenty hours, but guessed thirty.  That is about how many it took.  The final frustration was that, for whatever reason, my Acrobat Reader seems not to be able to download the quarterly estimated filing forms.  I'll have to stop at the library to pick them up.  All this effort and we owe the IRS $757 for last year.  Most of this was for wage tax.&nb

A neighbor accused us of being "short-timers" this morning.  "Less than four days left, and you are short-timers," he said.  

Winter has wonderfully returned to South Florida.  Only 55 degrees now and going up to 60 today.  Worse, it just showered.  Still, no sign of the white stuff that seems so much in abundance in the Northeast right now. 

It is a sensational Sunday in southwest Florida, 75 degrees, sunny, and with a slight breeze.  Anne drove Mom & Dad to the Estero Island Beach Club after church and breakfast this morning.  I (Chuck) remain at the condo to catch up and bake bread.  I'll go down at suppertime and support the retreat back tonight.

For the naturalists among us.

The Heritage Cove contingent has returned "home" for the evening.  Mat & Jen arrived by air last evening.  Anne picked them up at the airport and brought them here.  I (Chuck) stayed at the Estero Island Beach Club with Mom & Dad and the Gallups and Pam who had arrived by automobile in the late afternoon.  Their journey was made eventful by snow which followed them almost to the Florida border.  They stopped overnight at Mt.

Well, since my last writing on the subject, the health care (insurance) reform effort has gone full circle again.  The Democrats with a “super-majority” were unable to craft a plan that even this group of interventionist politicians could stomach.  Now that the party has only a majority, it has deigned to at least offer to discuss the matter with the minority party.  I anticipate that the talks will go nowhere because the Democrats want only to consider offering crumbs to the Republicans in the hope that they will take these