I was to attend an annual USCG ceremony at the Blackthorn Memorial in St. Pete, but the route I normally take to the memorial is closed today for the funeral of two slain police officers. They were gunned down earlier this week by a man they were trying to arrest. Thousands are expected to attend the funeral, and nearly every major police department in Florida is sending representatives. Since I refuse to drive over the two major bridges along the route still open (one is the Skyway Bridge- a suspension bridge that sways so much that it is closed down during most big thunderstorms), I will not attend this year.

I am not too sorry. Later today I have another appointment at the VA. I think I mentioned that they found some nodes on my thyroid glands and this appointment is one of several to find out what these nodes are. Driving from Brandon to south St. Pete to north Tampa and back to Brandon would have had me on the roads up to four hours today.

We got hit by some pretty severe storms earlier this week. Winds in some places were clocked as high as 90 mph while 75 mph was the highest official speed. Needless to say, they did some damage. Once again my house was spared, as were most of the homes in my development. This storm was laced with tornados. We get those in the summer months too, but I think mostly in the winter. Summer has the hurricanes to contend with.

My, my--- aren't I a basket of good cheer today?