Dancing in the Sky

"Got Brains!?!"

 "The Road Less Taken"  by Robert Frost

 "........I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I -- I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference."

 "Bathroom Break? Who's got time for that? I got candy to crush, crops to harvest and crimes to solve!"

 "Redneck Chandelier"

 "OK Ma! Turn it on, it's grounded!"

"You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round."

 "Come on baby light my ---WHOOOSH"   Done

or

"Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!"

 (this one from Mimi)

 "Odor Control"

"We are flying, 

we, we are flying!

"We are CRASHING!

we, we are CRASHING!"

 

"Now listen, I am only going to explain it to you  one more time!"

 The motion of negatively charged electrons around an electric circuit, one of the most familiar forms of current, is thus deemed positive in the opposite direction to that of the electrons. However, depending on the conditions, an electric current can consist of a flow of charged particles in either direction, or even in both directions at once. The positive-to-negative convention is widely used to simplify this situation. A voltage applied to a human body causes an electric current through the tissues, and although the relationship is non-linear, the greater the voltage, the greater the current.With electricity ceasing to be a novelty and becoming a necessity of everyday life in the later half of the 20th century, it required particular attention by popular culture only when it stops flowing, an event that usually signals disaster.

 "He's touching me!"

"Well she touched me first!"

"Did not!"

"Did to, to, to!"

"Alright back there, pipe down or I'll pull this thing over!"

"What!?  OH You meant a ride in the car!  My Bad!"

"CAUTION! Brilliant Minds at Work"

"OH NO"  I feel another song coming on........"

In the words of John Mellencamp---

"Hurts so good,

Come on baby, make it hurt so good!

Sometimes Love don't feel like it should,

You make it hurt so good!"

A Grand Old Lady

"Once upon a time....."  That is how it feels to see some of the hidden gems in our world today.  Once beautiful grand mansions now slowly disintegrating into dust, begging for someone to come along and save them.

View of the front gates and garden

There is one such mansion in Florida. The Howey Mansion in Howey-In-The-Hills. The 60,000 acres of property was purchased in 1916 by William J Howey. The town later named after him. In 1924, he and his wife, Mary Hastings Howey, completed the plans for their new home. The mansion was finished, furnished and moved into by the end of 1925.  The following is an excerpt of the grandness of the mansion from the Howey-in-the-Hills website:

In all her Glory

View from front of the house in 1925

Designed in Mediterranean Revival style, the house is set back on a wide lawn approached through wrought iron gates and a lengthy horseshoe-shaped drive.  The time-mellowed rose stucco walls are almost completely covered with glossy leafed creeping figine.  The roof is red Spanish tile.  The entrance features an elaborate bas-relief frontispiece which extends two full stories and incorporates two openings – an arched double doorway topped by a square casement window.  The arched doorway has screened double doors surmounted by a fanlight of screen and ornamental grille work.

A second doorway, opening directly into the foyer, has a magnificent semicircular fanlight inset with a peacock plumage design of multi-colored stained glass with panels of diamond-patterned stained glass outlining the sides of the door.  Much of the woodwork on the first floor is pecky cypress, including the massive front door.

The foyer with curved walls rising to the second story is dominated by a wide graceful curving stone stairway with a wrought iron banister.  The wall surface of the foyer and lower hall is of Florentine beige marble squares so expertly joined that on first inspection they appear to be of one mass.  The Austrian artisan, who compounded and poured the wall surface mixture right in the foyer, did so to complete secrecy, banning all other workmen from the house and locking doors.  

Three immense fireplaces, a ballroom-size drawing room, massive beamed ceilings and the servant call-bell phone system are not surprising architectural styles and convenience refinements to see in a house of this size.  The unexpected is what delights the eye and creates visual images.  For instance, a cozy breakfast room is built in the tower on the backside of the mansion, entered midway up the main staircase and serviced by an enclosed stairway and dumb waiter from the butler’s pantry on the first floor.

The library, situated directly below the breakfast room, is also of small dimension.  The wall space is divided between built-in shelves and arched windows which face a grass carpeted courtyard with a fountain-fed lily pool.  The de rigueur hidden passageway, so popular in large older homes emanates from behind a sliding bookshelf panel in the library.  The doorway that the concealed latch opens is located outside the library, lending even more intrigue to the basement room that may have served as a liquor cache during Prohibition times.  Whatever it contained must have been considered valuable, as the door is a fireproof, tumbler locked bank vault type.  That it was a strong house as well as a beautiful one there is no doubt.  Some of the inner walls measure over a foot thick and both wood and stone floors are tight and smooth; even today, the heavy doors swing silently and close snugly.

Much of the furnishings were purchased from Marshall Fields in Chicago at the time of the home’s completion.  Interior designer Earl Coleman, who was a decorator for the Ringling mansion in Sarasota, assisted selection furniture and lighting fixtures for the Howey house.  An example of Coleman’s eye for décor are small wall sconces, each set unique to its particular room, being used throughout the five bedrooms in lieu of ceiling lights.

 Peacock design stained glass window still intact above the door

William J Howey died in 1938, a daughter Lois in 1941 and wife Mary in 1981. They are buried in a tomb on the property and a surviving daughter, Mrs. George E Smith Jr. lives in Eustis.

 Wide marble staircase.

So this is where the story takes a sad turn.  The house was purchased in 1984 by Marvel Zona and things went well until 2008 when Zona defaulted on a loan on her summer house in Bonnesville NC. Then the lawsuits took over. Trying to get the mansion in payment for the default. Things got twisted and nasty. Zona is now 92 and living in a nursing home in Leesburg. The mansion stands empty. The interior was built so well that it hardly shows the passage of time. The exterior is subject to the weather.  A lot of people would love to buy the mansion but at $500,00 and an estimated $1.25 million to update and add air conditioning no one has come forward to take it on.  

 As she looks now

So she stands silent, a Grand Old Lady just watching the passage of time, wishing for what was and knowing what could be.  

(There is a video on youtube. Adamthewoo takes you inside)  

http://youtu.be/IWduuGXqfio

......and they don't live happily ever after.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

I am lucky to have the best Daddy in the world. Today he is 73 years old and is still as young as he wants to be. This has been a very tough year for him without momma but he hasn't let it get him down. So I just want to wish him a very Happy Birthday! I Love You Daddy! 

When It Rains It Pours!

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RUSKIN HAS EXTENDED THE
* URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY FOR... CENTRAL LEVY COUNTY IN FLORIDA. NORTHWESTERN CITRUS COUNTY IN FLORIDA.
* UNTIL 930 PM EDT

* AT 805 PM EDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED RAINFALL RATES OF THREE INCHES PER HOUR ASSOCIATED WITH THUNDERSTORMS OVER OTTER CREEK AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS... LOCALIZED FLOODING IS IMMINENT OR OCCURRING.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
KEEP CHILDREN FROM BEING SWEPT AWAY IN FLOODED DITCHES AND DRAINS. FLOOD WATERS ARE USUALLY DEEPER THAN THEY APPEAR AND MAY STALL YOUR VEHICLE. JUST ONE FOOT OF FLOWING WATER IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SWEEP VEHICLES OFF THE ROAD. TURN AROUND... DON'T DROWN

This happened within a 3-4 hour span. Went from dry to overfill. Usually we only get this full during a hurricane or tropical storm.  Amazing.