Negril sunset

evening over Negril, Jamaica

a view to the outside from our room, Negril Gardens, Negril, Jamaica

Jamaican palm I and I mon

Meg at Rolert Woolery's with an intrigued giraffe silhouette staring at the sunset

megan in jamaica mon

Jamaica is where pineapple tastes like you think it should

meg hiding

Blake in the afternoon sun

meg sipping on an umbrella-adorned frozen drink at Kuyaba, one of the high-caliber restaurants in Negril, on the 7 mile beach

after a crazy cab ride on windy blind curves down to the southwesternmost point of Negril, we came upon an unkempt plot where the Negril lighthouse stood, a short walk down from Rick's cafe and across the road from Clare who sold us a nice piece of jewelry

the colors of Negril Gardens

a mango rind and a teacup at night in jamaica

blake and meg

blake and meg

Rolert Woolery the great wood carver on the Negril Beach

sunset at Rick's

the musical vibes at Rick's

a diver at Rick's on top of a tall tree that looked like driftwood; his income might have been less if the tree had leaves on it

a cliff diver who sold this picture to me for a dollar

the view looking west toward the yucatan peninsula

the perfect view outside our room encompassing the restaurant, bar, and beach

meg relaxing on the beach

the source of the loudest bird calling I have ever heard

Impromptu one-on-one football game on the beach

From the well traveled path on the surfs edge, Eric had been asking me to look at his 'tings' all week. (Almost everyone in Jamaica has either 'tings' or services to sell) So on the last day we were there, as promised before I looked at his tings, and after a gracious invitation and acceptance of a tour of his family's concrete and wood compound painted on the beach side with an amateurish but lifelike aquatic scene 10 feet from the surf, we sat on the roof of his family's house enjoying a Red Stripe, we got the great history-- this implausible 2-story compound--about a quarter mile north of our hotel on whose land his family used to own--is what is left of his family's once-large plot of land propped in the middle of one mile of Negril's 7-mile beach. Only after taking a tour of the compound did we learn that quite a few Jamaicans make their beds every morning and most also yearn to learn or at least do better every day, also evidenced by an obviously bootlegged copy of Hooked on Phonics in Eric's room which he did not point out but we happened to notice. The whole place was clean despite the thin layer of sand on the floors and the various Jamaican/Indian/Christian talismans and seemingly historical symbols of meaning nailed here and there on the clapboard and homespun concrete walls.

After sharing with us the family story and answering all of our questions on the roof while we overlooked the surf lapping against the white sand, Eric asked me if I would buy him a beer. Which I did of course, and that is what he is holding above.

a Jamaican shower cools momentarily

a view from the beach chair

in all of Charlie's ancestry there has been no experience of sub-65 degree weather. And the bars protect from the tropical storms.

nice contrast in flora on 7 mile beach, Negril, Jamaica

Me & Meg in Ft Lauderdale

Megan after hooking the big one

Spring training with the O's

and the best 1st baseman in the world

baseball classic

Me on the edge of the state of shark bait

My hammerhead shark (no its not actually mine)

caught off Ft Lauderdale

Our first fish about a mile off the coast

of Ft Lauderdale, Florida, March 18, 2006

F

Blake's blue mackerel

Penguins on the, uh, march.

Golden Arches haiku:
Years of salt and grease

has pleased Ron's palate despite

chagrin of his health

The newly polished Kidney Bean in Chicago

Reflections of a Gum Magnate

A face in Millenium Park

Old Bill Shakespeare in Lincoln Park, Chicago

Let us dance the year away.

(Keep scrolling down, it gets better--I hope.)

The Bells (es) of the Ball

The Queen and King of the Ball.

A patch of moss on an old carved block of brownstone,

Etters, PA, September 2005

sleepy view at 7:30 am in Vegas from a Mirage room

Who says the Honolulu sunset is better

than the Indianapolis sunset? Not I.

You Pomegranate: whose ellagitannins are good for the heart, who is said to be found in the Garden of Eden, and who is one of the three Sacred Fruits defined by those before and after the great Siddhartha, may your punicalagins always be for thine own's sake as well as for all us in humanity and humility!