Here’s the Retirement card for my friend Professor John Scolaro who retires from Valencia Community College at the end of the month after teaching for 25 years. It was a crowded room today in Building 11 of Valencia Community College during the Scolaro celebration. Students, faculty and faculty leaders gave John quite a send off. I even knew a few people there such as Andrew Ray, who teaches architecture and engineering at the college.

Later most of us headed to Número Uno restaurant and a dinner was held.

I was a bit setback from the dinner part. Learned earlier that another friend had had a brain anyerisum and happened to be at a hospital down from the restaurant. So, I quickly assembled a get well card and ran down to the hospital to deliver it. Upon arriving I learned that my friend had been moved to another hospital. Also happens I’ll be going by the other hospital Saturday.

This friend us Larry Moore who, with his wife at the time Christine, got me productively involved in politics back around 1987. I can never thank them enough for all they did.

Above Dr. Bob Knight, Lisa Saupp and Natalie Lyons save Swampy from the bite of the saber-tooth tiger!

Had a lot of fun tonight at a party celebrating Silver Springs becoming part of the Florida State Park system. The event was held at the Silver River Museum with famed photographer Clyde Butcher headlining the event. Clyde featured a slideshow and film of his recent photography work out west and in the past week around the Silver River.

Otherwise, for me, the room was filled with many, many friends. Most of my fellow members of the Marion County Historical Commission were there. As were Marion County Commissioner David Moore and his wife, designer and fellow Florida buff Rick Kilby, new vice-manager of Silver River State Park Nicky Aiken, the Ocala Star-Banner photographer who snapped pictures of me a couple days ago, a whole variety of folks from the Springs Alliance and the Springs Festival committees.

It was a great celebration with great food – Especially the grits bar! Looking forward to the “soft” opening of Silver River State Park this coming Tuesday.

Our USO National Cartoonist tour continued from Tampa to Jacksonville in a very fancy bus provided by the USO. Gave a chance for done members to get a bit if rest. We stopped in Ocala for dinner in a place arranged by me. In the photo is the cartoonist gang, our USO team leader and Morrey Deen, who was a big help coordinating the spot in Ocala.

Had a great, fun lunch today with long time friend Craig Zablo and his wife, Doralya, at Steve’s Famous Diner in Daytona Beach. We talked about Florida travel, education, Jack Davis, Jim Ivey, Sun Bank, etc., etc..

The food and company were excellent!
Thank you, Craig and Doralya!

The photo, above, is of Craig and I. Doralya had to beg off, something about witness protection or something like that. 😀

It was after this lunch and a caricature gig after that I realized how blasted out tired I was. I blew out the bulk of my energy prior to lunch taking a 1.2 mile hike in the heat in a park and literally running around the Downtown cities of Eustis and DeLand taking photos for Swampy’s Florida. Knew I was feeling a bit off during lunch and that was why! Ferget I’m adding the years on and that kind of activity is going to take a toll.

The photos taken should be showing up on the Swampy’s Florida website over the next months. I’ll be making a separate post about the caricature events in the next day or so.

My friend, Ann Archer, turns 90 and a big party is planned today. Here’s the birthday card I painted for this very patriotic woman. She has served in various political posts for decades in Dade and Marion Counties here in Florida. She still is active today despite mobility issues. She’s a great lady with a great sense of humor, something that seems to maintain a long life. Another friend, Lucile Fair, is 105 1/2 and loves to laugh and see the fun in life. We probably all need to smile more in life and Ann and Lucile are examples of that.

Got to meet up with old pal Jeff Parker this evening in Tallahassee during a brief stop there. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jeff in two years. Great catching up and we exchanged some goodies. Hope to see Jeff again before two years.

Every year at Christmas time I visit my dear friend Lucile Fair in Orlando. In one month she will be 105 years old. Despite her age she was remembering so many years ago when she, as a little girl, came home and heard her parents talking about women’s suffer age. She naturally asked at such a young age what are women suffering from?

Lucile has lived all but two months in Orlando and can speak of decades ago as if it were yesterday. She has certainly slowed down but her mind moves at an amazing pace.

Got together with fellow artists for an annual Christmas gathering. This time we got together at the Paradise Restaurant in Safety Harbor, Florida. The photo above shows Ron Johnson, Dan Smith, AE Sabo, Sioux Hart and me. We shared our activities and artwork. Great fellowship for all!

Was at our Orlando Remembered meeting on Wednesday. Here are sketches I made during the meeting. Below is a photo of some of the gang during our meeting. From right to left: Chariman Bill Milligan, Bob Buck, Betty Bandy, Hillis Bandy, Robert Serros, Claude Hunter, Claude H. Wolfe and Steve Rajtar.

Attended the Orlando Remembered meeting on the 18th. Above are sketches. Page 1 is of Bob Buck and Betty Bandy. The second page has Steve Rajtar, Leon Handley, Grace Chewning, Joy Wallace Dickinson and Hillis Bandy.

Below is a sneak peek at the meeting!

Our Chairman, Bill Milligan, and secretary, Grace Chewning, discuss Orlando Remembered business.