Now for some stories about Citrus County...

(Bessie wrote me and asked if my county of residence is actually called Cirtus County. Yes, it is.)

Interesting story number one: I live a few blocks away from the house where Ted Williams spent his last days. The court battle over his remains is happening here, which means we still get daily updates in the paper (not much has happened). My polling precinct (I registered to vote in Florida) is the Ted Williams Museum and Hitter's Hall of Fame. I'm planning to take a walk around the museum for free after voting on Sept. 10. It's unconstitutional to charge a poll tax, right? The funny thing about Ted Williams living here is that the locals have a very different perspective on the matter. It seems, for one, that he wasn't particularly well-liked by his neighbors. The development where I live, Citrus Hills, paid Williams to come live here and be a sponsor, so it wasn't like he was a normal resident. I asked one of my co-workers what everyone thought about the Ted Williams controversy, and she started talking about some post office. When I expressed confusion, she said she thought I was refering to the controversy around renaming a post office after Ted Williams (I guess a lot of people objected so the idea got put on hold). When I said no, I'm actually interested in the controversy that people elsewhere in the country are interested in, she just said, "Oh, the freezing thing? That's sick."

This weekend I got to participate in a charity bowling tournament on a team that my Congresswoman had sponsored. I had never seen a bowling tournament before so I didn't know what to expect. Before the thing started, the announcer came up to our team and told us that a lot of people wanted to meet the congresswoman so we would be introduced to the crowd. We were shepherded into the bar where we waited to be announced. The only other people in there with us were...the five pro bowlers who had come out to participate in the tournament as an outreach thing! We sort of looked at each other, both groups wondering why we had been thrown together, but we started talking and the bowlers were actually very nice. Then we all got announced and we went out and bowled. Our team avoided getting the trophy for worst score and no one got hurt, so it was a successful day.

Tonight, for all you country fans out there, we're having a fundraising concert with the Bellamy Brothers (no, I didn't know who they were either). I hope you bring your dancing boots! I've been put in charge of parking, so I might have some fun with traffic patterns.

I'm also trying to purchase cassettes for my car, which has a tape deck. So far I haven't seen any music stores and Wal-Mart has a great selection if you want George Jones or Lynyrd Skynard (sp??) greatest hits.

Coming soon: the wacky foibles of our school board candidates...