Hello Ocala! Holla!

Have you ever wondered what exactly there is in Ocala, FL? Prior to my arrival today, I can honestly say I had not. Frankly (and you know I love to be Frank..he's a character I created a few years ago, he used to be the town utility manager until he retired due to a rampant case of goiter - he's a portly fellow who walks bowlegged and wears a one of those workshirts that says Frank and for whom the thrill of his life was his brief, but intense affair with Mrs. C who lived across the street until her secret-to-no-one-in-town cleptomania suddenly became not-so-secret and Frank didn't want to lose his job - true story in the town I grew up in - his son Eric is now a town employee too and his stripper wife ran off with another man or so I found out at my high school reunion in June, but I digress), I had really no idea where Ocala was until I looked on a map yesterday. I flew into Tampa and I knew where that is, who doesn't. But now I am sitting in a hotel in Ocala post-work-meeting and wondering what exactly one might do if one lived in this town/city/how big is it? It is hot and the spanish moss is hanging from all the trees and it might be pretty if I were not near the interstate but really, who am I to judge a town/city's worth from a hotel off the interstate? I'm sure the people who live here are happy or sad or productive or not just trying to get along down here just like everyone else so why the heck am I hassling them, what have Ocalans ever done to me, I ask you? So holla from Ocala, stop by on your way from Tampa to Gainsville, there is a fruit stand that sells a bag of oranges for $1 and frankly (harumph), that is a bargain and I don't care who you are. Plus also, my most beloved aunt Ruby lives a mere 40 minutes south of here and with whom I stayed this weekend and played some cards and ate some red beans and rice and who, if I caught her out of the corner of my eye, looked exactly like my mom if she would have lived to 85. I have her hands too, age spots run in the family but that's ok, it's a link to the past here in the middle of Florida. I am off to have dinner and another meeting tomorrow, good times in the Sunshine state, peeps, good times.

ps. Hey you up north...you take care of yourself and stay off that knee..