For our Feb. 8-23 stay on Siesta Key, off Sarasota, Florida, Paula and I had our usual reunion with former Beacon Journal folks.
Cecily and Terry Dray came from their Avon Park, Florida, home to our rental on Siesta Key. Terry gave up a day of golfing for the reunion. Terry has trimmed his golfing
from nine to seven times a week. He eliminated a second 18 holes on Saturday and Sunday. Terry, of course, was the superb makeup man in Composing Room for those who can remember back that far in newspaper history.Don Bandy, the rewrite man in the newsroom who made cub reporters look good (and some older ones, too), came from his Bradenton, Florida home. Don has been spending time in Naples with his brother and sister-in-law, who were hospitalized. Don lives in the same condo complex as his sister.
Dave and Gina White, also composing room expatriates, didn't make it this time. But Paula and I had a great time at their Venice, Florida, home in September, when we flew down for the University of South Florida football game in Tampa against the West Virginia Mountaineers.
We spent time recalling our BJ days and catching up on former BJ folks who have died in recent years. And doing a lot of laughing, since the BJ was a fun place to work in "the good ol' days."
After luxuriating in temperatures as high as 80 degrees on Siesta Key's beach, Paula and I returned to Ohio to find that we couldn't get the doors to my van opened, or the hatch, too, because vehicles don't do well sitting for 15 days in an airport parking lot when the temperature can't get above freezing. And then the battery died after we drove to our Columbus motel, requiring a 3 a.m. jump start by hotel personnel.
It was enough to make us want to hop another flight to Florida until the Ohio weather becomes tolerable.
This was our 20th trip together, from China to Turkey to Mexico to the Caribbean, in our 40 months together. But traveling will be put on hold till I recover from my Tuesday, Feb. 26, surgery for an artificial right knee.
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