Bob Lewis having shoulder surgery -- again

Paula and I are looking for a Florida beachfront rental for February 2008, so I emailed a few retired Beacon Journal printers and asked if any of them had retired printer Bob Lewis' phone number or email address. Cal Deshong came up with the phone number (330-336-3340) in Wadsworth where Bob and his wife live.

So I called Bob in Wadsworth but left a message when no one answered.

Later, Paula and I were driving to Hudson High School for a German brass band concert (lots of polkas and oom-pa-pas) when Bob called back on my cellphone. Only Bob wasn't in Wadsworth, he was in California. Bob's wife told him that a guy named John wanted to talk to him about a Florida vacation.

"I knew it was you," Bob said.

"Where are you?," said I. "In California," Bob answered.

Bob is in California getting his rotator cuff repaired, his second shoulder operation. Bob said that he overdid the physical therapy after the first shoulder operation, so he returned to his favorite doctor to fix the latest problem.

I wanted to talk to him about renting his 2-bedroom home on Siesta Key, off Sarasota, which he still owns at 7007 Point of Rocks Road, maybe a block from the late BJ printer Bill Gorrell's rental complex. Several years ago, I ran into Bob and Mike Jewell walking on the beach at Siesta Key. Bob's place wasn't rented for about 10 days in February that year so they both went down to stay in it. We were staying in Sea Castle, whose parking lot is across the street from Gorrell's former rentals.

My late wife Monia and I had dinner with Bob and Mike the next evening.

Alas, Sea Castle has been razed to make way for a 6-story condominium. Gorrell's place also is or will be leveled for the same reason. And the two complexes behind Gorrell's former place, which Bill managed for the doctors who owned them.

Good luck on your second shoulder surgery, Bob!