Tuesday, May 5, is my birthday, and while that doesn’t have anything directly to do with this story, I mention it as a way of telling you that the month leading up to the 65th celebration of my birth has been enormously satisfying — and possibly even life-changing. More about that later. Right now, let’s talk about the satisfying parts. In the past month, I:
Visited an elderly aunt and took her out to lunch on her birthday
Visited a bed-riddden cousin in a nursing home
Spent three days at Easter with all six grandchildren and took them to church Easter Sunday
Spent a few days with my sister and favorite uncle in the Tampa area
Attended my eldest son Robert’s acting performance in the play Holy Ghost
Took two of my grandsons to play golf
Played golf with a Rotary friend
Attended a most satisfying elementary school musical with my wife and three of our six grandchildren
Finished it off by listening to another son, Joe, sing at a charity concert a song he wrote honoring my father and I.
Of course, most of these activities, except the golf, were shared with my companion and love of my life, my wife, Barbara. So truly, I have been blessed with an exceptional month. Read the rest of this entry »
Ronnie Winter of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus performs in Alabama in December.
I see where the red-hot band The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is planning a benefit concert to help raise money for band uniforms for Middleburg High School, which many of the group’s members attended.
This is an exciting idea on several levels. It benefits the school, it gives exposure to a worthy cause and it could be the catalyst for other home-grown celebrities to come to the aid of the cash-strapped education system in Clay County.
Consider the possibilities.
1. Country music legend Tim McGraw’s family was living in Middleburg when he was born. Do you think he could sell out the Clay County fairgrounds arena Read the rest of this entry »
I am talking, of course, about Jacksonville’s debut on “American Idol.” Not what I was hoping for. I have heard a few local singers and I know there are some out there who can do better than what we saw Tuesday night.
The best part of the night was at the end with Ann Marie Boskovich’s amazing voice, and she isn’t even from Jacksonville. I didn’t catch where she is from but I think somewhere in Tennessee.
Proposals to trim the Clay County, Fla., school budget for fiscal year 2009-2010 could cause wholesale disruption of both the educational and extracurricular programs in the district, including athletics.
Superintendent Ben Wortham presented School Board members and a room full of concerned educators a list of proposed cuts that would reduce expenses by more than $27 million in the coming school year.
Included in those proposals:
a saving of $11 million by eliminating up to 256 allocations district wide
posted
May 3, 2009 by Lamar Thames
