Adventures in Ancestry: My Sicilian Rabbit Hole

/ Kevin / 5 Comments

Picture it: Sicily. 1887. In the small village of Bisacquino (pictured above, courtesy of the Southern Italy Genealogical Center), a son is born to Salvatore and Maria. They name him Giuseppe and this is the start of my great-grandfather’s story, as well as my own, as I research his life and his connection to me.

That connection, by the way, seems to have stretched through time. After we returned from Sicily in April and I started playing with ChatGPT (other than some of the photos in this piece, this post is all me), I asked the program to draw me as a Sicilian peasant.

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Fireside Chat with Franklin: Lifestyles of the Rich & Infamous

/ Kevin / 2 Comments

Not a day goes by – unless we’re given a narrative-changing distraction – that we don’t hear something about Jeffrey Epstein and his connection to Trump. While I don’t want to get into any sort of courtroom scenario to prove the guilt or innocence of any of those involved… and nor do I want to get lost in the weeds about what a President can and cannot legally release… a familiar theme seems to be woven throughout the controversy:

Money talks. Money rules the world. The rich always come out ahead. What can you do? That’s the way it’s always been.

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Adventures In Ancestry: Growing Up Loud

/ Kevin / 11 Comments

When I was very young, I never gave my surname, Loud, a second thought. That’s probably because I had never met or heard of any other Louds, other than the Louds in my small immediate family and in my small extended family. It was a small Loud world, after all.

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Fireside Chat with ChatGPT: Pride & Prejudice & A Poem

/ Kevin / 4 Comments

I’d like to thank everyone for their encouraging comments and support, here and on my personal FB page, about expanding what I post. Many of you stressed the importance of being true to myself, the need for community during these troubling days, and an appreciation that my words could very well have been their own.

That last item truly means a lot to me, because it’s a reminder that we are not in this alone. So, we will be strong and carry on… and let this post be the first stepping stone on a new garden path.

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Where, Oh Where, Have I Been?

/ Kevin / 24 Comments

June 2, 2024.

That’s the last day I posted anything on this blog. I know this, because I only recently signed into it and saw the comments that have been sitting there for more than a year. I was mortified, to say the least, since I have responded to nearly each and every comment since I started this blog 14 years ago.

So, where have I been and what have I been doing? For starters, I’ve been here, in South Florida, where I’ve been pondering two issues for way too long – and I guess now is a good time to lay it all out, and add some photos from the past year, too.

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Field Trip: International Rose Test Garden

/ Kevin / 5 Comments

It’s taken five years to write this post.

Five years since Joe and I first started planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest — and learning that the International Rose Test Garden is a short light rail ride away from downtown Portland, OR. Five years since we purchased our plane tickets for a May 2020 trip – and four years since the world canceled it because of COVID.

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Field Trip: Ravine Gardens State Park

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It’s a millennia-old story… flowing water meets soil, flowing water erodes soil, flowing water cuts through the strata of time, and modern day visitors stare in awe and wonder.

Naturally, many would think this post is about Arizona’s Grand Canyon, but it’s not. It is, though, about Florida’s very own Grand Canyon, which is actually a grand ravine. Located in the small town of Palatka, which sits between Gainesville and St. Augustine, is Ravine Gardens State Park. Joe and I recently visited this park on a road trip to north Florida.

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Field Trip, Part 2: Ocoee, FL

/ Kevin / 4 Comments

Leaving Weeki Wachee, Joe and I drove on a four-lane divided highway that cuts through or comes very close to some of Central Florida’s smaller towns. Our goal was to reach an entrance to Florida’s Turnpike, near Orlando, so we could head southeast and then eventually get onto I-95 southbound.

As we reached the far western fringe of the Orlando area, we saw a sign for Ocoee. I had become obsessed with the town ever since seeing a video a few months earlier (more on that as the story unfolds). We decided to make a detour – which is something I’m going to do right now. Although this blog is devoted to gardening and flower photos, this post is a detour to 1920…

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Field Trip: Weeki Wachee Springs

/ Kevin / 12 Comments

Driving from the southeast corner of Florida northward, there comes a point in the north-central portion of the peninsula where hills appear. For most people, hills probably aren’t that big of a deal – but for a couple of south Floridians, they are.

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Reflections on 2023

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

I’ve spent the last few days thinking back on the year that was, which is, I think, a normal thing to do – but the more I think about what was, the more I remember what wasn’t. Just look at the date of the previous post – April 28, 2023!

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