the gRumpcAst

Late Sunday night:

I love fire. For 25 years, I was a fire fighter until I retired as an Assistant Chief.

I have a fire ring in my yard, heat my house with wood, and consider myself one of the firedogs  at community bonfires.

I really like making fire.

Summer in Florida is all about heat, humidity, biting insects and did I mention humidity. It’s really no time to make fire. Fall is the prefect time. Some Floridians prefer the springtime with it’s show-off blooming goodness. I understand and appreciate spring, but autumn is incredibly wonderful.

Pay attention you folks who are thinking that Florida is paradise and how there are all those foreclosed houses and all…this place is not for sissies. The humidity is exhausting in August. We have bugs the size of small dogs and don’t get me started on the snakes and alligators.

None the less, I (heart) the silly place and fall is my favorite time to be here.

My fire tonight wasn’t the first of the community this fall, but it was my first one. I paired the fire with a tasting of three sour mash bourbons. While sour mash has a rich history in the South as good moonshine, all mine were tax paid and legal. We did an Eagle Rare, a Maker’s Mark and an Evan Williams single barrel 1997. The Eagle Rare was sweetish with a aftertaste similar to Scotch. The Maker’s Mark was smooth and wonderful. The Evan Williams was amazing.

Bourbon is, for certain southerners, a holy sacred elixir. It was the ‘crack’ of an earlier generation.

The best thing about the beginning of fire season is that oyster season is just around the corner.

Sunday morning update:

No hangover despite sour mash tasting. I consider this a sort of positive health checkup.

Bond Community Health Care Center in Tallahassee

Over the past few months, the financial system in the US has suffered a bit of a meltdown.  The politicans are all pointing fingers at each other, while riding to the rescue of ailing insurance companies, banks and brokerage houses to pay for their errors and, in some casese, criminal misconduct, with taxpayer dollars.

If you ask those same politicians about a national health care system, they are quick to call it “socialism” and “welfare” and say it’s not the American Way.  Apparently, with the current financial problems, those same politicans are not quite so opposed to socialism.

The case for universal health care in the United States.

Americans pay 40% more per capita on health care than any country in the world that has universal health care.  We’re far from the healthiest nation with a higher infant mortality rate and a lower expected life span than many other countires.

To me, this is the “sentinal” issue that I use in deciding who I vote for.  As you might guess, Barack Obama is going to get my vote.

The image in this posting is from the web site of the Bond Community Health Center, a group of local heros in Tallahassee, Florida who operate under a very limited budget and who provide health care to a limited number of local citizens.