How to fill time in retirement

I use to watch a show on PBS called Connections . It was hosted by James Burke and showed the interconnections between a past historical event to a modern invention or technology. I just am fascinated by the logic of a gives us b and b gives us c and c led to d . Simplicity in a complex world. I see it all the time within my own life, and now that I started to read a variety of books, I see it in how stories are developed or instigated. A similar concept to Connections is the Bacon number, based on the actor Kevin Bacon and his connection to other actors. For example: Kevin Bacon was in Lonely Hearts with Laura Dern who was in Novocaine with John Travolta , thus the Bacon number for Travolta is 2 There is a fun website called "The Oracle of Bacon" which allows you to put in any two actors and find the connection. For fun, I tried Buster Keaton and Danny DeVito. Silent film star to short guy on Taxi. Amazingly, they have a number of 2: Buster Keaton was in San Diego ...

Sometimes it is the small adventures which make retirement easier. My ultimate goal was to visit the Merritt Island National WildLife Refuge and purchase the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass to the National Parks for Seniors. I filled up with gas in Melbourne, for what would turn into a 105 mile trip. As I was approaching Titusville, located in the north end of Brevard County, I noticed it was clouding up. The skies in Melbourne were blue and cloudless with a temperature of 71 degrees. A perfect day for an adventure. I took this photo from my hike, showing the clouds... It was obvious that there were some small brush fires causing the smoke which were turning into clouds. I am sure some of my meteorologists friends could explain, but my goal was to get the pass. I got to the Visitor Center on located on 402. I was seeing a lot of red lights along the highway which were firemen, expected because of the brush fires. The center was open and I went up to the count...

Growing up as a kid, Veteran's Day became one of the five Monday Holidays that took effect in 1971. In 1978, Veteran's Day was returned to November 11, which this year happen to fall on a Monday. So this past weekend was like a traditional three day Monday Holiday weekend. Here is what I did... I accidently stumbled onto a festival on Friday, not knowing it was going on. This was the three-day Native Rhythms Festival being held at Wickham Park near the orchestra bowl. I went home to get my camera but both of my batteries were uncharged. So I started  Veterans Day weekend with a Saturday visit to the Festival. It had rained heavily Friday night and the area where the vendors and food trucks were set up was under water. The stage, a natural amphitheater was well drained and that is where the different performers of Native Rhythms would play. One act I watched was Randy Granger, playing the HandPan in this photo... The festival was good and there were lots of venders, ...