I am currently sitting in Florida watching news of yet another shooting in a Chicago neighborhood. The streets of Chicago have turned more violent than the streets of Baghdad.  The shiites and Sunnis are replaced by other gangs even more vicious in their drug and turf warfare.  Every time one of these happens people from the mayor and Father Pfleger on down wring their hands and create marches in support of gun legislation.  While limiting guns in the hands of normally law abiding citizens might avoid accidental shootings of children it will not cut down on gun violence between gangs.   Anyone who thinks that gang members are carrying FOID cards and buying legal guns I believe is mistaken.  Murder is in the heart not the gun.  At least the Sunnis and Shiites have been talking to one another.  In lieu of such behavior by the gangs in Chicago, the new Chicago Police Superintendant announced an increase in Police Presence in the most affected areas.  This immediately caused some Chicagoans to call the morning drive shows to complain that he was proposing to create a police state.  More police presence does not necessarily mean Chicago becomes a Police State it may be just what the doctor ordered.

        Sunday morning was a bit different.  Dirk had been in Bible Camp at a nearby Christian Church. On Sunday, they had a 10;45 service at which the kids performed the music which they had learned during the week.  Certainly much more animated than that to which we are accustomed.  During the service there were children and adults baptized much in the way it might have been done at the Jordan River so many years ago.  The most interesting thing one noticed is that most children were in fact baptized by their parent(s). It was quite an experience unlike that to which we are typically accustomed. To look over the Church visit www.Harboursidechurch.org  The Eskews stopped after church and installed the replacement ceiling lights which we had purchased for the Southern Command.
        Monday Mary went to her favorite local Curves and since the owner was not there she did her workout and planned to return on Tuesday to arrange for a months membership.  Normally, she would use a tranfer pass from Orland Park.  However, since Orland's facility is closed effective Jul 1, Mary will try to work out a month to month here in Oldsmar.

       Hooray!! today (Tues) is July 1 and after checking our financial institutions and finding our money had been transmitted I proceeded to pay all the monthly bills. Mary returned from Curves and since the owner came in Mary was able to make a month to month  arrangement for July.  Later on, I visited the local Anytime Fitness where I had been going and they also allowed me to pay for the month of July.  Later I watched the Amazing Tampa Bay Rays the name is new they were the Devil Rays.  For some reason (perhaps the pc environmentalists the word Devil was removed a couple of years ago.  It seemed difficult  for people to change until the new field manger Joe Madden announced a $100 fine for any player who slipped and used the old name.  Apparently with the new name, new manager etc. there came a new attitude.  As of today, the Rays lead the American League East (one of the tougher divisions) by 2 1/2 games with currently the best record in Baseball.  Of course, the Cubs being the Cubs were shut out for 8 innings.  Scoring a run in the ninth they fell short and lost to the Giants 2-1.
     Wednesday morning the email with the St. Terrence Bulletin arrived and in a few minutes it was online.  I also received the weekly update to the St. Terrence Men's Club Golf League info.  That takes just a bit more tweaking but it was soon online. Tonight was our weekly Prime Rib Night. We expected the gathering to be a bit short-handed since it was Kathi's Girls night out.  However, Mary and I ended up meeting only Mike as Dirk was running a temperature keeping Dave and Dirk at home.  Not too long after we had reached our table and ordered Kathi arrived. Seems like some of the girls had last minute issues so they decided to do it another time.  So the group which we had expected to start out at 5 and started at 3 ended up at four of us.  Remembering the comments from my friend Tom I opted to pass on the red meat etc. in favor of a selection of appetizers. We refer to it as Prime Rib Night but it is more about a family gathering than anything else.  We agreed that if the food was Cheerios we probably would show up.  We got "home" in time for me to watch the amazing Tampa Bay Rays come from behind to beat the Red Sox an complete the sweep.  Since the Cubs won their game at San Francisco it was a pretty good day.

   It's Thursday and David's Birthday.  I went to the fitness center for a short treadmill walk and some weight machines. On the way home I stopped at Lowes to get some copies of a key and then returned home as Mary and I went to Kathi and Dave's for a small dinner Birthday Celebration.  David does not eat cake but he has a fondness for Angel Food cake.  The normal over sweet birthday cake with sugary frosting was replaced by strawberry shortcake made with the angel food cake.

    It's Friday July 4th, America's Birthday. Mary spent the morning and early afternoon preparing her butter fried seasoned shrimp as an appetizer and also prepared her macaroni salad.  Guests had been instructed to arrive at 4 and the timing was for dinner at 5:30.  Since we were bringing an appetizer we left about three to insure the shrimp were on the appetizer table.  What a collection of food since most of the guests were from the neighborhood where there are some outdoor kitchens but certainly a proliferation of outdoor (year-round) barbeque grills.  There was wonderful pulled pork, chicken wings, and Kathi did some grilled chicken breasts these were accompanied by a multitude of salads, hash brown potatoes and mixed fruit salads, with enough food to feed an army.  Of course all accompanied by copious amounts of various adult beverages.  The evening climaxed with one of Dave's fireworks shows.  Unlike Illinois, Florida has a fireworks tent on almost every free corner leading up to the 4th of July and again at New Years.  Since they sell them they don't seem to run around shutting down personal fireworks shows and all last evening (after dark) fireworks dotted the evening sky.  We left about 10PM with poor Mary pretty much exhausted since she had been up early in the morning to peel and prepare her fresh (frozen) shrimp and the macaroni salad.  We were surprised by the amount of traffic on the way home.  Normally, it is pretty quiet at about 10PM.  Last night we surmised that many were perhaps heading home from carnivals and  fireworks shows in the various towns in the area.  Mary went almost immediately to bed, preparing to hit the road early for a trip to the nearest IKEA store, which is actually over at Orlando.