If it's February, Olesky must be in Florida

 By John Olesky (BJ 1969-96)

To celebrate Paula's retirement as a psychologist for Akron Schools we left our Tallmadge condo before the ton of snow hit Northeast Ohio. For 19 days we trolled successfully for warmer temperatures during day/night stopovers in Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA and a two-week stay in Sea Castle on Siesta Key, off Sarasota, FL. Sea Castle, which will be torn down to make way for $1 million condos, is across the street from late printer Bill Gorrell's complex, which drew BJ folks for decades. I've been going to Sea Castle since 2000 for annual month-long February blood-warmings.

 We listened to a noon concert at Phillipi Creek Park, mostly Patsy Cline and other country music with a few blues tunes tossed in, while two hawks glided overhead. We spent a leisurely 2 1/2 hours in Marie Selby Gardens, enjoying banyan trees, orchids and the 125 plant species that Paula photographed. We marveled at the manatees, more than two dozen during one count, that gather near the warm water pouring out of the Tampa Electric power plant in Apollo Beach. We absorbed the early history of Florida at Spanish Point. We threw in a visit to St. Petersburg's Pier. We watched birds strut back and forth within a few feet of sunning alligators at Myakka Park. The guys with the huge jaws ignore a potential meal because they can't digest food during cooler weather.

And, as usual, we had a reunion with BJ retirees. Former printer Terry Dray and wife Cecily came down from their Avon Park home. Former newsroom rewrite master Don Bandy did the same from his Bradenton condo. Our reunion photo appeared earlier on the BJ retirees blog.

 By the time we returned to Tallmadge 3,103.1 miles later, the snow had been cleared from our driveway. But the cold weather didn't leave. But the memories remain warm.