Just before Xmas I took a brief 4 day trip back to Kennesaw to see if the house had burned down in my absence. Fortunately it had not, so I raked some leaves and checked the mail at the drop and drove back the 300+ miles to my rented Condo here in Panama City.
Pacific Coast Time:
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Me at a park next to St. Andrews Bay, Panama City, Florida. This is in 'old town' PC on Route 98 Business, near my rented condo which overlooks 98 instead of the nicer view of the Bay which is available on the other side of the complex. Weather here is 10+ degrees better than that in Kennesaw, Ga. I plan a trip back there for Xmas day on the theory that there will be almost no traffic that day.================================================================
FYI Pacific Time Is Now:
========================================================December 7, 2006 - Marianna, Fla - The Old Chipola Hotel
A bit about the Chipola Hotel from a historical tract I found online:
"The early 1920’s were a period of poor farm prices and economic depression. J.C. Corcoran had married a Greenwood woman back in 1908 and he decided to invest in Jackson County. He founded the Marianna Lime Products Company, the five-story, 75-room Chipola Hotel (completed in 1926), Chipola Dairy Farm, the Florida Publishing Company, and the Marianna Fruit Company." 
I took a trip today, Dec. 7th (65 th annaversary of Pearl Harbor) to my first college. This was then Chipola Junior College, a 2 year school, just a few years ago it changed to a 4 year school and is now called just Chipola College. I was there from Sept 64 to May 1965 (Freshman year). The mens dorm was not ready on my arrival so I stayed here in Rm 502 of the Chipola Hotel in downtown Marianna for about 2 months until I could move into the newly constructed dorm. The construction on the dorm was done by State inmates in a work gang. The College is located one county away (Jackson County) and is 60 miles or 1 hr 10 minutes each way. The old hotel is now used as a senior residence facility and rooms are rented out to seniors 62 or over. Soon I will qualify to live there again!
This is the renovated dorm, my room was at the extreme right behind the white auto. Then the right side was 'boys' and the left was 'girls', now it is all male and for the various athletes. About 2-3 yrs ago I was on campus and took a tour of the place, it was then pretty dark and dingy, didn't visit it this time around.
I spent about 1 1/2 hrs in the library looking at the 65 yearbook and copies of the college paper 'The Papoose' for the months I was there. I was informed by an elderly woman librarian that there were others who went there with my name and sure enough I did find 2 H's, both from similar addresses in Fla., probably a father/son, but of course no relation to me. No middle names listed but they wouldn't have matched anyway.
The cafeteria food is much better these days and quite inexpensive. I got a grilled chicken sandwich, fries, coke and strawberry shortcake dessert for under $5!The only person from Chipola that I have come across is a Leland Upshaw who was a few years ago living in Plantation, Fla. I found him online and talked to him for an hour or so. He wasn't a particular pal, just someone in the dorm across the hall. He also attended FAU a few years after I was there. He went from CJC to the army then on to FAU.
Chipola Library My 2002 Ford Explorer is just to the left of the stop sign.
I Spent a whole day changing over Email accounts from ISP to ISP and I also discovered that Google has an interesting program that lets you use a satellite to look at anywhere on earth. I zeroed in on my house and printed out an 8 x 10" photo which I framed and put on the wall. The above is an example of what you can easily download and print out.
Remember:
Double click left mouse button to enlarge any photo.
It is a 2 car garage, but with all thelawn stuff and misc. junk in thereit is a good thing that I have only the one car! The weather this monthhas been all over the place, freezingone week and like summer the next.
This is the backyard of the house I
purchased the next month. You can
see from other photos on the blog
what it looks like now. The person
shown in this photo is the real
estate agent.
Quite an improvement over 4 years!
I now have 480 plants/trees up from
the 7 when the house was purchased.
Taken Dec 05 by my web camera, justme sitting in my 2nd bedroom 'office'at home.
Everything is dull and gray and the heating bills are over $300 a month.Every year I tell myself I should takea vacation to somewhere warm, butso far I haven't done it.
Getting close to winter but still some green in the grass.
Taken in the kitchen.
On Nov 27, 2005, I registered here and I am still looking at how to proceed.I have put in a selection of photos, some of myself and some of the house. Unfortunately there isn't anything of great interest.I have no idea what use I will make of this 'blog', perhaps none at all, but it never hurts to learn new things.
The last 20 ft. of the lot is a steep
incline, so my backyard is really just
a largish green patio that needs to
be mowed! The drop from the
white mini fence in the middle to
the flat ground is about 3 1/2 feet.
It just dosen't snow often or stay long
on the ground!
Spending the winter 06/07 in a rented Florida condo in Panama City, here is what it looks like. Cost is $795 per month. I will go back now and then to Georgia, it is 340 miles each way, just a 5+ hr trip.
The realtor who I paid in cash was in the paper yesterday, she was arrested for stealing $ 35,000 from her company. She kept various cash payments for rentals over a six month period.
I brought some of my own things, but it is a furnished rental. In the below photo both the TV and DVD/VCR player are imported from Kennesaw.
There are 2 pools, but neither is heated.
