When the Old Man (me) Fell

This post is from a few years ago when we lived at the house on the lake. There was a parking and set of stairs leading down to the house.

Here is the post...

I came into the house tonight and my wife met me at the door. Snow was all over me so I explained to her that I’d fallen down.

“You fell down! You fell all the way down!?” she asked.

I had to ponder that for a moment. I suppose it is possible to fall only partially down, like maybe fall to your knees instead of falling onto your hands or face. While I was considering my next answer she asked again… “You fell all the way down?” She said it like maybe I didn't hear or comprehend.

I held my hand about shoulder high to try to illustrate how far I'd fallen. "I fell from here. About like this."

“But you didn’t fall off the driveway?”

Then I realized she thought I’d fallen the 20 feet or so from the top of the driveway over the wall to the ground below.

“No, I didn’t fall off the driveway”.

“Did you hit your head?” 

I hit my head a lot when I fall down. It seems every few months and I knock myself out.

“No I didn’t hit my head.”

“Then why is your head swollen and red”.

Good question, I thought. How could that have happened?

“So” I said, “Sometimes when you hit your head and you don’t remember what happened, so maybe I fell down and hit my head but I don’t remember because I hit my head.”

She just looked at me.

So I tried to explain it to her again, although it was clear that she understood.

“Maybe I fell down… all the way down… and in doing so I hit my head, but I don’t remember I hit my head because I hit my head.”

I do remember eating supper.

©David L Arment

The Essenhaus Sign in Snow

The Essenhaus is a comples of shops, a nice hotel and a famous resturant. The biggest problem with the resturant might be that you will eat too much! Middlebury, Indiana in winter.

Casting Her Vote

Amish Buggy and Star Barn

An Amish buggy and the old Star Barn. The barn was refurbished a few years ago. The new one is more modern and the older one was more rustic. Here an Amish buggy is on its way into Shipshewana. This picture is from February 2013

We are Home

We are home.

Below is a post, copied and pasted from Facebook as to why we are home.

We arrived home at 1:30 Saturday afternoon. We unpacked in light snow. Today, Monday, we stored the Airstream. It wasn't as clean as we would have liked it but it is hard to wash things when it is below freezing.

Here is the Facebook post...

Hello friends,

Pam's sister Linda is in the hospital. Wednesday she talked with us and others of her family on the phone. It was clear that she was symptomatic of a stroke. We convinced her to get to the ER. She went.

She is now in the hospital in Fort Wayne. They will soon be sending her to a facility for therapy. We believe it will be in Goshen.

She finds it difficult to speak and does not want visitors.

Pam and I started for home Thursday morning from Estero, FL in the big truck (as opposed to our little truck) pulling the Airstream. Our hopes were and are to help Linda.

We will be home tomorrow.

I'm posting this because someone messaged me about her out of their concern.

Thanks for your prayers for Linda

Winter trip 2025-2026, by the numbers.

Winter trip 2025-2026.

Sometimes people ask me about the "gas milage" we get pulling a 25 foot long Airstream.

About 2600 miles of the 5230 you see is "highway" miles as we are coming and going to and from Florida. I used to tell people we were getting about 11 or 12. Now I'm not sure, maybe we do better than I thought.

As you can see we just got home and Pam was "bolting".

The truck ran and runs fine (toucher du bois). It is quiet inside and really loud outside. But it is a fine truck. The half ton pickup we had before was not "enough truck" to pull the AS over the hills of Tennessee and Kentucky. It could do it but it was uncomfortable.

The truck we have now is a 3/4 ton Chevrolet Silverado, diesel,

Pam's Apple Pie

Pam made an apple pie this morning. We are visiting friends later today and she is taking this. 

Unfortunately we have "mice". They get into all the goos stuff that Pam tries to protect. So I'm thinking when she goes for a bicycle ride they may get into this pie.

Sometimes the "mice" even get into the refrigerator. Once they left a fork.

What do you think is going to happen?

February 18, 2026

Immortality

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. 

- Woody Allen

 

The Disenfranchisement of Voters

One of the minority groups that the Democrats have forgot to try to scare regarding this new law going through the legislative branch called the SAVE act is old people.

They will have the hardest time.

One old person who voted Democrat her entire life won't be able to vote now if theses laws go into effect.

Pam and I asked her once why she voted Democrat. She pondered the question for a few seconds and it was obvious she didn't know why she voted for Democrats. She said, "Because my dad did." Once she told us she was going to vote for Hillary because she liked her Vice President candidate... "He's a good looking man". That was the sum total of his qualifications.

Be all that as it may with these new voting requirements she likely won't be able to vote.

Her biggest hurdle is that she is now deceased.

 

Gun toten' Pam

 The last couple of days there is a gun on the floor in the living room.

Don’t get excited it is not going to do lethal damage. It is my wife’s gun and it is there to shoot squirrels. Even though the temperature is less than zero degrees, she opens the window and sticks her gun out to shoot the squirrels off the bird feeder, as cold air is blasting its way into the house.

My wife is a good shot. This is a real compliment because the pellet gun's pellets go from left to right as they leave the barrel of the gun. She has made the needed adjustments and compensations. She gets some help from the fact that the bird feeder / squirrel feeder is only 16 or so feet from the window.

The gun is ancient. It was maybe the first pellet gun ever made. It apparently was very powerful once as one of the boys remembered it would break the skin of an animal. Those days are gone; the gun has lost it's "umph".

Now my wife shoots the squirrels and they look up at her with an attitude. They are annoyed. After a couple of shots they decide to go find a nut or something buried instead of withstand the indignity of being pelted with small metallic objects.

I know instinctually not to disturb her gun. I don’t know why it is right where you would walk if it were not for the fact a gun was there. I don’t know why it has been in the middle of the floor for two days. It doesn’t matter to me, I just walk around it. I suppose she has her reasons for not leaning it into a corner. I expect she needs a “fast draw” to get those wily squirrels.

She had me locate the feeder in such a way that squirrels could not get onto it. This is one of those theory and reality things. In theory the squirrels cannot get to the bird feeder. In reality they can.

In addition to a good location, she purchased many squirrel related deterrents. They are metal triangle shaped things that don’t allow the squirrels to come up the feeder, and big umbrella things that keep them from (theoretically) jumping down from above. Alas, the squirrels have adapted and now know how to jump from a tree far away and onto the feeder… and thus the need for more violent means of deterrent.

So if you come to our small little house unannounced that is why there is a gun on the floor in the living room and fat and happy squirrels everywhere.

Dematology 2 (what actually happened) and the case of B9's

 

Following up on yesterday's post...

(For those of you looking at the length of this post and won't read it. I had a lot of B9's, no A7's or C10's and although I'm not sure what B9's are everyone seemed pretty happy. She (the doctor) did a lot of freeze / burning. But could not do anything about my general ugliness.)

I was at the mobil dermatologist's trailer early for my appointment. But it didn't matter because they were running late. The lady who checks people in is also the truck driver. She said someone must need a biopsy and that makes them run late.

The truck / trailer is huge (I showed a picture yesterday). I commented on how clean it was and the truck driver check in lady said it was her job to keep it clean. It had a "3" stenciled discreetly on its side so I asked how many of these they had. Nine. Nine! These nine travel this part of the state of Florida.

In Indiana we have a nice round number of these dermatologist trailers that travel our part of the state... 0.

In this park there were enough folks to fill their day, and then some, I suspect, by looking at the line - with appointments - waiting.

I had to put on one of those paper medical gowns. While I was waiting for the nurse I saw the graphical sign with instructions on how to put on the thing. I think maybe the main thing people got wrong was where the big opening was supposed to go. As you know the opening is a big slit from top to bottom. There is no good place for it to go. Either you are exposed in the front or you are exposed in the back. Both choices are bad. But unless you have three arms where your two arms go was pretty self-explanatory.

But regardless of the sign the nurse who looks like a teenager told me that the slit goes IN THE BACK.

The doctor was a female lady with a black medical coat and a string of large white pearls. She was older and short in stature. She was no-nonsense and a nice lady. Her assistant was very young. She was competent and nice, and looked like she should be in Junior High School, but obviously was not.

The doctor asked me why I was there, and if there were any areas of concern. After we covered that subject, she started examining me with a light / magnifying glass that fit neatly in the palm of her hand.

As she examined me she finished one arm and then started on the other but stopped and said... did I do this arm already? In my mind I was fighting evil invaders who looked like Darth Vader, so I had to tell her that I wasn't sure. So she examined that arm anyway. I think she examined old people all day, probably two or three in an hour and she lost track of all the arms and legs she sees / had seen.

They found lots of ugly places on me. However they can't treat general uglinesses. Which in my case is very unfortunate. 

They can treat the little spots you have here and there. She had names for all of them, not like Steve and Albert, but big long names that make no sense but you have to memorize them in order to join the doctor's fraternity.

One of the places she said she would take a biopsy of (yes I ended a sentence with a preposition). But as she went she argued with herself. Should "we" leave this one alone... "does it bother you"? Everything was a B9. No C10's or A7's just a lot of B9's. Except the place on my nose.

 The place she was going to biopsy is on my nose. And there were other places she wanted to freeze / burn. She got her little tank to freeze burn things, and she went to town. I guess some people react to this and I didn't. So she became quite exuberant in her freeze / burning. And so she said let's just freeze burn the place on your nose. That would be how it would be treated, so let's just get it over with.

But... this might leave a scar.

With all the other scars and problem with my face I told her... go ahead. No on will notice amid the other chaos going on there.

When she was finished she said, "Anything else?".

So I rubbed my bulbus stomach and ask if she could freeze / burn some of it off.

Dermatology

We are renting a space in a 55 or older park in Florida. Today this trailer came into the park. It is, as you can see, a mobile Dermatology diagnostic center. 

My appointment is at 1:15. I made it at this trailer.

I've been to three dermatologists in Indiana. None of them were impressive. One of them was impressive, but in the negative. He wasn't happy that I had a "problem place" on my back. But I can't see my back. And he snapped at this nurse because she had some question on how to remove that area. I would not have worked for that asshat.

I'm already impressed with these people and the only person I saw was the lady outside at the desk.

The Indiana dermatologists were not interested in a person past his prime with rosacea. They looked me over and passed me off to an "esthetician". That experience was to lay in a room with soft lights and wonderful smells to have a lady rub stuff on your face, remove it with some other lotion, then rub more stuff on your face and when it was all over you paid them a big sum of money.

During those times the lady would ask me questions like, what music would you like to hear today. My response was, I'm not hear to listen to music or smell wonderful smells. I'm not against those things. I need help with my skin disease.

Insurance won't help you with this disease because the effects are considered cosmetic. Although there can be complications.

When I sit in a dermatologist's office in Indiana I would see magazines that would cater to the beautiful women in the world. None on skin diseases that need cured, like for instance cancer. And in the waiting room were ladies who already looked perfect. I assume e they were there to immortalize their perfection.

So by appearances one would assume that the office existed for or to make women beautiful. I would further assume, that is where the money is.

Today I hope to simply have a skin cancer exam. I have no hope that anyone will address rosacea.

And at this point in time.... that's fine.

I guess the other point is that the difference in Indiana in Florida in healthcare for older adults is striking and profound.

Napels Botanical Garden

Today, February 13, 2026, Pam and I went to the Naples Botanical Garden. It is a great garden!

 

Pam was on wheels today. It was obvious that she would have preferred otherwise, but she had a good time.

Taking away a woman's right to vote

Our elected betters are now considering a law which would require American citizens to prove they are American citizens in order to be able to vote in Federal Elections.

But one party seems to think this is unfair to certain minorities who won't be able to acquire ID's. They point to women as one of those groups and suggest that woman who have been married won't be able to vote because their name changed when they / if they took their husband's last name. 

This would mean that only unmarried women could vote.

Or women who are very smart. Very Smart! Maybe very, very smart. Like maybe it would require an advanced degree in micro-atomic-bio-astro-physics to figure out how to get an ID. A normal undergraduate who holds a degree in The History of Lesbian Basket Weaving, could not begin to figure it out. 

We know this because that is what one party is telling us. They say it is just to complicated for women to figure out.

Who am I to aruge, or even argue?

So I'm glad that I'm not a woman. I am a man who identifies and a man. Dresses like a man. Scratches where men scratch. Burps. Is bald and hardly recognizable as a human much less a female woman.

So I would be happy to lend my voice to the oppressed women's cause. 

Just email me and I'll see what I can do.

 

Lost Sons

 The Father of The Prodigal Son

The story of the prodigal son is one that I’ve thought a lot about over the years. I’ve wondered about it from the perspective of the son’s father.

If you are not familiar with the passage it is in Luke 15 starting in vs 10. You can go there and read it. I won’t try to recount the story since you can read if for yourself. If you don’t have a bible handy you can go to one of the many websites on the internet and read it there.

In this story there is a father who loses his son. His son is gone and the father likely wonders if he will return. He may never see him again.

Then one day…

“But while he was yet afar off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.”

The Fatter saw and knew his son from a great distance.

Let me interrupt this story to tell you another and then I’ll circle back to this one.

I am a photographer. When Pam and I made our trips to Alaska I learned to look for animals at the tree line. If you are going to see a bear it would be at the tree line “more than likely”. If you are going to see a moose, same story.

As one of our trips unfolded I realized my constant gaze was at the tree line. As we drove that’s where I was looking when I could. When we were stopped that is what I was looking. All for the chance to see a bear, or a moose or some other wildlife to photograph.

I imagine the Father of the Prodigal was the same way. But he was looking for something much more important and precious… his son.

The root of the Greek word we translate as “compassion” comes from a word that refers to the insides of a person. Bowles. Intestines. Guts. The father was moved to his core when he saw his son. His love overwhelmed him and he ran to greet his son.

He knew immediately who it was. Was it because the son had a certain way he walked? How did he know who it was from a great distance? Was God whispering in his ear… “He’s home”.

The Father was always looking at the horizon. Scanning the tree line. Wondering. Hoping. Waiting. The feelings in his inner being could not be quieted.

Then one day there he was.

He was home.

My earthly father was likely much different from yours. I’m sure my dad would have not ran to meet me. He would not have had a dinner in my honor.

I heard it said once that the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference. So I would tell you that my dad would have been indifferent in the same situation.

But my heavenly father is waiting for me. He will rejoice when He sees me.

And I will be happy to be home.

Milkweed at Sunrise

I am posting this picture because I "ran into it" during my "work" and thought I'd post it here for you. No other reason. I just like the picture and thought maybe you might also.

www.davidarment.photos

 

Koreshan State Park, Estero, FL February 6, 2026

 Koreshan State Park is in Estero, Florida. The land and buildings were donated to the State of Florida in 1961 by the remnants of the Koreshan Unity Commune.

The history of this group can be found at this website link... https://friendsofkoreshan.org/Koreshan-State-Park-History/

In short the Koreshab Unity was a communal society crated in Estero n 1894. It's leader was Dr. Cyrus Teed who was known as Koresh which is Hebrew for Cyrus. King Cyrus from the bible was a inspiration for this name.

Among the strange beliefs of this highly educated group of people was that the earth was in a shell of sorts. They would say that "we" live inside the earth. 

"The early 1900s were the glory years for the Koreshans, who acquired nearly 7,500 acres of land and constructed more than 70 buildings. They developed more than a dozen businesses." from the website referenced above.

Dr. Teed and his followers thought him to be a messiah. When he died in 1908 it was expected that he would be resurrected. A park ranger told us that his body was put outside in a bath tub and that a person recorded every movement of his skin and body as they waited for his resurrection from the dead. The State of Florida officials intervened and required the Koreshan's to properly care for the dead body.

He was but in a mausoleum and a commune member was posted outside in order to witness the resurrection and record same. A hurican came and washed "some of" his remains into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Without their charismatic leader the commune began to decline.

As you look at the pictures below you can read some of the history of this place.

The following are cell phone pictures. Better pictures can be found in a few days at www.davidarment.photos

This is what remains of the mausoleum that Dr Teed was entombed within.

Dr Teed was fascinated with the French Emperor Napoleon.

Washintonian Palm Tree

Two Women Have Dinner with Their Family

 Pam and I went to eat at a restaurant the other day. We were taking sunset pictures of the Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico) and went to eat after the sun had gone down.

The restaurant had a person who greet you and then seated you. He sat us by two ladies who where having dinner with their family. They were very loud. But more importantly the family was not present. The two ladies were, but the family was on their cell phone. They were talking and laughing with the folks on the phone. Showing them their food and drink. 

Their phone may have sounded okay from where they were seated but to us it was a very tinny sound. I don't suppose it would have mattered much since they were very annoying either way.

Okay, well this won't last long and it will all be over soon... or so we thought.

In came another couple to be seated. They were smart and didn't even sit. They asked for another table.

After a few minutes the waitress came to take our order. We asked if we could be reseated. And so we were reseated in a much quieter part of the restaurant.

I'm not sure if they said something to the two ladies or they ate their entire meal with their family at the table.

We will never know. And that is fine.

February 4 Sunset pictures

Beach cell phone pics late afternoon and sunset.

More in the next few days at www.davidarment.photos