Wednesday January 20th 2021

Like Tuesday today began cold and climbed to a couple of degrees above normal. It was in the forties when I turned on the heat this morning. During my afternoon walk the temperature had reached the low to mid seventies.

After turning the heat on I returned to bed and started watching the coverage of the events in Washington DC on TV. My interest is primarily in the history associated with the event. The people and their specific views are less interesting than the institution and its strengths. Despite the events of two weeks ago, the pandemic and the absence of the out going head of state, the ceremony went on. There was more security and fewer people, but the constitutionally mandated activities and the sometimes bizarre pomp and circumstance went a little faster than normal. Maybe Lady Gaga sang the National Anthem to fast or somebody didn’t speak long enough, but the new president was sworn in twelve minutes too early. Where there two US presidents for twelve minutes?

About 1:30PM I finally got out of my RV home. I had managed to get out of bed sometime during the morning, but it wasn’t easy. It was nice and warm in the bed. The woods around my campsite do not allow the sun to warm my RV home. It’s all up to the little space heater I’m using. If the cool really bothers me, I can always turn on the propane furnace, but that’s a noisy inefficient beast. Outside my RV home it was already in the seventies. It was an ideal temperature for another walk along the Hillsborough River.

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There weren’t as many people on the trails today. Those that I saw were all new to me, but the wildlife was not. I’m even more convinced that ever that I’m taking pictures of the same critters every day. The alligators are all in the same sunny locations on the bank scattered along about a mile of the river. The birds aren’t in the same locations, but they are all one offs. I only see one Great Blue Heron everyday, one Little Blue Heron, and one Anhinga. I see them in a different location along the mile plus that I walk, but they sure look like the same birds. They still make a nice picture.