Mike's report

We first met and had brunch with Gabe Cazares, at an undisclosed location ;)

Gabe gave us a grand tour of Clearwater, imparting much wisdom and giving details about many places and persons... I will follow up in later posts with the details about what Gabe has to say, and there certainly is much more to come (see February's entheta forecast, and I suspect there will be a stormy March as well).

Later I went back with Andreas to do a walking tour of downtown.

I was honestly a bit surprised that we didn't even acquire a shadow security person or two, unless they have so perfected their camera surveillance of downtown to such a point that they don't need human "tails" of their perceived enemies anymore. We walked all around, first between the Fort Harrison and the new "Sooper Power" building, then down the North side of the Ft. Harrison, where the gate and what seems to be the current main entrance to the building is located. Andreas shot some video, and I took a picture of him in this area, which will be posted to abs soon.

We continued from there past city hall and up toward the Sandcatle and Osceola building, and then turned back and walked past the old LMT office. It is still vacant and for sale. I pointed out that all of the cameras that used to be pointed at the entrance to the LMT are now gone. There is still a camera pointed at the rear door of that side of the bank building.

Andreas wanted to call Magoo, and I suggested he ask if she wanted us to get her anything from the One Stop Shoppe while we were there. Unfortunately, he got her voice mail and left a message so we didn't go into the One Stop Shoppe.

We walked through the Gaslight Alley, where all the "controversial" bricks are located. I noticed that the small camera on the wall pointing at the alley was gone, but a new one in a globe higher up on the Southeast corner of the building seemed to replace it. We happened across a brick I hadn't noticed before, and Andreas photographed it. It said, "Listen to your critics."

We then walked around the still-under-construction new building. By that time, based on past experience, I was a little surprised that we hadn't acquired a security "observer" or shadow of any sort. Andreas took plenty of photographs, and even said kind of embarrasedly at one point, "I feel like such a tourist". Andreas remarked that while in most of the places he had been in the US he noticed people being friendly and at least saying, "Hi," or "How are you?" in casual passing, that did not seem to happen while we were in downtown Clearwater.

So I can honestly say that even the most "evil" of critics can in fact enjoy a pleasant walking tour of downtown Clearwater. I thought it was far too chilly a day to call pleasant, especailly considering what we are used to here in Florida, but Andreas said that it felt like a summer day in Norway.

This is true! Really, it is!

MK

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