Haiku & Other Poetry, History, Travel, tutto e niente

Calling All Boots-Flashback Friday

October 17, 2025 Tina Stewart Brakebill

This Fandango Friday Flashback post was originally part of a FOWC from on October 17, 2018! I failed to say what that original prompt was and Fandago’s domain has changed, so who knows? My bad.

Whatever it was, I worked it into my blog for an upcoming trip. I cannot believe that it’s been seven years since we embarked on this crazy driving epic! It turned out to be a an eventful and fun trip. I blogged the whole adventure, so for anyone who may be interested in some random road pics, history lessons, art museums, music memories, middle of the night fire alarms, rants about the orange one, and BOOTS, you can find them all here:

Calling All Boots (this is also posted below)

Two Days Before Dawn

Alarm Bells

Finally! It’s the Road Trip Epilogue

You can also find some other travel adventures via my TRAVEL tab. Although, sadly the realities of life have reduced our travel life considerably. Oh well. I’m happy to say we are no longer stuck in Florida, so I don’t need to drive to the Fall. It finds me!

So please enjoy my happy (and some not so happy-I’m looking at you MAGA) memories and if you can please support your local NO KINGS events.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — October 17th

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 10/17/2018:

Today’s prompt from FOWC inspired me (one could say it prompted me) to say a few words about the road trip that begins when my husband and I rise Thursday morning at the beautifully dark hour of 4:30AM and hit the road by 5:30.

“Where ya headed?”

Glad you asked. We are going north to escape the endless summer that has wrapped Florida in its deadly grip. We seek the Fall! Memories of cute boots and scarves and blue jeans and sweaters beckon.

“Come to me!!” They call.

“Wear me.” They tease.

“Wrap me.” They whisper.

I am tingling with excitement.

Oh and I get to see friends and family too. So it’s a win-win.

Of course this road trip includes a giant triangle of driving—South Florida to middle Illinois to Washington DC to south Florida—so it’s possible I’ll change my mind about the win-win. But for now I’ve got the pod casts downloaded and the play lists set.

Here we come autumn!

Updates to follow 🎃 but here’s a haiku to keep you warm till then. It’s not great but … BOOTS!!

As the moon falls low

We rise for a journey long

Seeking boots of fall

Random Rants, tutto e niente

Liebster Award

June 30, 2020June 30, 2020 Tina Stewart Brakebill

Thanks to Sanjunaa for nominating me for the Liebster Award. And sorry for the delay in responding. It’s been a weird couple of weeks!

First off, here are the rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you.
Share 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you.
Nominate 11 bloggers and make them happy!
Make up 11 questions and ask them to your nominees.
Notify your 11 nominees.

So now that we know the rules, here we go….

Thanks again Sanjuna. I really appreciate that you thought of me and my little blog.

And here are 11 facts about me!

I hate all varieties of blue cheese.
I LOVE dark chocolate.
I dropped out of school at 20 and didn’t graduate from college until I was almost 40.
I’m the oldest child in my family.
I really really really don’t like walking around with no shoes (going barefoot).
I’ve never skydived.
I believe that sunrises are better than sunsets.
I once fractured multiple bones in my foot by falling UP the stairs.
I’m on my fourth career:
- bartender/server
- credit union loan officer
- university professor
- freelance writer
I got married in my back yard and the police came to the reception three times because of noise complaints but nobody got in trouble (or got shot).
Black Lives Matter

Here’s my answers to Sanujuna’s questions:

is this Lockdown is happy or sad period for you?
- I don’t think that either word really describes by feelings. I’m frustrated and angry about the lack of governmental response at the national and state level. I’m also deeply troubled by how the virus (and protections like masks) have been politicized in the United States.
what is your recently added hobby or skill?
- Before Covid, I had started a sculpting class that I really enjoyed. I never really thought of myself as an artist but I really liked working with clay. It’s on hold for now but I’m excited to get back to it eventually.
What is the thing that excites you till today from your childhood?
- Going to new places.
you have an option to time travel then what you do? Do you change anything?
- I think the thought of time travel is a romantic (and perhaps hopeful) thought BUT I believe that change must come from actions in the here and now.
Do you had or have any pet?
- I had a dog growing up. We got her from the animal shelter when I was about three and she died during my first year of college.
Have you changed anybody’s life at any point?
- I believe that as a teacher / mentor I did change lives. I hope so.
What made you to become a blogger?
- I love to write and I was looking for a venue to try out some new and different stuff.
unforgettable incident in your life?
- Arriving in Florence after waiting my whole life to visit Italy.
your biggest inspiration and motivational personality?
- I don’t really look outside myself for inspiration but if forced to answer, I’d say Michelle Obama.
Your fav book?
- This answer is mood dependent but The Lord of the Rings will always be in the top five. More recently I have loved The Underground Railroad, The Nightingale, Becoming, and A Man Called Ove.
Your recent happiest memory?
- Getting a writing assignment after three months of no work.

And here’s my eleven nominees:

Karen Lee Rawson

Saumya Agrawal

Samantha James at The Chronicles of History

Monica St. Hillaire

Jiji at Life in Copenhagen

Morag Noffke

Lisa Coleman at Our Eyes Open

Cathy Birdsong Dutchak at Wander Essence

Victoria Stuart at Family Matters

Tannille

Sammi Cox and her new venture Whispers and Echoes

And finally, here’s my eleven questions:

Do you adhere to a writing schedule or do you write only when inspired?
Where’s your favorite travel destination?
Do you have a bucket list (as in a list of things that you want to accomplish before you die)?
What’s been your favorite age so far in your life? Why?
If you had to choose—would you rather have super-hot weather (average in the 90s+) or super-cold weather (average in the teens or below)?
What’s your favorite thing about writing your blog?
Do your friends and family read your blog regularly? (If it helps ease your embarrassment, I’ll admit that most of mine do NOT.)
Sweet or salty?
What’s the best job you’ve ever had?
Would you rather ride an elephant or feed a baby chimp?
Did you think about not participating in this award because you didn’t want to think up eleven questions (or answer eleven questions)?

History, Random Rants, Travel, tutto e niente

Lightner Museum in St. Augustine: Through the Looking Glass and into a Wonderland?

October 22, 2019January 28, 2020 Tina Stewart Brakebill

Looking to escape the worst of a summer that will not end, we decided to head north; hoping that four hours of drive time would translate into at least twice that much in degree difference. Spoiler alert: It didn’t! Hit with a short-span heat wave that coincided directly with our trip, it was sweltering. Ugh.

It also was a holiday Monday and I had mixed feelings about being in St. Augustine on that day. What holiday, you ask? The one that Florida denotes as “Columbus Day” but that I (and many like-minded souls) honor as Indigenous People Day.

The day wasn’t chosen deliberately. Our hotel was unavailable on the day we wanted so we had to push the trip back a day. (Or should that be “push the trip up a day”? I always confuse those two.)

fullsizeoutput_794 — NOT our hotel but oh to have danced back in the day!

Anyway, we left a day later than planned and there we were—landing in St. Augustine on “Columbus Day” surrounded by families with lots of kids “celebrating” the triumph of Columbus’ legacy. For those who may not know, St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers. It is the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States. (Which is a really benign way to say that the Spanish came, killed, enslaved, and stole from the indigenous peoples with a passion that Columbus, no doubt, would have found inspiring.)

tumblr_oxkls8ikcw1qj4315o1_500

Plus, apparently autumn is NEVER coming to Florida. Did I mention it was HOT!

So long story short(ish), as non-kid-having trying-to-be-culturally-woke folk, we felt a bit out of our element. BUT, we do love museums and (ironically) the ostentatiousness of the Gilded Age, so the Lightner Museum saved the day!

Housed in the former Alcazar Hotel (built in 1888 by super rich guy named Henry Flagler), the museum is home of one of the premier collections of fine and decorative art in the country. Seriously, Lightner collected everything! Between the hotel itself and the collections on display, it really was like stepping through the Looking Glass into a different world.

fullsizeoutput_79e — Through the Looking Glass …

fullsizeoutput_797 — “I don’t think — ” “Then you shouldn’t talk.”

fullsizeoutput_7ab — “Off with their heads!”

fullsizeoutput_7a6 — In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die: Ever drifting down the stream — Lingering in the golden gleam — Life, what is it but a dream?

fullsizeoutput_799 — How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!

fullsizeoutput_798 — “Curiouser and curiouser!”

fullsizeoutput_79b — “We’re all mad here.”

fullsizeoutput_793 — “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!”

fullsizeoutput_7ad — **“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” (Yes. I was hungry and yes I was thinking about EGGS!)**

fullsizeoutput_795 — “It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

fullsizeoutput_792 — Thus grew the tale of Wonderland: Thus slowly, one by one, Its quaint events were hammered out — And now our tale is done And home we steer, a merry crew, Beneath the setting sun.

Thanks and credit to Lewis Carroll for taking us to a Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. And thanks to Wander Essence for the inspiration and the reminder that I like to write about my travels!

Looking at our photos (all made by myself or my husband) and thinking about Cathy’s travel writing suggestions led me to Alice. Thus the Carroll quotes as captions. Hope y’all enjoy!