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The saga of the territorial cat

I get it. Cats, if they have a preference, like to be outside. Especially if they have previously had an outdoor experience and enjoyed it. Many indoor cats that sleep all day along windowpanes or in front of glass doors are very content looking at the outside world, and if they are stimulated with indoor playtime, they are perfectly content living in the house. Now I have some clients who have rescued outdoor cats, and some of those cats will do just about anything to get outside. This story is about one of those cats, named Jessie.

To say that I have worked on Jessie is an understatement. I have seen Jessie for a myriad of injuries. To this date, I have surgically placed drains in Jessie three times for abscesses. I have seen Jessie twice for bite wounds that did not require surgical drains. I have had to remove a broken tooth and have had to surgically remove a foreign body out of her intestines, and we have no idea how she lost the tip of her ear. She is a hunter. Like most cats, she brutally hunted the birds in her territory. These cats also hunt rodents and iguanas, and they get into fights with other cats in the neighborhood.

My client felt that he watched Jessie most of the day. He had set up remote cameras in the backyard to watch Jessie, and when he got home from work, he fed her in the house and closed the door, so she stayed inside at night. When I asked him why he couldn’t keep her in the house during the day, he showed me a picture of all the furniture that she had destroyed when she couldn’t get outside during the day. Ironically, she didn’t destroy furniture at night and slept after dinner until he ritually allowed her out at 8 a.m. before he went to work. He must have gotten up on the weekends when he was not going to work to let her outside. I guess her routine trumped his weekend routine.

One day the owner sent me a video of a fight between Jessie and another cat. Jessie was asleep on the patio and another cat hopped the fence. Jessie went into attack mode. Typically, after seeing how fast and aggressive Jessie was, a cat would run away, but this cat didn’t, and the fight was quick and brutal. This episode resulted in Jessie’s last surgery. There was an abscess over her neck and bite wounds on her face and feet. Jessie spent the next two days in the hospital getting pain medication and antibiotics.

We watched the video over and over. The owner just could not understand how the fight had occurred. He had installed a six-foot privacy fence. His last fence was a four-foot chain-link fence with hedges. He also had cameras installed. He even had a funny sign put on the fence about his attack cat. He could not understand why another cat would jump the fence. I had to bite my lip not to sound condescending, and my technician had to leave the room. I explained to the owner that the privacy fence, signage, and cameras were there to designate his property lines to the world. The invading cat’s territory was probably the whole street, and he probably found the new fence annoying. The owner asked me what he could do, and I told him to keep Jessie inside, because the next fight could end up being her last one.

One year later, Jessie is a couch cat and sleeps most of the day happily on the furniture.

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Finding his purpose – Local artist paints for charity, raises over $300,000

A man on a mission. That description sums up Tamarac resident Joseph Gormley.

Born in Scotland, Gormley, 47, moved to the U.S. in 2003 after he fell in love with a Florida woman, Erin Ruth. Now married 19 years, the couple has two girls, Hailey, 6, and Mackenzie Rose, 4.

Erin Gormley bought her husband his first set of paintbrushes as a Christmas gift 15 years ago. A new world opened up for him, whose day job is as a custodian at Bayview Elementary School in Fort Lauderdale.

Once Gormley realized his passion for painting, he set about using his talent to do good, auctioning off many of his artworks for charity. His first painting raised money for an 11-year-old Scottish girl with brain cancer who needed treatment in the U.S. After reading about her, Gormley sent a painting that he did of the Glasgow Celtics head coach, Neil Lennon, to her family.

In 2012, that painting sold on eBay for $8,000. “That was the moment I realized my art could make a difference,” remembers Gormley.

“I know why I have this gift of being able to paint. It’s not for me; it’s to help raise money for others,” he says. “My day job is for my family. And my artwork is for my community.”

In 2015, Gormley painted a portrait of former Miami Marlins baseball player Giancarlo Stanton for the Marlins Foundation, which raised $25,000.

In 2018, he painted a portrait of Anthony Rizzo, a Parkland native who played baseball for the Chicago Cubs and the New York Yankees, which raised $4,000 to upgrade the baseball field at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The same year, he worked with Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital to benefit the Conine Clubhouse, a no-cost residence for families with children undergoing cancer treatment, and helped raise thousands of dollars.

To date, Gormley estimates he has raised $300,000 for local charities, and he has no plans to stop. In 2019, he painted at the Parkland Cares fundraiser and donated the proceeds from his work to the foundation.

“Parkland Cares is very fortunate to have been one of the recipients when Joseph Gormley painted live at our wine dinner and donated the proceeds from his paintings,” Stacey Udine wrote online after the event.

“Every brush stroke gives Joseph the chance to inspire others, and we’re immensely grateful for his continued support of Parkland Cares,” she said.

In February, the prolific painter teamed up with 105.9 BIG radio DJ Doc Reno, whose charity, My Family Matters Foundation, raises money in partnership with the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation to provide assistance to families who lose wages while caring for a child with cancer.

It was founded by Doc Reno in 2019 after he battled stage IV head and neck cancer. “How could I feel sorry for myself when next to me in the waiting room is a 7-year-old with brain cancer?” he says. “I saw what families were dealing with and wanted to do something to help.”

He continues, “Joseph is an amazing person — a true angel and a very gentle soul. I was blown away by his work. I’m thrilled he has offered his talents for this cause.”

Gormley painted live at Doc Reno’s “My Family Matters” golf tournament in February, at the Jacaranda Golf Club in Plantation.

Participants included former Miami Dolphins’ Bob Brudzinski and running back Ki-Jana Carter; radio disc jockeys Drew Heyman (Y100) and Paul Castronovo (BIG 105.9); rock drummers Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden, Tico Torres of Bon Jovi, and Carmine Appice, former Ozzy Osbourne drummer; and many others.

With Iron Maiden being Gormley’s favorite band, he was thrilled to paint the portraits of the three drummers and auction them off with their signatures.

Other celebrities he has painted include Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, Washington Commanders quarterback Doug Williams, and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Gormley says he is raising his two girls to finish the journey he started and to leave a legacy behind.

“I’m very blessed,” says Gormley, who hopes to eventually raise $1 million for charity. “So many people struggle to find their purpose in life. I know my purpose — it’s to help and inspire others.”

For more information, visit josephgromleyart.com, myfamilymattersfoundation.org, or parklandcares.org.

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Trolling the water with ballyhoo, bonito strips

Just about every offshore angler in South Florida prefers to fish with live bait for everything from sailfish and dolphin to kingfish and tuna, but there are times when using dead bait can be just as effective.

In fact, trolling rigged ballyhoo and bonito strips can sometimes be more effective than live bait. So just because you aren’t able to catch or buy several dozen live baits for a day of fishing doesn’t mean you can’t catch fish.

One advantage of using a dead bait is that it can be fished exactly where and how it needs to be fished, whereas a live bait can swim out of the target zone or get tangled with another line.

In addition, some predators prefer an easy meal as opposed to chasing a live baitfish that’s trying to get away.

Capt. Abie Raymond of Go Hard Fishing (gohardfishing.com and @abie_raymond) trolls bonito strips for kingfish, sailfish, tuna, bonito, wahoo, and dolphin when fishing out of Bill Bird Marina in Miami Beach.

When his anglers catch a bonito, he fillets the fish and removes most of the meat from the skin with the blade of his knife until the fillet is an eighth of an inch thick, which allows a hook to penetrate a fish’s mouth more efficiently. Raymond then cuts the fillet with the blade angled to produce a beveled edge, which is hydrodynamic and yields a strip that resembles a thin baitfish.

He squares off one end of the strip and pokes a hole in that end with the knife. Then he sprinkles kosher salt over the strips to remove water from them and toughen them up, and he places them in a zip-closure plastic bag.

Raymond rigs a bonito strip on a 4- to 6-foot, 50-pound fluorocarbon leader with a perfection loop at one end that is attached to a snap swivel. The other end of the leader has a flashy, reverse-feather Mylar Sea Witch — his favorite colors are pink-and-blue and blue-and-white — above a 7/0 J hook tied to the leader with a six-turn improved clinch knot. Raymond puts a 4-inch piece of Monel wire through the hook eye, wraps it three times below the eye, and then places it back through the eye.

The Monel goes through the hole in the strip, with the meat side of the strip touching the shank of the hook. The wire is then wrapped below the tag end of the clinch knot to secure the strip, and the hook point is poked through the center of the strip. Raymond fishes bonito strips on a Penn International 16 conventional reel spooled with 20-pound line.

“I’ll put out two of those strip baits on my outriggers 80 to 120 feet behind the boat, along with a lure like a Billy Bait or Dolphin Jr. We stagger them, so a 20-foot lure, a 40-foot lure, an 80-foot strip, and a 100-foot strip would be my typical four-bait spread,” said Raymond, adding that anglers need to determine the most effective distances for their baits based on their type of boat and its engines. Strip baits might raise more fish closer to a boat with one brand of outboard motors than the same boat with a different brand of outboards.

Raymond favors bonito strips over rigged ballyhoo because strips last longer and can be cut to size to resemble a 4-, 6-, or 8-inch flying fish, with the wings imitated by the Sea Witch.

“Another huge advantage of a strip over a ballyhoo is if a sailfish grabs a ballyhoo and rips the tail off, you’re done,” Raymond said. “A bonito strip, he’ll just grab it and grab it. It might stretch and get longer and the meat might come off, but the skin’s still there swimming and looking beautiful.”

Capt. Chris Lemieux of Boynton Beach (lemieuxfishingcharters.com) also loves to troll bonito strips with Sea Witches, which is a great way to catch kingfish as well as dolphin, tuna, and bonito this time of year.

He fishes the strips behind planers on heavy, two-speed, conventional outfits spooled with 80-pound braided lines that are placed in rod-holders on each side of the stern of his 27-foot center console. A weighted, rectangular piece of metal, a planer dives to a range of depths depending on how much line is let out. One end of a planer is attached to the mainline and the other is attached to the leader. Lemieux uses 80 feet of 60-pound fluorocarbon leader, which he pulls in by hand after the planers are reeled to the rod tip.

“Some guys use a lighter leader, some guys use heavier, it just depends on your preference,” he said. “When the fish are biting good, I try to get a little heavier on them. When it’s a real slow, picky bite, you can go down to even 40-pound leader if you want to.”

Frozen ballyhoo, which are available at most tackle stores, also catch a variety of fish and are especially effective for dolphin. Raymond rigs skirted ballyhoo on a 7/0 J hook tied to a 15-foot, 50-pound, monofilament wind-on leader on a 20-pound spinning outfit.

“You fish it like a strip, 80 to 120 feet behind an outboard boat,” said Raymond, who trolls at 6 to 6½ knots.

Presented properly, dead ballyhoo and bonito strips look so real, even the most finicky fish can’t help but eat them.

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Enjoying the beautiful, dynamic Marjory’s Garden

Marjory’s Garden is more than just a garden. It’s a safe haven for students and teachers, fauna and flora, and so much more.

Ground was first broken on this project in May 2016 after dozens of portable classrooms were removed from a field behind Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD). Following the suggestion of science teachers Kyle Jeter and Sean Simpson, the principal at the time, Ty Thompson, allotted a long strip of land next to the tennis courts for the purposes of a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) project. Mr. Jeter, Mr. Simpson, and others began brainstorming ideas and created a sketch of what would become Marjory’s Garden.

When you walk into the garden, the first things you might see are the flower beds with eye-catching zinnias up front. These specific flowers are perfect for two of the garden sponsors, Mr. Jeter and Mr. Simpson, who teach astronomy. This is because zinnias were the first flower to ever be grown in space! If you like that fun fact (or learning in general), you should keep walking past the flower beds to the outdoor classroom.

The outdoor classroom is exactly what it sounds like, with a handful of benches all facing a stage for optimal teaching (covered by shade for those hot Florida days, of course). Many teachers love using this area as a change of setting during school hours, especially the STEM teachers. In fact, in the 2022-23 school year, there will be a botany class taught by Mr. Davis, and he will use the garden.

The outdoor classroom is also where the school hosts its garden movie nights. The Climate Change Club, for example, recently watched “The Lorax” in Marjory’s Garden. Along with movie nights, there are many other special events held in the garden, such as Astronomy Nights and a “Not-So-Scary Halloween” event hosted by Mrs. Herzfeld and the spectacular MSD Drama program. As you can see, Marjory’s Garden is as versatile as it is beautiful, which is why it is split up into different sections, or zones.

The zones consist of multiple areas including vegetable and flower beds, a butterfly garden, and a “food forest” created by Mrs. Beaty. There’s also a corn and okra field courtesy of Lt. Col. Mark Anders, and a giant bamboo cone supporting bean-sprouting vines (designed and built by Mr. Davis). There is a “Reflection Garden” with a small fountain and 17 large, polished stones, donated and built by Brightview Landscaping in 2018.

The garden is an officially recognized wildlife habitat as well. It is home to countless species of fauna, including mice, butterflies, bees, sawflies, rabbits, iguanas, and, recently, baby birds. The “Everglades Zone,” designed by Mr. Garner, features indigenous plants such as sawgrass and is a prime example of how the garden is nurturing our Florida ecosystem.

Other amenities include the “Little Library” (donated by MSD Media Center specialist Diana Haneski), the “Kindness Rocks” stand (maintained by Roxanne Haubrich and many others), and an area for games such as chess and cornhole. Finally, and perhaps most uniquely, Marjory’s Garden is home to an observatory with an 8-inch Cassegrain reflecting telescope!

Besides being a beloved location by MSD students and staff, there are academic benefits to visiting the garden: Students can earn two service hours for helping out in the garden on Sundays (beginning at 9 a.m. sharp). There are always a variety of projects to work on, such as maintaining the garden, planting new flora, painting, construction, and much more. The most meaningful day to volunteer is on the Day of Service, an annual event hosted by MSD on the anniversary of the tragedy. Students not only earn service hours but also contribute very special and meaningful work to the garden.

Another great feature of being a student at Marjory’s Garden is the lunch held in the garden every Wednesday. On garden lunch days, there is always a faculty member present. Dr. McBride, for example, supervises the latter of the two lunch periods weekly, and Mr. Davis supervises the first. The garden lunch gives students a mental refresher and brain break from school and academics. During these lunches, students usually relax in the outdoor classroom or sit on the benches placed throughout the garden.

The garden also uses hydroponics, with a nutrient solution and tubes of flowing water to grow an assortment of plants, such as lettuce and peppers. The original hydroponics was created by Mr. Simpson in 2016; however, the garden is going to team up with Mrs. Reich and her STEM classes to create a new and better version of hydroponics in the future. The school is also installing electrical outlets and a permanent water valve in the front of the garden, for powering lights and other electronics at night, and of course, pumps for the hydroponics. This is an expensive task, however, so a lot of donors were recruited to get the job done, including Eagles’ Haven, Cutler-Rader, Hard Rock Classic Casino, Broward Health, and Roman Consulting. Without School Board member Lori Alhadeff leading the fundraiser, this could not have been accomplished!

Marjory’s Garden continues to be a vibrant and beautiful green space at MSD, thanks to the amazing students, staff members, community volunteers, and donors. The faculty leadership team consists of Lt. Col. Anders, Mr. Cochenour, Mr. Davis, Mr. Garner, Mrs. Herzfeld, Mr. Jeter, Ms. McAuley, Mr. Simpson, and Mr. Walsh. A special thanks goes to Ken and Sharon Cutler for supporting the garden from the very beginning. Mr. Cutler is currently the vice mayor of Parkland and Mrs. Cutler is a long-time MSD business teacher and DECA advisor. The school is also extremely grateful to all of the community and parent volunteers. Marjory’s Garden is a very enjoyable learning space for all, and it couldn’t have been created without the support of the whole Eagle family.

If you’d like to support this dynamic project, please go to https://gofund.me/cccf2fc7 for the GoFundMe, managed by former MSD teacher (and garden guru) Stephanie Beaty.

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6888th: Heroes of the Central Postal Directory Battalion

In early 1945, as the Battle of the Bulge concluded, Army officials reported that a lack of mail was hurting morale. Warehouses were filled with millions of pieces of mail destined for the seven million Americans serving in the European theatre. The task of getting that mail to its intended recipients fell on the 6888th, nicknamed the “Six Triple Eight” Central Postal Directory Battalion.

Except for a few smaller units of nurses, the Six Triple Eight was the only all-Black unit from the Women’s Army Corps to serve overseas during World War II. Major Charity Edna Adams was selected to command the battalion and became the first Black woman to hold a commission in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

The Six Triple Eight confronted the packed warehouses in Birmingham, England. These buildings were unheated and dimly lit, and the windows were blacked out to prevent light from showing during nighttime air raids. As it was a cold winter, they wore long johns and extra layers of clothing under their coats while working in these warehouses.

The unit members were organized into three separate shifts daily, so work continued around the clock, seven days a week. They tracked individual service members by maintaining about seven million locator cards, including serial numbers to distinguish different individuals with the same name. They dealt with “undeliverable” mail that was sent to their location for redirection. They investigated insufficiently addressed mail for clues to determine the intended recipient, and they handled the sad duty of returning mail addressed to service members who had died.

Once the immense backlog in Birmingham was gone, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion sailed to France in 1945, shortly after V-E Day. They encountered another backlog of undelivered mail dating back as far as two to three years, which again would take an estimated six months to process.

While in Rouen, the 6888th experienced a tragedy. On July 8, 1945, PFC Mary J. Barlow and PFC Mary H. Bankston were killed in a jeep accident, and Sergeant Dolores M. Browne died on July 13 from injuries resulting from the accident. Because the War Department did not provide funds for funerals, the women of the 6888th pooled their resources to honor their deceased members. First Lieutenant Dorothy Scott found three unit members who had experience with mortuary work to take care of the bodies, and unit members paid for caskets. Memorial services were organized and held for the deceased, and Major Adams wrote to inform their families in the United States of their fate. Sergeant Browne, PFC Barlow, and PFC Bankston were buried with honors in the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer (there are only four women buried there).

In February 1946, the remainder of the unit returned to the United States and was disbanded at Fort Dix, New Jersey, without further ceremony. There were no parades, no public appreciation, and no official recognition of their accomplishments, although Charity Adams was promoted to lieutenant colonel upon her return to the U.S.

This is not a story about the mail. This is a story about 855 Black women, who found a way to serve when the nation needed them most. In 2019, a bipartisan effort was started to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 6888th. Both senate and house passed the measure and President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan bill on March 14.

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Blackfin tuna, abundant and delicious

South Florida offshore anglers have their pick of species in May, and many of them put blackfin tuna at the top of their fish wish list. Even though the grouper season opens on May 1, and fried grouper is delicious, those fish can be difficult to catch.

Blackfin tuna, however, are abundant this month. They can be caught with live bait, dead bait, and trolling lures, and they are exceptionally tasty grilled, or pan-seared on the outside and rare on the inside.

Unlike grouper, there is no minimum size limit for blackfins, although most of them range in weight from 10 to 30 pounds. The daily bag limit is two tuna per angler or 10 per boat, whichever is greater. That means two fishermen can keep 10 blackfins and six anglers can keep a total of 12 fish.

The first step in catching blackfins is finding water where they hang out. According to Capt. Skip Dana of Deerfield Beach, purple-blue water is ideal, but tuna can also be caught in green water. More important than the water’s color is the presence of baitfish.

“I tell people to find water that’s alive, where it’s got baits and activity,” Dana said. “If you find that good, alive water, the tuna will find you.”

When he fishes in tournaments, Dana will drift with live baits such as pilchards, sardines, and goggle-eyes on flat lines, which his crew casts out behind the boat, as well as live baits on kite lines, which splash on the surface suspended from a fishing kite.

“When the conditions are right, you want a full spread out,” said Dana, who also has his crew put chunks of sardines in the water to attract the tuna, but not too many chunks.

“I think some guys over-chunk,” said Dana, who uses frozen sardines sold by tackle stores. “Don’t get crazy. You want a slow, steady stream of chunks, but not too much.

“There are so many sharks, you can’t chunk that much, otherwise you’ll have sharks up in the chum, and triggerfish.”

Local anglers lose a lot of blackfins to sharks, often reeling in only the head of a tuna after it’s been chomped. So after hooking a tuna, it’s essential to reel in the hard-fighting fish as quickly as possible.

Capt. Bouncer Smith said anglers can also chunk for tuna using a 25-pound flat of herring or squid. “You can cut it up in advance or cut it as you chunk it,” he said.

Smith noted that even when your chunking attracts tuna behind your boat, the fish won’t always eat a bait drifted back on a hook. When that happens, anglers need to go lighter and smaller with their tackle. So if you usually fish with 30-pound leaders and size 5/0 circle hooks, you might want to downsize to 20-pound leaders with a 2/0 or 1/0 hook.

Dana said that most anglers would do fine using two spinning rods with 3/0 to 5/0 hooks. Using dead or live baits, he’d put one on the surface and the other down with a 1-ounce sinker and drift in 150-220 feet.

Be aware that multiple hookups can occur when the tuna are chummed up and in a feeding frenzy. That can result in crossed lines, so it’s important for anglers to pay attention to where their fish are headed so they can go over or under a fellow angler’s fishing line.

The time of day also can be a factor in tuna fishing success.

As Capt. Mario Coté of Hollywood pointed out, blackfin tuna have big eyes that allow them to take a careful look at a bait. He uses 20-pound conventional outfits with 15-foot leaders of 40-pound fluorocarbon, which is invisible in the water. He also likes to fish for tuna early in the morning, late in the afternoon, and on cloudy days, because that’s when the sunlight is less intense.

“If you were in the water on a sunny day and you had to look up to see something, it wouldn’t be easy,” Coté explained.

Coté fishes with live pilchards on two flat lines and on two weighted lines, one down about 50 feet and the other close to the bottom. He hooks the pilchards through the nose, although other anglers hook the baits toward the tail so the pilchards swim down.

Now is also a great time to catch a tuna from a kayak. Joe Hector of the Extreme Kayak Fishing tournament series uses live bait and jigs for blackfins. His live-bait outfit is straight 30-pound monofilament with a 2/0 to 3/0 hook on a medium-heavy spinning rod. “I know the 2/0 hook is small, but I’ve had way more tuna bites on a 2/0,” said Hector, of Deerfield Beach.

“They’re definitely deep as well, so I would definitely recommend taking a jigging rod and hitting the deeper wrecks and jigging your butt off,” added Hector, who uses a vertical jig, a long, heavy piece of metal with one or two hooks attached to it. “Start at 250 feet if you’re drifting in and 80 if you’re drifting out.”

No matter how you catch a blackfin tuna, and whether you marinate it in soy sauce or teriyaki sauce or sprinkle it with olive oil, salt, and pepper before grilling or searing it, you’ll forget all about fishing for grouper once you taste it.

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Changing life through sport

We all know how important exercise is to our health. But the reasons that we have for not getting started or staying committed to exercising are numerous:

  • Have no time
  • Too tired at the end of the day
  • Don’t like to exercise alone
  • Need motivation
  • Get bored easily
  • It’s not fun
  • Too old/out of shape
  • Can’t stick with it
  • Too expensive
  • Don’t fit in

Sound familiar?

Diego Velasquez had a deep-rooted connection with sport. He wanted to help to transform people’s lives for the better by encouraging them to join daily individual and group physical exercises combined with social responsibility to help the community.

In 2011, he helped create the group Race Junkies. A nonprofit that’s free to join, Race Junkies’ mission is to promote health and exercise. The group’s core belief is that through sport, there is the power to change lives. They seek to bring inspiration to every person, see possibilities where others see only challenges, create a culture where people feel they belong, and encourage people to train. The nonprofit group works with local sponsors to get donations that directly enable the group to promote exercise by helping fund team uniforms, cycling equipment, and race entry fees.

Some members of Race Junkies simply enjoy running, cycling, or swimming, and others are marathoners and triathletes, often traveling and supporting each other in local, national, and international events. Members coordinate training programs, with the most seasoned athletes becoming leaders and mentors to newer members. The team is enriched by the diversity of cultural and professional backgrounds, and everyone is welcome: kids, adults of all ages, elite athletes, and non-athletes.

Starting an exercise routine is not easy. Some of the biggest barriers to exercising regularly are fitting it into your schedule, accountability, needing motivation from others, diversity, and the challenge to keep exercise from becoming boring.

With Race Junkies, there are always people biking, running, and swimming at different times, on different days, at different speeds, and in different locations in Coral Springs and areas nearby. This suits Thiago, who joined Race Junkies two years ago, just fine. He finds the time and motivation to train despite having a newborn, driving kids to school, and working all hours of the day with people around the world in different time zones. His goal is to finish the Ironman 70.3 later this year.

“You will never be alone if you don’t want to,” said Thiago. “The beauty is the motivation others bring to the group. You always have a partner or a group to train with.”

Added Kevin, who, after “plenty of sedentary and self-indulgent behavior,” decided he wanted to exercise to set a good example for his daughter, and now has run the New York City marathon and many half-marathons and aspires to compete in a full Ironman. “There are a lot of tools available as well. I for sure wouldn’t have access to the amazing swim coaches there are or the bike resources.”

It’s easy for a “no can do, no way no how, it’s just not me” attitude to sabotage one’s exercise goals. But Race Junkies members find those obstacles can be overcome surprisingly easily, even if at first, they think that exercising and competing are impossible for them. “Once they join, people realize they didn’t even know there were goals they could push themselves toward,” said Kevin. “It goes from painful, to I don’t know why I’m doing this, to I can’t stop doing this. And it happens very quickly.”

While they are inspired by other members, Race Junkies often find that training at their own pace and not comparing themselves to others is a winning formula. Certainly, this was true for Lorena, Diego’s wife. The triathlon bike (tribike) that Diego gave her sat untouched in their garage for two years before she started riding. Initially unsure and intimidated by people more athletic than she imagined she would ever be, since joining Race Junkies nine years ago, Lorena has completed three 70.3 Ironman races. When she turned 50, she ran the New York City marathon.

The how and why members have gotten involved with Race Junkies varies, but the sense of health, strength, and well-being it fosters, and the desire to mentor and give back to the group, is a common experience.

As Roberto, a member of Race Junkies for five years and marathoner who “never tries to win anything, only to compete with himself,” said, “We have all types of people with all types of goals, but we come together and support each other. I try to give back as much as I can as a ride leader with the group, hosting two rides per week, helping with bike mechanics, and offering a bike clinic for the group. But even more than supporting each other in sports, we support each other in life.”

Everyone is welcome to train with Race Junkies. To learn more about the group, contact them on social media:

  • Instagram: racejunkiesusa
  • Facebook: Race Junkies—www.facebook.com/groups/1835441360110979
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Society of the Four Arts: Soaking in art, culture, nature, and inspiration

As part of the art class in my 55+ community, we go on field trips to different art museums and exhibits in the area, led by our teacher and artist-in-residence. For our most recent trip, he took us to the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. There we discovered a gorgeous campus of buildings and gardens in the heart of the island.

Although we traveled there to see an exhibition called “In a New Light: American Impressionism 1870–1940”(which has since moved on), we got a lot more from this trip than expected. The Four Arts campus includes the spacious art gallery, “Campus on the Lake” cultural programs in various buildings, a library and children’s library, a sculpture garden, and a lush botanical garden.

Our group started in the spacious art gallery for the seasonal exhibition ($10 each, prepaid), and after viewing the impressive paintings in all of the rooms, we ventured outside, where we were greeted by tranquil gardens and more art.

The Philip Hulitar Sculpture Garden and the Four Arts Botanical Gardens, two distinct gardens, have provided a natural oasis in Palm Beach since 1938. You can get away from stressful daily life and stroll through this peaceful maze of floral paths with ponds, benches, fountains, and lush foliage. One of my favorites was the unique Chinese Garden, where you can go through a pagoda-style entrance and grab a solitary moment to meditate and get lost in the quiet beauty of this walled-off part of the gardens.

The other gardens, or outdoor “rooms,” are the Fragrant Moonlight Garden, Palm Garden, Bromeliad Garden, Jungle Garden, Spanish Façade Garden, Formal Garden, Tropical Garden, and Madonna Garden — each one more breathtaking than the last.

The sculpture garden gave our art class more culture to soak in outside. The heart of this garden is a plaza paved in quartzite encircling a beautiful octagonal fountain. Bronze figurative sculptures are scattered throughout the garden in settings both formal and informal. Our group of budding artists enjoyed wandering around and stopping to take in the sculptures at our own pace. We moved wherever our spirit took us. It was a perfect field trip for our group.

The Society of the Four Arts has lots more for visitors to do and plenty of parking space to accommodate them. In addition to viewing the art in the Esther B. O’Keeffe Gallery, which changes every so often with temporary, traveling exhibits, one can enjoy workshops, lectures, music, films, book discussions, and plenty of programs for children, including floral design and storytime.

Examples of upcoming book discussions on campus include “You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War” (May 17), “Robert Macomber, Code of Honor” (June 8), and “The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winston and Clementine’s Daughters” (June 21).

Or just go to the Four Arts to take in the fragrant, verdant gardens and get inspired by your surroundings. You’ll be glad you did.

For more information, go to fourarts.org.

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Meet the man living in the middle of the Everglades

At the crossroads of Florida Street and the River of Grass lives Gerald Motes, a man who has called the Everglades his home for the past 12 years. Motes, who lives full-time in Old Glory, one of a small number of historical cabins built in the middle of the Everglades back in the 1950s, spent close to 10 years rebuilding the cabin after a lightning strike set it on fire in 2000.

“It’s a good thing it burned down,” laments Motes. “I hate to say it because it was a historical cabin, but it was so badly rotted.” It took him roughly 10 years to rebuild the new structure, as he spent weekends off from work transporting all of his supplies — including lumber and tools — to the camp entirely by airboat. “I bet I didn’t miss three weekends in 10 years out here,” he says with a laugh. “I did maybe as much as 80% of the work by myself.”

Old Glory is not the only historical cabin Motes owns. “East of here is Judge’s Camp,” he explains, pointing to a map of Water Conservation Area 2A, the section of the Everglades where he lives. “The people who had it weren’t able to take care of it. They held onto it until it rotted and then turned it over to the state. When I heard the state was going to remove it, I talked to them and they turned the lease over to me. I tore it down, rebuilt it, and now have a five-bedroom cabin over there.”

There are a total of 87 cabins in the Everglades registered with the state, with new building now prohibited.

Motes’ cabin has been featured in a number of movies and television shows, including “Swamp People,” “The Bachelor,” and “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” With 20 beds, two couches, and two generators, Old Glory has the capacity to host quite a few guests.

Despite its remote location, the cabin has modern amenities including air conditioning, an indoor toilet, shower, and wireless internet. “We’ve got satellite dishes out here. Heck, I’ve even got TV,” jokes Motes, who uses his internet connection to post regular updates on his Facebook page under the handle “@OldGloryCamp.” Motes writes about weather conditions, visitors to his camp, what he’s up to for the day, and sometimes what he’s cooking — recently gator tongue after hosting a teen alligator hunt.

While Motes eats off the land some of the time, cooking up fish, and sometimes frogs, he estimates that about 90% of his food comes from the grocery store. Supply runs were one of the many adjustments that he made in moving out there full-time.

The first was mindset. “The adjustment is to let your world calm down,” reflects Motes. “Slow down. That’s the biggest thing.” And while he enjoys slowing down, there are always things that need attending to at Old Glory.

“Gasoline is my biggest challenge,” notes Motes. “I’ve been having to go into town twice a week for gasoline.” On recent trips, Motes has needed more than 180 gallons of gas at a time in order to fuel his booming airboat tour business. Because all of his supplies are transported via airboat, he collects the gas in five-gallon containers.

In addition to tours, Motes runs a rescue service as well. “I do a tremendous amount of recovery out here. Sunk boats. Turned-over boats. Wrecked boats,” he says.

Other challenges that Motes highlighted were repairs and keeping his boats running. “Fortunately, I’m able to order parts online now and Sawgrass Recreation Park will accept my packages and hold them for me. I drove for them for years and we’ve gotten to be very good friends.” The park is also where he keeps his truck.

Maintaining the property comes with its own set of demands, and Motes is the first to admit that he needs help. He’s constantly pulling back vines so they don’t overrun the manmade island his home sits on, and making structural repairs. “I’ve got tons of dock work and stuff that needs to be looked at before it gets too bad,” he says.

“I made a mistake in the beginning because it was just the way it was done back then, and I put telephone poles underneath the building,” explains Motes. “They’re gonna rot out. I need to go down and start replacing some of them and it needs to be done when the water is down. Once it goes down, I might only have a week.”

The water level where Motes lives can fluctuate by up to three feet, meaning at times, a large percentage of his lawn is underwater. The fluctuation depends on when flood water is released from other areas, such as Lake Okeechobee, which is all a part of the water management system in place in the Everglades.

“Water management is a miserable failure at trying to compete with Mother Nature. And I wouldn’t have her job for nothing in the world,” emphasizes Motes.

As we cross the wooden bridge that leads to an outdoor shower and bathtub, Motes stops to explain some of the plants growing beneath the platform, pointing toward a leafy green one. “It’s called a mallow plant and it grows in marshy areas. The derivative of the root of that plant was used to make the original marshmallow that we know of today. That’s the marshmallow plant.”

Extremely knowledgeable about the plant and animal life in the Everglades, Motes easily explains which species are natural and which are invasive.

For more information on Motes, to schedule an airboat tour, visit Old Glory, or even offer help, check out the Old Glory Facebook page or www.evergladesairboatexcursions.com.

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Paralympic goals

When former Coral Springs resident Tyler Merren and his American teammates play for the world championship in their sport during this fall’s Paralympic Games, they will need to rely on their ears as much as other body parts to succeed.

That is because the sport in which Merren and his teammates compete is goalball. It is a sport designed specifically for athletes who are visually impaired. Participants compete in teams of three and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents’ goal. Players, using ear-hand coordination, must use the sound of the bells to judge the position and movement of the ball. Athletes play the sport indoors, usually on a volleyball court.

Merren, who lives in Fort Wayne, will participate this fall in his fifth world championship as a member of the U.S. men’s goalball team. The results will play a crucial role in determining qualification for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Specifically, the top two men’s and women’s teams at the world championships earn an automatic berth for Paris. The Paralympics games are for physically disabled athletes.

Merren, 37, was born with an eye condition called retinitis pigmentosa in both of his eyes. It is a group of rare, genetic disorders that involve a breakdown and loss of cells in the retina. As a result, he is legally blind, meaning he has less than 10 percent vision.

Merren, who grew up in a family of athletes, used to play other sports. But as his vision got worse, he had to stop. Then, a sports education camp for visually impaired youth at Western Michigan University introduced him to goalball and other adapted sports such as swimming, track and field, and wrestling.

Merren had never heard of goalball before the camp. He said that a fellow camper observed him play, thought he was good, and asked him if he wished to continue to play. Merren stuck with the sport. And today, his former fellow camper is his teammate on the U.S. Paralympic team.

Altogether, Merren has competed in 15 countries and 28 states. He has been competing with the U.S. men’s goalball team for more than 20 years. He credited their success to the work the players put in off the court.

“We run ourselves into the ground training day after day,” Merren said. “Like any athlete out there, we want to be the best we can be. I enjoy the process of trying to perfect my game and my athleticism.”

Individually, Merren said that his accuracy throwing the ball is “pretty good.” As a result, he gets many opportunities for penalty throws.

During the 2010 world championships, Merren was the fourth-highest goalscorer in the world.

However, he said that he values team victories more than individual statistics and accomplishments. “Sometimes that means handing the ball off to a teammate,” he said.

How does it feel to qualify for the world championships?

“It’s gratifying and affirming at the same time,” Merren said. He added that the U.S. has a “pretty strong” goalball program. “I would have been shocked if [we] had not qualified,” he said.

The former Coral Springs resident described goalball as a combination of soccer, handball, and volleyball.

“It’s not quite like anything else that people have played before,” he said. “The cool thing about goalball is that no matter how much vision I might lose, the sport stays the same. It’s based off of my work ethic and skill as opposed to my vision loss.

“Being visually impaired doesn’t change the fact that I’m a competitive athlete, and goalball gives me that opportunity to compete at an elite level.”

Goalball has existed since 1946. Its first purpose was to help rehabilitate veterans who had lost their sight during World War II. Players remain on their hands and knees to defend their net and score against their opponents. A goalball court measures about 60 feet long and almost 30 feet wide. String taped to the markings on the court allows players to feel the lines and orient themselves.

Goalball’s Paralympic premiere came in 1976 in Toronto. Organizers added a women’s event at the 1984 Paralympic Games in New York. The sport’s first world championships took place in 1978 in Austria. The International Blind Sports Federation is the official governing body for the sport.

Merren, who is originally from southwest Michigan, lived in Coral Springs from 2013 to 2019. While in South Florida, he worked at a 24 Hour Fitness location as a master trainer and an assistant fitness manager. He is also a motivational speaker and has a Facebook page. To find it, go to www.facebook.com and search for “Tyler Merren Speaks” in the search bar. Following Merren’s Facebook page will, among other things, allow you to keep up with his goalball team’s progress. For more information on the International Blind Sports Federation and goalball, visit https://ibsasport.org/.

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May’s marvelous skies

What a month ahead for stargazers! The month of May offers a little bit of everything for us astronomy enthusiasts. There’s a meteor shower early in the month, a total lunar eclipse mid-month, and a parade of planets in the morning skies near the end of the month. Pretty cool!

This month’s challenge for beginners: It’s a great time of the year to follow an old saying and “arc to Arcturus.” Arcturus is the fourth brightest star in the entire night sky and has a beautiful orangish color (due to its relatively “cool” temperature).

First, find the Big Dipper by looking north. Then, follow the arc of its handle but extend the arc until you curve to Arcturus. If you continue the arc, you can then “speed on to Spica,” which is a brilliant-white star (due to its relatively hot temperature) located in Virgo.

This month’s astrophotography challenge: Take your pick — you can stay up late for the eclipse or wake up early for the planets. Either offers the opportunity for beautiful pictures with or without a telescope. Good luck!

Sky highlights this month:

  • May 6. Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower. This is a reliable meteor shower of a medium rate. This year it will be at its best due to moonlight not being a factor (a waxing crescent that evening, which will set early). For best results, view from a very dark location after midnight.
  • May 15–16. Total Lunar Eclipse. The full eclipse begins at 11:29 p.m. local time. Look for the Moon’s slight reddish hue as sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere gets scattered onto it. The eclipse maximum occurs at 12:11 a.m. The full eclipse ends by 12:54 a.m.
  • May 15–16. Full Moon. Of course, it’s also a Full Moon, because you can only have a lunar eclipse during a Full Moon. This one was nicknamed the “Flower Moon” by some ancient Native American tribes for the time of year when, obviously, many flowers are in bloom.
  • May 22–29. Conjunction Week! OK, that’s not an official title — just one I made up — but I think it’s apropos. In the morning skies of late May, we will be treated to a parade of all the naked-eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) and a crescent Moon (some nights). It should be magnificent and worth setting the alarm clock for a pre-dawn walk.
  • May 30. New Moon. This is the best time of the month to venture out to a dark area and view/photograph deep-sky objects (nebulas, star clusters, galaxies, etc.). Please consider joining the South Florida Amateur Astronomers Association for information on the best places for sky-watching (www.sfaaa.com).

It’s a terrific month for astrophotography. If you post any cool pics, be sure to tag the Parklander® and me on Instagram (@theparklander and @jeterk1971)— We’d love to see your work!

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Kindred spirit at the dog park

I was such a cheerleader from the sidelines. Usually in a conversation, I am the one who is defending animal rights or educating people about them, but recently I observed my kindred spirit. I live part of the year in Colorado, and going to the dog park when the temperatures are below freezing is not an activity I typically partake in, but recently we had a nice surprise. The temperatures were in the high 50s, so I went with my daughter and her dog to the local dog park. Now Coloradans don’t care what the temperature is. They will go to the dog park if it is 5 degrees below zero.

So on this day, the dog park was busy. I believe that everyone in Colorado has more than one dog. I could overhear a man and a woman talking passionately about something related to the man’s sick dog. It obviously had nothing to do with the malamute that he was throwing the ball to. That dog was running at full speed, not caring what was between him and the ball, as he was completely focused on getting that ball and preventing other dogs from touching it. What I could hear was that his puppy Monty was in the local animal hospital fighting for his life with parvovirus.

Parvovirus is a killer. If a puppy gets it, there is a 50/50 chance of its survival, even if it gets the best care at the best hospital. Parvovirus targets rapidly dividing cells in the body such as the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and the bone marrow, so the puppy will have explosive diarrhea and vomiting. The integrity of its GI tract will be compromised, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream, and because the bone marrow is also affected, the puppy won’t have the ability to fight off the infection. Most people will never know a puppy is affected by parvo, because veterinarians vaccinate all puppies four times starting when they are 2 months old, and they are typically revaccinated again at a year old, then every three years.

I did hear the woman in the conversation ask the man if he had had his puppy vaccinated, and he said he doesn’t “do vaccines anymore.” He didn’t get COVID vaccinated, he doesn’t get flu shots, and he won’t get the shingles vaccine no matter how much his doctor and girlfriend ask him to. The woman asked if the malamute, named Aspen, was vaccinated and he said that he was, but he is not going to do it anymore. The woman then told the man that parvovirus is incredibly contagious and typically transmitted through the stool to other dogs. She told him that Aspen is probably doing so well because he was vaccinated, and if his puppy was positive for parvovirus last week, most likely he was passing parvovirus in his stool. Therefore, if he defecated at the park, he could infect young dogs not fully vaccinated.

The man was getting uncomfortable as others were joining the conversation. People in Colorado are uber-protective of their pets. That dog park had regulars, and they were not happy that someone had potentially brought an infectious disease to their dog park. The man stopped throwing the ball and started to walk toward his car. I must have looked empathetic to him because he muttered to me to “watch out for the Fauci liberals over there.” I was about to educate him about infectious disease when my daughter grabbed my arm and gave me the look, “Not today.”

Ironically, Colorado was not a mask-happy-wearing state, but if COVID affected dogs, believe me, you would see dogs in designer masks. Please don’t bring unvaccinated puppies to dog parks.

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