On Sunday, we had tickets to see the political parody comedy group Capitol Fools. We attended with George and Lorraine, Deeny’s brother and sister-in-law, at the Venice Performing Arts Center. We saw the matinee show and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Capitol Fools is a group of singer/comedians, some from the original Capitol Steps group. The Capitol Steps was formed in 1981 by a group of senate staffers who set out to satirize the very people and places that employed them. Sadly, the group didn’t survive the pandemic because they were a live-performance group. However, some of the original players regrouped and formed the Capitol Fools, and I’m very glad they did because their political parody is superb. We laughed ourselves silly!
The group made fun of everything political and all the key players. I was curious as to how a Florida audience would respond to all the DeSantis and Trump jokes, but everyone seemed to find things very hilarious. In addition to simple commentary, the group excels at putting words to popular and well-known tunes. One of the performers excelled at backward talk. I don’t know how he’s able to do it, but he transposes the first letter or two of two words and exchanges them, e.g., Tronald Dump. It takes a few seconds to figure out what he’s saying, but when you do, it is a marvel how he’s able to quickly talk with words in sentences getting scrambled. It was like a grown-up version of pig Latin. It was very entertaining. After he said something scrambled, he’d stop and wait for the audience to figure out what he said and he’d nod his head as the audience who got it would start to laugh. You can see some of their promos on YouTube if you want to get a flavor of their shtick.
After the show, we went to Sharky’s for dinner with George, Lorraine and Deeny. George suffered a stroke several years ago and so has a bit of difficulty getting around, but he was a trooper getting in and out of Sharky’s. It was a nice evening and we loved catching up with George and Lorraine. George has a witty sense of humor.
There was another beautiful sunset and we stood along the beach appreciating the view.
Monday evening we did another traditional activity. We went to the rookery to watch the birds fly in. Venice Audubon Rookery Park is an oasis of natural beauty surrounded by urban development. The central feature of this small park is a rookery island where birds roost and nest. It always amazes me that so close to a heavily traveled highway and dense areas of development all around, this bird paradise exists. Just before sunset, birds begin to fly in and land on the shrubs and trees growing on this tiny island. Most of the birds tonight were Egrets, but there were some Anhingas, Ibis, Tri-colored Herons, and Blue Heron. It’s fun to watch a bird swoop in, often circling around the little island and picking a spot to land. Often, a bird lands near another and there is cackling and wings flapping as a bird moves to another spot. It is just a bit early for nesting season, December, so there weren’t as many birds as we’ve seen in the past, but it is a wonderful way to spend and hour, watching the beautiful birds come in to roost.
On Tuesday, Christine and I drove to Lehigh Acres, about an hour south, to visit our good friends Marlene and Elliott LaRose. We know them from our lake association. Elliott and I have been best buds in the summer for years. We’ve worked on the Water Committee together and he as treasurer and me as secretary of the association, we’ve worked closely on association business. He’s a great guy and I really love him. Marlene is a pip, too. She is very funny, and Christine really enjoys spending time with her. Although they’ve lived in Florida since 2006, we’ve never visited during any of our trips.
We got to see their house and we walked around their yard. Elliott has been growing milkweed in order to attract Monarch butterflies and he showed me some chrysalises. That was cool to see. Marlene was very happy showing us lots of nice, interesting things around the house, many of which their son Rick made. Both Elliott and Marlene are in their upper 80s and have been experiencing health problems, so much so that for the past two years, they’ve only gotten to the lake for a week each year. I really miss Elliott when he’s not at the lake because we do lots of things together and I like helping him out.
We went out to lunch, which was a story in and of itself. There was a long delay in getting our food and Elliott asked for the manager, which he said he never does. He told the manager that he was a stock holder in the company and that led to a long conversation with the manager about the difficulty in running the business and in keeping chefs employed. It was an interesting discussion. The manager eventually comped one of the orders, which Elliott was happy about.
After lunch, we took a ride over to Fort Myers Beach. If you recall, Hurricane Ian devastated the beach town. It’s been about 14 months since the storm, and while to debris is cleared away, nearly all the buildings are still closed and all the first, and sometimes second, floors of the buildings are totally gutted. It was rather shocking to see the devastation. Although, the community vows to return, it is difficult to see how that’s going to happen anytime soon.
So, we spent a nice few hours with Elliott and Marlene.
Christine and I had a very wet ride home in the rain. It’s scary how fast people drive in Florida, even in the pouring rain. But we made it home safely. We’re glad that there is rain in the forecast because this area of Florida has been in drought conditions. We’re slated for rain all day tomorrow, which is really a good thing.