Hi! One of the things about FP that I have loved is that it has provided some shelter from the feeling of 'political homelessness' I have been feeling for a while now. The Dem primary here in Denver this summer ended with a win for Melat Kiros, a rabid Hamas apologist who doesn't think it's antisemitic to set Jewish Bubbies (grandmas) on fire in the streets of Boulder (because Free Palestine). We had about a week of despair, but I've been feeling a lot more upbeat since Dr. Shimon Blau launche

Just to introduce myself, My name is Bob Gaston. I live in Largo, Florida. I moved to Southwest Florida as a child in the 1950s.  I was born in North Carolina, lived in Atlanta Georgia for a while before my family moved to Florida. You may have guessed that I am an old guy now. I am a Vietnam veteran. I also spent twenty years in the U.S. Army. Most of that was outside the United States.  After retiring from the military I worked in the IT industry for about forty years.

A few years ago my family and I travelled to British Columbia. It was blackberry season. The first chance I got, I stopped the car near some bushes in a parking lot, reached past a bramble, and plucked a wild blackberry. It was warm from the sun, slightly bitter, and very sweet. Memories of a childhood roadtrip in the 80s, picking with my sister, and Paul Simon's Graceland album erupted in my tastebuds. It is a flavour that has never been captured by any store-bought, Mexican-imported blackberry