After making a champagne toast at the New Year's Eve Celebration at Community Hall or celebrating with friends and family at home, most people can wait another day before keeping their resolutions to become more physically active. ...more

December 31, 2008

Erratic summer rain, a damaged reservoir and lingering drought have strained water supplies to the limit, with just a quarter of the eight-month dry season over and the hottest, most parched months to come. ...more

December 30, 2008

TAMPA -- Erratic summer rain, a damaged reservoir and lingering drought have strained water supplies to the limit, with just a quarter of the eight-month dry season over and the hottest, most parched months to come. ...more

December 29, 2008

Recently, several readers sent me e-mails about birds and the winter garden, and I had a request from a reader asking me to send her a column on the subject that was published a few years ago. Here's that column, somewhat updated, with some thoughts about birds in winter. ...more

December 28, 2008

Hernando County residents should wake up today to temperatures near 81. It might be a bit cloudy, but maybe the sun will peek out at intervals. ...more

December 25, 2008

The many angels exhibited this time of year are evidence of a widespread belief in what happened some 2,000 years ago near Bethlehem. ...more

December 25, 2008

'Tis the season to be jolly - or grouse about what to call the season. By now, many people have made peace with the fact that we live in a society in which people holding any number of beliefs about the events of tomorrow, Dec. 25. Some people who celebrate the events at the center of the religious aspect of Dec. 25 but do it on different days. Others have a celebration that this year began Dec. 21 and run for eight nights. Others observe a holiday that begins Dec. 26 and ends Jan. 1. Some people observe Dec. 25, but the only spirit that moves them is ho-ho-ho and mistletoe. To some Dec. 25 is - bah, humbug - just the day before Dec. 26. ...more

December 24, 2008

Even in this day of economic downturn we should not worry if we will be able to give the gifts we feel those we care about deserve. ...more

December 24, 2008

Although many reef anglers say they are catching more small gag grouper than at any time in the past 20 years, state and federal fishery managers have confirmed a plan to reduce the bag limit on the popular reef species to one per person per day as part of an aggregate bag of five groupers of all species. Formerly, Gulf anglers could take up to five gags daily. ...more

December 21, 2008

Devastated. That's the word Valdora Ward uses to describe her reaction to finding that her home of 31 years had been burglarized on Saturday. ...more

December 16, 2008