Wallace noticed our palm tree is blooming. We will try to get a picture, but it is pure white against a pale sky. I cannot find the species in any reference book because it is an introduced ornamental. Hang on a sec. Okay, I’m informed I once said there were no native palm trees in Florida. If so, what I meant is no coconut or date palms. Lots of spindly palm tree things are native here. This tree in Forest Wally remains a mystery. You can just make out the flower growing out of the top of the palm leaves that look like green spikes. It is a cluster of flowers over a foot tall.
Beginning at 7:30 this A.M. we put the TV with the intention to see what it says for a few hours. Gustav is hundreds of miles away and going the other direction yet they are showing panicky families moving “valuables” (like televisions) up to the second storey. Don’t worry, you rest of the world, the smart people here are just going on about their business. If it gets bad, I’ll check into a motel three blocks away.Two other things on TV frighten me even more than bad weather. One is the current politicians, which I have seen and heard for the first time today. This Obama guy talks in circles, he just can’t seem to stick on a subject more than a sentence or two. He continually restates the obvious. If you are making less money than last year and have the same bills to pay, is it really necessary to keep saying that foreclosures are up? (Is it his business people bought more house than they can pay for anyway?) This McCain is just plain a weakling not fit to lead anybody. However, this country has thrived under poor presidents before. The second thing is those before and after pictures of the lady who lost 94 pounds. Now that is truly scary.
There is another thing about Obama. He set an evil precedent in my books. He thinks he was being trendy and clever by sending out several million text messages, where he is, in fact, abusing peoples right to privacy. You keep your damned political and all advertising messages off my private property. I encourage all to vote against anyone who transmits unsolicited advertising by telephone or computer. Remember when cable TV was supposed to be commercial-less because you already paid for it?
At the shop, we have found another unspoken limitation of Windows XP. Again, I am one of the first in line waiting for Microsoft to crumble, not because I dislike them personally, but because their very presence is denying space to a more competent party. I say Microsoft has repeatedly proven they will not correct known defects despite having half a lifetime to do so. Well, there now seems to be an upper limit to the processor speed that will work with XP. (Faster speeds require 64 bit systems.) The maximum seems to be around 3 Gigahertz. This barrier is so artificial there can be no doubt it was deliberate. To those who like Windows, we ask what other sneaky surprises lurk?
Revenues. Mine are up 69.67%. This is only seems optimistic because of how poorly things went the previous month. I still have to raid my bank account to get by this month. Yes, I should be used to that in the Florida summer but I still don’t like dipping into reserves. All told, I’m down just $139 to cover all expenses (except food) including this place, so I shouldn’t complain. When I lived up north, my cheapest month ever cost $1032. Don’t try this at home. If the world was fair, fast food would cost less every year.
Suspicious behavior department. This neighbor up the road on the “lower east side”, as opposed to our prestigious location, seems to come and go every few hours round the clock. My office window faces the street and I’m up a good 9 feet off the ground. My schedule is random, often doing this typing at 3:00 or 4:00 A.M. Yet he is continually pulling past in a brand new Cadillac every couple of hours. He is in 60s so something just does not add up. It is nothing, but it still doesn’t tally.
I got the hardware over to Eric with my assurances he will get all the help he needs if Hannah heads this way. The cable TV people were in his place and despite being very careful, they accidentally let Holly (the new cat) out. She’ll have been there a week now so she’ll show when hunger takes over. Instinct my eye, hunger works wonders. Pudding-Tat is proof a cat can disappear for up to five days inside the house.
I thought I’d see about putting together some footage for Peggy using nine-year old videos from South America. I am very aware of the pre-conceived notions people get when I tell them I visited Venezuela (or any of a dozen countries)—they assume I stayed in a hotel and the only locals I met were the staff. Wallace was astonished by scenes of me lecturing my people and canoe trips across the Orinoco in flood season. But I’ve long since given up trying to explain the difference between being a tourist and real traveling. Watch the videos and weep, any narrow-minded types who get hold of these words.
Maybe I should play these tapes for anyone who thinks I don’t know what a real storm looks like because no hurricane has actually hit my house. I had left the video running in the back yard of our concrete fortress-like house in Marjuanta in 1999. I know very well what a real storm looks like and tell you unless it plows into you square on, a weather report is just so much extra worry.
Wallace, who dislikes shopping, is actually doing quite well as he’s following the guidelines for branding. Buy on sale only the brands that we normally use and that specifies everything from cheese slices to toilet paper. It is a start and he’s getting it exactly right, which I doubly appreciate because things have been busy lately. That is why I truly needed this weekend off.
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