Also on the road were bad drivers. See the truck ahead of us? That guy passed us at 70 mph in a 30 zone, then cut in front of us and slammed on his brakes to make a right turn. What the hell is my brother doing in Florida? This was on my ride back home, as I am about to explain how the scooter broke down.I went west to Highway 27, this is the road to Okeechobee often described here. I went on a tour through all the roadside tourist camps and campgrounds to have a look. Ray-B asked me to check out a truck stop on Griffin. It was also a huge biker jamboree. Imagine how I felt on my Chau scooter next to $50,000 custom chromed Harleys. By late afternoon, the weather turned more than perfect, so I ran the scooter at top speed up 27 for 35 miles to nowhere. Then right back again before dark. But just as I came up to University and Stirling, zing goes my drive belt.
There is only one belt on the scooter so that was it. I pulled into the Home Depot, who let me park it overnight under the security camera and caught a lift home from Ray-B. It’s like 14 miles from here so tomorrow will be an expensive tow job back to the scooter shop. I was ready for it, in fact, had it been earlier in the day, I might have kept on going and stayed overnight somewhere up country. I had the money and time on me.
My camera batteries also died early in the day, so no neat photos of all the things I saw. The Everglades, the canals, the Wiki and Tiki huts, even the famous fishing spots. I even saw something common in Mexico City, but not here. One car pushing another down the highway at 40 miles per hour because the driver can’t afford a tow. Well, I’m glad I turned back when I did, or I’d be walking a long ways by now. My thinking was sound in that there was no guarantee if I kept on traveling the weather tomorrow would still be nice. It is still summertime here so don’t take chances.
I had stopped for iced tea at BK before leaving and bumped into that lady, the one who seems nice but can’t make up her mind on anything. I really miss not having a female to hang out with, but there seems to be no such women in Florida. They always want to take things to the next level, or in one recent case, back to a lower level. Another thing I miss is educated women, that is one thing that would strike you about the dozens of women I’ve dated in my life. With one exception they were very well educated. The lady at BK told me she thought the Dark Ages were called that because people only wore clothes that were black. Charming, in a rustic sort of way, but I had enough of that rubbish while growing up on the farm.
Years back, I read the condensed book “The Fist of God”, a Forsyth work about events leading to Desert Storm. Admittedly I read the Digest version when I’m doubtful about reading the real book, but here is an instance where I went out and bought the 550 page original. Forsyth writes the way Clancy wishes he could. But Clancy picks topics that appeal to the American hero mentality, the loose cannon ex-CIA types who retain their superpowers and snappy Anglo surnames through all manner of divorce, suspensions without pay and dishonorable discharges. Clancy outsells Forsyth, but Forsyth knows how things really work.
Although be warned, both authors tend to glamorize spying. All the Mossad and KGB have to do is watch for lunch meetings between English professors and middle-aged men who work in buildings with no windows. These sorts always swap state secrets in booths at expensive restaurants. All spies have cultured tastes in wine and food and these require an extensive description in every novel. Forsyth runs a good plot and easily outdistances Clancy with intricate knowledge of details that cannot be learned second-hand.
That’s Desert Storm the war, not Desert Shield the line in the desert. The war has essentially been going on for ten years and bankrupted America. We lost our credit rating, the Chinese won’t lend us any more, a tax increase would doom any politician who tries it, so where is all the money coming from? That’s easy, they are printing it up round the clock. Some say when the effect reaches “the corners of the Empire”, gold will sell for $10,000 per ounce. Every civilization based on paper money has come to these same circumstances.
Ray-B and I talked about gold and how most people don’t understand it. They never will understand it either, so don’t try to explain it to them. They’ll just say you can’t eat gold; presumably they think they can eat paper money. Try it with the Thousand Island. The inflation or collapse (which is just a drastic version of inflation) will hit the middle class, the ones who find economic theories impenetrable. They are wishfully thinking the worst won’t happen until they are retired and out of the loop, not realizing that is exactly when people like them will need a stable system worse than ever.
If I didn’t already say, be advised that Broward County arbitrarily lopped some $35 million dollars off the retirement funds of police and firefighters. The money isn’t there. The tax base they depended on growing every year has been retracting for half a decade. All I can say is history shows us a change of leadership is due, and it will be for the worse. Make sure you have enough money stashed to survive six months. That’s how long it will take the middle class to collapse from within. Just tread water and let it happen, and you’ll come out on top. It’ll be easy, buy their house for $5 grand and rent it back to them. Myself, I have no intention of being that nice to them. Let them spend food stamps.
