So, How ARE Things in Florida?

December 5, 2010
Vero Beach, FL

We did not get 5 feet of snow last night like they did back home, so there is only one correct answer to this question.

We have food in the larder, fuel in the tanks and a destination, albeit not achievable under sail.  Can life get any better.


Nothing in this world beats having a destination with family there to see you.  We are among the blessed.


Behaviour in the 3rd Wealthiest Zip Code in the USA

Driving our rental car the other day we visited McDonald's looking for a cold drink (a soda not a pop).  This particular store had a parking lot full of lincolns and lexus (lexi?), you know the full array of old people cars.  The clientele was strictly what our friend Peter calls "Q Tips" - fuzzy white heads stuck on skinny whitebodies.  Entering the restaurant we could not miss the large sign on the self serve pop dispenser:

FREE REFILLS ARE FOR THE SAME VISIT ONLY

Here we sit in one of the wealthiest zip codes in the whole of the USA and the rich white guys are stealing pop from McDonalds.

This was not a teenage thing.  There is no school nearby and at noon there were no young people in the place.

One old fool proudly explained to us how to get the best deal at Golden Corral, the local buffet: you go there at 4:15 p.m. so you get the "lunch" price.  At 4:30 he informed us with a sly grin they start putting out the dinner buffet items.  This guy drove a BMW.

The Declining Lustre of Vero Beach Marina

A month has passed since the internet went down at Vero Beach Municipal Marina and no one working at the Municipal marina seems able to effect a change in this.  If you wonder how this could be the answer is suggested  in bold in the previous sentence.  The staff here do, however, have lots and lots of excuses, all of which commence with "we're not doing that...".  Them comes the lie: we are waiting for equipment; Bell has to install a new phone line; the state won't approve the antenna; the municipal council needs to vote on it....
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On top of this several of the laundry machines have been down for an extended period ("We don't do the laundry room" is the refrain from staff) although the rumour is that they are working now - the machines not the staff.

Lack of hygiene has settled over the washrooms like a toxin laden smog - filthy floors in the showers, paper towelling all over everywhere and so on.  "We don't do that" is the answer from staff.

So at the moment the situation is that nothing here works and no one "does that".


As you can tell some of us are very eager to fly into the snow and cold.  In fact we cannot wait.