December 7, 2009--Snowbirding: North Florida

I knew that we were finally heading due south deeper into Florida when, after visiting with our niece in Tallahassee, we turned onto I-75 and the first billboard we spotted had a picture of a new born in its mother's hands with the words--

He Had A Heart Beat After Only 15 Days

And then there was the pickup that pulled right up onto our tail before swinging to our right to pass and cut sharply in front of us which had—OBAMA LIED TO ALL OF US!--in foot-high black stick-on letters blazoned across its tailgate. He was all in kaki and had two guns raked on the window behind his seat. From the driver's grizzled glare, which I could spot in his rearview mirror, having New York license plates on our car was likely what got him going.

There were also the dozens of We Bare All signs that alerted us that at Exit 324, or wherever, there was a 24-hour Exotic Boutique with videos and “love toys” if we needed one in a hurry. Rona thought we could wait to get these and instructed me to keep the pedal to the metal when she sensed I might be slowing down when we hit the 325 mile marker.

Finally, helping to keep us awake as we hooked onto “Florida’s Turnpike” (named now for Ronald Reagan) we kept up our billboard vigil; and just as we were about to get to our exit, there was a sign for a couple of lawyers who, in addition to their names and two-yard tall pictures, advertised what instantly became one of my all time favorite Websites—

Who-Can-I-Sue.com.

I jotted that one down. One never knows. There’s a lot of crazy driving here.

After a restless night’s sleep, still wondering if we should have stayed up north for the winter in a culturally more hospitable climate, noting on the Weather Channel that there was three inches of snow on the ground back where we are from, we went over to the Green Owl for coffee and to check to see how our winter friends were doing.

We were happy to learn that Ernst had been to the doctor who told him that his knee was healing well enough so that he would likely be able to avoid surgery. It’s always good to get this kind of health news in south Florida. Jim also had a good report from his doctor—his heart condition which might at some point require value-replacement surgery had stabilized during the summer and early fall and he too was feeling optimistic about his prognosis.

Big news was the Crimson Tide’s upset victory the day before of the Florida Gators. Football is a passionate subject in these and many other parts and all sorts of joshing was going on. Even Rona joined in—no football fan she—looking to see if Harvey was around. He’s a University of Florida graduate and a huge Gator fan. When someone said he doesn’t come in on Sunday, Rona said, “I’ll bet he doesn’t show up until Wednesday at the earliest.” There was a lot of head nodding, especially from Jack who is one of Harvey’s most playful taunters.

The coffee and eggs were as good as we remembered them; and though we were already feeling a little better about being, how shall I put it, in such a challenging political environment, it was good to run into Sam, who is among the few Democrats we encounter regularly. Before we could manage a proper hello, he boomed, “Did you listen to that speech on Tuesday?” And then not waiting for an answer said, “I’ve been reading the stuff on your blog and I couldn’t agree with you more. There are all kinds of parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan and how does he expect to get away with this business of first sending in 30,000 more troops and then beginning to pull them out in only 18 months? I still support him, but . . .”

Jen interrupted, she’s as usual all business, and asked if I wanted more coffee. “Decaf,” I said, knowing now it would again be a great season for snowbirds.