Just Hangin' Out

Wed, Feb. 15 - Friday, Feb. 17

Wednesday Feb. 15 -- after my big bike ride day on Tuesday, I figure the best thing is to get myself into the gym and keep those muscles loosened up, so I ride my bike over to the gym at about 2:30 and do a good workout. One small but interesting development at the condo complex: the electronic entry gate has failed, and now they have posted a 24-hour human "sentry" at the gate to check residents as they enter. It's not a huge hassle; in fact I can often get in more quickly than when I have to wait for that gate to slide open. All I need do is show my "reader card," (I don't have to show picture ID or anything). I know it's a necessity, and without anyone at the gate we would have all manner of people wandering around in here looking for trouble. But it must surely be expensive to post a guard here 24/7. I heard one resident say it's costing $20/hr (I'm sure the guard doesn't make that; but that's what the security company is charging the condo association). So that's $480/day, and by my count the gate has been down for nearly a week. It wouldn't surprise me that the owners here (i.e., including Heather my landlord) get hit with a "special assessment fee" on their next HOA bill. Yet another reason I'm glad I'm not an owner!

Heather (my landlord) stops by in the afternoon with my newest book, Sanibel Flats, which has arrived via eBay, by way of her mailbox here at the condo. This will be my next book, after finishing "Isaac's Storm."

With this being a boring TV night, I plug in one of my DVDs, "Beowuf." This is a modern movie adaptation of a poem written in England between 800 and 1100 A.D. (no one is certain) by an anonymous poet, and it consists of 3,182 long lines of alliterative verse (e.g., " ... The weary, way-worn wanderer bore to his own native shore ...", from Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen") making it one of those "epic" poems along the lines of Homer's "Illiad." If you've ever seen the movie, you know it's a cross between animation and real photography. Besides the fact that I get to see Angelina Jolie "nude" or at least a damn fine depiction of her (hey, she is crazy as a shithouse rat, but she does have one smokin' body), it's a great story. I like the fact that Beowulf, who slays not only the monster in the beginning of the movie, but also the dragon at the end, is Scandinavian, as portrayed in the original poem. Norwegians kicked ass back in their day! Did you know, for example, that back in the "olden times" it is said that Viking sailors of fortune would choose their sea captains not based on the size or beauty of their vessels, and not on the promised ports of plunder, but rather on the quantity of beer they were promised on a daily basis? These are the guys I would want to have on my side if I got into a bar fight!

Thursday Feb. 16

It's kind of lazy day around here. I go to Walmart to pick up a few needed grocery items. I get a call from my buddy, Dan Denning, in Atlanta during the afternoon, because he is stuck in Atlanta traffic (a very common occurrence) and he has decided to call me, as is his habit during these "down times" of his when he has nothing better to do! I give him the recap of my time in Daytona Beach at the twin shoes. He tells me he has sold his Angeus 18kt multi-date chronograph for $1,3000, which is a pity because I had hoped to at least get a look at it based on the description of the watch he gave me in a previous discussion. I actually own one of these in stainless steel, but would LOVE to have one in 18kt gold. But this is way it goes with Dan; he typically doesn't hold stuff for long because he always needs money for the next "big deal" or to finance various family emergencies, which seem to happen fairly regularly.

I go out to the condo's pool in the afternoon, and finish the book I am reading, which is "Isaac's Storm," by Erik Larson. It is about the great hurricane of 1900 that destroyed Galveston Texas, It’s amazing how he manages to capture the utter terror of what those people in Galveston endured Saturday-Sunday with just his words, especially the double horror of going through the night without any source of light save for an occasional candle or kerosene lantern, when people couldn’t see what was happening around them.

Tonight is NBC comedy night, and I tune in to see my "regulars" of Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, and The Office. All three are pretty good tonight. I also have two eBay auctions that end tonight of miscellaneous pieces that I acquired in Daytona as part of "package deals." One is a lady's Eska mechanic sport watch; the other is a movement out of a lady's Omega watch. They bring $30 and $25, respectively, and I am happy with that because I didn't figure much of anything into their value, so this is "found money" as far as I'm concerned. After paying 12% eBay fees, this will fatten my Paypal account by a net of $48, which is a solid grocery run for the week.

I also begin an email conversation with a woman named "Tam," who is from match.com. He actually contacts me first, which is kind of a rarity, and she admits I am the first date in which she has initiated the contact. (Despite it being 2012, research still suggests that women are intimidated about making the first move on online dating sites for fear of being perceived as too "pushy" or "forward." I find that amazing.) We exchange a few emails, but then she confesses to prefering "texting," so we exhange cell phone numbers. I have never been a great "texter," but I agree in the interest of getting things moving. We agree to meet somewhere in Naples (where she is from) and this will be fine, since I have been wanted to make a "field trip" to Naples anyway and see what I've been told I'm "missing" as far as Naples being a better location than Fort Myers. We agree on Monday, with exact time and place to be determined by her (since I've no idea what would be a good place to meet), and she will text me during the weekend, or on Monday, with details. We discuss the very distinct possibility that we may not be "right" for one another (at age 60, she is at the upper limit of my desired age range), but that it would be fun (or at least interesting) to get together and compare notes on our respective experiences on Match, and she says she will be more than happy to speak to the differences (from her perspective) between Ft. Myers and Naples, and how each community perceives the other. If things go beyond this and we decide there is "chemisry," then fine. But for now, we treat this more as a "meeting" than a "date," and this is fine. Maybe this is the way all first "dates" should be thought of, at least in this "medium" of online dating. We'll see.

Friday Feb. 17

Another rather lazy day today, but I do get my eBay packages off in the mail, which is kind of a convulted two-step process. First, it's off to "Office Depot," where I use one their internet-connected computers to print my lables, since I don't have a printer with me. This ends up costing me 32 cents, which is a bargain. Then, I tape my labels to the packages, and take them over to a postal substation, which is just a couple of blocks from the condo. I also print a label to put on a package for my watchmaker, but I won't ship that box until tomorrow because I don't have the repairs ready yet, but at least I'll have the label ready and won't have to make another run to Office Depot. I'm actually more loyal to "Staples," but the nearest Staples store is several miles away, and this place is closer and, as it turns out, cheaper to use because Staples charges for the computer time, and Office Depot does not, a glitch in OD's system which I'm sure they will figure out soon and "correct."

Anyway, I reward my morning's exhaustive work with a trip to Starbucks, where I have coffee and a brownie. I use my netbook computer (which has a different IP address than my notebook computer) and Starbuck's Internet connection to enter a bid (using the eBay login and password of my friend, Mario Mardones) to enter a bid on a box of watches I have at auction on eBay. This entering of a "protecter bid" is a big no-no with eBay, and they can suspend you if you get caught (they monitor IP addresses, and this is why I use the netbook to enter the bid), but the lot is not doing very well, and I really don't want to let the box go for less than $75, seeing as how (sister) Dawn went to the trouble of shipping it to me an all. So I enter a bid of $74, and we'll see what happens. If Mario ends up "winning" the box of watches, I'll be stuck with it, and have to bring them back with me. But that's fine. I'm just not prepared to give these watches away, and I really don't understand why they're doing so poorly; eBay bidders normally have gone apeshit over these lots in the past when I've auctioned them. I send an email to Mario informing him that he now has an open bid for a box of watches.

After my litttle nefarious activity, I dive into "Sanibel Flats." The author, Randy Wayne White, is a local celebrity around here. His "Doc Ford" series of mysteries, of which "Sanibel Flats" is the first, have become so popular that he has opened a couple of restaurants bearing his character's namesake, "Doc Ford's Sanibel Rum Bar & Grill." One of the "Doc Ford" restaurants/bars is on Sanibel Island (appropriately enough), and the other is on the waterfront of Fort Myers, at the channel that separates it from Ft. Myer's Beach. It's right were the San Carlos Blvd. bridge crosses the channel, so it's very easy to find, and I've passed both places on my bike rides. I think it's cool that this former "government employee" (it's widely speculated he worked for the CIA, but he's not telling) turned author made enough money on his writing to live comfortably and open a couple of restaurants where he can "hang out" when he's not busy with his writing, or doing civic things (for which he is known) on behalf of Southwest Florida.

I'm only 30 pages into the book, but already I'm loving it (apart from the extremely poor quality of the typeface, courtesy of St. Martin's Press, which published the paperback version of this book). Doc Ford is an extremely likabe character. And his background as a former NSA agent is no small coincidence, given White's rumored career prior to becoming a writer. I think Doc Ford may just have become my new Dirk Pitt, which is good because his author, Clive Cussler, has pretty much retired Drik and relegated him to an occasional "cameo appearance" in his novels since the last "true" Dirk Pitt adventure, which was Atlantis Found back in 1999. So discovering "Doc Ford" while down here was a good thing, and I hope to visit one of the Doc Ford restaurants soon.

I also email (sister) Dawn in the late a.m., and tell her to start thinking of her birthday, and suggest a few places to take her (mostly spa-themed) and that I will call her later tonight to discuss. I do a workout in the afternoon, then return to the condo and finish the last of the chicken noodle soup that I have made with the frozen "scraps" of the roast chicken I bought at the Walmart supermarket about a week ago for $5.99. I think I ended up getting about six meals out of that damn chicken, making it one of the most reasonable meals to be found.

I call Dawn, and she tells me that as much as she appreciates the idea of  "going somewhere," she would rather have help with various house-related "to-do" projects that she has written down on a wish list. And she tells me what she has written down, and it's all good, worthy stuff, and I tell her it will be my pleasure to help her on at least one, if not a couple, of things she has on her list.

After that, I watch the second of four DVDs I have recently purchased, this one “Thirteen Days” starring Kevin Costner. And even though he is not my favorite actor, the movie was excellent and pretty true to the events that happened October 1963. It was some scary shit. I don’t think people today have much of a clue about how close this country (and world) came to nuclear Armageddon. And the general public back then CERTAINLY had no clue because we didn’t have CNN or the Internet or anything like that. There were several occasions during those 13 days when a split-second decision could have made things go either way. It was Bobby Kennedy who finally brokered the deal with the Soviet ambassador behind the Pentagon’s back. Had those assholes at the Pentagon (led by that dipshit Curtis Lemay) had their way, I doubt seriously any of us would be here today.

Before going to bed, I check my emails one last time, and find I have a reply from Mario about the bid on the box of watches. He says that is fine, no problem, and he reports that he and (his wife) Barbara are currently in Miami and headed to Cuba in the morning (Saturday) as part of their educational tour as arranged through the University of Wisconsin alumni group. He says it is good he contacted him today, because he thinks were will not be any Internet access in Cuba for the next few days. I want to reply and tell him what a coincidence that I just saw a movie about the Cuban missle crisis, but I decide to wait and not bother Mario as he is preparing for his journey to Cuba.

Expenses: groceries, $22; Starbucks, $5. Total: $27.

Bruce