Mon. - Tues. Feb. 27 and 28
Monday. Not a lot going on today. I wake to strange sound outside my window, and I look and it is pouring rain along with high winds. I don't believe it has rained a single day since I've arrived in Ft. Myers. This is all part of a very huge storm front which I learn later is causing tornadoes and flooding over a good section of the U.S. It looks like it ever touches the northern part of Florida, but for me down here it is just causing rains and winds strong enough to tip over some garbage cans.
I’m thinking of going to a “drug dealers seized assets auction” today over at a Marriott resort close to the causeway that takes you over to Sanibel. I found out about this through an ad in the Sunday paper. But then over coffee and grapefruit, I read in the fine print in the auction company is not affiliated with any government agency. The auction is being held by an auction company run by Dion Abadi. A quick check on Google reveals that this traveling auction company has a left a trail of misery wherever they go. It's basically a bait-and-switch operation. Typically, 98% of what they’re auctioning is their own “junk” but maybe they’ve got a couple pieces of drug dealers’ swag they picked up at a government auction somewhere, so this legally entitles them to call it a "seized assets auction." They set up at nice hotels, and then auction gems, jewelry, artwork, etc., using slick pitch men and auctioneers. That they picked a Monday to hold the auction might seem strange at first, but I'm thinking there are so many retirees in and around Fort Myers, it really doesn’t matter what day they hold it, and the company probably got a good deal from Marriott on the ballroom on a Monday morning/afternoon. And I’m guessing the retired crowd is this company’s “target audience” anyway – retirees with some money to spend and not a whole lot of brains!
Anyway, Dion Abadi and his various associates, and different shell companies have had fines and various sanctions levied against them all over the South. But he and his lawyers are apparently clever enough to know how to operate just this side of legal, and if they do get caught stepping over the line, cheerfully pay the slap-on-the-wrist fine and move on to the next town. Because, in the end, there's no law against people paying too much for something! The famous quote, attributed to P.T. Barnum and uttered over 100 years ago, still holds true today!
So I skip the auction instead spend a leisurely day at the condo reading, catching up on the blog, and surfing the 'net. The weather does clear up a little later, and I go over to Starbucks for coffee and a treat in the afternoon. In the evening, I enjoy a marathon of Pawn Stars on the History Channel, including a new episode. Damn, I love that show!
Tuesday:
I awake, and after breakfast the first thing I do I reserve a copy of the movie "Hugo" at my local Redbox by the Walmart. It won several awards at Sunday's Oscars, and I'm anxious to see it. I spend a good chunk of the day finishing my story on the Movado Polyplan movement for the NAWCC Bulletin (it's the 100th anniversary of the invention of that movement, and I think it will make a good story. I get some good help from Nancy Dyer, the librarian and archivist at NAWCC headquarters, and I learned they have hired a new librarian there to replace Sharon Gordon, who has retired. The new librarian is Sara Dockery, and Nancy says I should get along with her just fine the next time I come to headquarters. I send a congratulatory email to Sharon, but never hear back. In the three or four times that I visited the library during Sharon's 12-year run, and in the several email threads we exchanged, we we never quite hit it off. She was always friendly to me and gave me free reign in the library and archives, but we never quite clicked. Timid, straight-laced, tight-lipped, and never a loose paper on her desk, she was pretty much the antithesis of my personality and modus operandi. Nancy, on the other hand, was always Felix Unger to Sharon's Oscar Madison. Loose, scatter-brained at times, and with a mountain of papers and books on her desk of such mass that could seriously injure a person if it fell, Nancy and I have always hit if off just fine.
I do make it to Anytime Fitness in the late afternoon and do a nice workout, and stop at the Redbox on my way back to pick up the movie, Hugo. I arrive back in time to watch "Biggest Loser" on NBC, and tonight I really enjoy the episode, versus last week's distracting dramatic fiasco. They finally get back to basics about losing weight, and it's a good show. After that, I watch "Hugo" and it is very good.With my interest in watches, I especially find theme of mechanical artistry in the movie very appealing, though the film is in some ways a cautionary tale against humankind putting too much emphasis on technology at the expense of human interaction, especially with those we love the most. It's done very beautifully, and the movie has a happy ending, with the overall "moral of the story" being to follow your dreams. It's based on a children's book, for about the 12-year old range, but the screen adaptation makes it a movie worth watching for all ages. Something very different for director Martin Scorcese from his usual "blood and bullets" movies, and also his first foray into 3D. (Obviously, the DVD version is in 2D!)
Expenses: Starbucks, $5; Redbox rental $1. Total $6
Bruce
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