Most of my life I have been extremely proud of my really, really crappy handwriting.
When I was but a youngster in grade school and the teachers would give me consistent grades of D or below on handwriting skills, I wore that grade as a badge of honor.
It was part of my personality that no one could have handwriting as bad as mine.
I figured, as long as the teacher could read it, and more importantly, as long as I could read it, what was the harm?
As I got older and decided that being a reporter/writer was what I wanted to do with my life, I tried to clean up my handwriting, but the cause was lost. I had spent too many years being proud of sloppy penmanship to make much of a difference at that late date.
Of course, I made that decision when I was still in high school.
Today ends another hurricane season in the Florida Keys and marks yet another year we managed to squeak by without any serious storms battering our diminutive shorelines.
Hurricane Sandy caused a few days of rough winds and some rain as it swept past us on its way to a clobbering of the northeast, but for the most part, we were able to glance at the Weather Channel occasionally and go on about our business.
But that doesn’t mean the threat of a major storm slamming our island chain is gone, even though chances are good the threat is gone for this year.
We are back into early-arrival snowbird season. Welcome back. We’re glad you’re here.
Of course, you could have left the cold weather where you found it and not brought it down to us, but thanks anyway for being here.
But if this piece is about any of you, take heart.
District Three County Commissioner Heather Carruthers had an excellent idea Wednesday when she suggested that the county look into hiring an independent internal auditor.
That auditor supposedly would be charged with keeping track of county equipment and auditing revenue streams to try and keep the county off the front pages after the iPhone/iPad scandal of recent months and the theft of landfill fees by a county employee in the Upper Keys of recent weeks.
Now that the infrastructure sales tax has passed and will be extended for another 15 years, it’s time to turn our attention back to some of the nagging issues we haven’t dealt with in the last five years as we remained focused on pumping poop.
Economic recovery in the Florida Keys is well ahead of where it is in the rest of Florida, and we can thank our lack of corporate entities for that. Our economy is founded on the small business catering to the tourist trade and to the local population.
If the visitors need the service, it will survive. If the locals need the service, it will survive.
I have finally found a reason to be able to eat anything I want on Thanksgiving Day.
I can eat almost any traditional Thanksgiving fare and it will be within the parameters of the diet I have been on for about six months.
Earlier this year I had to undergo a panel of blood tests for a routine purpose and I was quite surprised when my cholesterol numbers came back exceedingly high.
Blood numbers have never been a problem for me at any time in my life. Neither has blood pressure, which has always hovered around the too low range and is just now beginning to steadily creep into the normal range.
So the cholesterol numbers gave me quite the shock.
Another from the files of the strange but true, can’t-believe-this-could-
Anyway.
I made the mistake of trying to stop by the grocery store last week during rush hour. We all know when rush hour is at the grocery store. The 4,500 of us on this island who have to work for a living get off work, need a thing or two for dinner, and drop by the store to get it.
There are two hundred cars in the parking lot, nowhere to park except the last slot in the puddle still there from the last rain. There are four cashiers in the store and 1,000 customers. Now, these numbers may be exaggeration, but the impression is dead on.
Monroe County is hosting a series of two meetings next week to allow for citizen input into the ongoing process of rewriting the county’s comprehensive land use plan and land development regulations.
That update will supposedly carry us through the next 20 years.
And it probably will, with the usual requests for changes, changes in demographics, changes in leadership and changes for other reasons that always seem to crop up with a document that provides guidelines such as this one.
For anyone who may have missed the rebirth of the Big Pine Community Haunted House this week, just let me say you missed out on a good time.
This thing had everything one could ask for in a good scare.
All eyes are now turned toward November 6 when voters will face a very lengthy ballot, including the selection of a US President for the next four years.
Run-of-the-mill politics aside, the November vote is an important one for Monroe County.
It is on that ballot that voters will be asked to extend the one cent infrastructure sales tax collected by Monroe County for 15 years to help pay for the final costs associated with the Cudjoe Regional Wastewater system.
Serving all the Communities of the Lower Keys
Recent articles
Past Issues
Recent Comments
Supplements
