BigPineKey.com

[“Grinder pump opposition group”] To Sunday’s poster inquiring as to the validity of the grinder pump opposition group, please feel free to join us tonight, Monday, December 9th at 5:00 pm for an organizational and informative get together at Kiki’s Sandbar Restaurant (formerly Parrotdise, Barry Avenue, Little Torch Key. The restaurant is not officially open for business, so no food or beverage service is available.) Some of the items to be discussed are: recent activity and planned activities; accounting of funds received thus far; and strategy for Wednesday’s BOCC meeting in Marathon.

You are encouraged to attend and invite anyone in your circle, street or neighborhood that may be interested in knowing more, or getting involved. We hope to see you and anyone else who shares similar concerns there.

PS: This will not be a long and drawn out meeting, so please attend.

The numbers look good for the Old Seven Mile Bridge. It’s a big visitor attraction, a world famous landmark and huge part of Keys history. 220,000 people visited the bridge (not Pigeon Key) last year. It appears as though the State of Florida will be paying the majority of the repair and maintenance costs. FDOT would pay $59.9 million over 30 years, including an initial $32.9 million to make immediate repairs. Monroe County would pay $12.3 million over the same period and the city of Marathon $5.3 million.

Broken down over the 30 years, the county’s estimated $12.3 million cost equates to $384,822 per year. That pales in comparison to other parks in the unincorporated area.

According to county records, the county paid $779,530 in fiscal year 2011-12 to maintain Higgs Beach in Key West and $710,135 on the Key Largo Community Park.

Harry Harris Park in Tavernier costs the county $518,470 each year and the Big Pine Community Park is $264,474. Monroe spent $3.24 million total maintaining parks in 2011-12.

How many international visitors go to the Big Pine Community Park? Is Higgs beach world famous? Is Harry Harris Park a huge part of Keys history?

I believe the Old Seven Mile Bridge is worth saving.

Manley deBoer Lumber on Big Pine Key would like to welcome Bill Mulligan to the store. He’ll be working in the warehouse along with Bill. Brad Manley is the new manager. James is now the Purchasing Manager in the Key West store. Come by Industrial road for a free bag of mulch for your garden and say hello.

[Spies like us] Meet the spies doing the NSA’s dirty work. Link

Radiant Orchid is the color of the year according to Pantone the color experts.

[The Blind Date] I guarantee you’ll never go on a blind date again. I can’t imagine how Kate Winslet and Hugh Jackman were able to do this with straight faces. Video

[Obamacare Age Related] Health insurance has always been age related. It use to be health related and is no longer.  The only two questions they ask other than your name/address and a bunch of other info like income is Date of Birth and if you use tobacco 4 times a week. There are no other medical questions to base your premium.

Time is running out to get your insurance starting January 1. You have to sign up by December 23.

[Doubting God’s Existence]  Doubt does not have to equate to delusion, it can simply mean that two people reach different conclusions when contemplating the same subject matter. And doubt is undoubtedly, is not exclusive to Christians, I am sure a majority of other people of the world’s many religions, or simply those on a spiritual quest have questions that remain unanswered, or evolve over time. A little introspection is healthy, yes?

[Louie the Leg Breaker] A Georgia dude has to pay $50,000 to break his engagement to some gold digger. It would be cheaper to make a call to upper NJ for ‘help’!

[Spies Like Us] Major tech companies, losing billions of dollars as many are fleeing from buying or using smart tech, appeal to governments to reel in their massive surveillance programs. Of course many of these companies are to blame, they are actively pursuing methods that put more and more personal information online where the needs for national security outweigh personal privacy. Apple is a big culprit, in OSX 10.9 requires all iOS device syncing to occur via online, passing through the government dragnets setup on Internet backbones and at phone carriers networks. They have to provide encryption keys or backdoors to install keystroke loggers. Apple has also employed iBeacon, so they can follow you around inside stores. So on one hand they cry and pretend to be on their customers side, then betray their users’ trust with new forms of spyware. Link

[“How reliable are grinder pumps”] That graph, showing that more than 65% of the grinder pumps needed replacement in a 5-year period is damning and should be enlarged and taken to the BOCC meeting on Wednesday when grinders will be discussed (I wish I didn’t have to work that day).

[Rotten Apple] For blessed relief I finally dumped my 20+ year loyalty with Apple’s sorry-never-going-to-amount-to-nothing-computer-platform and installed Win 7. Finally I have stability and will be getting updates for the next 7 years, no changing of the operating system, buying new software etc., every year like what Apple inflicts. Windows looks swell on a HD monitor, just as good or even better than OSX. OSX still doesn’t provide larger type and user interface features like Windows and the software selection is poor. Since OSX is getting malware and one has to backup regardless, it makes little sense to chose OSX for security reasons alone. That used to be the Apple uber fans’ reason to use the OS.

The most annoying thing about Apple is their lack of hardware options (Apple only offers a handful of models with varying monitor sizes while windows offers hundreds of models to choose from) and the inability to upgrade, customize, or even clean the dust out. It’s like you’re supposed to buy a new machine every three years with them. They almost force you to upgrade OSX annually or deny you security updates.

[“Sick of Grinder Pump Posts”] I am too and so is everyone else. They will stop when the Commission listens to it’s constituents. I don’t know what’s taking them so long to do the people’s will. Aren’t we loud enough for them?

[“Spark Trust PC cleaner”] All the cleaners I’ve ever seen are scams and will either jam up your computer, inject a virus or cost you money –or all of these. The only reputable PC cleaner is CCleaner and it’s really free.

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[Citizen Of The Day Says] All the great people.

Why are political pundits like atoms? Because they make up everything.

Each grinder pump at each home requires electricity to operate and none have a direct electrical connection to the so-called “waste plant”. Each house is wired separately. So when the power goes out, you’re screwed until the power is restored. That is one of many problems which has caused so much opposition.

[Doubt] Good post and true to the point that it describes all dreamers (faith) who have lived by their brainwashed codes in all religions. It is time people became realistic and see how they have been duped into supporting those who claim holiness and do not work for a living.

They say that alcohol kills you slowly. So what, who’s in a hurry?

What is a Gizmotron you ask? Ask the the guys from 10cc who invented it. Video

The making if 10cc’s I’m Not In Love. I always thought this was the gizmotron they invented. Anyway, what a great song. Their 10cc name is a play on the average human male ejaculate being 9cc’s.

[Pets] CheapShots will be back in the Keys from Dec 13-16. This is the last month for the dental special starting at $90 so call for an appt ASAP. Only a few spots left. Low cost vaccines, heartworm testing and other veterinary care for ghe Keys. Call 305-390-0325 or go to www.cheapshots.us.

[“The pot lobby”] The newest opposition about the legalization effort for medicinal marijuana in florida is, “If we legalize medicinal marijuana in Florida, people will begin to obtain it (medicinal marijuana) illegally.”

I love that one.

[“Wood fired brick pizza oven make better pizza”] The domed shape concentrates the heat so it cooks the top of the pizza faster where the toppings are. Modern pizza ovens duplicate this function, so some benefit is the wood smoking flavor and the theatrical aspect. Drawbacks of wood fired ovens is the huge labor, material involved and prep time required getting the oven up to the needed temperature. Wood fired ovens produce more areas of uneven heat, which can result in slightly charred crusts which some people prefer. It also can not adequately cook the toppings all the way through if special attention isn’t paid to their preparation. A gas oven provides a much more controlled heat, cooks longer and more thoroughly, thus the crust can be more bread-like soft, instead of hard, burned and crunchy like wood fired. It’s really just a preference. The ingredients matter a lot. I know of a pizza joint that people wait in line up to an hour for it’s so good, they don’t use wood fired, just gas.

[Spies Like Us] Local cops scooping your cell data and previous location information (tower dumps) too, not just the NSA, FBI etc. Link

I recall Bill Becker being  a good guy following hurricane Georges in 1997. He kept the community informed even as the water rose around his feet in the studio. Listening to his interview on US1 Radio of the FKAA VP last Thursday morning (16 years later) my opinion drastically changed about Bill’s continued dedication to community service. His questions of the FKAA official were soft and appeared to only elicit canned replies. At no point did Bill asked pointed questions nor seemed to take heart in the plight of homeowners or the community at large. The chief question, when Kirk asserted that County Commissioners would have to come up with additional funds for the sewage project if a switch is made to the gravity vs the grinder pumps system, would have been: Why and how does FKAA justify a cost increase for a gravity system vs the grinder pumps that Kirk still advocates?

Shame of you Bill. You didn’t win any points on this one, I suspect that you are not getting a grinder pump in your front yard.

 Contact Us. Send us your comments and attach any stuff you want published to this email.    

[Wishbone Ash] Yes I know who Wishbone Ash was. One of my old mates who was in the Strawberry Alarm Clock from Manhattan Beach, Ca turned me onto these guys years ago. We recently played Blowin’ Free on stage a few months ago. Video

[Conspiracy] About the pro-grinder-pump-you don’t-deserve-reliable-sewers-you-worthless-peon County Commission meeting Agenda item K1 scheduled for this Wednesday at 1:30PM in Marathon: Rumor has it that the agenda item may be moved to a way earlier time slot so that speakers to the issue who arrive in the afternoon do not get a chance to say anything on the public record. If you can and will attend, you may need to go extra early and just take a book in case it does not get shifted. The dirty politics continue.

[Go Green] Hey, all you Keys knuckle draggers, Florida Power and Light is using solar panels to generate some electricity for you.  Why won’t you catch up to reality and go Green in your thinking?

[Meat] I don’t know where Winn Dixie on Big Pine is getting their meat from lately, outer space or somewhere,  but it is tender and delicious and cheap.  The ever ongoing process of clogging my arteries as never been more enjoyable.

So sorry that the Marathon person, with their paid for and functioning vacuum sewer system, is tired of hearing about the angst of his neighbors who are getting screwed by the County with grinder pumps. The (mostly) sane and helpful info on the CT about this issue has been a real public service and speaks to one of the purposes of the CT. Keep up the good work, Deer Ed.

The CT has been a great resource for info about the grinder pump saga.

I live on Ramrod, bayside. On my street, pipes are already in the ground so we are probably committed to (or screwed by) individual grinders on private property. Our only alternative might be grinder pumps in the public right-of-way, with one pump servicing several houses and the FKAA responsible for providing power and emergency back up power.

After considering this alternative, I decided that I might actually be better off with an individual grinder on my property, for the following reasons: 1. when the power goes down, I can use my own generator to power my own grinder – I don’t have to wait for FKAA to “get around to” providing a back-up generator to the dozens of in-the-right-of-way pumps. After a storm, this could take days with generators in short supply, crews stretched thin and citizens being chided that “you should have evacuated.” 2. With one grinder servicing several houses, when that grinder breaks down there is the potential for damage to several homes from sewage back-ups. Also, what happens when the house next door (with whom I am sharing a grinder) is putting disposable diapers/condoms/excessive grease and other pumping damaging sh*t in the lines? They break the pump, several homes suffer the consequences.

Shared pumps would save the county taxpayers money and might be a better option for some people. For me, it is not. 

[“Costs of producing the raw materials for products is in direct relation to the greed of the banks”] What if the banks and stock market went away? Would it not be on the head of the person to own and work in his business with skill and sweat instead of borrowing funds to make others sweat for him? Like the old days, a man made his own way in this world until some money lender changed it all.

[Buying a computer] Net Applications reports Windows 7 at over 45%, the near extinct Window XP at over 39%, Vista 5.7%. Windows 8? A laughing stock at 1.7% despite being on new consumer machines for a couple of years now. All versions of OSX is below 2% and the late Mr. Jobs declared (his?) PC era dead, for tablets and smartphones.

One can get their choice of Windows 7 machines online since many retail locations only sell Win 8 machines, even with anti-glare/matte screens so they can be used outside or in places where one can’t control the lighting. One such place is Sager Notebooks, mostly gaming machines, their lower end models make good laptops with the option to expand later to get long term value. The good news is that Windows 7 will get updates for another 7 more years and most vendors are supplying Windows 7 Professional now which is a superior operating system. Supposedly Win 8 Pro+ machines can be downgraded (or upgraded back to) Windows 7, but likely for most will require geek services.

For the best compatibility in the business and government worlds, Win 7 is your chosen champion.

I just heard a tip on the O’reilly Factor show that he’s coming to KW to highlight the bums. When does it air?

Lost. Shark Skin wetsuit top. Thursday it blew out of the boat somewhere from Little Palm marker #2 to Big Pine side of Newfound Harbor. If found please call Classified Ads > Lost and Found

[Spies Like Us] Everyone needs to know this exists;  you can pay for full access to somebody else’s phone.  This new service is either incredibly useful or incredibly creepy, depending on your point of view.  It’s an app called mSpy. For $39.99/month for home use or $83.33/month for business, you can know everything that happens on a monitored smartphone or tablet. And I do mean everything. mSpy records calls, intercepts text messages, monitors browsing, spies on email, tracks GPS location and much more. It can even take control of the phone to lock or wipe the device or even use the microphone as a real-time audio bug. mSpy states that you must notify and have permission from the phone user before you can track their device. However, it’s unclear how they enforce this policy. Cost: $39.99/month home; $83.33/month business System: iOS, Android

[We’re Doomed] Everyone say what you want on any issue, political or otherwise, it doesn’t matter.  The truth is the human race doesn’t have what it takes for long term survival as a species.   Maybe after we are long gone and all traces of us have disappeared, the planet will gradually return to some form of balanced normalcy.  The only hiccup could be the long term persistent effects of the nuclear products we have created and left behind.  But even those will eventually fade, nothing lasts forever.   I wonder what the new world will be like?  (I just re-read my rant, I will never make “Citizen of the day”.)

From an individual grinder pump in your front yard to eternity.  It is all about how the County Masters want to dispense yours and our finite amount of tax money.  I, personally, am off the hook for one of those gizmos in my front yard (I hope they can’t trace this rant back to my crib or they might gift me with one).  They bowed to the Pigeon Key cabal and dreams of an upper Keys waterfront pie in the sky oasis that will never happen if history proves correct.  Unfortunately there are not enough taxpayers speaking out against this as they are busy out on the water spearing fish and hanging out with family and friends, and blowing bubbles.

[Anti-Grinder Group] To the person that complained about the anti-grinder group’s lack of formal organization, we are working on that. Most of us have never even met, although many of us will tonight as we try to better organize. FKAA has been very secretive about their LPS grinder pump plans, and misled many with their term of “centralized sewer areas” which most people thought meant gravity. As roads are torn up to rush small diameter force main pipes in the ground, we are just now organizing against a grinder pump collection system. We mistakenly thought that officials would take heed of hundreds of petitioners, letters, and phone calls to reconsider if grinders were a good idea.

Now we see they need a smack upside the head with a legal 2×4 and a criminal investigation to get back on a responsible, sensible track. So be it. We understand your mistrust of sending money to a half-organized grass roots group, so why don’t you hire your own attorney? Most of us cannot afford to, but a bunch of us have contributed what we could until we now have thousands of dollars and some good donated expertise assisting our cause. It would not hurt to have yet another legal action working, so feel free to start. Attorney Lee Rohe is representing our grass roots group and meeting with FKAA today. We would appreciate the rest of you getting aboard. Grinders will make everyone’s water/sewer bill soar, so it is everybody’s problem.

[“Wood fired brick pizza oven makes better pizza”] Does charcoal make a better burger? Yes, and so does a wood fire. That’s real wood logs I’m talking about, not those phony wood pellets that are nothing more than sawdust pressed into pellets.

Slow-witted conspiracy theorist convinced government behind NASA. Video

[“But and Commas”] The thought is complete, but the comma goes directly after the thought to indicate that more similar thought is coming, but there is always a space after the ‘but’.

[“Ground Mule”] Most so called ground meat sold by mega stores is actually extruded (pushed thru a tube with holes at the end). To solve this problem buy a chuck roast, cut it in chunks, throw in freezer until firm and throw in food processor and pulse. You will notice a huge difference in texture and flavor. For all the gory details try Alton Brown “Good Eats” website. He has just about the only show left on the Food Net that I can tolerate to watch.

Bon appetite!

I was told by the Winn Dixie folks that alcohol and tobacco products don’t count toward Fuel Perks. 

[“Why I am a Republican”] How come you haven’t seen stuff like that is because Mr Guillory is a fictional story teller. Ask him yourself. He has always been an Uncle Tom Republican. He left and switched to the DNC then went back to his lifelong GOP. Mr Guillory thinks the GOP of the Lincoln era is the same party as today. Yeah, right.

You want to see something better than Burma Shave signs?  These are Northbound on I-5 (88 miles south of Seattle).  The federal government is now petitioning to have these signs removed, or Washington state will be denied additional monies for interstate highways.  The State of Washington replied, they will secede from the Union rather than be intimidated. These are a matter of free speech paid for by a private citizen. It seems the Obama government uses intimidation and ignores the first amendment when they want to silence someone. Bravo for the man who created them. Bravo for the state of Washington! Never doubt the resistance is widespread.

[“Tree on Bridge”] A black muslim radical democrat put that tree up on the 7 mile bridge!

[“Tea Partiers and ‘patriots’ are scary”] Patriots are not groupies, we are stone individuals who have the brains and means to protect our country, our family and will die doing it. How about you, Mr Sheelpe?

Like horsemeat? Congress and Obama allowed selling of horsemeat for human consumption, supposedly many can’t tell the difference. Link

It must be choking those tea party GOP right wing Fox New types to say something good about Mandela.  They aren’t fooling anybody with their crocodile tears.

[Regressive Hypocrisy #23] The GOP has continually insulted folks on SNAP, Medicaid and unemployment benefits by insinuating that they should get off their lazy bottoms and get to work. Middle America and minimum wage earners are lucky to get one week vacation per year and often work up to 80 hours per week. Congress currently gets 239 days off per year. Next year that is going to increase. Who needs to get off their lazy bottoms and get to work?

[Republicans are unethical] Reducing early voting, voter ID requirements, impediments to voter registration, purging voter rolls, inequality in voting resources and even redistricting voting precincts are all tools Republicans use to suppress minority voters who usually vote Democrat. Voter suppression is wrong even if it’s not racists. Closing down the government for political reasons is also unethical. 

There are more people on welfare in Illinois than there are people working. Chicago pays the highest wages to teachers than anywhere else in the U.S. averaging $110,000/year. Their pensions average 80-90% of their income. Wow, are Illinois and Chicago great or what? Be sure to read till the end. I’ve never heard it explained better. Perhaps the U.S. should pull out of Chicago? Body count: In the last six months, 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago. 221 killed in Iraq; and Chicago has one of the strictest gun laws in the entire US.

If firing Kathleen Sebelius would shut Fox News the fk up,  I am all for it!

I’m sorry I wrote that Democrats don’t know s**t regarding the medical pot issue. I was just trying to stir up some shit or stir up the pot. I’m also sorry that I wrote that Democrats try to rule people as opposed to the Republican efforts to keep as little rule as possible. I made up all that Republican being stoned all the time stuff but MedPot has my vote.

Sorry, I have no anger, just a deep disturbing feeling that Obama is ruining our beloved country and every democrat is helping him do it.

[“What happened to the logical and adult posts that were the majority”] There is a large amount of the ruling political party’s blood in the water and it’s attracting all kinds. Nothing feels better than beating down those who claim to be so superior, then royally screw things up for so many, then continously lie and falsely accuse to shift the blame from themselves. Yes Americans are angry and it’s a real shame it took 6 years to get there, but we finally did.

[Drug of Choice] Democrats smoke pot, Republicans snort coke. Pot is reflective, coke is egocentric.

I know it’s early, but I got FTR guy and his ilk a stocking stuffer for Christmas.

If the Patriots and Tea partiers scare you then you are the problem not them. The people working so hard to get the message out that our liberty is at risk are the only chance that this country has to survive the Progressive Liberal onslaught. The slippery slope from Liberalism to communism is a thin, very gray line.

If it is guns that scare you I challenge you to go to a gun show one day. You will be surrounded by 10,000, people with guns that are the best behaved, helpful, and even tempered folks that you are likely to ever meet.

Chris Wallace asks Obamacare adviser Ezekiel Emanuel about Obama’s “you can keep your doctor” pledge, noting that under Obamacare, there are reduced networks that cut out many doctors and hospitals, so effectively you cannot keep your doctor.

Emanuel’s response was “The President never said that you had unlimited choice”. When pressed further by Wallace, “Did Obama say you could keep your doctor?” Emanuel finally says, yes, he did say that, but then goes onto say you can keep your doctor…if you are willing to pay more. “It’s a matter of choice. The issue isn’t the selective networks.” Wallace then said of course, if you do that, your premiums will go up.

“No one guaranteed that premiums wouldn’t go up,” Emanuel insists. What? Obamacare has taken away choice, plans, doctors and networks, but Emanuel is trying to claim we have a choice, we can just have to pay more? And yes, Dr. Emanuel (where is the Hippocratic oath?), your President did say that that the average family would be saving $2500 on premiums. So yes, another promise shot to hell.

[“Republican environmentalist oxymoron”] Thanks for finding the one Republican, Bush Jr, who cares about the environment. I didn’t think it could be done.

Yesterday a poster opined “These days, whenever I hear someone refer to patriots, freedom or the Constitution I know they are either Tea Partiers or Militia and are armed. To me they are the scariest groups in America.”  That is a very interesting statement I certainly wish that the poster had taken the time to expand on his/her thoughts.

One must wonder what is frightening or outrageous about freedom. What is frightening about discussions about patriots? Our founders were patriots, and the members of our armed services are patriots. Certainly the untold numbers of Americans who engage in terribly dangerous clandestine ops for our nation are patriots. The people who comprise the Tea Party are not interested controlling your lives, but rather are interested in stripping governments grasp on your freedoms. I wonder why a lawfully armed populace is frightening to the poster. More people are killed by cars and by hands than are unlawfully killed by lawfully armed citizens. Unlawful killings by firearms are declining as lawful firearms ownership is increasing.  Why is dedication to protecting the precepts that have made us free and the greatest nation in the history of the world a cause of concern to the poster?

I hope that the poster will explain to us why patriotism is frightening. Perhaps the posters anxiety is a result of the rapidly waning popularity of the current administration which is dedicated to stringent control of every facet of everyone’s life.

(Continued from above …) Does anyone here remember back in the day when the Bahia Honda Bridge started its quick crumbling? how the southbound semi-trucks had to unload their big truck into three little trucks because they could not let them rumble over the bridge? I bet that is soon to happen on Niles Channel Bridge before Summerland Key and others. Concrete gets old and can only take so much vibration from our vehicles and all the added construction vehicles that are showing up because of the added heavy traffic from Lower Regional Cudjoe system and the work in Key West going on as we chat. It does not matter if Federal money or state or county, it all comes out of our pockets in ever increasing taxes. Yet instead of being proactive and getting the money together to replace it; what are we doing, repairing a defunct bridge (the Old Seven Mile Bridge) to a small island for old times’ sake, because there is certainly no other reason. No one goes to pigeon Key. Everyone stick your heads in the sand.

We put an extra cent on our sales tax to pay for the sewers, to get the best system for the people and hopefully some of the tax could be paid by tourists and visitors to help the locals. We are not all getting the best system and by taking 5 million or so to pay for Rowell’s Marina, can someone prove to us, that money did not come from the added sales tax?

All I can say is thank you to Danny Koledge, who just by pointing out the dense populations that were on Big Pine, got a lot of us off grinder pumps. In the long run if you look at the available information about the grinders, they are nothing but a breakdown ready to happen and will be a real headache (especially for snowbirds when it turns rock hard inside the pump after being switched off for 6 months) I just thank God I am on the gravity side of things, which also will not be perfect and could also be a mess if they get sub-par contractors, but at least I have a chance now with my other Eden Pines and Dr’s arm neighbors. I really pray that many more of you get gravity and we all understand that outlying properties will have to build their own system. By the way, we installed the 2010 compliant system way back when and it has been wonderful and because of all these systems installed instead of the old cess pits and failing septic systems the canal really does look a bit healthier. I look forward to grassier bottoms and more fish when the entire system is finished. The old systems are failing everywhere and going right into the sea so I really have hope it will get better.

One note of great importance is that we have to try and stop the cruise lines from dumping over a city’s worth of poo, sludge, and grease into our waters each and every day to come in with the tide. They are using their older boats all on the East coast because we are way behind those in the Pacific who have stopped their dumping. Push for cleaner ships with advanced wastewater plants right on board. It is just a must for our waters everywhere. I cannot help but say that the Keys would be way better off without the cruise ship crowd, but that is just an opinion.

I know for an increasing number of people it is impossible to stay down here, I am sorry for many neighbors who have had to leave because it is just not possible to stay on a fixed income. The sewer alone has really killed so many businesses and retired peoples’ dreams of living out their life peacefully in the Keys. Change is often good, and when old Have To is looking you in the face you just “have to”. I just hope they can put a brighter outlook on it and at least not have to worry so much anymore.

Code enforcement could be softened up a bit down her and not act like a bunch of jack-booted thugs. Yes we have to be safe and conform to the rules, but they can’t take the can-do out of most of us who have been working and want to “do it ourselves” for Pete’s sake, couldn’t they be a bit more friendly?

The sky is blue, the water a million colors. The fish are biting and I for one try not to chew on the problems as much as enjoy the wonderful warm season in the Keys. There is a lot to be troubled by, but I am going to smile and go back and do some chores, because in the end we will survive. I just thank God for wonderful, friendly neighbors and pray for not so many kids in our old retirement community.