Nashing Teeth

Nashing Teeth

FLORIDA
posted on 2005-11-01

I'm on American Airlines out of Shannon on my way to Orlando, Florida. No need for a meal before embarking as the one onboard is pretty good. Nice amount of leg room on these Boeings, too. Just about an hour before landing we get a 'snack'. No wonder half my compatriots are fat; here's what was in our snack package:


  • Walker's Short Bread

  • Pringles Chips

  • Raisins with yogurt coating

  • KitKat

  • Jacobb's Cream Crackers

  • Cream Cheese



    • My most excellent friend, Cindy, picks me up at the airport to take me back to her home in Melbourne. She has just returned after a rescue of 23 dogs and 17 cats and kittens - a seventeen hour drive each way to Louisiana. Here are some pictures: Katrina Victims


    I love coming here to see the manicured Bermuda grass lawns, ranch style homes with screened-in pools, all with a view over a man-made lake complete with fountain, lillies, Cranes, and gators - don't walk your dog too close to these water settings.


    I always enjoy watching men and women my age looking very 'Urban Cowboy' at bars like Lou's Blues in Satellite Beach or Coconuts, in Cocoa Beach. The Harleys are works of imaginative art which shine in the street lights. Most of these porcine Hell's Angel types are actually Dentists and Lawyers, etc., and are quite friendly.


    I look forward to shopping at places like Ron Jons or the shell shop in Cocoa Beach. American service is friendly, fast, and sometimes funny as hell - good natured folk.


    Things aren't all what they appear to the casual visitor. Take, for instance, these pools everyone seems entitled to. They cost about $35,000; however, that's just the start. Pumps and filters run another $4,000. The pool must be screened which adds another $15,000. The cool deck (surfacing for the surrounding porch), soakaways, gutters, fountain, tiles, steps, railing, etc. will cost another $20,000. After you do the math, you may sweep, clean the filter, monitor the water chlorine and PH levels, and clean the porch.


    You will need air conditioning living in Florida; not just to withstand the soaring Summer heat and oppressive humidity but to keep your home from smelling of mold. If you get Black Mold, you burn down the house - it's gone!


    The humidity rusts bolts, rivets, and screws on outdoor items like aluminum door saddles and brackets. Hurricanes can take away your home of course; but, what I witnessed were $million homes missing screens which take as long as a year to replace, meaning even the wealthy have to put up with bugs, lizards, and even alligators till the barrier has been replaced.


    Men and women both seem to have problems with one another. Seems most well endowed woman are that way due to surgery. Even rather plain, unexceptional looking ladies think they rate a Brad Pitt. Many of the married ladies have husbands 15 plus years older and would leave them in a heartbeat if it weren't for the money. And, the women complain that the amount of interesting single men out there you can count on one hand. I wrote that the men and the women seem to have problems and if it hasn't become evident what problems the men have, it's simply this: American women.


    If it weren't for the massive heat compounded by humidity which almost brought me to my knees even in October, I would seriously consider living in such a place; and it would be grand for motorcycling (no helmet laws). However, the fact that in Ireland I pay in a year what Americans pay per month for health insurance precludes any idea of moving, though the quality of American health care is far superior to Ireland's, which could be mitigating.

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