James Stabile Info Blog Newsletter

July 2005

Discussion of the Month...

July 2005, already. Don't get up too late in the morning or you may miss a day. That's how it seems to me anymore. I don't know why, but time seems to go even faster during the summertime. I should say during my summertime, my summer vacation from work, the time goes in sonic booms. I get up in the morning, whenever I wake up. I've set the alarm one time so far since June 3 and that was as a precaution so I wouldn't miss my Cat Scan scheduled for 8:00 a.m. As it turned out, even on that day I awoke on my own terms, well before the alarm went off. As I age it seems like, I gain more control over my biological clock. Yes, I know, I'm off on a tangent, again. Back to getting up in the morning during summer vacation, I get up anywhere from 5:30 to 9:00 a.m., depending on my whims for the day. After I get up, check my e-mail, exercise, shower and dress I usually,  99.9% of the time,  go out for breakfast. Most of the time it's coffee, the morning Sun-Sentinel and a bagel. Saturdays are usually reserved for a mightier breakfast at my favorite IHOP or other such breakfast restaurant. To me a day without breakfast out among God's creation would seem like a day without orange juice, the sun and Lubriderm Daily Moisture With SPF15.

After breakfast, on the weekdays, I usually come home, or walk home (many days I walk to my breakfast nook) and then take care of a household chore or two. Nothing too tasking. One day it may be cleaning the bathrooms or dusting the furniture or running the sweeper or cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen floors or cleaning the kitchen and at least once a week, it's doing the laundry. I have found that doing the household duties over a period of time, from Monday morning to Friday morning is much better than trying to get everything done in one day. In any case, the tasks get done. They get done on my schedule. Some day, it could be Wednesday or Thursday or any weekday, I may not do any house chores, it's at my discretion. 

During the weekday afternoons I usually do a little work on my computer. I either work on my newsletter, my financial budget including scheduling bills to be paid etc. or tend to some technical update or task that must be performed on my computer. By that time it's mid-afternoon and I start to think about my next meal. During the afternoons I enjoy preparing my menu for supper and preparing the actual meal. I try to catch CNN at around 3:30 for Inside Politics - I have to know what's been happening in Washington. Usually each and every weekday from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. is my time with the girls, The Golden Girls. I know the show is over 15 years old and all the episodes are repeats and I've seen each hundreds of times, but I can't miss my girls. 

Most weeknights, after the girls, of course, I usually do my walking at the Hollywood Broadwalk. It's nice at that time of day. The humidity is done, a notch or two, the sea breeze is refreshing and my brisk walk is a prefect way to digest the happenings of my day. When I get home it's usually time for Larry King Live on CNN. The rest of the night, it's me and all those 10:00 p.m. shows that I slept through during the regular year. Did you know that most channels on the TV never shut down, TV goes on all night? I always thought that the first show in the morning was Channel 10 news at 5:00 a.m. During my summer I remember that the world doesn't stop at 10:00 p.m. like I usually do ten months out of the year, people do watch TV all night long. 

Now don't think that I'm set in my ways. I do vary my weekdays a bit. I will interrupt my weekday schedule for other things, when they come up. After all I am flexible. The other day a friend called and wanted to spend the day with me, that was nice. And I would have enjoyed spending the day with the friend, but I just couldn't seem to fit it in my busy schedule. Maybe when I go back to work, when I will have more time we can get together. Yea, that's when we will get together. When I'm working, I always have a lot of time. 

Sounds absurd, but that's the way it seems to go for me. The old saying is true, if you want to get something done, give it to a busy person to do. The less I have to do, the more time it takes to do it. If that's really true, then when I retire, I will have a very busy retirement.

Now for the weekends. The best thing about getting up Saturday morning during my summer vacation, I don't have to get up and clean the house. I don't even have to think about cleaning the house. And I don't have to feel guilty about not cleaning the house. Saturdays and Sundays are filled with happy thoughts, frivolous tasks and much needed relaxation.

If you know me, you know that the above discussion should be viewed as a definite maybe. At any time, on any day, I may totally change my priorities for the day. A movie, a day at the beach, a shopping excursion even lunch with a friend may trump any preordained plans that may have been made for the day. But that's the beauty of summer vacation. After all, it's my vacation.

I think the thought for the month is very appropriate and timely. This is the good ole summertime. What better symbol for summertime then the American national pastime, baseball. That French-born American author, Jacques Barzun certainly got it right. To know America is to know baseball and to know baseball is to know America. I believe that I saw a World War 2 movie once where two platoons of soldiers, unfamiliar with each other, came head to head in the battlefields of Europe. To determine whether the opposing group was a friendly force or an enemy force, one of the soldiers in one platoon ask a baseball question of the soldiers in the second platoon. The soldiers in the second platoon got the answer correct, hence they must have been American soldiers and thus friendly forces. I can't remember the movie of the exact situation, but I think you get my point. Now take me out to the ballgame, buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks, I don't care if I ever get back.

No, my impact windows have not been installed, yet. Yes, they are overdue, by over three months already. I called the company last week, the sales associate was very apologetic and very accommodating but said that they, as well as any other hurricane protection company, are so busy and behind schedule with impact windows and shutters that it is probably going to take another month to get my windows shipped and then installed. That's OK. I'm cool, as long as the season is a mild one for South Florida. I have a feeling that the hurricane season will not be as severe for South Florida as it was last year. The Bermuda high is not as strong as it was last summer. If this holds, Florida will not be a magnet for every Charlie, Ivan, Frances or Jean that comes along. Time will tell.

Did you hear about our first tropical storm, Tropical Storm Arlene? It followed a path similar to that of Ivan's path of destruction last September. 

South Florida got a lot of rain and feeder bands with Arlene. I believe the wind gusts were 60 mph. The Florida Panhandle was ground zero for Arlene. The effects of Arlene were felt points north of the Gulf Coast and then some. The hurricane season will be over November 30. We can make it.

After the Tropical storm, Ft. Lauderdale was visited by a vintage DC-3. A DC-3 that was used to transport cargo to and from the Bahamas crashed in Broward County. It took off from Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport, developed engine trouble and crashed on a residential street just a few miles from my school. Miraculously the three occupants of the plane survived the crash. The pilot has received high praise for his expertise in dealing with such an emergency.

Photos: Sun-Sentinel

A few days after the plane crashed, the Goodyear blimp crashed into a warehouse in Coral Springs, during a storm, miles from where the plane had crashed. I still don't understand why the blimp was flying in a storm.

Photos: Sun-Sentinel

Oh, yea, a mild hurricane season for this year in South Florida? Nothing ever happens here!