Oh, My God...this is a beautiful day!

Happy Memorial Day, I'm not sure that's the appropriate thing to say, but we welcome Memorial Day for a few reasons...it's a vacation day for everyone but us...and that's O.K. with us because as I sit here with the ocean breeze blowing on me (I have the window open), the sun shining down on us and the ocean just sparkling, well who can complain about working in that! We also celebrate the lives of our loved ones who served so bravely, but are no longer with us and for those still serving. We live in the land of the free and while I may continue to complain about the government's irresponsible use of my tax dollars, I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. As I sit down tonight to eat my picnic supper...I shall thank God for having put me here in the Good Ole USA! Yesterday Renee, (she works the needlework shop) picked me up to go for a ride...on our scooters..on the boardwalk. Renee just got her scooter this year, but I inherited Dad's scooter (these are the 3 & 4 wheel kind) when he passed away. Neither of us had taken them for a spin before, but yesterday we had a parade going down the boardwalk...with Greenie, Renee's husband, following us on Renee's old 3 wheel bike. We were quite the picture with me riding front, Renee shot gun and Greenie coming up in the rear. But folks, it was the first time in years that I had been down the entire boardwalk...we take these things for granted because we're here all the time. Now while we did have to dodge the bikers and people strolling, it was a wonderful time, I didn't get tired and my feet didn't hurt so I was a happy camper. I'm telling you someone could make a fortune renting these things out on the boardwalk. We passed a lot of seniors sitting on benches that shouted, "I need to get one of those." I learned from Disney world to stop trying to walk the long distances, get the scooter and have a fun time doing it...and we did. I even got sun burned. Yes, I'm so far it doesn't take much, but anyway, now I've got color which is so odd everyone commented on it. But what the ride did was make me appreciate even more where I live. Renee has always taken the time, each day almost, to go to the beach and appreciate the ocean. I never took the time. I'd look out the door of the shop, when someone mentioned the ocean, but just took it for granted. Yesterday we stopped and stared at the ocean, the beach, the jetty at the inlet, watched the fishermen and the boaters. I live in a resort and just have never taken the time to appreciate it fully. But yesterday I took the time. I'm sure where you are there are places or things people travel to see, but you take it for granted. You need to find those places and take another look at them. But seriously, my view far exceeds many others. This ocean is a wonderous thing, as many of you already know. Anyway, this weekend has proven to be a quiet one for us...while folks are here..crowds are certainly down. I guess the gas price has seriously curtailed folks driving. I saw on T.V. about the space going-ons, and how excited they are about that and I have to wonder...we are putting million, trillions into a space program (think of the fuel to get that up) and policy makers talk about how awful the gas prices are but no one seems to be doing a darn thing about it. Why haven't they come up with an affordable fuel source? Instead of bitching about the Arab oil countries, come up with an alternative and then let them keep their own oil. We seem to worry so much about all the other countries while we are having a crisis in our own country...which I love don't get me wrong, however, I'm tired of all the money coming out of my paycheck to pay taxes which is then spent on everyone else. It's not only Federal, it's state, and local. The town is putting through a bill here to raise property tax again. For God's sake, it's going to be impossible to stay here at this rate. The country raises theirs, then the city raises theirs...we have people on fixed incomes here...what the hell are they suppose to do. Someone actually wrote in our local paper that this raise was really touch on everyone but locals because we get a homestead break...what the hell are they talking about. I do get a homestead break, but I'm still double taxed so what the hell good did it do me. And for the business...there is no homestead break....so we're double taxes heavily. And what does it give us...I'm still trying to figure that out. Our Barney Fife police department responds to calls only if 3 other people have called on the same complaint (well, I suppose if I was held at gunpoint they wouldn't require 3 other people to call in as well...although I'm not sure of that). I try never to call them because that became more frustrating to me than the problem I was dealing with. And it takes them forever to get the information right...after asking you to repeat it numerous times. How come on T.V. they never ask the same question twice. Not only does ours ask it twice invaritable another policeman comes and asks the questions all over again. Frustrating...speaking of frustrating, as many of you know I don't sleep through the night and I have to say, I can't be the only person. However, have you noticed what is on T.V. at night. Infomercials..people nothing but infomercials. Last night I woke around 2:30 and wanted to stitch a little only to find that with the exception of Nick at Night, there wasn't anything else on but infomercials and I do have my limits so I went back to bed. I have regular cable so don't start with me about movies on those channels. I use to get HBO until I got tired of waking up to find penis' and breasts on my T.V. in the middle of the night. I often thought I'd turned on a porno channel (which I don't even get but when I'm waking up I'm disoriented) by mistake. It just became distasteful so I told them to discontinue my HBO. Now I just buy the damn movies so I can watch them whenever I feel like it, and it's a lot cheaper than paying for those channels for a year. Honestly, I hate to sound like my mother but I remember when T.V. was free...yeah, you only got 2 local channels, but it was free...and the cable came in and it went up to $9.00...then $15.00 and each time they took something I liked back and put it on premium cable so you had to pay more...and I've still got basic cable and I'm paying $46.00 for basic channels. Now you and I both know that's stealing...just down right stealing my money. You think of all the thousands of people in this town, paying cable every month there is just no way they should have to charge all this money. But, I'm not so disgusted I have the whole thing cut off...no...I'm a T.V. fanatic...up to a point apparently. I was complaining to Pat W. recently and she just looked at me and said, "Well, we have the whole package and we're paying over $100." I guess my $46 is looking pretty good right now, except this friggin Comcast company down here has gone corporate which means you get no service at all. They won't give out spare cable boxes, even though they know exactly how many rooms we have and what we need the boxes for. They say, we're open 24/7 so we can handle any breakdowns....well Sara called them last night (we've had calls into them every day since we opened) at 9:00 to report a bad box, was on hold for an hour when she finally gave up and said the hell with it. Now, the box happened to be in the office, but if that was a guest room what the hell were we suppose to do? We have been fighting this for 2 years and still can't get them to confess that they are not equipped to handle 24/7 calls. What are you suppose to do with tenants? Well...let's just say the fight continues. And with that I'm going back to work. Have a great day with your families...and when you finally get rid of them...sit down, kick back and stitch.