Thursday, April 30, 2009

what a change

During a return walk today (!) to the west island beneath the bridge over the Indian River lagoon here in Martin County, FL, unusual small holes were observed in the asphalt of the traffic lanes that hold traffic flowing through Sewall's Point past the (ahem) Harbor Bay Plaza. Although they are the approximate size of reflectors affixed-then-dislodged in the roadway (with tar) to more clearly separate the traffic lanes, they also resemble to a remarkable degree the pits/slumps caused when frightened frogs/toads adhere to the asphalt to hold their positions -- a sight also seen within Kingswood condo complex. The small holes are not showstoppers but are reason to wonder while traversing SE Ocean/Route A1A, which passes the plaza and other businesses including a Keller law firm.

I decided to pick up more trash along the north-side shoreline again ("one less, one less" annual coastal cleanup assignment), and that trash included a number of infant/baby disposable diapers/training pants lying almost beneath the span itself. Today I also made photos, and the array was almost exactly the same as yesterday -- dried-up ray-on-a-rock, crab carapaces, orange child's t-shirt, various darkly-dyed jersey-knit rags. After putting the trash into a picnic-area trash can, I tossed out old chocolate-covered malt balls from my backpack to about a half-dozen crows; later, an apple core went into the water to bob along in the wave action. Some doves flew by. and a pelican closely reconnoitered the floating apple core.

And yes! the spider hopped out again to directly view my exit, as if I may be 'Miss Muffet' in my own mind, but not 'Miss Moffet'.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

o/ o/ it's that time of the year o/ o/'

This week's http://www.topix.net/ website gives us the Tallahasse, FL, article titled, 'Florida Fish and Wildlife needs your Help with Horseshoe Crabs', "...this is the peak period when horseshoe crabs come ashore to mate...statewide survey...at this time of the year, crabs invade certain beaches...". The creatures have an dark brown armorlike shell and a tail that resembles a pointed stick which they drag along on shoreline sand. The legs to a remarkable extent resemble the pincer-type legs of crustaceans, yet they are not categorized as such.

As a young girl, I did observe horseshoe crabs only a short distance away in the Jensen Beach, FL, area where the family had rented a vacation-house at the edge of the Indian River lagoon. The horseshoe crabs came out onto the sand when I was alone at the little house, together with other true crabs that have burrows in the sand and hermit crabs which use seashells as protection and mineral source. There was a sort of parade of horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs, with the burrowing crabs on shore and the blue crabs in the water as the audience/spectators.

Therefore, I walked over the Evans Cray, Sr. bridge that spans the St. Lucie River and sat myself down on the west island beneath the second, longer bridge, on the grass at the edge of a slight incline and sandy beach very close to the water and some living plus future-driftwood slender tree-trunks at growing at the tiny-wave waterline. The Jensen Beach Causeway could be seen due north. At my back were anglers and windsurfers along the south side of the very small island. I tossed a shed honeybee carapace into the view, that I had found on the bridge walkway.

Two excursion boats made their way northward through the lagoon.

The breeze and the sun made it a fine outlook position over the next hour, although an angler positioned himself very close by and I couldn't be sure whether he was looking to hook live fish or what. The beach was a combination of rubble and seashells, along with rocks, that covered a significant percentage of the sand. Actually, any horseshoe crab action was more likely to occur along the westside lagoon shoreline close to the mainland, which is where I had seen the creatures as a vacationer. Pelicans, a heron and some crows diligently sought sustenance.

However, as I picked up clear and brown glass beer-bottles/pieces and other food-service debris along the island beach, I along with all others present acknowledged what appeared to be two horseshoe crab shells with their characteristic peaks but with a variegated color that apparently resulted after much time lying in the sun (plants?). No live horseshoe crabs were directly observable among the skeletal remains of fish and a dried-out small ray perched on one rock. Live small fish swam and jumped in the water, while an occasional small red ant sunk mandibles into my flesh to stabilize itself.

Among the styrofoam, plastic-wrap and cellophane wrappers discarded, a child's small orange-colored cotton jersey-shirt was easily seen lying in and under the white sand. A length of nylon rope and a short bungee cord were also placed in one of the park's picnic area trash cans -- three bags of debris altogether.

While returning to Kingswood condo complex via Sewall's Point, a small variegated-colored spider hopped out onto the concrete sea-wall that separated the beach from the walkway, near a faded Pepsi can folded and wedged between two flanges of a metal column among many others that held up the wall's topside metal-railing. The Pepsi can was/is an unavoidable sight as drivers motor over the longer bridge, and must be seen at a variety of angles during the two-bridge drive onto the mainland, predictably slowing traffic near Benihana restaurant and the Harbor Point plaza. The roadside wall is stressed anyway near Benihana, with cracks running through the concrete beside the walkway and drainage grates. The previously mentioned mysterious array of bolts in the wall apparently are positioned to hold various new metal traffic-signs.

And, while leaving the bridge walkway at St. Lucie Boulevard, a dark brown cigar lay beside the roadway wall.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

North of SE Ocean

Yesterday's walk began at the intersection of St. Lucie Boulevard with SE Ocean Boulevard, where St. Lucie extends northward as a loop that moves traffic behind and around Cedar Pointe condo complex, Cedar Pointe Plaza, St. Lucie Apartments, the St. Lucie Club and various small residential communities before ending westward at SE Ocean again near the Sunoco station.

The area is mapped as 'Snug Harbor', possibly due to lack of winning opposition argument. A pile of plant debris was piled in the roadway itself a short distance from SE Ocean at the bridge over the St. Lucie River, large branches and cut trunks on the asphalt as if the roadway itself is private property. Workers at a nearby residential property had their materials-compounds buckets set in plain view of passers-by the driveway entrance.

The walk around the riverfront loop is quiet and serene, with large and beautiful homes mingled with concrete-block longhouse structures -- the river flows close by but is not directly observable from the roadway.

Monday, April 27, 2009

straw on a hot twin bed

o This past Sunday's Walgreen's newsprint supplement features an oversized coupon that states "On June 1 Passport Laws are Changing U. S. citizens will need a passport to travel anywhere outside the U. S. by land, sea or air". The coupon offers a "FREE Passport Travel Kit with purchase of Passport Photos. Includes two travel-sized cosmetic bottles, toothbrush case and passport holder all in a handy travel bag."

Aside from the fact that such a change should apply only to travel-industry common-carrier activities, not stipulated in the coupon offer, the false 'need' to buy and have special items in order to travel is quite hilarious and has the potential for yet more definite conflict. That certain populations residing in the United States wish to track the movements of all U. S. citizens as they visit relatives in other American regions is a transparent bid continued to make use of everything we do and say with "civil defense" claims lacking the serendipity that makes creative and imaginative experiences for fellow human beings.

In the late 1970s in San Francisco, CA, I wanted to inquire about passport requirements from that city's passport office -- questions only, some years after some unnamed population began advertising Brazil in South America as THE place to send Portuguese immigrants. I stopped in at a place nearby that advertised 'passport photos' with intent to either use or to send them to family as evidence of my appearance within peninsula environs. My queries were answered, with advisement that passports were required only if traveling outside the continental (equatorial?) Americas, and the photos were sent to my mother showing the flattened visage of a definite neophyte traveller.

o SE Ocean Boulevard, post-hurricanes, has a 'Florida Blood Center' addressed near the St. Lucie River where unwilling red-blooded Americans can be lured, intimidated and wrestled into premises circulatory-system tap-actions. A Starbucks franchise location installed beside it has already folded, and a 'For Sale' sign advertises the failure of the fast-food venture.

The operation appears to follow the example of San Francisco, CA, where a large 'blood center' was installed on Masonic Avenue after the earthquake of 1989, showing a large red drop painted on the outside of the building at the entrance. Telephone calls not affiliated with the operation lured or intimidated, asking "Will you go to give blood?", with angry people (high blood pressure) specifically targeted.

The north Stuart Blood Center is located within the medical-mall zone that lacks sidewalk entryway into mall shops, businesses and markets -- pedestrians must share asphalt roadway entrances with motorists.

o A Sheriff's Office was spotted on SE Monterey Road in a plaza-type setting across from the thrift shops, used car lots, and other small businesses addressed between U. S. 1 and Willoughby Boulevard.

o Oh yeah, the steak knife previously described was not a pointed or sharp example of the culinary tool -- it was simply serrated at its tip and had a plastic handle -- and I felt followed into/awaited by the Salvation Army as if I had neglected to bring it to them and had erred (a "faux pas") because dropping it into a 10th Street trash can instead. After all, Stuart (FL) is advertised as a sort of expanded fishing village that has not lost its small-town charm.

o Also, the latest walk southward from Johnson Street to regain Monterey Road showed a key-lock flattened and lying in the bicycle lane in two pieces -- the stem and the lock mechanism proper. Flashback to San Francisco, CA, where my daughter 'lost' two locks -- one combination and one key-type -- in Roosevelt Middle School where students had to negotiate use of assigned lockers half the size of regular school lockers, stacked two each along the hallways. A student either had a bottom locker or had the stacked top locker assigned. She probaby knows where the two locks are, but I don't know (and ain't that a clever tactic).

Friday, April 24, 2009

the merry life

Today's walk to the USPO was another scorcher, sunny and hot (my skin color matches my red dress). A black water beetle lay in the middle of the sidewalk beside Monterey Road near the 10th Street footbridge; and a black turtle the size of a dinner plate came walking out of the bank of that underbridge slough. I tossed the beetle into the wet grass of the slough.

A pile of small mangoes lay on the berm outside a family property beside 10th Street, and a youth came walking out onto the sidewalk with a black spaniel/lab mixed-breed hunting dog.
A short distance further along that street, a rusting 'Do not park on berm' sign lay in the grass parallel to the curb, not far from the Council for the Aging complex.

The steak knife yet lay embedded in sand/soil at the corner of Palm Beach Road and 10th Street, so I picked it up with a discarded napkin and dropped into one of the trash containers within close proximity to the 10th Street Recreation Center -- truly, all eyes in the area were directed my way.

The Post Office was not crowded, and I was able to use the automated postage-label machine with no problems, then commenced another southward walk alongside U. S. 1 begun at the intersection with Johnson Avenue. Trailers parked within the Holiday trailer park appear to have been recently painted, as do other businesses along the east side of the roadway, the smell of fresh paint lingering in the air. Two thrift shops addressed in the telephone directory were found along SE Monterey Road after making a right-hand turn from U. S. 1 -- the Salvation Army thrift shop and a Treasure Box thrift store that had the air of a boutique, both near the intersection with Willoughby Boulevard -- but neither had any books pertinent to my literature search efforts.

I crossed the street at Willoughby to buy bananas at a produce store, then had to walk all the way to U. S. 1 along a Monterey Road paved Extension because there is no crosswalk to return to the east side of the road without returning to Willoughby first. There is one Extension merge-point where a crosswalk should be helpful if painted in so as to regain the east side of the street and retrace footsteps along a shorter route to Monterey Road moving northward.

Long John Silver restaurant on U. S. 1 issues receipts that name its co-franchise (KFC) only as the business premises -- they are also offering a contest (customers must compete a survey). My debit card use did overdraw my Wells Fargo checking account, which was resolved with a quick- fix Direct Deposit Advance.

There is reason to worry that populations who monitor my bank-account electronic activity in the region do foul up other business activities. Also, I have recently deduced that the weight of a number of health bars in an outside backpack pocket causes concern that I might be carrying a gun -- but I never have carried a firearm.

It is also the time of the year when many families leave Florida to return to northern homes, thus freeing-up wildlife until school ends in June, such as the black turtle which might normally be green. A Palm Beach TV station this evening broadcast a webcam video of a long-haired, healthy man being shot by a police officer alongside a roadway; the man had left his car in the median grass and moved away from it carrying a large knife as the patrol car approached his own. Because it is that time of the year when wintering families do leave the state and free up wildlife, it is not so unusual for some people to carry such knives or other weapons.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

it's whaaa...?

o Today I consulted http://www.bayoubountystore.com/ to find gift ideas of the Louisiana seafood variety and was somewhat glad that the website was enabled to turn off my interest after a slew of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico regions. The website offers reasonably-priced stock such as crawfish and shrimp, but tempers the enthusiasm of potential customers with hefty shipping and handling fees. Thus, an ideal $19.99 gift idea totals over $80.00 to ship it so that health departments can't complain about deterioration during transport, while a $34.00 special offer costs well over $100.00 total.

And that's not all -- a potential customer must enter a 'ship to' address before any totals are presented in the screen, which means that 'someone' remains in the company's database whether the customer changes his/her mind or not about the purchase.

o Consulting menu/ads in the local Yellow Pages directory brought up the listing of the new Club 131 restaurant advertised as a "food lounge" (no doubt "tongue in cheek"). The place now occupies the premises formerly known as 'Arthur's Dockside' near both Stuart (FL) City Hall and the Stuart Heritage Museum, as well as near the Riverwalk docks and a park. The menu lists 'Live Maine Lobster Bisque' in both the 'Appetizers' and 'Soups' sections.

sunny but breezy

Yesterday, a brief hike to Sewall's Point was nothing out of the ordinary for the region, across the bridge over the St. Lucie River.

Some kind of animal feces was observed on the walkway, south side. Browsing through shops in the plaza revealed the same clothing stock made available as seen during the previous shopping expedition. The return walk on the north side of the bridge showed a sailboat moving southward and a motorboat 'waterboarding' in the river waters. The bridge roadway wall has separated near its exit/entry at St. Lucie Boulevard, with metal rods exposed within concrete, and champagne-colored glass lay scattered on the sidewalk nearby.

Earlier in the day, a walk to the corner of Monterey Road and SE Ocean Boulevard was made to take photos of a uniquely-designed building signposted posted 'For Sale' that formerly housed a Keller and associates business -- a white man on a big bicycle almost hit me on the sidewalk as I walked past Martin Memorial medical mall.

The shelves of Dollar General store included many plastic jars of chunky peanut butter facing one aisle. The receipt has an entry code to win a trip to the Indy 500 in May, because one purchase was a Frito-Lay product (yep, another contest).

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

the more boats you make, the more water there will be

o How do you want your trash mashed, and where? The 11/9/2008 issue of Stuart News gives the article, 'Name on Ship Stirs Controversy' from Amsterdam, Netherlands, "...contemporary Swiss-based Allseas Group SA...owner claims...new ship...will be world's largest...Edwin Heerena...wants to name it the 'Pieter Schelte' after his late father...who was renowned as a maritime engineer but was condemned for his service in the...Nazi Waffen SS. ..." Really shouldn't name the device 'the Tookie' or 'the Gipper' either.

After decades of struggle, the devices should already exist without sacrificing automotive front-bumper license plates, and quite possibly should also have interchangeable mash-faces as well to make different mashed-trash designs.

o The recent rash of tagged 'pirate' encounters off the African coast of Somalia can be linked with a different sort of piracy which seems to be stubbornly irradicable as a use of the "freedom of the press" ethic to, paradoxically, mentally enslave performers.

The 11/23/2008 issue of the Stuart News describes "MTV Africa Music Awards in Nigeria', "...in Abuja, Nigeria, two Nigerian singers won top awards...MTV...first-ever music award program for Africa." People born within the boundaries of U. S. Armed Forces bases in foreign countries are considered to be natives of those countries; we cannot know for sure whether our own military personnel are busy broadcasting/performing pirated music overseas for their own amusement (i. e., music originating from the U. S. seized and copied illegally in U. S. factories, then transported overseas).

There is a reason why B. J. Thomas and Ravi Shankar sound alike -- the music has the same source here in the good ol' U. S. A.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

a dime fur nothin'


Today is Sunday, a clear sunny day in Stuart, FL. A walk around the complex revealed one live and mourning bunny; a new door installed on the chapel-become-shed (see 'baby-over-a-bucket' line-drawing above); two young men fishing at the retention pond near the Keller Towing sign at the end of KTR; some kind of get-together at the far swimming pool from SE Ocean Boulevard, with recorded music during the return stroll; and more young cacti sprouting beside the barrier at the end of KTR. During a swing past Kingswood condo complex walking on the sidewalk, SE Ocean Boulevard, one healthy but dead young squirrel lay in the bike lane, with some kind of internal injuries -- and with large dinner-minded populations both mobile and not making it a potential head-butting situation.

Kudos again for the businesses within Monterey Commons -- a walkway now extends from the sidewalk into that office-building domain. However, some kind of above-ground water-pipe seal is dripping on the berm near KTR where it intersects with Monterey Road, but that is not thought to be an altogether wrong circumstance.

Sunday noise from motorcycles passing through the northeast Stuart 55+ condo complexes remains high-decibal, with possible intent to cause deaths such as the young squirrel's and maybe din out some residents, too -- a version of the 'Sunday Drive' that our great-grandparents couldn't imagine.

I, as usual, was nearly hit more than once walking within the complex and "feeding frenzy" might be the appropriate label for the automotive behavior. Many reached for the dead squirrel but could not make the stop.

The fish behaved the same way as when I usually walk near the pond/slough -- they swim over to look at me, some jumping into the air to get a quick look.

Thinking back to the trash-filled lot at the intersection at Dixie Highway, Park Avenue, and Florida Street, that Taylor's Store on 10th Street did not have trashbags/boxes in stock to hand out to contain the piled discards should not in any case mean a bullet for a teen Taylor elsewhere.

Friday, April 17, 2009

no pushin'

The Topix.net website describes as 'bank robberies' premises entries within two articles that tell us about a man dressed as a woman who had a 'I have a bomb' note carried into first a M&T bank in Buffalo, NY, a few weeks ago and today the same type encounter within a branch of Key Bank, same city.

Only a few years ago, such a person (with buddies?) was observed to walk directly past a Bank of America branch here in east Stuart, FL -- the branch is located near a supermarket.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

the business of kinship with Pocahontas

o Years ago, as a tenant in San Francisco, CA, attempts were made to report the focus of incoming northeastern populations upon a 'special' historical palm tree located in Golden Gate Park -- such focus engendered by the mental transmission of the palm-tree 'speck' of a baby palm-tree grown into an adult.

Efforts were made to arrange interface with archaeologists so as to date that mental-image and others during what should have been meetings and conferences scheduled to ultimately report the discovery of a tiny mucousal oracle-bead chronicle artifact located in northwestern PA, that contained the focal historical image and more. Instead, a matchmaking service was set up ('Kelleher' then others) which years later was used as impetus to demand inception of the 'Keller School of Business' within that northern California domain.

What followed is indeed a new chapter in the history of crimes and their causes because a Keller male is suspected/alleged to have killed a female acquaintence here in the state of FL where many Kellers (and Killer surname) reside. 'Keller' signs are disappearing in the northeast Stuart, FL, area (e. g., tow-truck sign on KTR and realty sign at corner of Monterey Road and SE Ocean Boulevard).

o The Church of Scientology had an 'open house' to show its reading room, scheduled both today and tomorrow (Friday). It is quite a small library, but has everything future Christian Scientists might need to learn the basics of the faith.

o Today's hike continued with a brief rest in downtown Stuart Memorial Park, followed with a walk along the Riverwalk docks near the Roosevelt Bridge. One intact brown beer bottle was seen at an address near the Stuart Heritage Museum, and a few such bottles were also shattered at the shoreline behind Club 131 located beside Stuart City Hall. Another intact bbb was observed near the corner of Colorado and Osceola Streets; a broken bbb seen near the Gross Heart Association building and an intact bbb beside Krueger Creek and the 'big house' on SE Ocean Boulevard; plus one brown Asahi bottle under a tree near Peacock's restaurant and a broken bbb on the asphalt a short distance from Top Drawer store in Cedar Pointe Plaza.

Yellow blossoms from two similar sidewalk trees were tossed into Krueger Creek from the bridge, both going and returning from Historic Downtown Stuart, together with some tiny red berries during the return hike. A plastic-bottle discard was converted to yet another cap for the PVC 'stake' in front of the small plaza where the Treasure Coast Hospice has its Thrift Shop. A return visit to the St. Mary's Cracker Barrel Thrift Shop was made, too.

Some young people were fishing on the shoreline Riverwalk docks, but not on the ones that extend directly into the St. Lucie River (those are posted 'Fishing Prohibited'). One small 'ball of fluff'' bird-remains were removed from SE Ocean Boulevard in front of Dunkin Donuts; one 'ball of fur' pelt-remains were removed from a sidewalk in downtown Stuart -- both placed in nearby grass.

o Also, a length of new yellow-clad wire was affixed to a utility pole with a significant amount of slack (and ensnarement possibilities) looping out over the sidewalk near the base of the pole, on SE Ocean Boulevard.

And hurray for all the benches to sit and rest.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

the hike becomes more familiar

o I have scored a descriptive Hiroshima account in paperback form from the Blake Library's bargain shelves, titled 'The Day Man Lost' (about 1945) ($ .50).

o A car with a faded paint job lettered with the words "Got tuna?" was observed rolling along on SE Ocean Boulevard.

o The black snake has reappeared on KTR, with cause of so much blood lost seen to be a latch-like split in its belly, as if the creature was burst and with the deceptive appearance of a single claw scratch. Previously placed in cool bushes, it lay in the center of the asphalt road as if being cooked for an entirely different purpose than live pest control within regional scrub brush. Lacking shady foliage outside a fenced zone, the rubbery body could only again be taken up and laid in a nearby patch of yellowed grass near the retention pond's chain-link fenced section.

o The footbridge leading from Monetery Road to 10th Street becomes more weakened with each passing, justifying its 'Cross at your Own Risk' sign posted.

o Small mangos about the size of an orange are dropping from trees throughout the locale, growing nearby waterstream/ponds. A few of the bruised/browned ones are easily gathered in hand to distribute within different lots as a passerby (i.e., without argument), and perhaps one to take and grow in a pot within Kingswood condo complex, after tossing grapefruit rinds to the ducks in Hospital Park.

o Young students were leaving a school on 10th Street at the corner where glass bottles have accumulated, which was an opportune time to gather them up to carry to the trash can in Hospital Park on Palm Beach Road. A household knife was also seen to be lying in the sand near the bottles, perhaps the steak knife which a student carried into a local school, creating some alarm and reason to print a newspaper article.

o The United States Post Office on Johnson Street is located beside a pond/sinkhole that flows into previously-described canal. There is also an Ace Hardware at the intersection with Florida Street, such that any competition for space in the area (including violent altercation) has a cerebral-tradesperson atmosphere here in Martin County, FL, same as elsewhere in the United States (such as San Francisco, CA).

o A thunderstorm soaked cactus pads placed at the terminus of KTR enough so that two pairs of small 'rabbit-ear' cacti have sprouted from the sandy soil at the road's-end barrier.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

east-coast wash-out (continued)

o Two (live) Golden Retriever dogs were observed to be sitting in the rear section of a small pickup truck parked in Kingswood condo complex a few days ago, following a series of 2008 Stuart News articles recently discarded in recycling bin. Since I did not see if the dogs had been traveling in the back of the moving truck, an illegal action, the joke remains on me (a former straight-A student).

o How many children/people have had their hair pulled after a reading of 'An Elizabethan Home' by Claudius Hollyband, as a "by-the-book" experience and reaction to the introduction of milk products as a home staple in literature?

o Remember 'Black Fury' comic books -- the ones that may have generated impetus to break the ankles of a black filly 'Eight Belles' (the comic book was published using non-voluntary elicited words and phrases, as well, and racehorses are named the same way)?

o A perusal of literature received from mail-order home-study companies reveals that 'psychology' has been given a place among coursework listings, as if the studies of thought-logic and -processes are a matter of mere formwork.

o I'm always 'almost hit' by vehicles at least once when entering or leaving Kcc; large roadway arrows are featured at the entry/exit to/from SE Ocean Boulevard, and the senior/AARP crowd enjoys exhiliarating freedom (from a population pool of Hilliard surnames) of the type that might cause sudden death for uninformed pedestrians lacking designated walkways. The afore-mentioned entryway has the atmosphere of simply yet another freeway on/off connection.

o Today is Easter Sunday. Two more brown glass beer-bottles were found broken along the west side of St. Lucie Boulevard, one quite specifically shattered at a driveway entry/exitway to/from the Boulevard. Two intact brown bottles were found on property-zone turf -- one another aging Icehouse and the other brown plastic.

o Recent action includes the sudden rush of young anglers toward retention pond and river-pocket slough when fish react to berries, grapefruit rinds or decaying small fruit tossed into the water for the various denizens of shallow waters. There is reason to worry that maidens might be flipped into the water, and if so, would be ajudged to be a cultural action of naturalized Mexicans within their indigenous latitude.

Whether angling to catch fish or perhaps with the thought to hook submerged skeletons, the action near growing 'Haitian' mango trees appears to be a sort of 'impulse shopping' along shores and from boats, about which the historically-ditched may take offense. Young bike riders appear on sidewalks near piles of vegetation cleared from private properties, some containing coconuts and small mangoes, as if the next week's work and its roadside bounty will be stolen from them.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

some kinda rampage

The preserve-type acreage nearby Kingswood condo complex is represented somehow by two names that closely match elder-student names associated with a past McKean County District Nine basketball championship in Pennsylvania (Bradford Area High School).

A dying palm tree has been cut log-style with some kind of instrument, in lieu of allowing it to simply collapse and send up fronds from the grounded leafy crown (as is the case with a nearby palm tree popped off its base within Kcc during the hurricane(s) and moved into the preserve acreage as the result from storm action). The brown and withering palm tree was sad enough a sight after Tropical Storm Fay soaked its chlorophyll away and a recent cold-weather front, but now has been most rudely cut near the base as if to be an exhibit.

Kingswood Terrace Road, on the south side of the complex, now features some squarish pieces of plate glass alongside that become very hot in the sun not far from the new drainage tube installation -- the aperture of the terminus tube is half-circled with a yellow flotation line that resembles yellow police tape.

Alongside the retention pond, a turn-off section from the sandy trail shows that a wooden beam once placed at the west side of the space has been moved to the east side near some aluminum/paper litter. The black tank-top continues to hang from some leafy bush-branches, while seabirds and shore birds give the area their complete attention.

On the asphalt at the entry-exit to Kcc from KTR today lay the bloody and collapsed body of the neighborhood black snake, which closely resembled the appearance of actual kingsnakes, very near a spot on the opposite roadway where a neighborhood green lizard had been found flattened with a tire tread mark days ago.

Near the Ocean Boulevard entrance/exit of Kcc, a large palm tree that had been weakened during the hurricanes had been propped straight with wooden boards; the tree now lays inclined at an angle propped by only one such board, following the cut-down of the preserve-acreage tree and the recent transplanting of many smaller palm trees within the immediate vicinity.

Different from the occasional sightings of shed lizard- and frogskins, these latest incidents more closely resemble the action on the sidewalk beside St. Lucie Boulevard, where various small creatures are sometimes dashed to death on the concrete by the action of vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

mortes d'arthur

o One of the 'Ricky's who inspired tune titled 'Ricky don't lose that number' from music album- theme 'Steely Dan' has died, the 11/30/2008 Stuart News Obituaries tell us. "Richard Harvard Gates, 54...born in Vero Beach [FL] and was a lifetime resident...was a landscaper... ". He died just one day after the death of an 87-year-old woman born in Stuttgart, Germany, who "...lived in Vero Beach since 1980... . ...she worked as a translator in Germany...".

o That same Sunday issue of the Stuart News also describes a 'Police Blotter' entry under 'Theft Arrests': "Sondra Renee Sebastian, 21...Southeast Isabella Avenue, Stuart, petit theft, arrested Sunday...Northwest Federal Highway...".

Internet journalism dated 4/7/2009 describes the recovery of a victim named Sandra Cantu using such story titles as 'Missing Girl's Body found in Suitcase', "...eight-year-old...Tracy, CA, ...in an irrigation pond...vanished from a mobile home park...".


It's not easy to believe that these kinds of occurrences are mere coincidences, especially since telephone call-demand tactics have been so prevalent during past decades, using questions which demand to know how (or why) specific people are being supported in a region. That some young girl in CA was harried and drowned because having a name similar to someone who was harried until committing a crime in FL (both most probably wanted to farm crayfish outside the state of Louisiana) is yet another reason why the non-titled influence network operation should be routed out and also lose their phones. Such influence-network operations are also the reason why lobby laws were articulated in the state of Pennsylvania, since telephone abuse has become so de rigeur.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

the Broccoli Brigade et al

o A monthly steak dinner is offered once a month here in Martin County, FL, as an activity of the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) hosted by the VFW -- very near rural Lake Okeechobee cattle country -- along with the many other flesh-peddling businesses and dinner offers in the region.

o The 'beeping Californians' sound their horns to move other traffic along when they themselves pause and recognize an individual also previously seen in CA home territory.

o A plush black caterpillar about two inches long was seen within Kcc crossing roadway, and has a row of yellow spots along its back resembling the uniform dripping of a stalagtite.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

hearsay companies and their bellyflops

o Continuing somewhat from a previous entry, broken brown beer-bottle glass littered the bike lane in two places along the north side of U. S. 1 between Johnson Street and Monterey Road -- near a large Keller's tow-truck parked in an automotive-service parking lot, and near 'Connie's' store situated within a plaza. The same gaggle of now-aging bottles remain scattered at the corner of Palm Beach Road and 10th Street.

o A few days ago, a Palm Beach TV station reported an incident whereby a bobcat injured a young boy on his shoulder (talk about 'by the book'!) and was kicked off by the boy's mother -- then someone shot the bobcat. Flashing back to a short telephone exchange during which I referred to a different 18-year-old caller as a "young man", the 'by-the-book' nature of this incident might indicate a wildcat flipped past yet onto the boy as a reason to kill the creature. The cat might be missed, sometimes relaxing in foliage near KTR, there as a sort of fuzzy magnet near walkers to prevent falls into the retention pond and slough waters.

o Today's Palm Beach Post newspaper features the front-page headline, 'Massacre in New York'. Ostensibly, the second viewpoint is not an available read now for some of us, with somewhat suspicious timing of the cost increase.

o Today's Stuart News features the front-page story, 'Bills target Double-Dippers', "More than 100 state employees on Treasure Coast are collecting both salary, pension,,, . ...in 2001, changes to state law allowed employees to "retire" for 30 days, then return to the same job and collect a salary and monthly pension. ..." Then two hurricanes swept in during 2004, but apparently more action is necessary.

o Even vehicles with Michigan license tag lack the front-bumper tag here in Martin County, FL -- those born in Michigan usually sticklers for any kind of action that will prevent damage to vehicles (including the kind associated with pedestrian death) and for the utmost legality of vehicle presentation and use.

o Finally, the boxes holding 'Little Debbie' Swiss Rolls now have a choice of two tabs to tuck into the slot when closing an opened box -- presumably so that the box can be reused perhaps with more expansive contents (e.g., as a purse).

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

condola

Today's unusual lunch: canned tamales, with eggplant nuggets (seeded) dusted with flour/paprika, fried in olive oil then soaked in leftover chili sauce. So much for the coffee-can baked-bread approach to a healthy repast -- life isn't any more thrifty than that!

Tonite, about an hour ago, a naturally-blackened banana peel was removed from the bike lane in front of Kcc.

A Chinese pianist was scheduled to perform at the Lyric Theatre at 7:00 p. m. this evening; she also performed at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford (my home town) a few years ago when I was there. No need to pry into her diet.