Monthly Blog-Roll Clean-Up

It's time to edit the "SITES I READ" list over on the right hand side of this blog. As a general rule, I try to edit them out when they've been down for a month. There's only one of those this month.

Political Pet -- Nothing since the end of March. Spotty up until then.

Stupid and Wrong -- He said he'd shut it down after the recent Smyrna election. He kept his word. He has been roundly praised by many Smyrna voters.

OMA / Kyla -- She has recently decided to abandon blogger and start over elsewhere. She did not post a forwarding URL, but invites people to e-mail and request it.

I also wanted to note that, while I do regularly check all of these sites, I can't say that I consistently read them. The left/right political split among some Delaware bloggers has become a deep vein of spite. I have lost interest in tracking personal pissing matches.

Most of my blog-roll is made up of Delaware blogs. I have an interest in linking to any Delaware blogs I can find. That doesn't necessarily mean I recommend them to you. Just so you know.

Spring Marsh Walk

I returned this week to the trail at the St. Jones Center south of Dover for another lunch-time walk. As usual, I combined exercise with a little photo-exploration.

This is the trail I took last fall and again in the winter. I wanted to see how things look now that the trees have new green leaves. The trees were quite lush, though the marsh itself has not greened-up yet. One tree I had admired back in November has been cut down.

I was very aware of the abundant insect life along this trail. Flies were zooming around. Bees bumbled from flowering tree to tree. Wasps were hanging here and there. I decided I like this walk a bit better in the late fall and winter.

I do plan to revisit the marsh/boardwalk areas as the season progresses. I want to see the marsh in full sedge.

Um... What?

Um... What?
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

Burger King, Milford. This just doesn't seem like something I want to eat.

Pride is Pride, I Guess

This evening I found myself behind a guy in a Nissan pick-up with a little sticker on the back of his camper-top.

It looked like the sign for a unisex bathroom; a euro-stick-figure man next to a euro-stick-figure woman. In a pale, mono-tonal, light blue.

There were differences. Euro-stick-man and euro-stick-woman appeared to be holding hands. And her skirt was shorter than usual.

There was writing beneath the two euro-people. I couldn't quite make it out what it said, so I had to slide up close behind the Nissan at a traffic light to get a look.

It said "Straight Pride."

Cute. But I think it would be more effective if I didn't have to sidle up so close to the guy's rear-end to see it.

Halfway Through?

I reached 44,444 miles on my Prius this morning. It was just as I pulled out of the driveway, on my way to drop off the recycling.

It's been 268 days since 22,222. I missed 33,333 somehow, but it's been a busy 8 months, 25 days.

A Roadside Edit

I've been checking the DelDOT signs for Beaver Dam Estates, on Route 9 between Lewes and Georgetown, ever since last fall, to see if they've fixed their "Beavere Dam" typo.

Somewhere in the last few days, someone applied a bit of blue-out.

Update: Who's Suing the School Board Now?

One news story that came through while we were frolicking in Florida sunshine was the newest lawsuit against the Indian river Board of Education.

This time, according to the News Journal story last Wednesday (Insurer sues Indian River School District), the suit stems from their refusal to settle their last lawsuit.

The Indian River School District is being sued by its insurance company, reportedly for rejecting a proposed settlement by the families that filed a federal civil rights lawsuit suit against the district over school prayer.

One part of me wonders whether there's an ethical issue here for the insurance company, but on reflection I suppose they must have a clause in their contract on which to rest their suit.

The News Journal addressed the issue in an Op-Ed this past Saturday (Indian River will pay dearly if it refuses a legal settlement).

Just when it appeared the religious discrimination lawsuit against the Indian River School Board had reached the pinnacle of absurdity, a new twist has left the district and its taxpayers vulnerable to more financial obligations.

I'm no fan of the excess of Christian demonstrativeness by the School Board, but I don't think I'd have sued over it. And, I guess I understand the Board's defensive reaction to the suit, but I think they should have accepted a settlement that their insurer would have paid (if I understand correctly).

Final Irony? Here's a note from the Wednesday story:

School Board President Charles Bireley said Tuesday he was served with a copy of the lawsuit on Easter Sunday.

Report from the Keys, Part 3: Okay, About Chase....

Maybe I'm spoiled, but I usually don't have to sit right next to the most spoiled children in the world. One day, down in the Keys, that's what it felt like.

Here's the scene. It's a bright, hot day. We find four lounge chairs more or less in the shade by the pool. We settle in to relax. There are a few empty chairs to our left, and a few to our right.

A Mom comes along with two pre-teen boys, a frying-size girl, and a grandma in tow. She installs the boys in the chairs to our right (right next to me) and takes the civilized portion of her crew off to the left.

Right next to me sits Chase. A pudgy little guy with his nose buried in some game-boy ultra or something. Next to him is his brother, maybe a cousin, who appear to be poking Chase, or annoying him in some way.

"Maaaaa-AAAAAA-OOOO-ooooo-mmmmmmmm-MUH!" said Chase. In a high, shrieking whine.

Mom is across the way, in the pool. She's playing with the little girl. Chase never really took a look to see who he might be calling for, or where she might be. He just let fly with the loud, drawn-out call of the spoiled child.

He got hungry. His call echoed forth.

He was thirsty. He sounded his battle cry.

That, my friends, was Chase.

Report from the Keys, Part 2: Being There

I'm not sure where the time is going, but I'd better wrap up this Spring Break mini-vacation report before next spring, or risk looking pretty silly.

The truth is, we didn't do a whole heck of a lot at Hawks Cay. We were there to sit in the sun, by the pool (or in the pool).
Some vacations should be active, physical challenges that jolt you out of your day-to-day and reintroduce you to the grit and exhilaration of real life. Other vacations, such as this one, are times to do nothing; to simply be alone with yourself and your family and rediscover the quiet center of your life.

Those activities that we did organize were largely meant as retreats from the hot sun and minor sun-burns we encountered. All four of us suffered minor sunscreen failures; each burning a small bit of ourselves. Mine was the upper left arm and shoulder. It starts about an inch above my forearm/farmer's tan, creating a paler band between tanned lower arm and burned upper. Very tribal.

We took one morning to visit the Theater of the Sea, in Islamorada. This place has dolphin and sea lion shows, exotic birds, sharks and sea turtles and a rich display of plant life. It was small, but well run, and offered lots to look at.

That was swell.

We also dipped lightly into the Spa offerings of the resort. I had a moderately deep-tissue massage and Karen got a facial. Colleen and Christina had their first massages, taking advantage of the resort's "Teen Spa" offerings, which were nicely and appropriately tuned to the younger set.

We also spent an hour paddling around the Duck Key coastline in a pair of kayaks. It would have been better if we had been able to book spaces in one of the resort's twice-weekly guided eco-kayak tours. We didn't really know where to go, and didn't want to risk going to far in waters that were not familiar to us.

That brings up a point to consider, should you plan a trip to a spot like this. Check a week or so ahead about reservations for things like special tours and activities. Things were book-up well in advance. Also note that all these activities cost extra. It adds up.

The best thing we did was also one of the least expensive; a two hour sunset sail on a catamaran. This was a small group of very nice folks, on a comfortable, stable sailing catamaran with sodas, beer, wine and champagne. We cruised out into a calm bit of the Atlantic and back again, watching the sunset, visiting with dolphins, and indulging in sedate, constructive conversation.

I particularly enjoyed chatting with the gentleman who captained the cruise. In his day job, he's food services manager for the local hospital. He and his teen-aged daughter run the evening cruise as an add-on job. We discussed the land use issues in the fast redeveloping Keys. I was curious to know what it was like to work and raise a family in such a high-rent area. This is the discussion that led me to think of the Keys as a condensed version of our own coastal resort area.

That was our last night. The next day, a big breakfast and a leisurely drive up to the Miami airport. A quick flight home and here we are.

Report from the Keys, Part 1: Getting There

It looks like I'm going to have to parcel this story out over a few posts. So much to do, so little time to do it.

We booked a very early flight out of BWI to Miami on Friday (4/14/06). As a result, we left Lewes on Thursday evening after work and stayed in a Holiday Inn near the airport. We were able to leave our car at the hotel and take the hotel shuttle to the airport, but had to be in the lobby, ready to go, at 4:20 a.m. Ugly.

That penance, though, earned us a late morning arrival in Miami. We were able to rent a car and roll onto Duck Key by mid-day. We were able to register at Hawks Cay resort and get in a full afternoon of lazy sunning that day.

Our flight was full, and full of families with kids. The iPod proved its worth. I was able to retreat into music for much of the flight, as were the girls. Karen took refuge in a partial doze.

Miami/Dade, by the way. Wow. Sprawl. Ugly.

Other than a cruise-ship whistle-dock stop last spring at Key West, I hadn't been to the Keys since the early 1970s. I was a kid then, but had some memories of a series of sparsely populated islands. Things have changed.

We only saw the top half of the Keys, but it looked to me just like the Lewes/Rehoboth area, with more tropic weather and flora. Imagine the Midway section of Delaware's Route One corridor, followed by a bridge, followed by Dewey Beach, then a bridge, then a causeway, then Bethany Beach, more bridge, Rehoboth, causeway, bridge, Fenwick Island, etc.

The Hawks Cay resort is part of a seven-island grouping known as Duck Key. Its high-end residential and resort hotel development began in the 1950s and has grown to hotel buildings, pools, tennis courts, marina, villa-style hotel rooms, homes, vacation homes, a spa. The works.

Very nice. Well-landscaped. Established and smooth.

Our room was on a second floor, overlooking a pool and a man-made swimming lagoon. Beyond lay a channel, bridged by part of US Route 1, which winds through the islands from Key Largo to Key West.

We could sit on a small balcony and observe the pool, hot-tubs, and lounging area. There were afternoon steel-drum and guitar players, mostly ignored by the families at the pool. Several of the musicians were quite good.

We had lunch at a cantina next to the pool, and made reservations for a late dinner at a fancy restaurant in the Hotel. Very nice.

A word about kids. At lunch, we were a table away from a group of six, or maybe seven, 8- to 10-year olds, shepherded by two moms paying little or no attention to the little monsters.

It was like lunching next to a mis-tuned jet engine.

These kids went from shrieking, to screaming, to standing on chairs, to chasing each other through the restaurant, to climbing the juvenile palm trees potted in the doorway.

It's telling that the loudest child was sitting at one end of the table, repeatedly yelling "Quiet! Qui-ET! HEY! Be QUUIIEETT!" Endlessly.

We noticed that may of the people at this place were letting their kids run riot. Not all of them; many were quite pleasant. But there were some who made middle-class America look bad.

I was proud of my kids. They stress us at times; but in contrast, they are angels.