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Tuesday, February 03, 2004

During the day in Florida, I would read in the morning, sometimes on the balcony watching people on the beach.There is almost always people there: walkers, surfers, fishermen, etc.

In the afternoon I would take a long walk on the beach myself. I spent a lot of time watching them tear down an old hotel on the the waterfront. The old hotels, restaurants, and low-rise apartment buildings are going and being replaced by the new high-rise condiminium developments.

This particular hotel was being torn down using one of those heavy iron balls. The ball would swing against the building and concrete slabs would fall several stories. It was fascinating and many other people were always there watching also. I know that Adam and George would have loved this. Maybe we are not so adult as we pretend we are.

Thursday night they finished the job by knocking down the 10 storied shaft that held the stairs. The streets were blocked off and there were many, many people watching. It was exciting as it fell in a cloud of dust but it was over in seconds after we had waited for it for an hour and a half.

I found Beth's favorite store, Goodwill, and bought several books. My luggage is always heavy with books, both coming and going. Two of the books, No One Left to Lie To by Christopher Hitchens and The PC Police by Tammy Bruce, I read while in Florida and I left them for Beth to read.

Monday night Beth and I met her roommate Laura and another friend Merideth at a restaurant on the Intracoastal waterway for dinner.

Laura is the daughter of our old, old (in length of friendship) friends Richard and Caroll Henderson of Florence, South Carolina. We met them when Richard and George Rodney were graduate students together at LSU. Laura is now studying psychology in graduate school at the University of North Florida.

Merideth teaches speech at UNF.

There is a rivalry between the beach people and the people in Jacksonville. Beth has a bumper sticker on her car that says "Islander. We don't cross the ditch." Meaning they stay in the beach area and don't cross the Intracoastal Waterway.

The food was good and the companionship was better.

Tuesday night Beth spent with me at the hotel watching the results of the New Hampshire primary. Beth has no TV reception so she kept wanting them to show Dean's Iowa speech but they never did. Beth and Laura have no cable. They sometimes can get one channel over the air. I brought them a TV antenna (rabbit-ears) this time but their TV does not have the proper connection for it. They will have to buy an adapter at Radio Shack. Then I will be able to watch the networks at their house.

Beth and I played Mexican dominoes and she beat me handily. I was not happy about this.

Wednesday night Beth, Laura, and I ate at a Chinese place, a real hole in the wall. Beth said the food was good but the help was rude. I have never had a rude Chinese server and now I still haven't as the woman was very civil to us. The food servings were gargantuan. We got two orders for the three of us but there was enough left for my lunch the next day.


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