Drinking on Fort Myers Beach

After attending my second Town Hall Meeting on Fort Myers Beach, I just have to vent. There's an issue before our Town Council that has every tea-toteler and prude on the island up in arms. They are perplexed why our municipal government would even CONSIDER allowing beach businesses to expand the sale and consumption of alcohol onto the beach. At tonight's public hearing on the proposed ordinance, I heard a lot of moralistic grandstanding with terms like "family beach" and "family-friendly island" thrown around as if they were absolute truths with only one possible meaning.

Thankfully, the mayor's wife got up to give an alternate definition to "family time" on the beach. I take my family on the beach all the time and I'd love to enjoy a cocktail or two while out there. Does that somehow make me "family UNfriendly?"

Some of the naysayers lost all grasp of rational thought and began talking about our beach in terms of spring break gone wild, with topless girls splashing into the surf. I've yet to see that happen at the height of spring break and I certainly cannot see how the consumption of alcohol at a beach bar on the beach is going to lead to rampant luciviousness.

What those who throw terms around like "family values" fail to recognize is how many working families on this little island rely on the sale of alcohol at such establishments to make ends meet. That's right, old folks who no longer HAVE to work to make a living, there are families who would actually BENEFIT from expanded alcohol sales on our beach! Families making a living, feeding their children and buying them adequate clothing, those are family values that we should all be able to agree upon.

A patron who takes his/her beverage a few feet onto our sandy shores is not going to be the next star of a Girls Gone Wild video. They might be a mom, dad or even granddad, who is enjoying a tasty beverage with their family at sunset. And there is something morally reprehensible about that??? I just don't get it!

And it's not just working families who will ultimately benefit. Anyone with a vested interest on this island will benefit from increased spending by tourists who come to partake at the establishments who are granted the ability to serve on the beach. Since when is making an honest buck a non-Republican, anti-family value?

I sincerely hope our Town Council puts an end to this madness and votes to approve the new ordinance. The beach businesses deserve to play on a level playing field...tea-totelers be damned!

Tax Evasion leads off Sunday Morning...REALLY?!?! CBS!

This morning, CBS Sunday Morning led off with a story about tax evasion and people cheating on their taxes. Okay, I understand it is April 15th, but I've had my tax return for months now, so why is this a story. The 100th Anniversary of the Titanic disaster is much more compelling to me than the end of tax season and how people "cheat" Uncle Sam. I mean, I didn't hear them talk ONE TIME about all the loopholes that billionaires and corporations use to cheat the system. Instead, they focused on hardworking individuals and questioned their moral character. REALLY???

Look at it from an everyday Joe's perspective. Let's say your Uncle Sam was a financial mess who bummed money off you every year to the tune of thousands. The last you heard about your frivolous uncle was that he was driving down Wall Street just throwing handfulls of one dollar bills out the window of his gas-guzzling H2. Tell me how you'd feel about loaning him an extra $100 next week. Do you think your moral compass would guide you toward your wallet? Or would you tell a white lie that you just didn't have it this week?

Is that really cheating him? Even if the government told you that you HAD to give him the money, I wouldn't think twice if you fudged your way out of it. Now, let's get onto something more interesting CBS. Who's vetting these stories anyway?!?! Where are the feel-good stories that drew us into your program years ago?

Jack Mascola, 93, Renaissance Man of FMB!

The photo of Jack Mascola, below, graced the front page of today's Island Sand Paper, a weekly newspaper serving Fort Myers Beach, Florida. It served as a teaser for a personal interest story I wrote this week. The story is linked below.

...be sure to click on images for a large print version...

The New Deck at Surf Club

I had the pleasure of meeting Surf Club owner Bruce Cermak last Tuesday for the first time. Nice guy, loves what he does and loves where he lives. I have to say, it's not a bad gig...and neither is writing for the Island Sand Paper on Fort Myers Beach. Love it here! (click on the image, below, for a large-print version of the article)

This island is full of Midwesterners!

Latest Sand Paper Articles!

I'm a little behind on posting my articles. Here's the latest one on some helpful spring breakers who came not to party on our beach, but to help clean it up! This one ran last Friday, March 16, in the Island Sand Paper:

(click on images for larger, readable version)

This is my article on the Beach Elementary's production of Peter Pan, which ran in the February 17th edition of the Island Sand Paper (I replaced the photo of school kids with a black-and-white of the logo designed by their art teacher for the play):

NOTE: My daughter played one of the mermaids! She performed perfectly!!! (says the proud Dad).

Blue Marlin Tag Frames Creator, Jon Cudzik

My latest submission to the Sand Paper appears on page 20 of today's edition...

(click on image for large print version)

7-Year-Old Blog: A Retrospective, Part 1

My blog will be seven years old in April of this year! As a way to celebrate my commitment to writing, I'm taking a few months to look back over the seven years of intermittent blogging. I haven't always submitted my best work to the Great Blogosphere of the Ethernet, so I hope the gods will forgive, but at least I've been a loyal subject and beat the six-month average lifespan of most blogs. Maybe the blog is a dying art in the world of tweets and status updates, but it is more of a long-form tweet for me. Note, I don't even have a Twitter account. Enough with the prefacing, and onto the looking back! First, have a look back at the last six months, which is laden with posts about my freelance work at the Island Sand Paper here on Fort Myers Beach.

I am grateful for the chance to earn a little dough doing the thing I love--writing--and also for the chance to display some of my photography in newsprint. I wish to say thank you to Missy and Bob Layfield and Keri Hendry for the chance to work in journalism. Now to the writing samples...Enjoy! (NOTE: When you click the links, this blog post still shows at the top spot, so SCROLL DOWN!)

Holy Vettes, Batman!!!

Here is my latest offering from the Island Sand Paper, a Fort Myers Beach weekly. Page 12 features my article about the Corvette Cruise-in at Parrot Key Caribbean Grill...

sorry my scanner couldn't handle this one very well...be sure to click on the image above for a full-sized view, easier to read!

Salty Dog and CRAB articles

I have TWO articles in this week's Island Sand Paper. Check them out, below, but don't strain your eyes. You can click on either image to get the large print version...Enjoy!

(when the jpeg loads in your browser, be sure to click on it for full-sized viewing)

Blog Birthday in April

Hard to believe, but in April this blog will be seven years old.

I know I haven't been a consistent blogger. As you'll notice in the timeline on the lower right, there are missing months where I did not blog at all. No apologies. Life just gets in the way of writing sometimes.

But this has always been a great place for me to vent, to get creative, to share personal feelings, failures and accomplishments. All told, I'm pretty proud that I've stuck with it this long, since the average shelf life of most blogs is less than six months.

Over the next few months, leading up to that anniversary, I plan to do some looking back and share some of my favorite blog posts. This space serves as sort of a road map of my spiritual journey the last seven years. The road I began travelling back in 2004-05, down the path of rediscovery and emerging spirituality, led me far away from my Catholic and Pentacostal roots. Well, maybe not THAT far away, but certainly in a new direction.

For anyone who has followed my ramblings, thanks. I appreciate your interest and longevity. For anyone who has just stumbled upon this blog, welcome. Pull up a chair and click through some of the posts from 2005-2011. You might chuckle, maybe you'll even stop to ponder, but whatever you do, leave a comment. Blogs are not for stalkers. They're for conversation. You don't have to be a blogger yourself to leave a comment. Anyone can do so, even anonymously.

Thanks, again, for taking a minute to read. Ciao!

Gulf Coast Living is for me!

In 2006, I was ready to leave Tallahassee for a home in either the panhandle beaches or Indiana...talk about your polar opposites. I decided that with the cost of real estate on the coast and the lack of a support network there it would be best to move north. So we set out in December with a contract for the sale of our house pending and moved to Fishers, Indiana. It turned out to be one of the snowiest, coldest Decembers central Indiana had seen in a long time.

We endured four of those blustery winters before packing up and heading back south. Fortunately for us, Aunt Sarah had a vacant condo ready to take us in, so we found our way 1,100 miles from Fishers to Fort Myers Beach. It was a long, two-day trip with our two girls, two dogs and everything we could cram into a small Volvo sedan. We made it to Manatee Beach near Anna Maria Island by sunset the second day. It was a glorious sunset to welcome us back to the Gulf Coast!

Our original intent was to settle in the Bradenton area, just inland from Manatee Beach. We actually hunted for jobs and houses up there until school began in early August. By then, we were falling head-over-heels in love with Fort Myers Beach and it's small town charm. We quickly shifted our focus to finding a reasonably-priced rental on the island and jobs that would help us afford it. Best decision we've made in a LONG time...and only about 5 years overdue.

I was just looking over this blog, and it was May 15, 2006, when I stated that " I will live at the beach one day." What a crazy prophecy that came true this last year!

All of the descriptions of Destin and Panama City in that May 2006 blog are perfectly applicable to where I live now, except I think the white gulf sands down this way are finer and softer to the touch. I call our beaches "baby powder" because that's what it feels like under your feet in the coolness of a December morning. It's not the scratchy, golden, Atlantic Coast sand that feels like sandpaper between your cheeks. I think the baby powder sand is how a beach just to our south got its name--Barefoot Beach...but watch out for shells. This is a great place to find them, and when you walk closer to the shoreline, you'll crunch them under your barefeet.

The reasons I am so partial to the Gulf are the calm, warm waters and the absolutely glorious sunsets. The only other place I could ever see myself is in the Florida Keys. I think that once I get bored with the sunsets here, I'll make that move further south. Then, one day, you'll read my blog about how that self-fulfilling prophecy came true.

To say that I have adapted to island life is an understatement. I think that I was predestined to live here. My blood pressure has always been on the lower end of normal and I seem to move fluidly to the rhythm of island life. It's a slower pace that I intend to maintain for another 40+ years.

Hoboken Frank, the other...

click on images for larger, original versions

Hopes for 2012

Here's what I'm hoping for in 2012...

A Kardashian-free news feed. I mean, the Jersey Shore cast had their 15 minutes of fame, like most other flash-in-the-pan, 15-more-minutes-than-they-deserved fads, so why has the Kardashian clan clung to notoriety like they're British royalty or something (another thing I don't get by the way)?!?! Didn't we fight a revolution to get away from the British monarchy? Now, we apparently can't get enough of their every bowel movement, nor of the Kardashians...which leads me to ask, is there a difference?

An Obama-free America. Send the douchebag back to Hawaii or Indonesia, or wherever he's really from and give us a REAL leader! 'Nuff said (and this was a non-partisan rant, btw)!

A war-free zone for the whole year. We spent enough of our precious resources in countries that hate us to the nth degree, so let's focus on the homefront for awhile. Oh, and world peace would be nice, too.

An Occupy movement with a purpose, please. Are you starting another Tweet revolution in America, or are you just getting lots of like-minded people together for lattes? I'm confused. Was there a point?

The end of all reality shows. Really. Enough, already. I don't want to see any more rednecks on a channel labeled "Arts and Entertainment." Jessco, 'The Dancin' Outlaw,' was entertaining...in 1990! Mud People, People who hunt wild pigs, gators, their mama's tooth, etc...not so much!

Did I miss anything?

Flipper's On The Bay Expands Offerings

Cat Crusader Article from Dec 9th Island Sand Paper

If you can help Jo Ann out by donating food, money or time, please call her directly at (239) 463-6118. Thank you!

Waxing philosophical this morning

Funny the rabbit trails your mind will go down early in the morning after a half-cup of coffee. As I sit at my computer doing genealogy, of all things, I stumble upon a gravesite for one of my ancestors that gets me waxing philosophical, theological, even.

She was buried in an Oregon memorial park in the "Garden of Atonement."

Interesting concept that atoning for one's sins.

As I was taught, growing up in the Catholic Church, we were all born with the "mark of Adam," the stain of "original sin" upon us. That means, each and everyone of us, fresh from our mother's womb, drawing our first breath of air, was utterly doomed to failure...and eternal damnation, by the way.

What kind of bogus poker hand is that to be dealt?

The Catholics are to blame for this nonsense, you know. Now, most of the Christian worldview has been shaped by this idea that we are all born with a fatal, spiritual flaw. Innocent babies, my ass! We are wired with a penchant for evil.

This might cause one to call, "Foul!" Throw the penalty flag. Question everything he/she knows about God.

Where's the justice in that? The love? The forgiveness, even?

Ah, forgiveness...that's the rub. The "mark of Adam" with which we are ALL cursed spurred the Creator to action. He devised a master plan in which He would become the scapegoat (ala, the ram in the thicket from the story of Abraham and Isaac). Brilliant or psychotic? You decide.

The Supreme Being, Creator of all that is, devised a way out of our mortal conundrum, but it, in effect, involved His own death, a sort of deicide (it's a word, look it up).

The next thing I was taught, after learning of my one-way-ticket-do-not-pass-go entrance into Hades, is that Jesus, the one displayed in gory fashion upon a crucifix in every classroom and church I attended until middle school, was, in fact, God. He came to (drumroll please) ATONE for my sins and make everything right in my hereafter world. WHEW! That was a close call.

That was the best He could come up with...committing suicide for the fatal flaw that I was born with. Dare I say, created with? He couldn't conceive of ANY OTHER WAY but to spill His own blood?

So, to recap, I was created with or born into this world with a mortal flaw for which I was unable to help myself. The Draconian punishment for it--be I baby or old man--was eternal damnation in a lake of fire. And the ONLY way to get out of that dire, eternal consequence was for God to come down and kill Himself (i.e. His Son). And I am to believe that this Guy created galaxies yet unknown?

Puzzling.

Local Adopt-A-Troop Benefit

After a few weeks absence from the Island Sand Paper, I have a new article in today's edition all about the Nov 17th benefit for Adopt-A-Troop Foundation...

A Hero Remembered

Grave of Clifford O. Carlton
1924-1991
(Garden Sanctuary Cemetery, Seminole, FL)

On the heels of Veteran's Day Weekend, I thought it appropriate to honor the memory of one of my ancestors. His name is Clifford O. Carlton, of Evansville, who served heroically in the U.S. Air Force/Army during World War II.

I was researching Clifford's family, as I am a 4th cousin,* and ran across these newsclippings in the Browning Genealogy database (http://browning.evcpl.lib.in.us/):

4 Jan 1945 -- "Pfc Clifford O. Carlton was wounded in action in Germany on Dec 16 [1944]. An infantryman, he also has served in England and France since arriving overseas in August, 1944...A former Reitz High School student..."

24 Sep 1945 -- "Pfc Clifford Carlton, brother of Mrs. Heal, is now home on sick leave from Fletcher General Hospital, Cambridge [Ohio]. He is recovering from left leg wounds suffered last Dec. 16 in battle east of Cologne. In the Army since April 3, 1943, he trained at Ft. McClellan, Ala., Ft. Benning, Ga., Ft. Mackall, NC., and Camp Forrest, Tenn. When injured in a parachute accident, he was transferred to the infantry. Going overseas in July, 1944, he served with the 8th Division. His decorations include the Purple Heart, good conduct and American Defense ribbons, a three-star-studded ETO ribbon and combat infantry badge."

Clifford and his wife, Jane, retired to Madeira Beach, Florida. He died 25 Feb 1991 at Bay Vines Veterans Hospital in St. Petersburg. He was laid to rest at Garden Sanctuary Cemetery in nearby Seminole, FL.

* Clifford and I are 4th cousins, 2 times removed, because his second great-grandfather, Bracket Mills, was a brother to my fourth great-grandfather, Duston Mills, of Gibson County, Indiana.

Painting the Beach (Island Sand Paper)

My latest submission to the Island Sand Paper about an art celebration called Paint the Beach, Nov. 14-20, on Fort Myers Beach, which ran on the front page and pg. 19...

FLOWSTIVAL Benefit Celebration takes place the weekend of November 18-20 in Bonita Springs, Florida. Join us for a weekend of camping, rhythm and flow arts! Or as Dino likes to say, "Feel the rhythm; release the fear!" Online prices the next two weeks will save you money, so don't delay in getting your 3-day passes. Hope to see you there.