Mark Byron

Duh

I was thumbing through the Lakeland Ledger, checking in on my old Florida haunts, and found this piece on a new scoreboard at Lakeland High's (a major football powerhouse) football stadium. Here's the last paragraph, verbatim, with one addition of italics

The scoreboard is thought to be the only one of its kind owned by a public high school in Florida showing live video replays during games. The Floridah High School Athletic Association, the state agency that regulates prep sports, says its staff will be watching how the video is used. Lakeland has agreed to show replays only once, at full speed - no slow-motion - and avoid replays of controversial calls.

Actually, if you're going to make fun of the state, especially it's voting-booth-challenged residents, it's spelled Floriduh. that gets over 10,000 Google hits for "Floriduh voting" compared to only a 100 for Floridah.

Easy 2006

Folks down here in the Tampa Bay area are breathing a sigh of relief; the 2006 hurricane season officially ends today, and only a fairly lame Ernesto hit the state.

However, their pocketbooks are reeling from increased property insurance rates; it's enough of an issue to merit a special session of the state legislature. People often forget that insurance companies have to bring in enough revenue to cover (when added to investment income from past premiums) to pay claims; when claims are going up, so do the premiums.

Insurance companies did well this year, since they both raised premiums and had little in the way of hurricane payouts save belated claims from last year. However, they took it in the teeth in '05.

The Worst Possible Form of Government

I'm in an interesting spot as we wind down towards election day. I picked up an absentee ballot before leaving Midland Friday, so I'll be voting there. However, I'm watching the Florida races unfold without having a say in the manner.

One thing that is interesting is the governor's race, where we'll essentially have a bachelor governor if Charlie Crist hangs on to his big lead. He was married very briefly back in the early 80s and has been single since. That piece from yesterday's Ledger was far less flattering than the Everyman with a Heart treatment that his Democratic foe Jim Davis got.

We're used to having first ladies (or first gentlemen, like in Michigan) and see things as abnormal if someone doesn't get married. Crist has a ladyfriend, but doesn't want to bring her into the mix just to show that he likes women. At least Crist didn't inflict political widowhood on a wife; so many politicians spent so much time on political events that their wives are essentially abandoned.

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The other issue coming to mind is a constitutional amendment on the ballot to make it harder to make future constitutional amendments; the proposal would require a 60% majority to amend the state constitution. Right now, a simple majority will do.

Constitutions should be hard to amend and should require more than a 50.01% one-time majority to change. However, there are times where the legislature has recto-cranial inversion and needs to be bypassed.

The answer isn't to make cheap constitutional amendments, but to allow an initiative to pass laws that can't be easily altered by the legislature. My idea would be to let laws be enacted via popular vote, but be overridden by X+10% of the legislature, where X is the percentage of the vote for the proposal. If the voters approve mandatory underwater basket-weaving in all Florida colleges with a 52% majority, a 62% majority of the legislature can toss that.

Otherwise, a slick, well-financed campaign can get something passed that looks good in the ad, but doesn't work in real life, and the legislature and governor is stuck having to try to make it work.

Eye of the Storm

Ernesto seems to be all bark and no bite. It looks like we're in the eye at present here in Lakeland. There seems to be storm activity to the north near Ocala and to the south (Ft Myers seems to have a nasty band at present) but we've got some sunshine coming though the clouds at present.

I don't have a good way to preserve the radar loop from the NOAA site, but we're in the eye. Neat. Polk County is the eye as of 10:40AM

We had a good steady rain earlier this morning, but nothing nasty; the only way you knew something was up was that we normally don't get rain in the mornings in the summer in Central Florida; in the summer, it's the late-afternoon/early evening pop-up thunderstorm that's this area's art form.

The Importance of Being Ernesto

Good news. I had a job interview for a teaching job in Florida, at a middle school in Haines City, scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10AM.

Even better news; I managed to pull an all-nighter and am in the Lakeland Panera as we speak.

Not so good news; Ernesto is coming our way about the time of the interview. The local schools are closed tomorrow.

Given that Ernesto is slated to pass a bit to our east, we've rescheduled the interview for Thursday.

Pray for the interview and that I ride the storm out in one piece; when I left yesterday, it looked like it was going to rake the east coast rather than go up the gut.

She-Devil #2

It was "Holy nuance!" time this morning when the radio news had Wilma as a Cat5. 175 MPH winds and the lowest barometric pressure in North Atlantic history.

Weather.com: "This appears to be one of the fastest pressure drops on record." No kidding, Sherlock! It had barely cracked 100MPH when I went to bed last night.

I saw what my Central Florida friends went through with Charlie last year, and that was a mere Cat4. Pray for the folks in the path; from my two-year stint living in Florida, my heart goes out to them, but also pray for the Yucatanistas and Cubans that are in its path.

Rita Moreraino

Had to get first dibs on that pun; Tropical Storm Rita's on the move, looking to go between Key West and Cuba. The Keys are already clearing out. Right now, the path seems to have it heading more-or-less straight west across the Gulf of Mexico to Texas; since my in-laws are in metro Houston, that's not overly comforting.

Katrina and the Rains

Well, it looks like Florida's going to get it in the neck again from newly upgraded Hurricane Katrina. It looks like it's going ashore near what Grandpa Byron used to call Ft. Liquordale. Being a minor hurricane, it won't pack the punch of last year's trio of 'canes that came through peninsular Florida. That doesn't mean it won't pack a punch; say a prayer for the folks down in southeastern "Floriduh."

However, it's moving low and slow like a crop duster, and that's bad news for my friends in Polk County. In the Lake Wales area where I used to teach, they've had a foot more rain that normal and already having lakes going over their banks. Jeb's already declared the area a disaster area before Katrina.

Our best friends in Lake Wales have headed to California earlier this summer, but there are still a lot of people we care for that are affected.

Oy Vey in a Manger

This story of jovial civil disobedience has been in the front page of the Lakeland paper for a week. The story started when Baptists put a manger on the Polk County building lawn in the middle of the night after being turned down by a 2-2 vote. Then, a Festivus display joined it. The county commission is taking its own sweet time in getting the signs down, essentially allowing the displays to stay up through Christmas.

There isn't a whole lot of harm in allowing it to stay, except that the spirit of Roy Moore is all over this, where you're allowed to tell authority to shove it if you're following a Higher Authority. I'm not sure if I can quantify it, but there seems to be a lot of anti-anti-Christmas rhetoric flying through the media and the blogosphere this year, of getting more hot and bothered over the secular Scrooges. Given that attitude, such disobedience might well become more common, with conservative-leaning localities looking the other way.

By the way, Polk County's not one of those very Jewish areas on the Atlantic coast; it's more redneck than cosmopolitan. It just seemed to be a good title for a exasperating creche issue.

Florida Musings

Thanks for the prayers. The finances are not a problem at the moment; for the moment, we're in good shape in the bank account. However, it's been May since I had a full time job and September since I had any employment, save the weekend clerking stint that Bene had compassion for. At this point, I need something more for my spirit than for my pocketbook, although the bank account could use the help.

I've hit five placement agencies since getting down here, and medium-term prospects look good. In four of the five agencies, there was a particular position or positions that they were forwarding my resume to. It might take until after Christmas to nail something securely down, but I've got a ton of leads.

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The summer hurricanes, especially Charlie, has devastated the area. A lot of trailers got destroyed, making the rental market tighter than normal. Roofers and sign-makers are working overtime; my friend Fred is a repairman/contractor, and has no shortage of work.

One of the funny sights is the CVS drug stores; they bought out Eckard just before Charlie hit. You'll see temporary orangey-red CVS signs along side the blue Eckard "Pharmacy, Food, One-hour photo" type sub signs. With all the signs out, it's sometimes hard to pick something out. The hotel I'm staying at had to put its name on their changeable letter sign, since the main sign got destroyed.

The other interesting effect is FEMA and insurance money flowing into the area. When I was working at Penney's this weekend, I would walk past the temporary FEMA office in Lake Wales' Eagle Ridge Mall on my way to the food court. Even four months after Charlie, rebuilding is still a hot issue.

However, we still have 70 degree afternoons while Eileen struggles through highs in the teens; she will not miss it one bit, and neither will I, even when we have to put up with the "Air you can wear" in the summer. You don't have to shovel humidity, it only feels like it.

Bully Jeanne

More scary stuff from our old Florida turf. A flood-prompted sinkhole courtesy from Jeanne took out a strip mall in Lakeland that we used to frequent near the Lakeland Vineyard. Our route over to church would have been blocked. However, Lakeland seemed to fare worse with Jeanne; Lake Wales, where we worked and went to home group, got it worse from Charlie.

Glad I Moved-Part II

I'm catching up on how my friends in Florida faired with Charlie. Things were particulary ugly in Lake Wales, where I used to work. The power's still out and there's a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Here's a scary one-

The Quail's Bluff apartment complex looked as if it had been struck by a bomb.

Oak trees crushed at least eight cars in the parking lot. Exterior siding, roof tile and window glass from numerous complexes were scattered in the parking lot and the pool.

In separate incidents during the storm, Chol Ajang, 23, and Mark Clark, 45, were almost struck by flying pieces of wood that shattered glass inside their apartments.

Ajang first saw a huge oak tree crush his new Mazda. Then, as he took shelter in his first floor bathroom, a piece of wood crashed into his living room window.

"I have no place to live . . . no car," Ajang said. "At least I'm alive."

We almost moved into that complex two years ago. If I had the courage to talk them out of enforcing a clause that you had to be in your current job for six months to rent there, we'd have been in that complex the last two years.

Even scarier-

Further north across Cypress Gardens Boulevard in the Lake Ned area, huge trees blocked Cypress Gardens Road and power poles were leaning heavily across the road, forcing drivers to maneuver around low lines.

Power lines in other parts of the county were flatly down on the road.

We lived off of CGR. I can only think of what happened at our apartment complex. It'll be days before the power's turned back on. However, Polk County's lucky compared to Punta Gordra, the town that Charlie came ashore at. We spent New Year's Day in Punta Gorda last year; our friends from Michigan's parents have a condo there. Or is that had a condo? I'll have to call Dave and Jodi and see if it survived.

Orlando managed to get away fairly cleanly. Eileen's cousin and his bride's heading there for their honeymoon, and everything but Animal Kingdom's up and running.

Vote for Me or Else

I've been seeing signs for Lake Wales city commisioner Fred Else the last few weeks; he lost his race for reelection yesterday. I'm not sure what he was doing wrong or what Jean Kincaid Scott was doing right, but she beat Else 63%-37%

Florida Musings

OK, what exactly was it that they put into Jeb's lemonade? I can't otherwise explain his decision to back giving illegal aliens driver's licences. If people were wondering whether Jeb had presidential aspirations, this might have shot his chance at a Republican nomination. I'm more pro-immigration than most conservatives, but this doesn't make sense. I'll work up a longer essay on this while proctoring an exam at 10.

The other news is some polling on the Florida Senate race. Betty Castor (my mind swung to the Jimmy Castor Bunch's Troglodyte Saga-will Bertha Butt be on the campaign team?) is the likely Democratic nominee, while Bill McCollum has a 27-18 lead over Mel Martinez, with Ben's favorite, Daniel Webster (we did get a nice flyer in the mail from him a few days ago) coming in a weak third at 8%.

The good news is that McCollum is just behind Castor, 38-39 in a general election matchup. That's good news? I think so. Republicans tend to underpoll this far out from an election and Castor hasn't run statewide in a decade, while McCollum lost to Nelson four years ago. People know McCollum's conservatism, while Castor may be filling the role of Generic Democrat at the moment. Looking at Castor's endorsement list (Emily's List, NEA, AFT et all), it looks like she will be labled as a John Kerry Democrat by the end and not sell as well.

Putting the Plug Back In

Tallahassee pulled off a miracle and redid the law. The House approved a law giving Jeb the power to put Terri Schiavo's feeding tube back in yesterday. The Senate approved it, Jeb signed it and used it. Amen.

Isabel of the Ball

I've been praying that Isabel stays to the north of us; I made contingency plans with my Melbourne class to make up Tuesday night's class if Isabel takes the southerly track. However, I don't want Spuddy to get it in the neck. It's been heading fairly straight west, but they're expecting it to start to veer to the NW and nail North Carolina and the Tater Bed.

Well, let's just pray that wherever it makes landfall, that the people batten down the hatches, head for high ground and make the best of it.

Isabel Ain't No Lady

Not when she's packing 160MPH winds. Right now, she's out over the Atlantic, 370 miles east of the Leewards, but the scary part has it "roughly 350 miles east of Vero Beach early Wednesday." I have to drive roughly five miles west of Vero Beach Tuesday afternoon to go over to Melbourne for a Financial Management class. My students on the Space Coast may have better things to do than learn about Internal Rates of Return and Net Present Values; like board up houses and get the heck out of Dodge.

The current forcasts have Isabel slamming into the Carolinas, but if it winds up heading on the southern side of the projections, there be a lot of problems along Florida's Atlantic coast. I'm definitely talking about rescheduling our Tuesday night class if it's anywhere near the Space Coast.