Adventures in Being Myself

It is not like me to do things out of order. I'm a Virgo, and just a tad perfectionist, so it really pains me to interrupt the never-ending tale of our motorbike trip through Michigan for a non sequitur. But when I read this story I had to make an exception. It seems some yahoo from San Francisco decided to torch the Man four days early. What a selfish lowlife! He deserves a swift kick in the shins with a pointy-toe slingback. Right now in Black Rock City humans from all over the world are participating in an experiment in temporary community. They are covered in playa dust, costumed, painted, naked, drunk, sober, happy, sad, contemplative, expressive, dancing, standing still, singing, crying, they are hot, they are cool, they are weird, they are beautiful, they are hopeful, they are fearful, they are shy, they are outgoing - they are all of us, at our best and our worst, all at once. But most of all they are are coming together to live for one week in the REAL WORLD: a desert......

The Mackinaw City Bridge (aka Mackinac Bridge) is a suspension bridge spanning the Straits of Mackinac to connect the Uppper and Lower peninsulas of Michigan. Interestingly, the Mackinac Bridge is one of only two segments of Interstate 75 that is tolled. The other segment is Alligator Alley, nary 30 miles south of where we live. Yet another Florida-Michigan connection, but I digress...apparently crossing the Mackinac Bridge is really scary...or, so we had been warned. Upon seeing the bridge, I really didn't get what all the fuss is about. I mean, I live in Florida, surrounded on all sides by water and I regularly travel across long, tall bridges that span deep water. And crossing the Mackinac bridge, even on the back of a motorbike, proved to be no big deal (sorry, Mom LeB!) The picture at left shows our perspective as was traveled south from St. Ignace into Mackinaw City. See? Nothing scary about. Well, there was one sort-of scary thing about the bridge: the inside lane is const...

Life really IS a bowl of cherries (and blueberries...and raspberries...), especially if you happen to be touring Northern Michigan on a BMW GS 1200 in mid-July. As a native Floridian, my impressions of Michigan are largely shaped by the enormous flock of snowbirds that annually flies south on Interstate 75, usually in some form of van or minivan moving at a snail's pace in the left lane. My one and only trip to Michigan - a short weekend trip to Detroit for the Auto Show in early January - did little to convince me that Michigan is anything other than a cold, dirty, grey, industrial wasteland where people speak with a terribly unfortunate accent and suffer from a severe case of sour grapes in college football. On the flipside, I have many good friends who hail from the Wolverine State and wax poetic about the natural beauty of their home state. My love was born in Cheboygan and spent the first three years of his life there while his Pop was stationed aboard the USCG Mackinaw. He al...

Around here summer usually begins with a bang. A bang of a large wooden gavel, that is. As soon as someone says "adjourn sine die " and bangs a gavel on a rostrum, my (fried) brain immediately switches from "all legislature, all the time" mode to "VACATION!" mode. Not so this year. 2007 is a year of different. As soon as the gavel struck the rostrum to end the regular legislative session in May, "VACATION!" mode was postponed by six weeks to accommodate a special legislative session . In the middle of June. Aside from the "most significant property tax relief in Florida history" (snore...), special session produced three most excellent things: 1. more comp time (aka more free vacation days); 2. a grateful boss willing to grant vacation requests, even on short-notice; and 3. a feeling that we got to start summer all over again. Not too shabby. Within a week of returning from the sweat box that is Tallahassee in June, Peegie and I were ha...

We're not supposed to be here. It's summetime, when the the living is supposed to be easy. My definition of "easy living" does not include a 10-day Special Session in Tallahassee. In June. It seems like we never left; only five weeks have passed since the 2007 Regular Legislative Session adjourned sine die with a veritable fit of congratulatory back-slapping and self-praise for a (do-nothing) "effective" and "successful" Session. The Session was so successful that the Legislature called itself back into Special Session (the second Special Session of the year, so far...) to enact " the most significant and historic property tax relief in Florida history ." I mean, really, why do in 60 days what you can put off to a 10-day Special Session? This week promises to be loads of fun. We START floor session tomorrow at 6:00PM. I'm looking forward to all the compensatory time I will accrue this week. By the end of 10 days, my comp time balan...

It's all over. Actually, it was over before it even started. Tropical Storm Barry, the area of "disturbed weather" that sent The Weather Channel team into a frantic twirl of giddiness on Friday, limped across Florida today with so little oomph that all weather warnings were cancelled before the squall even made landfall. Whew! Dodged that bullet! All kidding aside, I'm hoping all of the "tropical systems" we experience this season will be rainmakers a la "Tropical Storm" Barry and not horrific monsters like Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. That list is already too long. Barry dumped more than 7 inches of much-needed rain on the Sunshine State, dousing rampant wildfires, clearing the atmosphere of the acrid smoke, and drowning the exceptionally large swarms (and when I say "swarms," I mean SWARMS!) of lovebugs that have invaded Florida during the past three weeks. Closer to home, the rainshowers lovingly nourished o...

...and it's windy...but, contrary to what The Weather Channel would have you believe, we're not all going to die. As a matter of fact, most of us (including hundreds of weary firefighters who have spent the last two months bravely fighting massive, widespread wildfires...) are doing a happy dance in anticipation of Tropical Storm Barry. Sure, sure, it's the first day of hurricane season and, okay, yes, it IS a tiny bit unnerving that an actual Tropical Storm, with a name and everything!, has formed so early in the season. But, in the days before insta-news, Jim Cantore, and the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, Tropical Storms were considered just slightly more serious than the summer squalls that typically roll in at 3:30 every afternoon. To be sure, weather can change quickly during hurricane season and it is important to pay attention and be prepared - with adequate non-perishable food, water, batteries, flashlights and gasoline for the generator. If you've lived in F...