We’re back from Florida none the worse for wear; we actually got back Saturday late, missing hurricane Wilma by two days. As my friend Kerry said, ironic that the one time we should pick to visit Florida, the biggest storm ever tracked starts building up nearby.
Florida was… flat and humid. No, really.
Well, it was. Anyway, we had a good time. My wife’s grandparents have a swimming pool (of course) so we spent a lot of time in it. And of course we drove up to Disney World for a few days (three and a half hours each way), that was a trip; it’s utterly mind-boggling just how big Disney World is. We only had time to visit the Magic Kingdom (which is basically all of Disney Land), and part of Epcot.
Some general Florida observations, from an outsider: what’s up with drivers there? Nobody uses turn signals! And apparently they’ll hit-and-run other cars in parking lots (which seemed to happen to us— borrowing the grandparents’ car— on our mini-trip to Disney) all the time, we’re told. Also, everywhere you go— and I mean everywhere— there’s air conditioning. All the time. Many times we were in restaurants and it was too cold— people were wearing sweaters or jackets. Not what you expect to see in Florida, of all places.
Didn’t see any gators (in the wild, anyway). I was kind of hoping.
Meanwhile, it’s interesting to note some of the local goings-on while we were away:
- There was an E. coli outbreak at McGrath’s; Bulletin story here, Bend.com here. Damn, I knew there was a reason I’m always resisting going to eat there… What really worries me though is the Bulletin’s article states, “No changes in McGrath’s operating procedure were suggested”— say what? Yeah, I’m done.
- More information has come to light regarding Deschutes County Commissioner Tom DeWolf’s sex abuse scandal: details from the investigation reveal that he allegedly put his hand down two separate women’s pants and groped their genitals. Bulletin story here, Bend.com story here. Not surprisingly, DeWolf is resigning. His statement is here. Not really much more to say, other than I’m not really surprised. That’s some seriously stupid shit to do, Tom.
Anything exciting anybody wants to tell me about?
i dunno if this was before you left or not, but there are TWO murder trials right now happening in Coos County. Exciting? Maybe. Unusual? Fer sure.
After reading this I had to write about the over-air conditioned south:
http://boonedocks.net/mike/archives/97-Freezing-in-the-South.html
I heard the former sports guy from KTVZ on KPOV community radio on Saturday doing Beatles hour ? Is that news?
There’s a lawyer who actually *specializes* in food-poisoning lawsuits in Portland trying to recruit people who ate at the Bend area McGrath’s to SUE SUE SUE. I’m sure we’ll see ads in the Bulletin soon enough from him.
Gah, that figures. I don’t think anybody should sue McGrath’s, that would just be stupid.
A friend of mine was recently (last two weeks) hired to be the kitchen manager at McGrath’s. He told me that a number of operational changes are underway, including changing the source of all their seafood. They are also changing out the equipment in the kitchen as well as hiring a team to do the clean-up and sanitizing.