The Democratic Process

Can a cynic also be an idealist? I think so.

I still get inspired listening to audio of JFK's speeches, even though we all found out years after his death what a womanizer he was. Same goes for Clinton, although the reveal came much sooner! I believe even as good and Christian as Jimmy Carter was painted, he had to be just a little bit crooked or compromised to make it all the way to the Oval Office.

I think there's good and evil in most of us. The proportions might be different, and some of us might hide the evil (or the good) better than others.

All this to explain why we see so many examples of people spewing ignorance and hate. Videos show rampant name calling, rumor spreading, and lying at political rallies. Internet searches for political posters for my candidate yielded anti-propaganda results that are disgusting and immoral, not to mention untrue. I'm almost afraid to read articles or view videos anymore because it's so nauseating to witness the naked hate expressed by women, men and even children. (I could link to examples, but won't because they were just so offensive.)

I know my candidate is not perfect. Neither is the other candidate. Both of them have good and evil inside them, because they are human.

In the midst of all this negativity and cynicism about our country and our fallen nature, I still hold on to (cling to, even) the following ideals:
* my vote matters
* there is hope for this country
* things can get better
* we can unite to help bring about change

I'm going to vote first thing next Tuesday, and stay up late waiting for the returns to come in. If my candidate wins, I'm sure tears will be shed. (Probably the same would be true if the other candidate were to win, God forbid!)

God Bless America. God bless our democratic process.

Venice, Day 4

Three words: Siesta. Key. Beach. Rated the #3 most beautiful beach in the United States for 2008.

Just south of Sarasota, it's home to sugar sand, which is incredibly white, soft, and doesn't get hot in the sun, so it's lovely to walk on.

We spent two lovely hours there, enjoying the breezy day, watching the pelicans and gulls nosedive into the surf for fish.

People watching was also good - we saw people building sand castles, flying kites, swimming, fishing (and throwing lots of fish back, causing a small feeding frenzy among the gulls), parasailing, and just generally enjoying themselves.

On the way home, we stopped off (of course) at Nokomis Groves for more citrus ice cream. I had another orange / vanilla; my friend tried the orange / pineapple. (Both received top marks!)

I decided it would be fun to take a walk in the actual groves, to see the fruit trees up close. It was cool until my foot started stinging from dozens of teeny tiny ants biting me furiously!

Meanwhile, I did get in a shot of the melon-sized grapefruits. (ED. Found out the next day that this particular species is called Chinese grapefruit, they're really meaty, and delicious!)


Once it was approaching dusk, we headed out again, this time to the Venice Audobon Center Bird Sanctuary to watch the birds come home to roost for the night. I'm coveting a nicer camera about now, one with better zoom, better color filtering, and ability to take photos at dusk.


This one blurry shot was actually quite interesting - a couple of egrets seemed to have a disagreement over a certain branch...

There were tons of egrets, blue heron, anhingas and some others I couldn't name. We got some lovely close shots of one great blue heron who really liked a nearby tree. He didn't seem to mind as we snapped photo after photo.

Home again, we're trying to bunk down at a decent time, to get ready for another full day tomorrow!

Laying in the sun is exhausting! (Venice Day 3)

Tonight my friend and I are two tired vacationers! We are all worn out from... erm, sitting in the sun at the beach. Oh, yes, we floated in the waves, too! And we ate ice cream.

But first things first. On the advice of my sister, we ate at a wonderful and charming Mexican restaurant in Venice called Mi Pueblo. Our food (chiles rellenos for me, tacos de camarones for her) was delicious, but the ambiance was what made it a very lovely experience. The building is kind of mission style architecture, and shares a quaint courtyard complete with fountain with several other businesses. Inside, murals on the wall framed with brick, warm colors, lots of plants, interesting lighting fixtures all make you wonder if you didn't step across the threshold into Mexico. Thanks, sis!

After lunch, we headed out to Venice's Casperson Beach - the Sharks' Tooth Capital of the WORLD! We followed the time honored tradition of vacationers (and locals, for that matter), and walked around bent at the waist, peering intently at the sand, in search of prehistoric teeth from prehistoric sharks.

We were honored for our search, as our reward is pictured here. 26 teeth, from teeny-tiny to larger than my own teeth, was our total haul. Not bad, actually, considering we spent way more time sunning and swimming than searching. It does get addicting, though. Once you're on a streak of finding teeth, you can't bring yourself to go. Like playing slots or drinking, you keep thinking "just one more, I'm sure the next one will be a big one, let me find just one more tooth." (Maybe if I go back real early tomorrow, ...)

Floating around in the Gulf of Mexico, letting the waves lift me up and bring me back down again, is very relaxing, yet somehow draining. Must be all the sun. It sure did feel good just bobbing about (like a cork on the wave, to quote a former ECC president). I did wonder just a tiny bit about the sharks whose teeth will wash up in ten thousand years or so, and whether they might be bobbing around in the currents like I was...

Back on land, we cleaned up and headed back out in search of treasure of a different kind: Nokomis Groves homemade citrus ice creams! (On the left is lime & chocolate; on the right is orange & vanilla.) This place is fabulous. It doesn't look like much, but their ice cream, made from oranges, lemons, limes, and pineapples, not to mention chocolate and vanilla. Their main store is closed for the season, but they keep the ice cream stand part open all year round. Lucky for us!

A visit to Nokomis Groves has become a tradition in my family, often one we take seriously enough to observe more than once during our visits here! (I think we're going back tomorrow - market research, you see, to find if orange/pineapple is better than lime/chocolate.)

On our way home, we had intended to shop for new swimsuits, but alas, the lycra gods were not in a flattering mood today. We did each end up with groovy new beach footwear, however - mine are pictured.

Home again in time to watch a DVD before heading off to bed. It's been a long day.

Venice, Day 2

Today was filled with Myakka River State Park and a visit to the South Jetty here in Venice.

Now I'd been to Myakka several times with Mom and Dad on previous visits, but had only ever taken the boat ride on the chuck-full-o-gators Myakka Lake and the tram ride.

Today, we started by going on the nature walk through partially swampy ground - walkways kept us out of the muckier parts - to the Canopy Walkway.

First you climb the 'short' tower to the swinging bridge, 25 feet off the ground. Then you climb the 74 foot tower, and get an eyeful of beautiful country.

My friend had to talk me up, since I'm so scared of heights. I hung back on the next to the highest level for at least 10 minutes before I had the nerve to go all the way up to the top.

We saw an amazing array of birds: hawks, vultures, cranes, egrets, herons - nesting, flying, screeching, whirling. It was pretty awesome.

Back on the ground, we went back to the lake. Too late to take the boat ride, we found out that today wasn't a good gator-viewing day, so we weren't too disappointed.

Right alongside the boat, we got a bit of a treat. One of the rarer birds in the park, the Limpkin was wading around looking for food, so we got a nice close look.

From there, we went over to the little dam, where we were about as close to a gator as you can get and keep all your body parts intact.

After brats and floats, we decided to go over to the Birdwalk, which extends a ways out into the swampy land, almost to the lake, and saw lots more birds and lots more beautiful lake.

By the time we were heading back to Venice, it was getting later, so we decided to go straight to the South Jetty to see if we could spot any dolphins as the tide was coming in.

In all the many times I've been out dolphin watching on the Jetty, I've never seen as many at once, and as playful a bunch of dolphins as today.

They weren't just breaching and swimming around; they were blowing, jumping a little bit and coming down with a big splash; they were slapping the surface of the water with their tails. It was really fun!

Trying to take pictures got a little hard, because there so many off in several directions.

While we were there, we saw two bridal couples taking wedding shots, and what was probably an engaged couple getting their photos taken, too.

We were there for almost two and a half hours, just watching people, dolphins, waves, and the sunset.

All in all, a great day spent in the beauty of West Central Florida!

We have arrived! (Venice, Day 1)

Hooray! After months of thinking we were coming to Florida in October, agonizing over what dates to select, only to have a false alarm thinking that my boss didn't want me to take this particular week off, we have arrived in the land of sunshine!

We landed in Tampa yesterday around noon, and took advantage of our proximity to Clearwater to visit the attractions there before heading south to Venice. While we weren't able to visit the US's number one rated beach at Caladesi State Park because of the ferry hours, we did check out Honeymoon Island State Park (so named for honeymoon bungalows built there in the 30s).

What a pleasant surprise! We walked along the Osprey Nature Path. We did see one osprey flying away from us, and a couple of giant nests up high in the trees. Our walk was hurried along by the carniverous noseeums, unfortunately.

Escaping the bugs, we took a walk along the beach and cooled off in the waves a bit. Then we drove down and visited the ferry landing, where we saw lots of water birds and jumping fish. This really is a beautiful area, and we may be back to visit the beach when we leave.

At my folks' house now, I wonder if I'll ever be able or want to retire down here. The pace of life is slower, that's for sure. But there are lots of things to do - it's not like the streets roll up at night.

Of course, there are the hurricanes to consider...

One more reason to love 7-Eleven

Here's yet another reason to love 7-Eleven.

You can go in for a tasty cup of Joe (can I call ya Joe?), and come out supporting your candidate for President!

There's an arrow pointing to the UPC symbol that says "this is how we count your vote!" And you can see how the candidates are doing, by checking 7-Election.com.

They have an online political java-map, which is looking encouragingly blue these days. You can also read results of 7-Election 2004, which came out eerily similar to the national results!

Yes, I do love my 7-Eleven and my Obama coffee cup. I just wish they had it in the 24 oz. size!

(ED. 3 days before the election, and it seems like all area 7-Elevens are out of the blue cups! Gobama!!)

Political Junkies Unite!

I've found a great website for polling results. Every day their US map is updated with whatever polls have been conducted. One of their links has an animated history of how the polls place our candidates, beginning with June 2, 2008.

	Strong Obama
	Weak Obama
	Barely Obama
	Exactly tied
	Barely McCain
	Weak McCain
	Strong McCain
	Needed to win: 270