BUSY WEEKEND–Thurs went to see TOMORROWLAND (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZ7O-RrATY )with Clooney—wasn’t planning to like it but I did—it’s a good Disney piece for the whole Family….Don’t read the critics, let’s face it if they reviewed your day at the beach they’d probably find that lacking as well…just have fun—this isn’t Shakespeare it’s just a nice story. Saturday: it was massage morning and watching Straightjacket https://www.facebook.com/straightjacketofficial) perform at one of the venue’s of Sanford’s (https://www.facebook.com/places/Things-to-do-in-Sanford-Florida/113088345368102/)9th annual Hurricane Party (http://sanford365.com/event/9th-annual-hurricane-party-at-west-end/). Sunday started working on a trip to UK next year.
Made it home in time to see Outlander Season Finale Note do not read this until you’ve seen the last episode (116)(http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/outlander-finale-shocker-jamie-fraser-is-raped—-read-the-recap-2015305)—-OMG
and now it’s back to Droughtlander again.
This week I thought I’d entertain you with a few of my own comments on life—one thing you may have realized if you’re a regular reader is that my interests lie all over the board and there is no theme (other than my daily Outlander offerings) to the Bedlam—but what else would you expect from a Dragon’s Diva?
GETTING OUT OF ORLANDO–ah easier said than done.
The average person who doesn’t live in Central Florida thinks of Orlando as Disney World, Sea World and all those other Worlds and Universals. All those fun parks that draws the tourists from all over the world to enjoy and congregate. To those of us who live here it just means more difficulty in “getting out of Orlando”.
The high ways are choked with trucks from the heartlands of the state where we grow citrus and cattle to name a few. Then there’s the SUV’s many of which appear always ready for an off-road driving experience, which in truth never comes. They just consume space and fossil fuel. Service vans skitter in and out of lines of cars like water bugs, moving from one disaster to another. And the afore mentioned tourists and travelers in vehicles as varied as the people: RV’s, Chartered Buses, rental cars and private cars in all manor of size, shape, age and condition. The inhabitants also multiple origins from the wealthy to the small family with their blue collars—spending months of salary in the amusement parks.
Add to this the thousands of locals getting to work, home or other places that life is currently leading them to, put us all on highways that have not always (let’s be honest here rarely if ever)kept up with the growing needs–then a pinch of rain with a dash of thunder storm to confuse the situation and then finish it off with more than it’s fair share of the geriatric generation driving below the posted minimum and you have a good idea of the recipe for cross town driving necessary to reach the turn pike.
I’ve lived in Chicago and other large cities and am use to toll roads but I have found those in the Sunshine State often less used. I know people who will drive miles out of their ways to reach I-95 rather than take the turnpike. I have pointed out gas costs and they look at me like I’m ignoring the obvious. Don’t even bother mentioning time. The little value people put on their own time, unless they’re taking about getting paid for work done is totally unbelievable.
The Turnpike is called (officially by the state at least) Florida’s Main Street. It stretches from near Wild Wood–a small cross road town of little import (it use to have Russel Stover Factory outlet store–don’t know if it still does) just south of Gainesville and north east of Tampa.
It then heads south (our destination) through the lonely plains and savannahs of Florida. You can pick it up south of Orlando (off I-4) and meander east to Fort Pierce on the coast and onward south to where it finally ends at Homestead and US 1 which continues on south to the Florida Keys, but that’s another story.
The road stretches long and mostly straight through the greenness which is Florida. Rain slick and moderately busy the turnpike wanders past Kissimmee, St. Cloud and a rest area (read over-priced gas and fast food with tacky tourist stuff just in case) before it goes into the nothingness of the unoccupied vistas of the inner state, with nothing to stop the repeated sameness till Yee Haw Junction–a group of hotels and other traveler orientated institutions and little else.
The afternoon rain continues. Rain in Florida use to be a summer constant, but after years of living here I have either gotten too use to it or it is becoming something less than it use to be. The clear beautiful and hot sky of mid-morning gradually slips into partially cloudy with the tops of impressive thunderhead moving in on the horizon. Not so different today except that the rain came early, about 1 pm when three or four pm is more common. Today the storm is not so close, just the rains and the distant rumble of thunder is heard now just a distant shadow of its normal ear shattering racket. You can see the lightening though as the long, jagged probe of brightness projects itself from the dark clouds that embrace the sky and moves rapidly downwards to the good earth and a few seconds later the resounding thunder.
The summer rains can be as gentle as a kitten patting the earth with paws of water or more likely to proceed with wind and the roar of thunder that would make a lion proud. It is not unusual to have at least minor (and all too often major) damage following each afternoon storm ranging from hail hitting a car to entire trees; with their root systems never having a good grasp of the sandy soil; being uprooted and falling on an assortment of objections including vehicles and structures.
Sometimes these storms spawn tornadoes, wicked demons of nature that “”Taz” their ways across stretches of land. As a veteran of many years of Michigan and its really serious storms I am less impressed by these weak sisters that more likely to just tear off some tiles –but they are wicked to trailer (God hates trailers) . I did live near the exception a few years back when the night was split by the constant flickering of lightening and the unceasing guttural growl of thunder. Even for Central Florida which has an average of over 200 deaths a year from lightening, the storm was impressive and when it was over we’d more than one class five tornado leaving death and destruction scattered from Sanford through Logwood, Orlando and down to Kissisimmee like a spoiled, brat of a child in tantrum leaving a clear path of it’s dicards.
