The sun shines and a warm breeze blows across south Florida distracting us from the turmoil of the world.  I am at the condo working on chores.  Anne has taken Mom and Dad to the beach to join the Gallups.  We are retired but still seem to be the generation in the middle.  Mom was anxious to leave this morning, apparently concerned that the family needed her as soon as possible.  Dad was concerned because the water was turned off in the condo for some kind of maintenance. The travel to the beach was fraught with long lines of traffic, making a 20 minute drive into an hour.  On these trips Anne started playing opera, Straus waltzes, and flute music CD's.  That made a big difference and she doesn't know why she didn't think of that before!

Yesterday, after driving them to the beach through almost an hour of traffic, Dad called Anne through the bathroom door to say he had forgotten his bathing suit and meds and that she should return here to get them.  She arrived at a compromise to use a suit borrowed from Craig and wait until their return in a couple of hours  for the medication.

Meanwhile here I noticed in the Wall Street Journal a discussion of thoughts from a sad new book entitled, Manning Up:  How the Rise of Women has turned Men into Boys.  This throws up a bunch of ideas (some silly) including a new phenonemon, the “pre-adult” exemplified by entertaining characters Monica, Joey, Rachel, and Ross.  I recall our daughter telling me that Friends was inspired by the opera, La Boheme.  I don’t like this opera.  The music is great, but the characters are useless.  Sadly, today most people are unmarried until near thirty years of age and male pre-adults may become little more than entertainment and sperm donors.  Where is the fear of starvation and lonliness to inspire dedication to employment and marriage?

Meanwhile we have in the Middle East protests of the people against government and in the Midwest, namely Wisconsin, protests of the government against the people.  It is a time of crisis in both places.  Here we find out if government spending can be reined in to keep us from going over the precipice.  Working in government, I have chuckled to see how easy it is for workers to feel oppressed though their salary and benefits were grand.  Government is the only organization that intentionally pays more than the cost of services and goods.  Now, finally politicians seem to realize that they can no longer spend more then they tax.  Still it will take decades to pay off the debt from past and present overspending.

The other day some bonehead on TV said it would be unfair to raise the age of social security.  How fair is it to take benefits one has not paid for?

In Florida the governor is cutting new programs for high speed rail, education, and prescription drug monitoring.  The interest groups scream this is terrible.  With programs to remove alien vegetation, save manatees, and prosecute cyber-bullies, aren't there enough?  We can’t do what we can’t afford, and government has been over-spending for far too long. 

We have become short-timers in Florida.  We leave in less than two weeks.  Cherokee wants Anne this year.  We'll be there in May and June.  Meanwhile we’ll get home to comfort and be comforted by my parents and enjoy our home and friends in PA.  We also plan a hike on the A.T.  in central VA from April 4-12.  Anyone care to join us for all or part of a 90-mile hike?

Now that our time in Cherokee is defined, we are making plans for later in the year.  We’ll visit Alex in San Fran in August and run the RV to Maine and Nova Scotia in late summer.