Did you miss me? I just got back from a week in Florida. For the plane and to set the mood, I took the only Hemingway novel available in my branch of the DC library: To Have and Have Not. Not my favorite title, but it did turn out to be the theme of the week. What we did have? A great place to stay- a condo in a high rise near the beach. What had we not ? Air conditioning which was not factored into a big building's bone structure. The have-nots also get the ugly side of Fort Lauderdale which, except for the beach, is plastered with shopping centers as far as a car can drive. But the have-nots can catch a water taxi and go see what millions of dollars can buy if you want a house facing the water ways rather than the asphalt jungle.
I also learned that the great equalizer down yonder is the drawbridge.
Whether you are gliding along sipping a Mai Tai on your forty million dollar yacht or walking back from the corner liquor store, everyone has to stop now and then and wait for the bridges to go up...or down. Unlike Washington where we are snarled up in pointless traffic jams often due to "heavy volume,"the folks on the boulevards in Fort Lauderdale at least know why they are stopped, and an uneventful walk might land you into a conversation with someone fishing from the bridge. Not a bad way to slow down, and that's a good thing to do in the summer- wherever you are.
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