Approaching cold front, with addition.

Good News! It is overcast. Weather people predict a Cold Front approaching. Expected rain this afternoon, 39 degrees for Friday a.m. Temperatures in the 50's and 60's for the next week. Not a 70 in sight. I am thrilled because I have a lot of indoor things I'd like to accomplish.

A box arrived yesterday containing a Continuing Education Credit book, 170 pages, and test sheets that need to be completed and sent back before next week to enable me to be legally educated for renewal of my RN license. I still have thank you notes to write dating back to last Summer. I'm determined to write those and the others that Christmas created.

Luckily yesterday also brought sunshine, as evidenced by yesterdays' post. I was able to take a swim in the warm pool. I went back after the water color class, but got talking with a friend and didn't get another swim. As Lillian, who I haven't seen since late last March, and I gabbed we watched steam or mist or fog rise off the pool and swirl around. Some kind of phenomenon which occurs when cold air hits warm water. I tried taking a photo, but forgot to see if I captured the sight. It did not inspire us to take a dip. The thought of getting out of the pool is what is preventing most people from going into the pool.

Anyhow, the swim around noon was great. A few laps up and down the pool. Most of the people standing in the water up to their necks were people I'd never seen before. Lots of Mid-Westerners here. On a walk around the parking lot I noticed many license plates from Ohio, Michigan, Illinois. There is one couple who drives from Nevada, others from Pennsylvania, NY, NJ, MA a Minnesota and then some rentals.

Happily I spotted only one Mercedes in the lot and it might have been visiting. When we starting renting here about 8 years ago, there were no Mercedes. None or very few luxury cars. A near Paradise. East Chop was much the same 10 -12 years ago. One or two Mercedes, but times have changed. If use ask me times have changed, not for the better. Read on.

Now at Sun Rise Cove there are a few Cadillacs, dark, understated, no gold, a little chrome. Lots of Buicks. A few vans and SUVs. Some Toyotas, VWs. One Lexus. and One BMW. And, of course, Elvis' Bright Red Corvette. The BMW belongs to a friend. I don't begrudge her a luxury car. She owns a BMW dealership in PA. What is she supposed to drive?

Of all the LUXURY cars I find the BMW the least offensive and the most attractive, to me. I think it is well made, fun to drive, isn't too flashy. Doesn't shout LOOK AT ME, I'M RICH, like a Mercedes. If I had a Billion dollars I might buy one.

I do have a few friends who do own a Mercedes and I let them off the hook also, like my friend with the BMW. Why? Well, two of them are African Americans. I think if you are African American and you have survived the racism in this country to get to a place where you have become successful financially then you have a right to flaunt it. I think, and you may call it reverse racism or reverse snobbery or you may call it anything you like. I don't care what you call it. I'm simply stating what I think and feel. It doesn't mean I'm right or I couldn't have my mind changed. But I do enjoy seeing the two people I know, off the top of my head, who are African American, drive up or by in their Mercedes. They have earned it. They deserve a luxury car. It makes me feel good to see them behind the wheel, enjoying a little luxury.

Why doesn't it make me feel good to see somebody else, somebody I don't know, drive up or by in a Mercedes? I don't know their history. I'm not sure they struggled to get where they are. I'm not sure they aren't part of the crowd who are simply insecure, needy. The people who are either very insecure so they need to broadcast to the world, "I've Made It Financially." Or they are the people who are in the, "I've Got Mine," crowd. The people who think, becausee they can afford a Mercedes the rest of us are suppose to step aside, or respect them and their wealth. I hope they don't think they are better than anyone else because they have a little money. For all I know they are renting their Mercedes to use it to make an impression on others. Using a Mercedes as a status symbol because they want others to know how important or how rich or how something they are. Well, I'm one of the people who are negatively impressed by their short-sightedness. Their lack of regard for the environment. Their blatant display of wealth when so many people in this world have so little.

Perhaps I am bigoted. Perhaps I'm a reverse snob or whatever label you want to put on me. But forget about me. Think about why anyone buys a Mercedes. Is it because it is engineered better than other cars. it is because it is a better car, or does it appeal to them because of its beauty, its appointments, the way it drives. Or is it, like a Dior suit or a Channel something or an Armani something or a Hermes something, a status symbol? Is there anything wrong with that?

I'm not going to make a judgement, but I do wonder about people's priorities. Perhaps people who drive Luxury cars feel a special need for luxury. Perhaps they have given all the money they possibly can to charity. Perhaps they have so much money, like a Billionaire, that they are forced to spend money and have to buy an expensive automobile? NO, that isn't why someone buys a Mercedes.

Perhaps someone who owns a Mercedes and reads this blog, if there is anyone out there like that, will comment and tell me why they own a Mercedes. I'd like to take a poll. Ask Mercedes owners why they chose a Mercedes rather than a Buick or a Toyota or some other vehicle. Doesn't it have something to do with Image. Don't people make moral choices when they purchase something like an automobile?

Do you want to help the environment, or injure it less? Buy a hybrid. Do you want to impress certain people. Buy a luxury car. However, you will not be impressing me, at least not positively. If you drive up to my house in a luxury car you may set off a red flag in my psyche. If you are a friend of mine I may have to disregard your choice of car so we can remain friends. After all if I can be friends with Right wing Republicans, which I can, I can also be friends with people who drive luxury cars, but I may not want to emulate them.

If I ever do buy a luxury car I may have to recant all of this. I must say I am very much a lover of performance cars like a Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche, BMW. I love Saabs, Rovers, and of course, old Austin Healeys. I did own one in my twenties. When I was young, I wanted a red convertible with a great sounding engine after I sold my motorcycle.

How do I or does anyone, talk the talk and walk the walk. I want to support a healthy ecosystem. I drive a Prius, an old 2001 Prius that I bough second hand. I'll keep it as long as I can and then I'll buy another energy efficient car. What about my love for performance cars and motorcycles?

Paul, the handy man here at Sun Rise Cove, and I were talking yesterday as I was walking around the parking lot checking out license plates. I noticed his silver Yamaha motorcycle parked out back. Beautiful. We talked motorcycles for a while. Then he told me something very valuable. I can go on line, Google Sebring and find a place that will let me drive performance cars, I think, or maybe motorcycles or maybe both around the race track. Something I'm going to look into.

If I can drive a car, every once in a while, like the Ferrari I drove many years ago or the Porsche or a Maserat,i I don't need to own one. I could get the fun of driving without owning. I can save the environment or pollute it less than my gas-guzzling neighbor who drives a huge SUV, or luxury car, by owning and driving a hybrid, but every once in a while I can get my kicks by driving a fast, well-engineered car, built for speed. That might be a good solution for me. I'm not sure how the rest of you will solve this problem.

When I was a kid, under the age of nine, my sister and I would play the game - What would you do if you had a million dollars. We lived in a great house that I loved on the North Bluff, so we had to think of things, other than houses, we could buy for ourselves. Our neighbor, whose name I've forgotten, had a pretty large Cabin Cruiser. He took the neighborhood kids out for rides. It might be nice to have one of our own, I thought, but I thought an airplane would be great to have. A Piper cub or perhaps a Sea Plane. Yellow, perhaps. I could take it up and fly where ever I wanted to go. Great! A large, every thing had to be large if you were trying to spend a million dollars back in the 40's, sailboat sounded great too.

What else did I want to buy with a million dollars? Can't remember. Maybe some comic books.

Today, in order to play a game like my sister, Faye, and I played, I imagine it would have to be called. What would you do if you had a Billion dollars.

I've often said if I had a Billion dollars I would not spend money on dresses that cost thousands of dollars or fancy cars or McMansions or anything flashy. However, if I were forced to spend a Billion dollars and I had to spend it on myself, not give it to charity or to someone else, etc. what would I do?

I saw a very beautiful silver Maserati last Satuday. It had been quite a long time since I'd seen one. So, I took photos of it from the back, front, both sides, to document its existence parked on a side street in Sarasota. I've ridden in, but never drove a Maserati. Wonderful feeling of speed and elegance. But, where can you actually drive one the way they are built to be driven? The Autobahn.

I've been fond of Ferraris and Porsches. I've driven both. The Ferrari much more exciting than the Porsche, but both pleasing to look at. Would I want to own one? NO. No place to drive it. Too flashy. Once you own something that costs a fortune you, I suppose, have to "worry" about loosing it. What if someone stole it? You have to have elaborate alarm systems and locked garages and live behind gates, etc. That sounds terrible. Who wants to live like that worrying about possessions?

Lots of people want to live like that, I guess. There are people, as we know, who want expensive toys and things and want to live in exclusive areas or buy expensive art or jewelry or fancy cars or boats or whatever. The problem with owning all that stuff is: It owns you. Once you have a lot of stuff, you may find you spend your time taking care of it. Or you spend your time preventing other people from taking it. All a waste of TIME. TIME being the most important assest we posses. Time to relax. Time to spend with friends and family. Time to do what you damn well please. TIME.

Money can buy time. IF you have a lot of money you can pay others to do the things you don't want to do or the things that take up your time. You pay others and then you have the TIME to do what you want. So, money can be important and useful, But money itself isn't everything. In fact money can be crippling. Suppose you had a Billion dollars. How much time would that take to deal with it?

It is probably impossible to spend a Billion dollars on oneself, hopefully. It isn't impossible to loose a Billion dollars by being extravagant, investing badly. That's something most anyone could do. You can always give money away to good causes or friends. You could build schools in Afghanistan or Guatemala. You, probably, couldn't influence the government to do the right thing by the poor, the underserved, the people without healthcare, proper homes or good nutrition with a Billion dollars. It would take much, much more money than that to influence our government, i.e., the Congress, the Senate.

However, if I had "All the money in the world" as a friend used to describe the reality of being very wealthy, would I be able to hold to my principles? If you had so much money that you couldn't possibly spend it all, what would you do?

Gotta go get some lunch. I'll get back to this topic later. Meanwhile I think I'll drive Skip's Buick over to the mainland along with Skip and pick up some watercolor supplies. I found using a brush to paint color on a piece of paper much more fun than painting the bathroom. Not that I've ever painted the bathroom here. Maybe that's fun. Later, FAN