Sanibel Turns 35

Sanibel Island Lighthouse

It’s hard to believe, but the City of Sanibel turns 35 this week. I’ve been going to the island at least that many years and lived there for 4. Needless to say, Sanibel has a special place in my heart. I caught my first Snook there, split my chin open in the swimming pool (resulting in stitches and a long trip for my dad to the mainland). I nearly died of pneumonia, road out a couple of close hurricanes, and found and helped save an injured Manatee. Needless to say, there are alot of great memories. My parents were driving out to Ding Darling Wildlife preserve when they heard about Elvis dieing on the CB. (well, he died on the crapper, they just heard about it on the radio)  Anyway, it’s the place I want to be, and the place I’ll always find a way to get back to. You might say it’s my own Particular Harbor.

Sanibel Celebrates 35 years

Steve

Manatee Monday

Cow and Calf

Trying hard to keep the blog up this time. For my buds from the Legacy Campaign, it’s Manatee Monday.

Steve

You’ve got to be kidding me

Just in time for Holloween Walmart is selling caskets online. Now come on, if you did not have a reason for hatting Walmart before now, you can use this as an excuse. I guess that in this society where it’s make a buck at any price, then Walmart is the perfect example of capitalism gone bad. (Yes, I know, capitalism is already bad) So now on top of spending millions to keep unions out of their stores, having healthcare that cost too much for their employees, buying life insurance policies on their employees and collecting if they pass away you have just one more reason to hate America’s favorite bad boy big box shop.

Steve

Just another Manatee Monday

All my non-Florida friends just don’t seem to understand Manatees. I guess if you’ve not lived in Florida, seen them swimming around, feeding, and playing, it’s just a hard concept to understand. Manatees are probably the most gentle creatures of their size in the world. Their only enemy is man, and we are doing a pretty good job of wiping them out. I’ve heard boaters complain for years about not being able to zip their boat around wherever they like however fast they like. Of course, that same attitude is why the world is as screwed up as it is. We are not alone, and we must consider the rest of the life on our planet as important as ourselves.

Anyway, because of an inside joke with some friends who I worked with in Oregon I’m going to feature a link and a manatee photo every Monday. This week you can click on the logo above and go to the Save the Manatee Club to learn a little more about these amazing animals. And I’ll leave you with our first Manatee Monday photo.

How life should be

An American businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Jamaican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked.

Inside the small boat were several large yellow-fin tuna. The American complimented the Jamaican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Jamaican replied, ‘only a little while.’
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Jamaican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time?
The Jamaican fisherman said, “Me sleep late, fish a likkle, play wid me pickney, mek love wid me wife, tek a stroll ina de village each evening where me drink rum and play domino wid me bredren. Me have a full and busy life, sah.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should
spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the
proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats.
Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats and instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery.
You would control the product, processing and distribution.
You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Kingston, then LA and eventually New York City where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Jamaican fisherman asked, “But sah, how long will all dis tek?”
The American replied, “15-20 years.”
“Den wha’ next me a’ do, sah?”
The American laughed, smiled, and said “that’s the best part. When the
time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions, sah? Den wha’?” asked the Jamaican.

This made the American pause… then he humbly replied…

“Then you would retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, make love with your wife, take walks into the village in the evenings where you could drink rum and play dominoes with your friends.”