I'LL BE BACK

For those of my readers who live in Nantucket, this is a palm tree, on a white sand beach in Sarasota, Florida. Later today we will be leaving beautiful but getting colder and rainier Nantucket and heading into the 90 degree days of the Sunshine State. We avoided the fry-an-egg-on-the-sidewalk heat of the Florida summer but now it is time to catch the tail end of the heat and to revel in the mostly wonderful weather of fall and winter (discounting a hurricane that may sneak up on us and blow our house out to sea.)

Several folks extracted a promise from me that I would continue to write this blog on my return to Siesta Key, our island in Sarasota. They asked to remain anonymous. There are many adventures to be had in Florida. And I will muse on several of them in the coming week. Our first adventure will be "the automobile shuffle." The SUV we enjoyed all summer up in Nantucket will arrive home on Tuesday Morning, loaded to the headliner with all manner of impedimentum..mostly clothes-de-Kitty and my two pairs of jeans and 4 t-shirts. There are books, and electronic gizmos, and lots of shoes. We left our kitchen utensils and bed linens in Nantucket for next year. YES, there will be a next year "God willin' and the creek don't rise."

The Kitty's car was leased and the lease is over shortly after our return to Florida. Our other vehicle is a 1998 Mercedes ML320 with about 200,000 miles on her. When I drove this SUV the last time back a couple of months ago, it seemed to be trying to catch on fire or at least the front brakes were smoking. Sounds like a case for Goodwill. So there you have it, two people, one car. This formula was great in Nantucket where I rode my bike or walked everywhere. Back in Sarasota, riding a bike is the transportation equivalent of Russian Roulette, and walking very far will have to wait until November due to the heat. So I guess I will have to get another set of wheels. I blogged about the Jeep Wrangler, and the Mini Cooper and my "sort system" (the WHY of my eventual choice.) Life is too short to make all practical choices. One of my friends drives and Aston-Martin, another a Porsche Panamera, and a third has a garage filled with all manner of exotic cars. I can't even think about getting into that arms-race. Being the ICONOCLAST that I am, my choices are either "the most impractical WTF vehicle I can find" or a nondescript "beater."

We don't have a MINI dealer in Sarasota but the JEEP guys are about a 10 minute drive away. If I can talk them into giving me more than a dollar trade in value on my old ML..I can buy one of their fine products. This week, on the news, mostly FOX, there were videos showing workers at the JEEP factory, where they make their flagship Grand Cherokee, smoking dope and getting hammered on beer while on their lunch hour. This is a bit off-putting when thinking about buying a JEEP that costs as much as a Mercedes or BMW SUV. Fortunately they also sell the Wrangler which when purchased without any bells and whistles is reasonably priced. NO, I (probably) will not remove the doors and the roof and put a surfboard on the roll bars. But don't hold me to this. Beauty is skin deep but quirkiness runs deep to the bone.

Anyway, if I roll up to the mall or your house in a piece of vintage Detroit Iron, or a WWII JEEP, don't think I went off the deep end from being in Nantucket. I did that long ago.