4.15.2018

C'mon artist Bob

No taco truck, no tag sales for 2 weeks, ducks are in hiding, at least we could have this:

4.10.2018

Equal Pay Day? Latinas Wish…And Black Women…And Mothers


Tuesday marks Equal Pay Day. But per Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner on CNN Opinion: “Despite the fact that women make up nearly half of the workforce and receive more college degrees than men, they earn significantly less. Today, on average, women earn just 80 cents to a man’s dollar, with Latinas earning only 54 cents, black women only 63 cents and mothers only 71 cents.”  
and don't we know it ...

3.26.2018

Did dog find its home?

Saturday - A dog like this approx ran up Haverhill along the whole golf curse, crossed road twice (eek) and then ran into village at Haverhill entrance.  I alerted guards but do not know what happened. High stepping chihuahua light brown and white.

3.17.2018

MUSINGS WHILE IN TRAFFIC


Driving east on Okeechobee Boulevard the other day, I came to a stop at the Military Trail intersection. As I waited for a green light, I saw the cars simply whizzing by on Military Trail. All the cars were going very fast but some faster than others, and there was a mix of vehicles, three lanes of them. Then I thought about the fact that each car was being driven by its own driver, individuals of all different ages, some well, some no doubt ailing, and I marveled at how there were no accidents. Some of these people have headaches. Some are in the middle of a genuine emergency, and some are very sleepy. I've often marveled at this while driving busy roads, highways and city streets. There are accidents, of course, but why so FEW of them? And the ever-changing traffic lights are OBEYED by all these autonomous drivers. It is something to behold.

When visiting my son Peter in Scottsdale, AZ, we visited the neatest model train layout in a building. There were several trains running on the same and different tracks, some making stops and some going at different speeds. Everything was coordinated there, of course, either by a man at the controls or automatically by a carefully programmed device. But not so our traffic on Okeechobee or elsewhere on the busy streets around us. There it is hundreds of fallible human beings like myself on which everything hangs.

It almost seems as if there is some kind of central control over us.
           

3.09.2018

Yeehaw Junction 1938

Are you sure it is Yeehaw, no leaves on trees?  could it be UCO!

3.03.2018

10-year smoke detectors

The 10 year smoke detectors are so much easier than the 1 yr change battery type.
Kidde Worry Free Smoke Detector
  • For sale at Aldis - Sealed-in 10-year lithium battery, Smart hush feature, 10-year limited lifetime warranty  

3.01.2018

Safe Money

You or your Delegate MUST VOTE on Friday.
Keep the village moneys safe and our prices steady.
   VOTE  FOR  ED  BLACK  FOR  TREASURER


Important : Don't come to the Delegate Assembly at 9:30 and expect to be able to vote. You MUST COME EARLIER TO REGISTER AND PICK UP YOUR VOTING CLICKER. You can register and get your clicker starting at 8:30. And this year the Party Room will be open, starting at 8:00, for coffee and donuts. Enjoy! And thank you for your vote!

2.28.2018

Dealing with difficult people

Difficult People:
A well-known local attorney, David St John gave a presentation here in CV in 2008,  A key component of the talk dealt with “Dealing with difficult people”; First step - DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM.
  • “Difficult people really like being difficult. Their purpose or objective is to get you mad they feel good when you get mad.
  • For many difficult people, their purpose is to make the Manager, President or Board (or all three) look bad to prove you are wrong and they are right. Some researchers into this behavior believe that these people have a unique self-esteem problem where they can only feel good about themselves if they can make someone else look bad or feel bad. This is the only way they can feel empowered in their lives. THEY RARELY CHANGE!
  • Really difficult people get no sense of satisfaction from working to solve community problems.”
YOU KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE, AVOID THESE PEOPLE,

VOTE FOR DAVE ISRAEL SLATE.

2.27.2018

2.26.2018

Sandwich

C'mon you will get it in a minute.

Must vote for Ed Black as Treasurer

Ed Black is everywhere. When lightning strikes a guardhouse, Ed is the first on the scene. When anyone has a complex question on bylaws or 718 regulations or how associations can deal with foreclosures, Ed is the go-to person. He has served for years, as appointed chair of Security, Channel 63 and member of 13 committees from Bar Code Installation, IT, Disaster and CERT to Finance, Advisory, Infrastructure and Operations. He also served as Treasurer and Vice President.

(I think the other Ed just enjoys messing with UCO he does not want to, and has not done anything useful.)

VOTE FOR ED BLACK

2.19.2018

Taco Trucks

My visitors want to know why there are no food trucks parked around CV.  Actually I could go for that, charge them rent.

2.16.2018

Sure Shine Best Car Wash

I treated my old car to a full wash for Valentines. I like to recognize, extra helpful, efficient good jobs.  Sure Shine near Zaxby's is all of this and my windows are crystal clearer than when new. Great. Also you get 10% discount at Zaxby's with your Sure Shine receipt.

1.30.2018

How did we ever survive?

Under age 60? You probably won't understand.
 
Black & White TV
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
 
'Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.'
 
Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning. She would defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting E. Coli.
 
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the pond instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system. We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors.  I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... Even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
 
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
 
We must have had horribly damaged psyches because we were taught we were supposed to accomplish something before we were allowed to be proud of ourselves. Oh, and what an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses?  Ours wore a hat and everything. Oh yeah... And there was the Benadryl and a sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
 
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations. We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $99 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
 
I recall Donny Light from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house, instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof.
 
It was a neighborhood run amuck.
 
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home. To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?
 
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes. We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

1.28.2018

12.22.2017

Such a Deal

 12 weeks New Yorker for $6
Below is just a picture, not a live link.  Access link yourself.


12.21.2017

Look again at channel 63 and 95

Thank you for colorful, sparkly, gif-y new layouts.  Lots of content.

Run for UCO Office

Century Village Is a Great Place to Live −  Let’s Keep It That Way!
Run for UCO Office: March 2, 2018
Century Village unit owners, you have decades of work experience and life skills. Put them to good use as a leader in your community and still have time to enjoy your retirement

Positions open: President, 2 VPs, Treasurer, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary and 10 Executive Board positions
·      Eligibility: Any member of UCO who resides in Century Village a minimum of nine months each year
·      Bio Submission Deadline: via email only by January 31, 2018 to ruthdreiss@comcast.net. Don’t wait. Get those bios in now!
·      Bio Information: Name, Association, Office You Seek, Education, Work Experience, Military if applicable, UCO/CV Experience (250 words max for Exec Board, flex for Officers)
·      Nominations from the Floor to be held at February 2 Delegate Assembly
·      Vote March 2 at 8 AM in Clubhouse prior to Delegate Assembly
Make a difference in Century Village!


11.24.2017

Never ever

One point for everything you HAVE NOT done! What is your score?

11.18.2017

BIRDIES

COMMENTARY BY IRV RIKON

I like birds. I'm not the sort of guy who goes sloshing through muddy marshes or climbs breathlessly over improbable mountain peaks to see them, but I enjoy watching and hearing them when they're in my habitat.
         Take for example the small (and larger) birds that dangle on electric wires stretching across public utility poles.  Especially towards dusk sometimes a dozen or more will perch closely together at traffic intersections. I wonder: Are they actually watching the traffic? What images do their bird brains interpret? Those passing vehicles (as we see them) are they some sort of monster or simply a curiosity to the birds? I find it amusing and quite amazing that they can adapt to a human environment and make it part of their own.
         When I lived in the urban centers of New Jersey and New York, relatively few bird species were there. Sparrows were ubiquitous. In spring, robins and blue jays would arrive. For the most part, that was it. When I began to travel, I realized that pigeons were in almost every urban center people were. Folks greeted them in mixed fashion. Some noticed only their droppings. Others noted that if one stood in place offering food, pigeons would eat out of one's hand, occasionally sitting on one's head to do it.
          Which reminds me of the old joke: A poor, despondent fellow was outdoors praying when a bird's droppings fell on his head. Desperately, he looked skyward: "Lord, see what I mean? For other people that same bird sings!"
          Then there's the mockingbird. When I first came here, outside my bedroom window stood a tree. There a mockingbird decided to make its home. Mockingbirds sing—day and night. This mockingbird kept this human being awake. And so what I termed "The Mockingbird War" began. I bought a water pistol and fired it when I viewed the bird. I don't think I ever hit it, though I tried. But the bird also perceived it as war: It recognized me and would try to attack me as I left my apartment. Eventually the bird moved elsewhere, and the tree was taken down for the reason it was too close to the building, and insects were climbing up into the condos.
           Mockingbirds deserve more than one paragraph. Scientists have determined they can memorize over 600 different bird calls and return and retain them. It's not just bird calls: A woman downstairs from my condo had a cat. The bird would meow like a cat, tormenting the feline. I've read of a couple who rented a small hotel room. The hotel was being repaired, with machinery blasting all day. At night, the pair hoped to get some rest. But no! A nearby mockingbird mimicked the machine, and they couldn't sleep! Now, I love to listen to the mockingbirds (when they're some distance away). They sing in springtime during mating season and keep changing tunes. I marvel. I'm even quite convinced some of the tunes mockingbirds sing are original.
          Here we have a lot of crows. Crows are credited with being the most intelligent of all birds. They're the only bird species to be found on every continent, a testimony to their gift of survival. Seldom to be seen alone (mockingbirds are loners), they come and go in small flocks. They have good memories a sense of humor. Watch them, and you'll see.
          Sometimes a chicken can be detected, probably after escaping from a coop. Some people don't recognize a "chicken" as a bird, possibly because it looks different from most birds, but also they think of "chicken" as dinner. Yet almost everyone likes to see newborn chicks follow their mother around. The same is true of ducklings and their moms.
         We have several kinds of ducks in our area. "Florida Weekly" newspaper recently made a faux pas. It had a cover story on the "maligned" muscovy duck and on the next-to-last page a "Highlights from local menus" that featured an entrée of "Seared duck." I like all the ducks I see in the wild. Most will eat out of your hand if you offer food. One day I was feeding a duck, and in its excitement it stepped on my foot. No problem: I was wearing shoes. But I wondered: Didn't the duck feel the tactile difference between grass and shoe leather?
         Water fowl of various types inhabit our region. Visible near the ocean are pelicans. Someone, not I, long ago wrote:

                      "A wonderful bird is the pelican.
                        Its bill can hold more than its belican (belly can)".

        We've several species of water birds and wading birds. Ibises are generally but not exclusively white. They have long necks and feet, the feet so skinny I wonder how bones, muscles, blood vessels and nerves can fit into such a narrow passageway. On land ibises are amusing to watch. They usually band together in a small flock of a dozen or so sweeping across lawns and eating yet staying so close to each other as almost to seem a single unit. Sometimes they cross a street to get to another lawn, but they walk, despite having big wings.
        Speaking of long necks, I was once pinched by a swan. I was lakeside, feeding a few ducks, and hadn't noticed it. But apparently it nipped me because I wasn't feeding it. Swans are graceful and lovely to look at in the water, yet they are known for having a temper. (Among birds, the wingless African ostrich has the longest neck. Its head can be nine feet above ground. Its big feet enable it to run over 40 miles an hour.)
        Parrots are occasionally to be seen in South Florida, usually but not always as pets. Having many colors, they're beautiful to human eyes, and they can be trained to speak human words (not so with mockingbirds).
        Also from time to time come birds of prey. We have owls, ever interesting to see for the reason they, alone among bird species, have eyes looking forward, straight ahead, not on the sides as other birds do. Vultures occasionally pause to rest here when they fly north-south and vice versa.
        In my travels I've come upon penguins, another wingless bird. On land they look like awkward young men dressed in formal attire going to a prom. In the water they swim like fish, their wings having evolved into flippers. I once saw a lone baby penguin in Argentina and spoke gently to it. Then I bobbed my head from side to side. It imitated my movements. Soon a park ranger approached and said I should not be doing that. So I stopped. But I wondered: Had I taught the kid a new language?
        On one of Indonesia's islands, Laura and I viewed a large caged bird of a type that was unfamiliar to us. When it viewed Laura, it kept repeating her name: "Lau-ruh! Lau-ruh! Lau-ruh!" That experience was rather eerie. Was this the bird's natural call or, if one believes in reincarnation, had they met in a former lifetime?
         Finally, there were the birds not seen. In Peru, among other tropical places, lives a bird called "blue-footed booby." On average three feet in height, with a five-foot wingspan, it's an aquatic bird, rather clumsy on land, and has blue feet. According to those who study such matters, the bluer the feet of the male the more sexually attracted is the female. But I've not seen one of these "live." Another bird I hoped to see but didn't was the black condor, a species of eagle that can have a wing span of fourteen feet! Perhaps it's best not to have encountered that one.
        Then there's the dodo bird:

                   "Dodo bird, Dodo bird, was you da missing link?
                     Tell me, tell me, I ain't heard how you become extinc'.
                     Dodo bird, Dodo bird, I really sympathize.
                     I'll put in my good word: You was the nicest guys."

         I wrote that.
            Irv Rikon
                     


      


11.17.2017

Broken down car needs removing ...

 The Sierra Club Foundation is pleased to announce a new partnership with CARSTM, a national vehicle donation program. The program is a great opportunity for donors to get rid of old, polluting vehicles they no longer use while helping to clean our air and protect the environment.

CARSTM will accept almost anything that is in one piece and towable from any location in the continental United States — cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, trailers, boats, planes, ATVs, even farm equipment. Customer service representatives are available seven days a week and more than 1,000 vendors across the United States are available to pick up donations at a convenient time and location. Cars that get less than 27 miles per gallon will be recycled. Classic cars, and cars with a gas mileage of 27 MPG and over, will be sold at auction.

Donations are tax deductible and donors will receive a receipt from the towing vendor, as well as an IRS form within 30 days of the sale if the contribution exceeds $500. To support The Sierra Club Foundation’s programs today, fill out an online donation form at http://sierraclubfoundation.careasy.orgor call 855-33-SIERRA.

10.31.2017

Harpy Halloween

“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.”   

10.21.2017

FREE Hoopla

Now you can instantly stream movies, TV, eBooks, directly from Hoopla, free library service (in moderate quantities). Log in with your library card #.

Go to hoopladigital.com
Better than borrowing CDs from the Okeechobee library, where you have to go to and fro and sometimes they are missing or damaged.
I use it only on my laptop, but there are apps etc.   Love it.

10.15.2017

Guns, really!

There were crowds of children watching the Simply Tina (Turner) show at the Meyer today.


How about sparkly things or olive branches.

10.08.2017

Stumps

This 5-trunk tree was once just a stump (after hit by truck). Some of the Irma stumps could be kept and be trees in 5 or 7 years.  I  am going to let our avocado tree sprout. - it it wants to.  Ok for far corners of village.

10.04.2017

C'mon FPL

How about giving a solar system or two to Puerto Rico.  You ask us to be involved while sneakily charging us an extra $9, how about you too.  I think it would do wonders for your image.

10.02.2017

Palm Beach Condo Expo


http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102276804436&ca=8c983e17-f333-4a4b-8b7d-694bba532c1a 

Clear your schedule for this fall's most important networking and educational event. The Palm Beach Condo & HOA Expo takes place on Tuesday, October 24th, at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, from 10:30 am to 3:00 pm (seminars begin at 9:00 am).