Strange Encounter

Something happened to me yesterday that makes me think that I get weirded out too easily. I was at one of my favorite restaurants, O’Zone, about to enjoy a calzone when a woman walked up and said hi and invited me to her table. Now, in this town, when people walk up to you, they usually have an agenda. Often, it involves religion. I have somewhat strong views on personal beliefs mainly that one shouldn’t try to force beliefs upon others. Oddly enough, that’s not what this woman had in mind.

The first thing she did after saying hi, introducing herself (unfortunately, I’m horrible with names, so I can’t tell you hers), and shaking my hand, she gave me a hug. That was weird, I thought. Then, she sat down, and offered to buy me a drink (I don’t drink, so I turned her down). We had a short conversation where she tried to get me to do a few strange facial expressions before she gave me another hug, blew me a kiss, and returned to her table.

People might think that she was hitting on me, but I saw her leave with a guy that looked fairly close to her. Then again, she did just hug a stranger twice. If she was hitting on me, she came on both too strong and too weird, at least for me. Maybe it was too weird because it doesn’t happen that often.

Very Stupid Things

A couple of incidents last night made me wonder what was going on with the world. The first happened as I was driving on a winding road called Scenic Highway. As I crossed over Interstate 10, I saw two cars sitting in the right lane waiting to turn onto the interstate. The strange part of it was that the light was green, so they could go at anytime. When I got closer, the lead car suddenly turned left in front of me. I hit the brakes fairly hard to keep from running into him. Unfortunately, the guy kept going, apparently heading for the Dairy Queen on the left side of the road. Due to cars waiting to turn left, he couldn’t see oncoming traffic, and a car slammed into him. For the rest of the night, I thought about that and said to myself, “What a moron!”

The second event happened at about midnight. My neighbors have been getting on my nerves with loud music and shouting at odd hours of the night. Last night, just as I was about to drift off to sleep, I heard what sounded like someone using a power tool of some sort. I went next door to tell them to stop, and, when they opened the door, I discovered what they were doing. The noise was from a vacuum. Yes, they were vacuuming at midnight. Personally, I’ve never wanted to do housework late at night, but I could be in the minority (I doubt it). I’ve kept this issue fairly quiet, so to speak, but it might be time to talk to the property manager.

Florida: The Bankrupt State

As a state employee, I’ve heard all of the gloom and doom talk regarding the budget for this year. At one meeting, the big boss basically said, “Don’t expect any raises, equipment, or more hires. The state’s hurting, and so are we.” This gave me the impression that the state of Florida would do it’s best to cut the fat and that the state’s income, which comes from sales and property taxes, wouldn’t be touched as far as their levels.

Those thoughts changed when I saw the sample ballot for the Presidential Primary on January 29. Along with the presidential candidate selection, there is a proposed amendment for the Florida Constitution that would lower property taxes. Now, I understand that people like having lower taxes, but to do this at a time where the state is crying about being in so much financial pain just seems a bit hard to swallow. I would think people like having state services, too, although I could be wrong about that.

I would like to think that the people of Florida will look at the proposed amendment and say, “Wait a minute! We can’t do this right now!” I expect the people to say, “Lower taxes? Sure!” Let’s see if the state declares bankruptcy next year.