Catching a few zzzzzs

The university students have returned. That means, a full night of sleep on weekends may be problematic if you have rental property behind you.

Years ago, our Gainesville neighborhoods had lots of rental properties and lots of parties. Residents with day jobs stumbled out with children or pets, somewhat bleary eyed. Other neighborhoods formed associations, talked with the police departments or the city about noise ordinances.

Turns out a lot of students hadn’t realized they were noisy, and many of the residents hadn’t realized some early morning habits (broom sweeping, neighborly shouts across the fence) could be just as detrimental to sleep as late-night parties.


I asked my friend Stan, a retired lawyer, how he handled noise. He said he didn’t want to join the ranks of old curmudgeons. Once he had made that decision, he slept soundly. I kept that in mind.


In the meantime, I moved to live on five acres of land in Provence, where the only sounds would be cicadas or owls. However, neighbors in the valley gave frequent karaoke parties that ended about midnight. Around 5 a.m. , packs of hounds began barking to be fed, and the neighbor just above me began hammering sheet metal. And there was always one sputtering Mobylette, which might not make it up the hill.


Now, I’m back in the city. To ensure sleep, I have purchased a rattling tower fan and ear plugs. Actually, the ear plugs and Stan’s philosophy are all I have needed for a good night’s sleep.

Sweet dreams! ZZZZZZs

We need a prime meridian for clothing measurements. . . . .

Years ago, longitude and latitude were calculated on the basis of the observer’s meridian, which might be Paris, Rome. . . .or London. You can imagine the confusion. Then, as of 1851, the prime meridian was established at Greenwich. Not without much debate, but that's another story.

In clothing (just as in geographical coordinates), numbers can be confusing and misleading. Here, small ranges from very, very small to large and boxy . . . .


In clothing, we need a prime meridian!

My closet is filled with cast-offs from family and friends, often from a rushed shopping expedition where they avoided the fitting rooms (after all, a size XS, S, M or L should be a no brainer, right?). Or the items sit in their packaging waiting to be returned. They are found a year later along with the Christmas paper or overdue library books and sales receipt, a reminder that purchases must be returned in 30 days.

In addition to cast-offs, my closet also has clothing from internet shopping—those irresistible final sale items from JCrew or Bebe, those Ebay purchases, custom-made tango shoes from Buenos Aires. All these items are waiting for a new home (either with friends or at a thrift shop) because they never fit me.

Sizes are inconsistent between styles and brands. Part of the problem might be the vanity sizes. As the overall girth of customers increases, clothing sizes decrease. What used to be a size 10 might be a 4 or 6 today. Then there is the problem of on-line shopping and returns. The sizing problem contributes to the high rate of returns (e.g., Zappos has an estimated 35-percent return rate).

While some companies propose high-tech methods (a body scanner to take your measurements and provide you with size equivalents in certain brands), the most cost-effective solution is for both manufacturers and customers to have measurements made with the most basic of all technology, a tape measure, as Farhad Manjoo wrote in his post, “Can Amazon Figure Out How to Sell Clothes that Fit?” It’s time consuming but you only have to do it once.

The advantage of a prime meridian in clothing will be the decrease in returns and increase in customer satisfaction. But the flipside is that the number of cast-offs I receive (or share) will decrease astronomically.

Take me home! Oh please, oh please!

We could be such best friends. Really!

These pets had a home and for some reason, they were turned in to the shelter. In the month of May 2013, the Brevard County animal shelters received more than 1,000 cats and dogs.

Many small dogs are adopted quickly. Most breeds are taken to a rescue organization, which fosters them until they are adopted. Some dogs like this mixed breed (pit bull) have been here for 30 days. . . . .

In 11 other rooms, there are cages of cats and kittens. Some have names like Jess or Patches. Others are active silver and gold tabbies, calico. . . .

Summer heat and humidity are extreme in Florida. Fans hum noisily. Volunteers and staff clean kennels and a couple hundred litter boxes as well as wash bowls and pet laundry. A few dogs bark. Most watch the halls. Some have curled up on their beds. If there are enough volunteers, the dogs will get outside on a leash for about 15 minutes a day. Many cats share a cage and hope someone will visit and play with them. The happiest moment for everyone is an adoption.

At the adoption day event on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, a pit bull named Pork Chop greeted visitors. A Belgian Shepherd, Fergie, waited for pats.

A man brought his shelter pup, adopted months earlier ,to pick out a companion pet. A Chihuahua living in a foster home found a new “forever” home.
Although the pets seem socialized and radiate smiles, they become stressed with each day confined in the shelter. Stress leads to lower immunity. Staff try to place the animals in different venues (pet supermarkets, vet offices or the humane society).

Local residents can help by adopting, volunteering or donating.

If you can’t adopt, maybe you can volunteer (you make your own schedule). You can foster a cat or dog, even short term. For example, cats with kittens may need a quiet room for six to eight weeks until the babies can be adopted. Some pets need to be isolated and given medication for an infection (e.g., an upper respiratory condition, ringworm).

Still not sure about a pet? The animal shelters have a program called Pajama Pups, where partners can take home a pup for the night--“A couch is always better than a kennel,” according to the brochure. How true! That way, people and pets become acquainted.

So you can take a dog home. . . .if only for a night! If you decide on a cat or kitten, best to take two so they keep each other company. Pets need forever homes, and people benefit greatly from interactions with pets.

Good times with pets can be shared on the bench on Riverside Drive, near the Indian River Lagoon. Check out your local shelter today to find your forever pet.

Que de parasols sur les plages - Juan-les-Pins

Tourism statistics for the Côte d’Azur suggest that between 60,000 (low season) and 600,000 (high season) visit the area. No statistics seem to exist on the number of beach umbrellas that open and spread with the summer months.

Locals grumble about the inconvenience of the waves of visitors and pets or the increase in traffic and nightlife, but the place scintillates!

The day begins early at the beaches of Juan-les-Pins. City workers clean beaches and wash down boardwalks.

By 9 a.m., beach goers begin to arrive at this public beach near the west end of the boardwalk. By noon, the place is jammed packed with tourists.

The private beaches (owned by the city but rented out) have restaurants, dressing rooms and comfortable lounge chairs. Not to mention brightly colored umbrellas. Here, for 15 euros a day, you can bask in the luxury of having space, access to food, drink and bathrooms and avoid the crowds. This is vacation after all.

The beach restaurants (which also have the lounge chairs), with parasols, enable diners to eat lunch and dinner with feet in the sand.

The umbrellas contribute to the festive atmosphere (as does the sun). In a way, everyone hates to see it come to a close in late August.


My Note:

Probably one of the more spectacular views is from the Plage de la Salis, a public beach that overlooks the old city of Antibes. But best to arrive early. It's difficult to find a space to put your towel.

I'm not sleepy, it's just that. . . . my cat

It’s only 9 p.m. and tonight a bunch of us have meet at a restaurant, which has a dance floor in the back. I yawn. I hope no one saw me. Oops, someone did! No, I am not bored. I’m not particularly sleepy. Well, take that back.

You see, I have two cats. Cat #1 insists that 5 a.m. is a good time for me to wake up. Cat #2 loves to sleep. Cat #1 begins with the purr, the nudge with whiskers. When those maneuvers fail, she moves to the back-and-forth jump over. A cat who weighs 9 pounds and who wants you out of bed gives the impression of something much larger. When that fails, Cat #1 goes for my glasses or begins to move fragile objects on the bookshelf and watches them fall to the floor.

O.k. I’m awake. What’s the rush? Cat #1 waits for me to open the back door. She goes to the screened porch where she promptly settles in a lawn chair to catch up on sleep. Cat #2 continues to snooze. Tonight I’ll be yawning again, but maybe tomorrow morning Cat #1 will let me sleep in.

The Reluctant Lawnmower. . . . .La tondeuse capricieuse

It’s not that I mind mowing the lawn. It’s the time it takes to start gas-powered equipment. I have years of experience trying to start generators, large bushwackers (with both 2- and 4-cycle engines) and mowers. Right now my daughter is having a similar experience. We often commiserate. She’s really the only person who understands—all my friends have lawn services.

Today, the lawnmower refused to start. I checked the oil and gas. I primed and tugged on the pull cord. Nothing. I checked the spark plug. I tugged. I went to the online trouble-shooting videos, some of which have more than 300,000 views, which means a lot of us out there have problems with our gas-powered tools. I could follow the video until the narrator mentioned the carburetor. That was outside the range of amateurs! Given that my mower does not fit in my car trunk (which precludes servicing), I checked with a friend in another town about the model of his electric mower. . . just in case I could buy one later.

By now, I have spent more than 90 minutes trying to start the mower and wondering why Briggs and Stratton does not make a Lego-type machine, where you remove the defective part and snap on the new. I took a shower and changed clothes. Just before I left the house, I gave the mower one last tug. Voilà, it started!

I planned to email my daughter, the only person who would understand my mower experience. But she was taking the day off. Something about an invitation on a yacht. She did attach a photo with the subject heading, “Life is hard.”

The French Bac. . . . Results are in

There’s something to be said for the French educational system.  The graduates of the lycée seem knowledgeable of culture, sciences and politics and well adapted to life.

But the educational system itself seems pretty grueling.  This past week, on July 5, the results of the French baccalauréat (or bac) became available to the public.  Approximately 84 percent of the 665,000 students were expected to pass the five-day exam, which ran from June 17 through June 21. 

Given that the questions are the same throughout the nation for every exam (e.g., sciences, literature), all students take a specific portion of the exam at the same time.  Usually, each segment lasts four hours.  Students write out the responses  in ink.  They come equipped with bottles of whiteout.   

The bac itself is grueling—I’m not sure I would have survived!   Then, if the exam isn’t bad enough, the results are publicized in newspapers and on the internet by candidate’s name, date of birth and exam score.