Well, it never gets cold enough to kill all the bugs.
In the yachting and boating community, faced with increasing restrictions on anchoring and spiraling costs and very aggressive on-the-water law enforcement the state motto is reported to be “send your money and stay home.”
@johnb makes a valid point about Publix customer service. Before COVID, I would call Publix ahead when I had major provisioning to do and they would set aside boxes for me. In major boating centers (Fort Lauderdale, Miami, St Augustine, Tampa/St Pete, sometimes Bradenton) they’d make an appointment for me and assign me a picker to help load the boxes. On one big run, they looked at my list and replaced the shopping carts with their big carts. There are only a few other stores that have bent over backwards to be so accommodating - some select Giant Food stores in the Midatlantic. CostULess in St Thomas. A store in Martinique.
COVID changed that. Publix contracted with Instacart for curbside and delivery and Instacart has been an unmitigated disaster. Higher prices, poor substitution practices, and awful administration. I’m still working on reversing charges for a pickup that wasn’t ready on the day promised or they day after (we shopped at WalMart and were at sea by the time Instacart decided to do anything, two days after the order was cancelled). The Publix store manager was excellent by the way, tried to help, regular updates, but had no authority over Instacart and Publix corporate simply dropped the ball.
Yes, we had dinner at Atlantic grill and it was like wedding food. But the view was great. I have been to the Publix there but really didn’t look around much. I heard about a new restaurant opening called shape of water or something like that. Menu looks good. We will see.
If you think of anything else let me know. You can always message me. I really appreciate your help!
Yes I have heard something about Shape of Water as well. It’s not the one I was referring to though – that one which is behind us is down in FB, while IIRC SOW will be up somewhere closer to you.
We won’t be back there until after Thanksgiving, so let me know what you find in the meanwhile.
You’re not going to find many New York accents that far north, but the deal will fit right it. (The range of New York and Boston accents only extends to about Boynton Beach)
And it does freeze in Flagler Beach…there are a few frosts a year there.
My experience traveling to Melbourne (mostly), Orlando, and Gainesville back in the 90s is that the bugs are big enough to have license plates riveted to them. It must not get cold enough for long enough to kill them off.
On the other hand up here we get cicadas every 17 years. grin
Not only are they bigger, they fly. We used to say that the sound of one of those flying across the living room was loud enough to drown out the TV.
The one thing I used to love when I was a kid was all the snakes I would find in the yard. I used to pick them up and take them in the house. My mom would yell at me to take them out. The green grass snakes were my favorite. I’ve found that the people in the northeast are generally deathly afraid of snakes. They can’t tell the difference between venomous and non-venomous snakes so all snakes are equally dangerous. I also used to trap and keep some lizards. I was not a fan of the toads. Sometimes in the evening there would be so many that you could hardly walk outside without fear of stepping on one.
…as Gwenn scrambles around reconsidering life choices…
ETA: My warped sense of humor causes me to reflect on concerns about PTFE/Teflon on cookware compared to quarterly exterminator visits spewing poison around houses.
Gwenn, I can’t underemphasize the size of the palmetto bugs.
There are snakes, but not very many in built up areas. I have happily shared my garden with several generations of black racers, which are not only protected but have a voracious appetite for rodents.
The spiders are generally smallish and only a couple are venomous …and I’m an arachnophobe. Wolf spiders and golden orb weavers are notable exceptions…neither dangerous, but unsettlingly big.
I have tons of lizards, anoles, and geckos…I think they’re cute, and they eat bugs, so they’re welcome too.
I regularly see skunks, raccoons, possums, and armadillos, with a random coyote and fox tossed into the mix…but none of them are any threat, either.
I lived in Gainesville and Tampa and places in between. My dad was on the faculty at UF. Most of my family went there. I was the black sheep and went to school up in the frozen north and then worked all over the world. Parents were always asking when I would move back to FL. Not ready to yet. My wife has no desire to move to FL. She’s a New Englander so she is pushing for the south shore or the Cape. I hate the cold so I’d rather go somewhere warm. The compromise might have to be some island in the Med or maybe Jersey. LOL.
I just kicked a large Cuban lizard out of my house. Got in through one of the sliding glass doors that popped open. Resided in the house for about 4 days hiding under the refrigerator. Finally caught it when it came out to presumably look for food. Sent it back outside
I know they eat bugs and not bad to have around. Couldn’t convince my wife of that
