Nostalgia

I'm just sitting here, missing the days when I lived in central Florida. Yes, it gets hot and sticky in the summer, and you've got bugs, snakes, and (depending on where you live) alligators to deal with, but it was just about never boring.

Pretty much each weekend the first order of business was to decide on what to do. Visit a theme park? Which one? You had three from Disney (plus their water parks), Universal, Sea World, Cypress Gardens (pictured above), Boardwalk and Baseball (gone now), or Busch Gardens.

Shopping? Aside from the usual malls you had the Belz Factory Outlets, Flea World (don't ask!) and downtown Winter Park (comfortable AND Swank!).

Sightseeing places galore. Where to begin? Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (Where they launched the Mercury and Gemini spacecraft from)? Kennedy Space Center (launching point for Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle, and forthcoming Orion missions)? If you're not into space, there's things like Bok Tower Gardens, Wekiva Springs, Lake Eola Park. Beaches? Daytona, Cocoa Beach (don't forget to visit Ron-Jon's Surf Shop), Melbourne Beach, Vero Beach, etc.

The east coast gets much of the beachgoing visitors, and has the best surf, but the west coast has the better water. You're in the Gulf of Mexico, and the water is warm and crystal-clear. It makes for a much more relaxing day than on the eastern shore. It's all in what kind of experience you prefer. Mu favorite beach was Indian Rocks Beach, on the west coast, a bit north of Tampa. Friendly, not over-developed, and all-in-all a comfy place to spend time.

There's so much more down there that I couldn't begin to list it all. I liked the climate, the people (who, oddly enough, were almost all from the north), and the whole central Florida lifestyle.

Why'd I leave? My job went north, and I followed. Silly me. My first winter in Milwaukee we had a week of below -20 weather. You can imagine I was missing Christmas lights under the palm trees.

Bloody good fun...

There's a couple of books and a new TV series I'd like to recommend. The books are "Darkly Dreaming Dexter" and "Dearly Devoted Dexter", both by Jeff Lindsay. The series is Showtime's "Dexter".

It's kind of hard to describe the premise, at least in any way that will make sense. Short version, Dexter is a forensic specialist for the Miami-Dade Police, specializing in blood-splatter evidence. In his spare time he's a serial killer. He has a speciality there, as well. He only preys on "bad people" -- basically other serial killers.

It is kind of a "guilty pleasure" rooting for a serial killer, somewhat akin to a Hitchcock movie with their morally flawed protagonists. This takes that concept, though, and pushes it to it's limits.

Dexter seems a nice enough guy, until you realize that his nice-guy facade is just that, a facade. It's all posturing to convince folks that he's just a regular guy. Inside, well, he'd argue that he has no emotions or feelings for anyone or anything. In reality, though, he's got a lot more there than he'd ever be willing to admit.

This is somewhat of a genre cross. Dexter is simultaneously a thriller and black comedy, with a few horror elements thrown into the mix. If that's not your thing, you might want to skip it. Otherwise, go read the books, watch the show.