NEW FLORIDA RESIDENT BLOG

Welcome to Paradise.... There is one thing we always want to do as a family and that is, go boating.  Our son now loves the wind in his face and going to isolated beaches or, sand bars, to swim, in fact, we all do.  However, a few weeks ago we made a big tactical swimming mistake.  We anchored in the intracoastal then crossed over an island into the Gulf for a swim.  Well, the direction of the wind ensured that the Gulf was incredibly rough so, we decided to have our son play in the surf in his life jacket. That was smart, unfortunately, we did not plan for the ride home.  Rocky's life jacket was soaking wet, he was uncomfortable and cold and wanted to take it off.  We debated it for a short period of time (I swear he's headed for The Levin School of Law) with the cornerstone of his argument being that he was the strongest swimmer in the family.  Luckily, I have a little thing I call experience and wisdom on my side so, I hit him with, 'It's fine with us but, &quo

Welcome to paradise.... There is a house in my neighborhood with four pools.  There is a recreational (volleyball) pool, spa, reflecting pool and lap pool.  I get that Olympic athletes would want their lap pool to be cooler than their volleyball pool but, seriously, for most of us combining the lap, spa and recreational pool is the most cost effective. Right? Think about it, if you have four pools, you literally have four pool pumps and could spend four times your maintenance fees every month.  No fun.  The trick becomes finding and designing a pool that would support all these different activities that could be installed without breaking the bank.  I normally recommend a couple of different pool contractors and suggest interviews with them before making a decision. The next big question that comes up is usually "If I combine all those pools into one pool can it still look decent?"  That again, is a real concern that needs to be addressed with your pool designer.  How

Welcome to paradise. Growing up as a New England education snob I've never been truly comfortable with public funding of education.  I attribute some of this to being knocked or, choked unconscious on more than one occasion in public middle school.  Granted, I probably had it coming but, now that our son is getting close to school age every single option is on the table and we have visited more schools this year than the secretary of education (probably).  Including public institutions. We have also received some of the scariest advice from parents imaginable.  The most humorous was from a parent who suggested that Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish college and he's doing "pretty well", so ensuring a good education isn't that important.  First, Mr. Zuckerberg did what he did because he had an understanding of how to write computer code and secondarily he started the website that became Facebook simply as a way to objectify and embarrass young women.  He's n