This past holiday season was the first one in which I lived here
in the North Charlotte Harbor area of Port Charlotte, Florida.
Prior to coming here I lived in New Jersey, where I spent most
of the year wither looking forward to, or looking back to the
group of weeks that we called summer. Each year it would
seem to start latter and end earlier, or at least that was how I
perceived it. I do miss NJ, not the climate, not the congestion,
I miss my friends from NJ Offshore & NJPPC.

Yesterday, New Years Day was the kind of winter day that I
moved to Florida for. First I opened the 11 glass panels that
make up much of the back of the house. Next I donned the
uniform, swimsuit, T-shirt, sunscreen & shades. Lastly, I
rolled back the covers, lowered the boats and away I went. The
first trip was in the F16-XR jet boat, down the harbor and back
to the lifts for the next trip. The second trip was in the
OuterLimits. Down the harbor again, slightly quicker this
time. Upon returning to the lifts, each boat, in turn, had it
engines flushed, was washed, rinsed and towel dried. Now it
was hot tub time, were we spent the rest of the day until
evening dinner. After dinner, back to the hot tub until
10:30pm. After a day filled jammed with just about as much
fun as one could imagine, I wondered, why didn’t I make this
move years ago?

What better way to start the new year. Dreams do come true!


Frank F.

Any homes for sale in your neighborhood?

Ron,

On my river front street, six houses away, a 1978 house, re-done inside, best lot on the block, house on stilts, 3500sqft or so, 1.6mil

Frank F.

Ouch! I thought FLA was supposed to be less expensive?

How much are your taxes? I'm hitting 9K for my bayfront home.

It used to be. There's more and more people moving down and driving up the prices.
Too bad the payscales aren't keeping pace.

If the Save the Manatee Organization keeps up it's fight the price of waterfront property will plummet because no one will be allowed to go boating.

Not when you're talking waterfront.

That's similar to almost every New Year day for me. This year got screwed by the Gators playing at 11am. Normally I would be on the water with a group of friends.

Ron,

My taxes are about 1/2 per $100,000 as they were in Forked River but I am pretty remote, which is exactly what I wanted. We have city water but no sewer. We also have no isdn, dsl or cable.

Frank F.

Frank F:

As I type this it is snowing her in NJ. We should end up with 4-6 inches of the wet crap. On 12/31 when I was leaving Ft Myers Beach it hit 80 degrees. So, I am missing your weather terribly.

Thanks for ruining my day. Obviously, having figured out how to do business in Port Charlotte rather than NJ, you are smarter than me.

In closing, and considering my current weather situation, all I can say is "F you".

Tom.

Frank, I was being nice becuase it was the holidays and all but you know, you suck!

I wish I sucked too.