Day One in Richman'sland

Well here I am with my first dispatch from deep into the heart of wealth and priviledge as well as sand, fun, and beach. While I am working on my tan and buying very expensive drinks and food, I am spying on the powerful, right-wing, and gosh... tan. Very tan. And not the red tint variety either... these people are deep brown tanned. Anyways, where was I...

So day one has gone uneventfully. With the exception of many, many SUVs, mini-vans, and expensive cars in all of the parking lots, I am getting along ok. Man, these people don't have to worry about the ever expanding cost of gas do they? I saw my first $200,000 dollar sports car today. And the guy who was driving just ran into the supermarket (I guess I should say servicemarket as this store had a concierge desk). He bought quite a bit of expensive booze and left the car running in front of the walkway. In fact, if I hadn't stopped for him, he might have hit me. He came out with two arms full of liquor and drove away.

On another point: The beaches here are quite nice and have lifeguards every 50 feet or so. The beaches are sandy white and smooth and there are no waste baskets. I wonder who has to clean these beaches up?

Anyway, I have done a lot of eavesdropping and I have heard absolutely nothing about politics, religion, or anything resembling socio-political commentary. The closest I found were some mothers on the beach disagreeing about some brand of diaper and diaper service -- neither one have I ever heard of before. Hell, pampers were good enough for my kids.

There are however many commentaries on bumpers and in windows of cars. There are many W stickers and those Bush-Cheney clings and sticky things that peel off. In fact, I drove around for about an hour today and I did not see one Kerry sticker! I mean it, I had my better half drive the car so I could look, really look hard. And I did not see one. I did count over 288 Bush stickers of one kind of another though!! Wow, the demographic on that must be off the friggin' charts. But I forget where I am.

Tomorrow I am planning on going to some areas where I might catch some commentary: the shops and concerts that are going to happen all over Richman'sland on Monday. Boy, these people look and act different though. It is hard to put my finger on it. They read at the beach -- mostly mysteries -- from what I can tell but in any over heard conversation they talk about mundane matters and none of the televisions in stores, banks, and other places are on news. They are on the weather channel. Every single one of them.

What else can I mention? Oh yeah, and they have kids, although relatively few from my walk-arounds today. But I get this very odd vibe from them. It is hard to put into words. I will think about it and get back to you all tomorrow.

So for today, they voted Bush and like his stickers, drink a lot, are not very careful drivers of large or fast automobiles, and don't talk politics. Not much I know but this far at least not enough to generate hate for them... yet.