Café scum

Hi kids!

We are still in Miami Beach. The wind is blowing so hard we just about
drown trying to take the dinghy ashore. When we drive the dinghy the
same direction as the wind it jounces around up and down a lot. When
we try to go the other direction, into the wind, it jounces around a
WHOLE lot and the waves break over the bow and spray sprays up in the
air when we hit them and we get wet. Poor old Angel Jen gets the
wettest because she rides in the front of the boat (ladies first, you
know!) while I drive. She squeals if I go too fast so I just idle
along but we still get wet.

We are waiting to head out over the dangerous raging seas to the
foreign country called "The Bahamas". When the wind calms down a bit
we will strike out, probably Wednesday.

In the meantime we braved the dinghy ride into town to check out
Lincoln Avenue, a toney pedestrian mall through the center of town. It
occurred to me that this is something you Camptowninians never see:
cafés.

Dining outside on the street (en plein aire, as the young Francophones
among you might say) is a European thing. The French started it, I
believe. They call their restaurants with outside seating on the
sidewalk 'cafés'. In Paris hanging out at a café, chatting with
friends and watching people go by is a tradition. Lots of other
Europeans emulate the Parisians and here in Miami Beach it's warm
enough to do it, too. A person would die of freezation if he tried it
in Maine, of course.

So we went up and down this street looking at all the cafés and café
dwellers. Since I am a bicycle rider I call café people 'café scum'.
They sit outside and clog up the sidewalks where I'm trying to ride.
They are all spacey and self involved and hardly ever look out for
good, hard working pirates in transit so I have to slow down and avoid
running over them.

They sure are cosmopolitan, though. These people are all stylin' with
fancy clothes, shades, fast cars, et cetera. Many languages were
overheard, Spanish, French, Italian, Creole, Japanese, you name it. I
bet they would disagree with the term 'café scum'!

So be cool, kids. Get you some shades, four inch heels and a Porsche
and you could be a café scum with a Blackberry in your ear some happy
day!