My friend, Julie, came in from Brooklyn last Thursday and left yesterday morning. It was suggested by the airlines that she allow two hours of airport time so as to proceed through security, etc., so Ed took her to the airport, leaving at 9 a.m. for a 12 noon flight. I was supposed to go too but got a touch of vertigo and nausea and, after some weight lifting, and a few minor chores, couldn’t manage and had to go back to bed. The room was spinning. I spent the rest of the day resting and seem to be okay today.

Julie and I walked a lot, visited the stores, talked ourselves to pieces, made some new acquaintances along the way because I am gregarious. I struck up a conversation with some people in a trailer park and only when I introduced us did Julie realize I didn’t already know them.

The couple were professionals from Washington, D.C. and told us they had just bought a trailer. This particular park is on Matlacha Pass and is very cozy indeed. They paid $40,000 they said, which sounded like a steal, considering they had a fabulous view. But, later, at my friend Kathy’s shop, Mimi’s Boutique, Glenn walked in and he owns the other trailer park on the water next to the one we had visited. He told me, and these people probably did not realize this, that what they bought for $40,000 was the trailer, not the land, and the owner of the park charges a maintenance fee to live there and should he decide to sell to a developer, everyone would have to have their trailers moved to whatever site they could find. Moreover, any trailer more than eight years old is not allowed to be moved and those folks are out of luck. I wonder if they knew any of that. I kind of doubt it.

Side bar: At one end of Pine Island is Bokeelia – there was a trailer park there on the point, a fabulous location. It was next to Captain Conn’s (still there), a homely little restaurant right on the water (back bay of Charlotte Harbor, as are we), specializing in seafood. A developer bought the park and kicked everyone off. Newer trailers were hauled away and I personally knew of people who were homeless afterwards because their trailers were too old to meet the moving requirements. The kicker is the developer had to abandon his dream of a massive gated community because he would have had to put in a sewer system (surprise, surprise). So the land lies unoccupied, Captain Conn’s remains – the developer had planned to turn it into a pricey, high-end eatery – and he has to pay taxes on everything.

There is another reason developers have problems with plans to build condo communities on Pine Island, a place with massive undeveloped woods and prairie land. There is only one access road onto the island. It is Pine Island Road, which runs past our street. It is a two-lane highway. It goes over a bridge on to Little Pine Island, another bridge into Matlacha, and a third bridge into Cape Coral. Evacuation of a massive number of residents in the event of a hurricane, would be a nightmare. So that is why developers can’t go crazy with high rises. I am not sorry about that.

Julie bought some jewelry to give as gifts and I bought a hat with a wider brim as the one I have been wearing doesn’t really protect my face a lot. I don’t like hats but am condemned to wear them now that I have had one melanoma diagnosis (quite enough, thanks). All taken care of, in case anyone reading this didn’t read about it already.

I spent yesterday being a veggie so as to avoid a relapse into the vertigo, and today I won’t do a lot either. I had a severe case in 2007 and was so sick, I couldn’t walk. It was a weekend and Ed took me to the ER and they sent me to the hospital to be checked for a possible stroke. But I was basically fine and when I asked what causes this, the doctor said, probably a virus. They gave me a muscle relaxant that was so powerful I was slurring my speech. I did, however, manage a pretty good impression of the Velocity gnome who sticks his finger in the socket, gets zapped, and lies on the floor moaning, “Am I dying?”

Julie was no trouble at all and we wished she could have stayed longer. She was content to just sit on the pool deck soaking up the view. She is a retired school teacher. Her daughter, who I remember as an infant and toddler, now counsels high school seniors on college choices. We met when we were both editorial assistants at Harper & Row in the 70s. Time fugit, don’t it.

xx, Teal