Sneaking Suspicions Commentary from a practical perspective |
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Sneaking Suspicions Commentary from a practical perspective |
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June 8, 2004 During last weekend's blogging break, June 6 marked the 29th month of this site's existence. As of that date, 214,023 visitors viewed 273,923 pages. Thanks very much for your patronage. This remains a lot of fun to do.Stop by again soon.
June 5, 2004 I'm taking a short break from blogging, and expect to return to these pages in a few days. Have a great weekend, and take a look around the contents pages if you haven't been here for a while. Thanks for visiting!
June 3, 2004 It had been a long day. I had left for work at the usual time. After reaching Dover, I gathered together some files at my office and then drove the state car to Philadelphia to present DelDOT’s defense in a construction claim arbitration at the AAA offices on South Broad Street, next to the Academy of Music. The last time I’d been at that corner was to watch the Mummers Parade on a cold day in January. This time the weather was gorgeous—sunny, lightly warm, and with the usual bustle of a June morning in downtown. The arbitration proceeding went well, and quickly. We were finished before 1 o’clock, and I drove back to Dover. I changed cars and continued south to Georgetown, trying to reach Sussex Pines Country Club in time to catch the end of the state high school golf championships. Fortunately, the kids were playing a bit slow, so there were at least four groups of players yet to finish when I walked up to the scoreboard, with its pensive group of players and parents knotted in front, pointing and talking in low voices. The Cape team did well, finishing in fifth place overall, with their best golfer earning third place in the individual category. The other players had also hung around, so there were no problems obtaining the interviews and the usual grip-and-grin pictures for my golf column, due that night. I drove home from there and talked a bit with younger daughter. She was preparing to drive back to high school to join the band and choir, scheduled to perform in that night’s graduation ceremonies. She left the house, and I started drafting the week’s golf column. My wife came home as I was finishing it up, and shortly thereafter we drove to Lewes and walked a block or two to the Inn at Canal Square, a hotel that hugs the western side of the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in the heart of the town. As parents of a junior, we were there to help out with Cape’s traditional post-graduation party for the seniors and their families. Dozens of area businesses donated various supplies for the event, and the Inn’s staff joined right in during the process of setting up tables, loading bins with sodas and water, and offloading the trays of chicken wings and other food for the buffet line. At about 9 p.m., the first few attendees began to appear, joined quickly thereafter by a flood of happy, busily chattering graduates, parents, and younger siblings. We were kept busy all night replenishing the stocks, emptying bins, and talking with friends. Almost as soon as the first flood of graduates appeared, however, I felt a sharp pang of emotions. I had forgotten about one of Cape’s traditions, in which the senior girls wear white dresses under their graduation gowns. Most of the young women this year had kept to that custom, and, of course, they were all beautiful as they glided around the courtyard. The folks at the local White House/Black Market store must have been very happy. During the evening I talked with many of the young ladies and young men, full of plans for the summer and college in the fall. Several of the girls were on my daughter’s swimming and soccer teams, or on little league squads dating back half their lives ago. The sight of all those white outfits called to mind Irwin Shaw’s famous short story, Girls in Their Summer Dresses. More importantly, however, seeing the graduates reminded me that twelve months from now we’d be completing a similar stage in our own family’s life. We had a great time with older daughter’s graduation celebration a few years ago, joined by her friends and family. Next year we would join younger daughter at a similar party, in which she will wear her own white dress. Something must have gotten caught
in my eyes for a few moments there. The Associated Press came through today, however, with a stunner worth four of ‘em: Travelers Face Long Lines at Ga. Airport Just so we’re clear, let’s review the basic elements of this story:
I am not shocked to learn this. I don't know any sentient being who would be.
May
31, 2004 An short length of old mooring line, still secured to a well-buried hunk of concrete, is hidden in the shallow water about 30 feet north of the dock at The Rusty Rudder in Dewey Beach, about half-way down the pier's length. This line is long enough to wrap around one’s propeller and bring the entire docking process to a sudden halt. If this happens, shut off the engine, enter the water, stand behind the tilted motor, and slowly unwrap the line from the propeller. During this process, pay no attention to the folks on the pier and in the Rudder’s open-air shoreside bar, several of whom may be laughing and pointing in your direction. Avoid attempting to dock near this area. On the other hand, the public docks in the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal in front of the Irish Eyes Pub & Restaurant are very handy for a lunch stop, and apparently free from such hazards. That is all.
May
30, 2004 This morning I posted my latest golf book review—The Works of Art: Golf Course Designs By Arthur Hills, by Arthur Hills with Michael Patrick Shiels. It looks like a standard coffee table book, but appearances deceive. It's actually an insightful review of the hows and whys behind the successful career of one of America's premier golf course architects of the last few decades. The photographs are impressive, nonetheless.
May
29, 2004 On this weekend sixteen years ago my wife and I rented a nice little mobile home outside Rehoboth Beach for about two weeks. Besides the obvious allure of bringing our very young daughters for early season sun and fun, helped by my in-laws who readily joined us, we had another reason for coming to the beach during Memorial Day week. We were trying to find a place to rent year-round. It wasn't easy. There were very few options, with most property owners looking to make far more money with seasonal rentals. The typical beach area rents at the time were either tied (and steeply priced) to the summer season, or they were rentable for a deep discount, but only from September through May. With a few days to go we finally found a great place just on the bayside, at a fairly expensive year-round rate at the time. I didn't care so much about the cost, because I didn't think we'd ever have another chance to live at a waterfront location. We moved down that June, stayed in the townhouse while we built our existing home, sold our place in Wilmington, and lived happily ever after. Mostly. Since then, the growth in housing stock in Delaware's beach areas has grown tremendously. There are thousands more homes in the Lewes/Rehoboth Beach/Dewey Beach communities than when we moved down in 1988. Hundreds of these homes are owned by investors seeking rental income, especially during the summer season. Inevitably, something had to give. The laws of supply and demand are immutable, even when they're covered with sand:
For us locals, the soft conditions are really obvious. By this time in previous years there would be a tiny number of "For Rent" signs still visible, because during the winter most of the places would be snapped up. Not anymore. We're also hearing from our local investor friends, who aren't exactly agonizing about their competition, but are quietly finding ways to keep the cash flow going with reduced expectations. As the real estate folks say around here, they're not making any more land close to the beach. As boomers prepare for retirement, there will be continuing pressure to fill in beach areas like Rehoboth with ever-more housing. For those seeking to offset their cost of maintaining a second home here by renting it out, however, there are just too many folks acting on the same idea to expect that their profits will be unlimited. On the other hand, the people who are looking to follow in our footsteps, by renting year-round on the way to permanently relocating here, should have a much easier time than we had. |
The Tip Jar Those on the Home Front can help. Support the Reserves and their families. Tips for site-seeing Current Table of Essays Table of Essays for 2002. Table of Essays for 2003. Links to the Weekly Archives --access to each week's collection. Please let me know if there are any glitches. Thanks! Welcome to I hope you enjoy reading it. The plan is to read and comment on a wide range of topics, based primarily on what interests me sufficiently to write about them. I'll try to make sure I know enough about the subject to make the commentary worthwhile. I trust that the readers will let me know if my self-evaluation is off a bit, or if they have a different point of view. Should be fun! Contact Information: fschranck-at- The Blogroll, if you please
Steven Bainbridge
Stuart Buck
John Cole
The Esmays
Carey Gage
Andrea Harris
Gregory Hlatky
Mickey Kaus
James Lileks
Megan McArdle/More Than Zero Sum
Gary O'Connor
Bill Quick
Nick Schulz' Transition Game
William Slawski/Larry Sullivan
Andrew Sullivan
Mac Thomason
Francesca Watson Jay Zilber-Hiatus And a web cartoonist, too: Site Map Fun Local Stuff Where my golf column appears: Read about the proposal for the first new city in Delaware in over twenty years. For those who'd like to use a logo for linking:
Official small print disclaimer: This is, after all, a personal web site. Any opinions or comments I express here are my own, and don't necessarily reflect the official position of my work as a government attorney or any of my clients. That fact may be obvious, but it needs to be said here anyway. About the site design: The headlines, titles, and other short texts are in Arial font. The main text is in Georgia font, set at 12 points. Except for links, all the text should look black on this light yellow background. Any links will use your browser's default settings for color and appearance. Please let me know if that doesn't work well with the background color. About the Masthead Art: This is a self-portrait by Thomas Frye, an Irish artist (1710-1762). A copy of this print is on our family room wall. I am reliably informed that Frye's pose, his features, and his apparent attitude as displayed in this drawing are similar to mine--except for the wig. © Frederick H. Schranck 2002-2004
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