Rants & Raves for week 03-17-23

Hold the Mail!

We put a hold on our mail at the Sebastian P.O. when we went away for the holidays. When we returned a few weeks later, our mail was getting delivered, so we had no reason to think they were still holding some of our mail. Then, we started noticing missing mail from senders, like income tax and medical documents. Well, surprise: On March 3 (two months after the hold mail expired), our mailbox was stuffed with old mail — missing mail, old invites, holiday cards, even someone else's held mail! The P.O. said our held mail was not picked up (not true), so it was returned to the post office, where it apparently sat for two months! It was a huge inconvenience to track payments not received, generate duplicate income tax and medical docs, etc. Moral of the story: Do whatever you can via email and direct deposit and, whatever you do, don't have this P.O. hold your mail, because they'll hold it... for a long, long time.

The Muni

For many people, golf conjures up images of stodgy old men in kaleidoscopic pants, smoking fat cigars, telling bad jokes and throwing wads of many around an exclusive, overly maintained, often egregiously difficult golf course. And while it may be the aim of many golfers to join in such a caricature and revel in the trumpery of guaranteed tee times, caddies, and air conditioned locker rooms, the heart and soul of the game resides resoundingly at your local municipal golf course.

The muni isn’t likely to be on anyone’s bucket list of places to play, but the muni is where you’ll find the butcher, the baker, and the candle stick maker jousting in the gloaming after a day’s work. The muni is the town square where grievances are aired, and everybody has a better way. The muni is a big group hug. The muni belongs to all of us. We don’t belong to the muni. Everyone counts at the muni. You’re not defined by your tiered membership or the monogram on your hat. The muni is where the crewnecks and Levi Strausses mingle with the collars and Peter Millars. The tucked tangle with the untucked. Walk or ride, it doesn’t matter. The game is what’s important at the muni. Handicaps have more sand than bunkers, mowers and rollers are heard but rarely seen, and skins are cut more often than the rough. The muni not only challenges you with par, but dares you to hit from its fairway divots and negotiate its pockmarked greens. The muni offers up your weekly game and a friendly face along with familiarity’s occasional contempt. It’s the muni that hosts the local high school golf team; where the rotary clubs have their fundraisers; and where the shotgun scramble gives refuge to bi-annual duffers everywhere.

Golf’s modern American reputation may have been forged by the landed robber barons of the industrial age, casting the game in an elitist light. But we should remember that St. Andrews, the ancestral home of golf, is a muni. So, play the muni. Because in the end, it’s not how. It’s how many.

iCloud scam!

A new scam has surfaced! If you have an Apple device with iCloud, you might receive an e-mail or text telling you that your iCloud account is full and that you need to update the account. Don’t! It’s a scam. It is not from Apple. Luckily, I received a fraud alert after I stupidly clicked on site! Minimal damage to my credit card, but it could have been worse. Your name and email information are out there. They have a list of those who purchased Apple products. Be careful. Be vigilant!

Time for our own PD

With all the new residential and commercial properties being built in the Tradition area of Port St. Lucie, is it not time to be building a Port St. Lucie Police Department sub-station and perhaps a City Hall annex serving our area? I have noticed several locations along the Village Parkway corridor, one just to the south of the Townplace Suites and one to the north between the hotel and the St. Lucie County Tax Collector office. There is also an available space in the small shopping center just to the north of the Prime Storage. I have seen both Miami-Dade and other departments use store fronts as sub-stations and this one is already built with plenty of parking. One other area to explore would be the land to the north of the school across from the hotel. I am sure our new City Manager could work a good deal on one of these locations or elsewhere in Tradition for our law enforcement professionals to better serve the citizens of our community and a City Hall annex to save us all a trip to the current City Hall for permits and such. The county saw a need for an office here, why not our city?