Storm surge.

Last night's high tide, marked by the line of seaweed and detritus on the boardwalk.

Be nice to our dunes folks! They are the difference between us and Daytona Beach Shores!

Birds of note

iPhone pictures, so not real high quality.

From Tuesday, October 18. The legendary yellow-bellied sapsucker. They migrate down from the noprth, and spend the winter here.

On the oaks at the front of the condo.

from September 25, a blue-crowned parakeet, part of a small flock, outside the Cape Canaveral community center. They're feral, of course.

Something nice

This is the Building B lobby. I think the committee did a wonderful job, it's simple and light, stylish and elegant. In my very modest opinion.

Well done!

At least someone is using the boardwalk!

The boardwalk to the beach is actually quite usable, if you don't mind wading through knee-deep water. But it will likely need some repair once the water goes down. It might be worth considering elevating it above likely floodwater levels.

In the meantime, the water over it is warm, and the tadpoles like that.

Say hello to the youngest inhabitants of Ocean Oaks

These were clearly spawned when the swale started to fill up, about a month ago. But Hurricane Ian has greatly increasd their scope.

Hurricane Ian update

We're in the eye of the remnants of Hurricane Ian, now Tropical Storm Ian, right now. There was no, or at most minimal, damage to the condo. The swale flooded and the boardwalk to the beach is about a foot deep in water. The beach itself took only minor erosion; even the incipient third dune line is mostly intact. No flooding of the buildings themselves, that I can see. All in all, we came out of this well.

Do as we say, not as we do.

The last word about the Ocean Oaks Condo Board's war on bird-feeders.

If in fact installing a bird-feeder is against Ocean Oaks Condo Rule 5c (which of course is rubbish) then the board in April floated a proposal to break its own rules.

Could it be this little fracas actually has nothing to do with bird-feeders, but is simply more harassment directed at an owner who has been critical of the board? Ya think?

Snakes alive!

One more critter: a black racer, Harmless

, and rather leegant.

Curly tail

Like almost everything else in this state, including me, thye are not native. They were introduced to South Florida in the 1940s, probably from the Bahamas, to eat sugar cane pests. Of course they didn't. Anyway, I've only seen them in Cape Canaveral the last couple ofm years.

On the boardwalk to the beach.

Gulf Fritillary

On a container plant on our deck. Native to Florida and Texas.

Heteropoda venatoria

From our garage, a Huntsman Spider. Not native, they came to South Florida, probably in a cargo of fruit. They're described as 'cosmotropical'. And climatologically, Cape Canaveral is now South Florida. Everything that lands here, prospers.

Be careful with this guy. He's not dangerous, but can deliver a painful bite.

Boycott Grills

It is with a heavy heart that I am boycotting one of my favorite waterfront tiki-bars/restuarants, Grills, because the owner is an irresponsible SOB, a bible nut, and a disobeyer of sensible public health regulations.

Oh, but it's worse. From his comments:

There is a narrative and a mindset taking over that Christians have speculated about for over 2000 years. We will soon see how far along that timeline we are.

Yup. Barely concealed end-times crap. Thanks, Penovich, we'll take our money elsewhere.. 

I guess it could be worse. A little worse.

Horror stories about HOAs

Just so it's clear: this wasn't Ocean Oaks.

Meanwhile, how's our Republican mayor doing?

Aug. 16: Cape Canaveral spilled 24,508 gallons of raw sewage when a power outage knocked out a generator and backup generator failed to start, due to a blown fuse in the battery. DEP assessed a penalty of $3,750 for the violation.

Link.

Powdery mildew

We have powdery mildew (a perennial Florida problem) on the shrubs in front ot the B building. It has killed two shrubs already and infected several others. It spreads incredibly fast, taking only 72 hours to complete one life cycle.

I informed the board yesterday, but received no acknowlegement. They can ignore me. The fungus doesn't care.

A couple of bushes just outside the B building south stairwell have been killed by powdery mildew. The bushes need to be removed and the others sprayed with a suitable fungicide. The fungus will spread if left untreated.

Update: they yanked out the dead bushes yesterday afternoon (September 22). They didn't remove the dead leaves that carry and spread the spores.

Parliamentary procedure 101

The President of the Board seems to be under the impression the 'meeting' on Friday night accomplished something. It did not.

Stipulating that it was an actual and valid Special Meeting of the unit owners (and I also reject that, but that's for later), there were exactly (0) votes taken, and nothing was passed.

The President of the Board misunderstands what a proxy is. A proxy is not a vote. Repeat that! A proxy is not a vote.

A proxy is a request to the Secretary to cast votes on the absent owner's behalf. If you doubt this, you can look it up in Robert's Rules and in a dozen different manuals on parliamentary procedure. Heck, it even says this on the proxy forms the Board mailed out.

Stipulating the Secretary had been given by 62 owners valid proxies to cast a vote on five motions on their behalf, those motions were never brought to the floor, and no vote was taken on any of them. I was there, and recorded the meeting. Even if it were not standard parliamentary procedure, Florida Statute explicitly states, as does our Declaraction of Condominium, that unit owners present at the meeting must be given the opportunity to vote in person. We were not given that opportunity. No votes were held at the meeting.

Correct procedure would have been to bring each motion successively before the floor, discuss and possibly amend the motion, and then vote on each, the Secretary casting the vote of the proxies after we had taken a vote of the assembled owners present in person. But the Secretary did not cast those votes, because there was no opportunity given to do so.

I'd be upset, if I were the sender of the proxy, to say nothing of those at the meeting who participated in the counting of proxies. I think the Board may have the impression that because we conduct Board elections by written ballot, we can hold votes on items before Special Meetings that way. Alas, it isn't so.

I've informed the Clerk of Brevand County Circuit Court of these and other issues, in case the Board stubbornly tries to file the Amendments to the Declaration of Condominium that we never voted on.

Harassment by the condo board at last night's meeting

A 1 minute 40 second discussion on how the Board violates its own rules. Jim Underwood's insults begin at 1:40; Gloria Sommers' refusal to do anything about them, followed by her threat to exclude me for the meeting for complaining, follows.

Do It Again

Instead of a movie response this year to the Board’s rewarmed, overreaching amendments to the declaration of condominium, I wrote a song.

More precisely, I wrote some words, ruining a really great song. I ain’t exactly Paul McCartney or Enrico Caruso either. Despite my horrible voice, Donald Fagen and the estate of Walter Becker graciously granted me copyright permission

I put it together with some slides laying out my objections to the Board’s proposals, which you can find in their limited proxy.

So I guess it’s a music video. It’s on YouTube.

It’s slightly over 5 minutes long. Don’t play it too loud, or you’ll scare the horses.

Spooky stalkers

I just receive this text, from a person who did not identify themself.

This is utterly bizarre. These psychos are (anonymously) watching and photographing our balcony. Stalkers.

More control freakiness from the condo board

The other shoe dropped. The Condo Board is now claiming their authority to ban bird feeders on balconies lies with the following rule (5c)

Do not store food of any kind on balconies or throw food of any kind from balconies to the ground below. This attracts feral cats, raccoons, coyotes, and birds. Do not feed stray animals No owners, guests or tenants are permitted to feed feral cats, peacocks, or any animals of unknown origin outside of the units they occupy, for the health and safety of the entire community.

A bird feeder does not do any of these things. The birds that might come to a feeder are of known origin: Cape Canaveral. The birds I've seen land on our balcony, without a feeder, have been of three species: mourning doves, northern cardinals and boat-tailed grackles, all local birds. The rule was instituted to try to discourage people from feeding feral cats, and people shouldn't feed feral cats. Any Brevard resident with a soul learns to love the peacocks, which are feral but perennially amusing. But feeding them is unnecessary. As a local webpage puts it.

Peafowl are a beautiful attraction to the neighborhood and are excellent for insect control. They also eat plants and can live very well foraging for food on their own in the wild.

Putting a bird feeder on one's balcony in Ocean Oaks is mostly a waste of time. Few if any birds will visit. This is not the Northeast, where birds might get hungry after a snowstorm. But we have no rules that could reasonably be interpreted to forbid it.

I received a few months ago a phone call from another owner, whom I will not name. He said "Ocean Oaks used to be our happy place. Thanks to the Board, it is no longer".

I felt so sad after that call. The Board's heavy-handedness hurts residents' lives.