2010 Feb. 27 Saturday
It started raining lightly early this morning, and it’s very chilly. So we decided to go to the Florida Mall since we can’t do much outdoor stuff. First, we went for a ride to show them where we go to the lakefront at Celebration. As we went to get on the interstate to go to the mall, the traffic was creeping along, so I exited right away. I was surprised that there was so much traffic on a Saturday, but there may have been an accident somewhere. When it’s rainy, it seems like more accidents occur. So we took a new route to the mall, which was good, but involves some tolls. We had lunch at the mall at Ruby Tuesday’s because there are so many people at the mall that the food court was a madhouse. I had a hard time finding a place to park. We walked, shopped, and took a break at (you guessed it!) Starbucks. On the way back, we took the interstate again, and it was moving (slowly) but was packed with cars and trucks. I guess the weekend doesn’t make for less traffic in Orlando. When we got back to the resort about 4:30, we stopped at the check-in building to show Diane and the girls the indoor workout room, the sauna, the indoor hot-tub, the game room, the grocery-sandwich-souvenir-sundries shop, and the outdoor pool and hot-tub. When the sun came out, the girls decided they wanted to swim and be in the outdoor hot-tub, so they went back to the room and changed into swimsuits. Even though the air is cool, the pool is heated, and they always can get warmed up in the hot-tub. After about an hour, they were ready to have supper and play in the room. They were not ready for bed, but once there, went to sleep quickly.

WEATHER: High 58, low 42. Normal high is now 76, low 53, so we were almost 20 degrees below the normal high! I feel bad for Diane and the girls, but there is not a thing we can do about it. The record high for today is 88, and we were 30 degrees below that. For the month, Orlando is 2.1 inches above the average rain totals. Cool and wet, NOT what we want!

FL NEWS: (1) “HUNDREDS DECRY LOSS OF SPACE-INDUSTRY JOBS”
The coming collapse of the space industry has already cost a restaurateur one of her best waitresses. Many politicians, teachers, and union officials joined small business owners who decried the proposed NASA budget that will allow up to 9,000 jobs to evaporate from Kennedy Space Center when the shuttle stops flying after four more missions. Some fear a repeat of the economic devastation that followed the shutdown of the Apollo program in the mid-1970’s. The end of the shuttle program could cause a total of 23,000 jobs to be lost in Brevard County, which now has 12.1 percent unemployment. One small business owner said, “The Space Fairy is not going to come and save us. We’ve go to do it ourselves.” Many of the space workers have accepted that jobs will be lost at the space center, but they refuse to accept the floundering U.S. space program. Ferrying U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station will rely on the Russians, and commercial rockets will be used for cargo. One worker said, “I could probably find another job in my field, but it’s the thing of losing manned space flight. It’s too hard to stomach. We’ve always been the leader.”
(2) “CREATING JOBS - CAN IT HAPPEN?”
Florida state legislators are eager to plunge into the task of creating jobs as they convene an election-year session this week. They are considering many tax credits for businesses and are clamoring to pass items that reduce red tape for development projects, boost investment in space-related businesses, and create a program to provide loans through community banks to businesses employing 50 of fewer people. But most of the ideas being considered are long-term strategies that aren’t likely to quickly change Florida’s 11.8 percent jobless rate.