The beach

 Wife loves the beach. Just about any time of year, if there is an opportunity, she will go. 

I am OK with it, but with lots of qualifications. The two most important: I don't like being hot. I don't like crowds. So, I don't want to go in summer when it is blazing hot, and the crowds are at peak level. 

About two months ago, a good friend from my law school days called and said his daughter would be getting married Monday, May 20th in Seaside, which is on Florida's Gulf Coast in an area called "30-A," so named because it is, in fact a beachfront road called Highway 30-A. Little communities, e.g. Seaside, Grayton, Blue Mountain, Alys Beach, Seagrove, Seacrest and Rosemary, have sprung up along this stretch of beach highway over the past couple of decades or so. 

We have gone there a number of times over the years, both with our family and just the two of us. 

But even in what used to be the offseason, it has become congested and crowded, so it violates my rules on crowds. 

When my buddy called, he said it would be a small wedding, only close friends and family, maybe 50 people at most. I offered him my congratulations. Then he said he had two questions: 

"First, will you come?" 

"Of course I will," I told him. He is one of my best friends and if he wanted me there, I needed to be here. 

"Second, will you play the piano?"

Different answer to this question. It has been a very long time since I have played for any type of public event, and I told him it would be far too stressful for me to do that. He said he would find someone else. 

Wife and I drove to 30-A last Friday, to Seagrove, a couple of miles from Seaside where the wedding would be, with a stop on the way in Birmingham to see our new grandson. (Who is quite perfect, by the way.)

We drove through horrendous weather to get there, with both of our phones giving us storm warnings. I thought of pulling over a couple of times, but we pretty much outran it and that was not necessary. 

It rained all day Saturday, so we did a lot of reading and watching the rain fall on the ocean from our beachfront condo. 

Sunday was beautiful, so we spent the entire day on the beach under an umbrella. The weather was perfect -- not too hot and a nice breeze -- so it was a good day for me. 

Wife went back to the beach Monday, but I stayed in and worked. (I managed to do this little trip without taking any time off, thanks to the miracle of modern technology. Even in the car, I could log in via hotspot. Because we are about to go on another longer trip that was scheduled before I knew about this wedding, I did not want to take vacation time if I could help it.) 

The wedding was at 4 p.m. Due to the crowds (and lack of parking places) we had already observed, we took an Uber both ways 

It was lovely, and my friend appreciated my being there. It was good to see him and be with him at this important event. 

Best of all for Wife, she got a beach trip out of it. 

I've done my beachgoing for the year, thank you. 

Sunset

Sunday

Saturday:  washout

They're everywhere!

We had been warned that we would see cicadas this year in Middle Tennessee. (Maybe where you live, you call them locusts.)

Well, they have arrived with a vengeance. They are attached to our trees and plants and as you walk outside, you are likely to have to bat them away. They are harmless, but they are annoying. They are also noisy, like crickets, but amplified. And while we generally hear crickets and frogs at dusk or at night, the cicadas serenade us during the day. 

I remember years ago, not long after we moved here and our children were young, we were told to expect the little creatures that periodically pay visits to the unsuspecting. 

Our youngest was terrified, and cried as he anticipated their arrival. 

Apparently, we are getting a double dose this year -- the ones that emerge every 13 years along with the ones that come around every 17 years. 

They are looking for love, if you know what I mean. And I have no idea if the 17-year ones get together with the 13-year ones, or if they stay with their own kind. 

There is plenty of information out there if you are interested. 

I won't bore you with details, but I'll share a glimpse of life in my backyard these days. Look closely and you'll see a few flying around, and listen to the constant hum. 

Check that

Someday, after I am retired, I will write more about my job and career -- when it is all past tense. I think it's best now to be vague about it. 

No, I don't work for the CIA or anything top secret! But I have colleagues who have apparently put all kinds of information about my/their employer on their social media pages, which sometimes results in warnings to them of compromising the integrity of the brand, logo, etc. We have a "social media policy," so rather than risk running afoul of that, I'll not be calling my employer by name or telling you much about them. And I maintain a certain amount of privacy in the cyberworld anyway, or as much as is possible. 

I am a lawyer and I work in banking. I've worked for banks since 1998 and prior to that, when I practiced law in a firm, I represented banks. How's that for being benign and vague? 

This week I read in a banking publication an interesting piece about the decline of check writing. Those in my age group will remember getting their first checkbooks and learning how to write a check. And we learned how, hopefully, to record check expenditures in a check register and deduct that amount from our balance. And every month when we received our bank statement, we would reconcile it so the amount of money we thought we had was consistent with what the bank said we had. 

If we were running low and/or happened to make an addition or subtraction error and write a check for more money than what we had in our account (or maybe we played "the float" and underestimated the time between writing the check and the check clearing, not that I would know anything about that), the bank would either pay it and charge us an overdraft fee or return the check and perhaps charge us an insufficient funds fee. That could get expensive. 

It's still that way today, for the most part, and I have a fair amount of knowledge of how that all works, but I won't go into those details. Maybe another time. I can tell you, because of electronic check clearing, there is hardly any float anymore, so I would caution you against counting on it. It was never a good idea, anyway. 

Back to the subject at hand. According to the article I read this week, only 9 percent of any types of payments are now made by paper check. 

Each of my offspring were given a checkbook when they came of age and got their own bank accounts, but by the time they were conducting real business, online banking had become the norm. They rarely write checks and since they can verify their bank balance online on an up-to-the minute basis, I am fairly certain they don't go through the exercise of reconciling their bank statements, because they don't have to. 

Wife, who handles all of our financial matters, pretty much conducts herself the same way. 

There may be some out there, but I am unaware of any employers who distribute paychecks to their employees. It is all done by direct deposit. I remember years ago when the law firm where I worked started doing that, and I objected strenuously. I wanted to see that check and walk across the street to the bank and deposit it myself. It's funny to think about now. 

And given that I represented banks, it's ironic I felt that way. And my employer could not have cared less regarding my thoughts on the subject. 

Wife and I still write occasional checks. Just yesterday, the HVAC guys were here to service our units and gave me the option of paying by check or by card. Paying by card would have been easy and I could have accumulated a few airline points. 

But here's the thing. If I had paid them by card, they were going to charge me three percent extra to cover their costs. There are all kinds of fees and charges among the card issuers, electronic rail providers, and the service providers themselves. The service provider, especially a smaller one, wants to recoup that. 

As for me, I will write them a check every day of the week before I tack on three percent to what I am paying. I suspect, however, some of the younger folks would not even have a check on hand and would have no choice but to use a card. 

I assure you the big retailers are recouping their costs for card usage by building it into their prices. Over the years, I have done extensive research regarding who gets what (bank, retailers, electronic rail providers) when a card transaction takes place. All parties concerned push for legislation and regulations to protect their cut. 

Even though check writing has lessened considerably, a big part of bank fraud happens with checks -- checks being stolen out of mailboxes; fraudulent payees and endorsements; washing away the amount written to make it appear to be a larger amount. I wrote a few months ago about fraud being rampant, and I assure you it is, and that there is a whole underworld trying to figure out how to steal directly from you and/or the bank. 

You might be familiar with the personal electronic payment platforms Venmo and Zelle, where you can make easy payments to friends, family and even businesses. My friend who owns a handyman business does virtually all of his billing through Venmo. 

It's certainly convenient. I don't use it myself, but Wife and the rest of my family do. Since Wife handles our banking, it is rare I will make or accept a payment to/from someone, but when I do, I give them Wife's Venmo contact information. 

In our church small group, we sometimes collect money for making group contributions, buying books or sending memorials for someone who has lost a family member. One person can take charge of handling the payment and everyone else can easily pay that person by Venmo. We have one couple, out of six, who still pays by check. 

And of course, believe it or not, you can still pay for things with cash. What a novel concept!

Showtime!

As I posted a few weeks ago, I joined a choir in January.

It is a community chorus, sponsored by our county parks and recreation department. We practice Tuesday nights, and we have been working on music to perform in a spring concert that was held this past Sunday afternoon. 

Let me say how much I have enjoyed being a part of this organization. I grew up singing in choirs and ensembles, and even the occasional solo, and did so into my adult life until we moved here in 1997. 

The church we became a part of has never had a choir that sings on a regular basis. There were some occasions some years ago in which an impromptu choir or ensemble was formed, but I did not care for the music.  Now there is always a worship team that generally does contemporary music. Perfectly fine, but I have sorely missed hearing a choir sing, and singing in a choir. 

As I wrote in the previous post, I thought about going to another church, one that had a choir, but never did so. 

But in January, the long drought was over when I got to audition for the community chorus and was invited to join their tenor section. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has taken me back to the days of school and church choirs -- the vocal exercises, the harmonies in my ears and even the black folders with a pencil pouch and a pencil! And of course, the end result after working laboriously over the music, segments at a time, following the director's instructions on sounds and harmonies, is the best part. 

And the director has also taken me back. I never once sang in a choir in which the director did not freak out about two weeks before a scheduled performance. This director, true to form, sent a scolding email to all of us two and a half weeks out from the concert, expressing her concern
we did not adequately know the music. 

But her strategy worked, as I believe we peaked at just the right time Sunday. 

We did a total of 11 songs at the concert, mostly traditional -- and some sacred -- choral music, with a couple of pop numbers, including "We are the World" which we ended with! 

The men wore black tuxedoes or suits with pastel bowties, and the ladies wore black dresses or pants with pastel scarves -- a very springy look! 

We break for the summer, then start back up in last August, preparing for another concert in December. I look forward to going back.