Bits and Pieces

Bits and pieces today...  
At a meeting last night, a new water park was approved for Chincoteague Island.  KOA bought the Maddox Campgrounds last year - off the traffic circle on the way to Assateague.  Now they will turn a marsh area into a water park.  I'm sorry - but Chincoteague and Assateague are islands.  You can swim in the Atlantic Ocean on the east side of Assateague, at the National Seashore; you can swim in Tom's Cove on the west side of Assateague if you don't want to worry about waves.  There are a couple of spots on the Assateague Channel, between Chincoteague and Assateague, where you can beach your small craft (or drop anchor) and have a picnic on the shore and swim in the Channel.  There are places you can enter the water and swim on Chincoteague, and out-lying islets.  Most motels, hotels, and condominiums have their own fresh water pools.  Why the heck do we need to have a crazy water park?
    At the moment, there are twenty-two horses that have 10 or more qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby. They are (in no particular order) (1) McCracken, (2) Gunnevera, (3) Mastery, (4) American Anthem, (5) Gormley, (6) Classic Empire, (7) One Liner, (8) Girvin, (9) Tapwrit, (10) J Boys Echo, (11) Practical Joke, (12) Untrapped, (13) El Areeb, (14) Guest Suite, (15) Lookin At Lee, (16) Uncontested, (17) Mo Town, (18) Irish War Cry, (19) Royal Mo, (20) Zakeroff, (21) Local Hero, and (22) Three Rules.
   How do Presidential vacations compare in number of days and costs?  A couple of my Republican cousins scoff at the numbers recently reported, so I checked with snopes.com, Politico, and the Nationalist, a paper that keeps tabs on Presidential spending....  The President who took the most "vacation days" in history so far is George W. Bush; Frankiln Delano Roosevelt came in second with 958 days of "vacation."  Of course, a President is never really on vacation... they are always "on call" in case of a crisis.  Here's how the past two Presidents, and the current one, stand in number of days "off" and in the cost to the tax-payer.
     George W Bush:  The 43rd President was in office for 2,922 days; during that time, he made 77 trips to his ranch in Texas, and 11 trips to the Bush family compound in Kennebunk, Maine.  Each of the 77 trips to Texas cost the tax-payers of America more than $20 million.  Seventy-seven  trips at $20 million even adds up to $1.54 billion.  That doesn't count his trips to Maine, or  every-day security details for his family (3 people).  Bush logged in 1,020 days being "on vacation" - that is 34.91% of his entire time in office.
      Barack Obama:  The 44th President was also in office for 2,922 days.  During his tenure, the President took 29 vacations, mostly visiting Hawaii, where he grew up.  The cost of all of Obama's vacations was $97 million.  That, too, does not count the cost of  every-day security details for his family (4 people).  Obama took, or used, 228 days of "vacation" - or 7.8% of his entire time in office.
     President # 45:  Today is this man's 47th day in office.  Each time he visits "the Winter White House", the Mar-a-Largo (Big Beach) Golf Resort which he owns, the cost of a Friday noon through Sunday afternoon trip is more than $3 million.  So far, in 47 days, his "vacation" have cost American tax-payers over $12 million.  This, too, does not include the every-day costs for his family's security details (12 people).  "45" has spent 14 of his 47 days in office "on vacation," which is 29.79%.  And this is the man who said that President 44 spent too much time on the golf course, and that (August 2015) if he were President, he wouldn't be taking very many vacations because he'd be too busy running the country.    -  What happened there?  Total disconnect?