I was going to make a post about living on an island

. I have lived on islands for over a decade in my life and remember a few frustrations.

The merchants seemed to have somewhat of a monopoly on goods which sort of sucked. You couldn't hop in your vehicle and crack it wide open on the highway and head off into the sunset. A weekend road trip to Vegas was out of the question.

The Rolling Stones were not very likely to show up for a concert.

Still, all in all it wasn't too bad.

THere was a lot of island spirit and most people tended to help one another out. 
Elected officials tended to be more in touch wth the regular guy simply because there were no places for them to hide. I remember having a beer with the mayor a couple of times. I once said something that made him think a bit.

On Kodiak at the time there were (and probably still are) a number of transients. Many of these ar really not transients, but have been there for years and were living in an alternative lifestyle. Truth is, I fit into this category.

The subject of transients came up and I looked at him and pointed out that all these people paid taxes in one form or another. I also pointed out that a pretty large percentage were registered voters and there were enough of them to sway an election.

He looked thoughtful when I said that. Then he asked me about myself and I told him who I was and the fact that I lived in a camper and moved about the island frequently.

I pointed out that I had registered to vote to be able to have a say in what went on in my town. I also added, "As have a lot of us."

Being an elected official, that got his attention.

While there were a lot of drawbacks to island life, getting face to face with local elected officials wasn't one of them.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY