Columns

As crowds gather at the summertime coastline, so do their manners—or lack thereof.

TripAdvisor, a travel website, recently brought that revelation to light with release of results from its latest beach and pool etiquette survey of more than 2,000 U.S. travelers.

Every Monday morning and most Tuesdays since early May, I arrive to work with calamine lotion dried on both my ankles. Most days it is dried in a nice drip pattern extending below my ankle line down across the tops of my feet and in between my toes. This adds an extra special touch to my flip-flop clad feet.

It seems on the weekends I am a buffet table for various biting critters, especially mosquitoes. It is nothing for me to have anywhere from 10-20 new bites. I have found the only thing that keeps the itchiness away is the calamine lotion.

When I moved here, I heard a lot about a line that had been drawn in the community.
You were either a true Southerner, born and bred to appreciate the simple things in life and a slower pace, like chatting with your neighbors over a glass of sweet tea while enjoying the cool coastal breeze.
Or you were a Yankee—a Northern infiltrator who brought unappreciated wealth to a simple community, only to overrun it with gigantic houses in gated communities.
Whoa.

I’ll start my column with my own editor’s note: The following is not about my individual healthcare provider, a person for whom I have high regard. What follows is frustration regarding the healthcare system in general.

Chronic fatigue.