An Improving Weekend in Ocean City

Saturday is looking up in Ocean City, after a not-so-promising start. We had heavy rain during the night, ending around dawn. The storm left us shrouded in a thick fog, with mild temperatures.

The fog didn't deter people from walking the Boardwalk. I think people enjoy experiencing an aspect of ocean weather that they don't often see in summer. Around noon, the fog began to dissipate, and the sun has been poking in and out of the cloud cover ever since. By mid-afternoon, we're nearly up to 60 degrees.

Also about noon, an AARP volunteer at the Ocean City Library entered my dismal financial data into a laptop computer. Like magic, my income taxes were done, both federal and state, and on their way to the IRS via Internet. Tax returns filed two weeks early! A first for me. Now all I have to do is find the money to pay the tax bill.

I browsed the stacks and borrowed The Warlord's Son from the library. It's a thriller by Dan Fesperman, who was a fearless foreign correspondent at The Baltimore Sun, when The Sun still had foreign correspondents. The Warlord's Son is set in present-day Afghanistan. I look forward to starting it tonight. To reward myself for getting the taxes done, if not paid for, I stopped for a hot turkey-and-cheese sub at one of the Dough Roller Restaurant on the Coastal Highway. The sub had an immediate therapeutic effect on my spirits.

Conditions for the rest of the weekend remain a little unsettled. Thunder and lightening are expected this evening, and during the night. The rain should clear by Sunday morning. We'll have to wait and see if Sunday brings sun or clouds, but the temperature is expected to be in the upper 60s.

Gasoline spiked up to $1.99 a gallon for regular at some stations this week, while other stations held out at $1.89, a 10-cent price spread. But today, the price seems to have stabilized at $1.97 a gallon. I guess all the stations have now received a tanker filled with the new, improved, higher-priced gas.