I had to take the car into town yesterday and I have to admit the air conditioning was quite pleasant to have on tap. I think I am the only person left in South Florida who uses sun shades in the car. This is the time of year they are invaluable:
Summer has kicked in and its hot and muggy and utterly delightful to be in the Keys. I should mention that my new air conditioner is running splendidly and the house is cool dry 76 degrees. Outside the temperature rises to the mid -90's and dips by night to around 80 degrees. The spring winds have eased up a bit but there is still the merest wisp of a breeze keeping things entirely bearable. Rain has been in short supply and things are crisp and brown everywhere. The occasional brief shower has kept my rain tank full, but the salt ponds near my house look like sand flats from someplace out near Bonneville, my motorcycle's namesake in Utah.
Downtown Key West is busy enough but a few short blocks from Duval and Elizabeth Street under the afternoon sun looks empty enough to shoot a canon. Looking closer at the front of the Key Lime Store a couple of visitors are taking advantage not of the free Key Lime taffy (fools!) but the misting spray:
At the monument I found one visitor pretending he was in the Empty Quarter of Arabia.
The parking lots on Green Street were packed with ten dollar-a-day parked cars, some few in the shade, locals no doubt, but most in the white glare of the open pea rock, fully exposed to the summer sun. The demarcation line was quite dramatic:
The parking lot attendant was making no waves, sitting tight and waiting for sunset:
Locals abandon the tools of their trade in the heat of the midday sun, fork-lifts can roast and vinyl seats can burn as though under a magnifying lense when parked out under the suns rays:
But mad dogs, Englishmen and tourists will happily stroll the sunny side of the street:
Some sun-mad lunatics come to Key West to eat by the water and nothing will stop them from fulfilling the desire to eat fish outdoors and they scarf in the inadequate shade of an umbrella at Conch Republic Seafood:
To me the murky waters of Key West Bight even managed to look inviting, as they sat there all smooth and cool and wet:
But some people are just cool no matter what the ambient temperature and relative humidity:
Call it a paradox but the brick building housing Peppers of Key West looked cool and inviting: 
Inside they were offering their usual hot sauces and barbecue recipes and cute though it all was it was too warm for me:
I don't mind the heat, as long as I'm not working out in it. I talked to a cop the other day who was lamenting that on the day shift he has to get out of his car and walk around in his polyester uniform. He looked hot and uncomfortable just talking about it. Other people have to do physical work like moving stuff under the sun:
This guy left his Mercedes just like that and his trailer just like that for the entire forty minutes I was wandering around taking pictures. I think he planned to come back later to finish the job,m whatever it was. My little stroll worked up a sweat of my own:
I was all damp and ready for cold air when I got back in the car, and only feeling slightly traitorous in that I had had to leave the Bonneville at home yesterday. I love summer.
