Gustav's Tropical Storm Watch

A tropical storm watch has been issued for the Lower Keys, from the Seven Mile Bridge to the Dry Tortugas, which means storm conditions are possible within 36 hours. It sounds dire for Key West but this means nothing more than a wet and windy Labor Day weekend. That sucks for me as I happen to be off this weekend, and it sucks for tourism as we could use lots of free spending visitors to fill this low season lull. Hurricane Gustav actually poses a terrible threat to the Gulf of Mexico, closing down oil rigs which should lead to an increase in gas prices so that won't do our holiday weekend much good either. New Orleans could be a whole other world of hurt. Tropical Storm Hanna in the Atlantic is being weird and feeble which is good for Florida still recovering from major flooding. However there is another potential wave heading our way from the coast of Africa. I don't see anything too serious for us for the next week or so.

Tropical Update

I can't figure it. Perhaps we in Florida are radioactive or something but at the moment Gustav is on track to pillage Western Cuba this weekend and then trash Louisiana a few days later. Possibly as a Category Three which is ominously described by the National Hurricane Center as a Major Storm. So far the Keys are right out of that cone, as untouchable you might think as a lump of processed uranium. Meanwhile Hanna is in the Atlantic scheduled to coil like a snake on itself and is expected to make a big U-turn and head south and west (very weird that) to the Bahamas. Storms usually track east and north but occasionally they don't. All that leaves us with a big orange splotch just off the coast of Africa starting it's bowling ball run across the ocean. September is the peak month for hurricane season (which ends, none too soon on November 30th if the storms obey the calendar). My wife has a plane to catch to Turkey a week from Saturday. I think she would be royally pissed off if a storm interfered, so I have double reason to keep my fingers crossed for another week...

Passover Lane

I am not all sure what I photographed here. Its a sort of appendix off the street that fronts the cemetery, which is Passover Lane:This little nub of a half hidden lane ducks into the bushes like the White Rabbit down his hole in Alice in Wonderland.And it goes back a fair old way into the jungle darkness:There's nothing much unusual or out of place up this little unpaved alleyway just the usual charming homes and flourishing plants.And some of the houses had striking features, including an elaborate spiral staircase which I thought looked amazing in its supporting structure:Or a particular handle on a garden gate:And of course there always has to be one of these cluttering up the place:But like every other interesting corner of key West one can usually find one of these:And then its time to pop back out and face the sunlight:And nearly get run down by a cyclist:And Passover Lane reverts to its peaceful status quo ante:So now I've been up and down it and photographed it and pondered it and I still don't know what it's called!