Key West streets at night look longer and much more mysterious than they do by day, not least because the city isn't filled with lights. There isn't even a huge amount of the ubiquitous neon illuminated signs:
So Key West by night takes on a slightly old fashioned air. It puts me in mind of Prague in 1995 as modernization started to creep across eastern Europe. The streets of the city at that time were darker and old fashioned looking, lacking as they did the inevitable gloss of modern encouragements to shop and spend.
I find it somewhat surprising this massive structure is still a real estate office on White Street. The bloom is definitely off the market, and I suppose one could argue that only the strong flourish in these hard real estate times. Laundry will always be a necessary chore, alleviated only by the superb profile of the Pegasus parked in front. It's actually my winged horse, my Bonneville:
I wanted more time on my early morning lunch break. I wanted to sit and watch no one passing by on White Street at three in the morning. Instead I stood in the middle of the broad roadway that divides Old Town from everywhere else in Key West and took a picture of Glynn Archer School:
I wonder what awfulness would happen should they turn out the lights and plunge the stone structure into darkness. Instead we burn electrons for some mysterious purpose. Across the street the National Weather Service was burning the midnight oil with reason:
We have storms barrelling down on South Florida from all angles across the Atlantic, Hanna heading north, while Hurricane Ike appears set to head across the Bahamas straight at us (gulp!), as Josephine possibly peters out into a depression in the middle of nowhere. When interviewed by the Key West
Citizen the meteorologists said they will hide in the toilets in the center of this building should a major hurricane promise us a direct hit.
It seems a bit undignified but the National Weather Service tells us that is the only safe place inside their building should a Category Five storm hit them head on...Maybe I shall throw dignity to the wind and do the same at the Police Station when the Big One hits. Even the light breezes blowing across the Keys from all that Atlantic storm activity look pretty busy when viewing a palm tree under a street light through a slow shutter speed:
All motion, no direction. While standing around in the middle of the street I notice that even from the hub of White Street at Truman Avenue there is no visible traffic. White and Truman is where the all night gas stations are and they also offer fried chicken and a gathering place for night owls, so its a well traffic'ed spot:
There's time enough in the middle of White Street to take a picture of this decorated traffic light control box at United Street:
I used my flash to make sure the last all-Cuban bakery in town really is dead:
La Dichosa in Spanish means lucky (woman), and perhaps the bakery was lucky to stay in business as long as it did. It's departure leaves a hole in not a few home and restaurant tables around town. But Sandy's Cafe is still going strong, a place where you can buy food and
con leches all the time. Their decision to stay open 24 hours added immeasurably to the food options in town for night shift workers, from cheese toast and coffee or the usual Cuban selections including Mexican specialties, as the staff are actually not Cubans, as their Spanish indicates they are from south of the
Rio Bravo del Norte:
Night shift workers include, need I point out, cops from the nearby cop shop:
Whence I repaired at the end of my lunch break.
Key West streets at night look longer and much more mysterious than they do by day, not least because the city isn't filled with lights. There isn't even a huge amount of the ubiquitous neon illuminated signs: