I have seen two people jogging down my street these past couple of days. They have earphones and they look fresh and sleek like seals sweeping along so I'm pretty sure they are visiting for the winter. I don't see joggers on my street in summer, except Linda who waves each morning as I get home from work. There was a comment in the Citizen's Voice about dilapidated cars parked on the street, and could the owners of the work trucks please park them in their drive ways. I am seeing out of state tags popping up and someone tried to jump a line I was in the other day like her time was more valuable than mine. These are all signs that winter residents are back, and this first wave is down here early.
People who live in Key West year round have a rather split approach to snowbirds. It's that mixture of dependence and resentment that seeps into many aspects of our lives. Snowbirds bring money and spread it around which has all the beneficial effects of trickle down that keeps people employed. Plus everyone knows and accepts that wealthy winter retirees raise everyone's standard of living by virtue of the fact they spend money here. I doubt we'd have near as much live theater without them, or as varied restaurants, but that wealth also raises costs, notably of housing.
Snowbirds do up the houses they buy as winter homes, and pay more to rent homes and apartments for six months than many people can afford to lease for a year. Lots of people enjoy the quiet of summer in the Keys, as do I, but have trouble focusing on the good when the roads are clogged with all those extra vehicles in the winter. Parking? Forget about parking in Old Town - get a two wheeler! There again I wouldn't get paid as well at my city job without the increased tax base of much improved buildings in the city... Snowbirds are nature's reminder to keep an eye on the big picture while coping with the minor daily irritations of the little picture. For instance I get taken aback by the lines that magically appear at the Tropic Cinema, but without the snowbirds Key West wouldn't have an arts house in the first place. 
This year the winter resident thing is coming early it seems so I am bracing for complaints at work about those irritating quality of life issues that don't seem to plague cities Up North. Peacon Lane is a bucolic little street wedged between Eaton and Caroline Streets, a one way alley aimed at the waterfront.
It is also a place that seems to attract homeless citizens in large numbers, and as surprising as this may sound, our population of HCs also increases in winter. Living on the streets doesn't mean you can't be a snowbird too! So I know winter has arrived in this land of no seasons, when HC complaints go up, not least at the corner of Peacon and Caroline.
You have to think the residents of this little street must have developed a sense of humor about their burden when you read signs like these... NO "hunting, fishing trapping..." but I hear no humor in their voices when they call to request an officer to do a check of the lane to move along bundles sleeping in the bushes.
I, like everybody else, enjoy the architecture and beauty of Key West, but I like living in the peace and quiet of the island suburbs to the north a little ways. I too would get grumpy if I had to step over sleepers on my porch.
Peacon Lane is trim and tidy and at first glance is not particularly eccentric or odd but it has it's features for those willing to look.
Jim who likes to swim? He captures the inshore waters of the keys nicely. And this scooter was an "ah-ha!" moment for me. When I owned an orange Stella 150 a few years ago this silver model was the only other one I saw on the island and it was parked on Catherine Street. Then it disappeared until I found it here on Peacon Lane.
It only had something like 2600 miles on the clock and it was looking quite rusty too, so perhaps that's why I haven't seen it around town. Probably the owner uses it for urban rides only, a little less ambitious than my Highway One commute which put paid to my Indian-made copy of a Vespa two stroke. Scooters are common in Key West of course, even if Vespas and Stellas are still quite rare. Harleys are the other kind of scooter and they are everywhere:
And if you don't want a Harley or a Vespa how about a sweet Honda Metropolitan (Jazz, if you are in Canada):
There is an unusually high proportion not only of refurbished homes on Peacon, but also of off street parking, though bicycles always manage to fit in:
This Dade Pine home put me in mind of a Lincoln Log cabin, even though it is classic south Florida design. Notice the concrete block "foundations" and the overhanging front roof which gives it the infamous "eyebrow" design which was supposed to allow upstairs windows to remain open in all weathers but in fact just trapped the heat inside :
This house put me in mind of the Pacific Northwest, for some reason. It has stained glass windows, not clearly visible in the picture and a heavily varnished front door:
The abandoned ladder put me in mind of unfinished projects (though my ladders are mundane affairs of aluminum and plastic):
And then this object of art under the trees:
I was pondering the puzzle when a lady walking her dog came by and was rather startled when I asked her what she thought. After she composed herself she thought for a bit and suggested it might be something on the lines of a merry-go-round.
"She does other stuff too," the dog walker said, referring to the artist, " she made a bust that swayed gently," she said mimicking the action with her hands. "I liked that,"leaving me to wonder if the horses were of a lesser order.
