The question from a reader was: How is the palm weaver doing? I noted a couple of weeks ago that Michael Beaudet had had a little adventure floating off to sea in his disabled sailboat. The latest is that he is doing okay. 
It's fantasy Fest weekend in Key West and some people have been worrying that not enough people would show up. This is the city's major fund raiser to sustain the tourist economy through the end of hurricane season, which ends officially on November 30th. People have been muttering about low hotel vacancies and the fear has been that the city would throw a party and no one would show up. When I came home from work this morning the 200 block of Duval Street was closed to traffic while public works crews swept up the sea of broken bottles littering the street. Key West's commercial recycling program in action...Michael was one of those worrying about attendance when I bumped into him in front of La Concha Hotel:
He took off on Bike week to get away from the loud motorcycles disrupting his place of work and while he was sailing off the Marquesas Keys his mast took a dive and left him wallowing in huge waves with no means to get home again. He has not an ounce of spare fat on him as you can see but he held it together for five long days and nights sucking down mayonnaise packets and flavoring his rain water with hot sauce as he waited for rescue. Finally a military jet spotted him and the US Coastguard helicopter directed the National Parks Service patrol boat from the Dry Tortugas to his location. In the 45 minutes it took him to get back to land Michael said he wolfed down five meals-ready-to-eat. Now he's back on his corner weaving palms.
He's living on land at the moment with a friend in New Town and business is reasonable. He''s been a fixture on Key West's streets for a long time and he is by nature an optimistic man, generally cheerful and sometimes that comes as a surprise. He did have a complaint though, noting he was recently attacked by a palm tree as he harvested his raw materials:
It's hard to have a conversation with Michael because he has a lot of friends who stop by for a chat... and he is gregarious:
He's been weaving for longer than he cares to admit but sometimes things go wrong and he can't stophimself from pointing it out! "See, I drew blood on my leg..."
I had no plans to face the crowds downtown last night as my wife had organized some friends to come round for a barbecue before I went in to work for some overtime. Fantasy Fest is an all-leave-cancelled holiday in Key West for the PD, and we get help from half a dozen Federal and State agencies to keep some sort of order on the streets on the night of the parade. Michael planed on being there, in his own costume obeying the law as he does. Women's nipples must be covered, at least by body paint, and no genitals, thusly:
And I am entirely sure there will have been much more of the same on display on Duval Street last night. The economy may be plummeting but in the Roman tradition of Saturnalia Key West still likes to keep things topsy turvy and be a refuge for a night, for former Stock market millionaires. Come on down, the waters are lovely. And if you need some palm frond sized equipment you know who to look for. My wife liked her more modest bowl and a rose to go with it.
