The Pause That Refreshes

My wife called me Mister Doom and Gloom last week and forbade me from speaking about the plummeting economy in her presence. That was before the wife of the Superintendent of Schools (he who is her boss ultimately) had to resign her position as head of Adult Education in a rather unseemly hurry. Apparently she stands accused of misuse of her school district purchasing card and the Superintendent's enemies on the Board are now ramping up to get rid of him as well. So all in all it has been a stressful time for those of us married to people working in the school district, a place rampant with speculation and gossip at the moment. And none of that uncertainty or angst has anything to do with me or my fears about the economic future. The economy generally still sucks though, and I'm still pretty grumbly about it. I wish I could declare myself a bank and get free money. And then claim I was "profitable." Enough of that though or my wife will spank me.On the other hand the Bonneville with 23,500 miles is rolling along nicely. I took a few pictures on Rockland Key at Mile Marker Nine recently and as they were for no particular purpose I labelled them as random pictures. I pulled over on Rockland because traffic on the Overseas Highway was all backed up, the evening commute was in full swing and getting stuck at the sewer works on nearby Big Coppitt Key, and I wasn't in the mood to do any stop-and-go so I turned off the highway altogether and took pictures instead:I'm going to do an essay later on Rockland Key which has some points of interest but for the moment I contented myself with standing around admiring the setting sun and the salt flats. And the gigantic cargo plane taking off from nearby Boca Chica Naval Air Station:The Navy base guards itself with heavy green fencing and I was quite surprised to see that Rockland Key's few streets are something in the manner of a peninsula surrounded by Navy land:Further across the salt ponds I could see a roof, a rather intriguing splash of red amongst the green and blue:Earlier in the day I had stopped off at Home Depot on North Roosevelt to get some painting supplies for a little project at home and I was put in mind of Irondad's thoughts about parking motorcycles (Musings of an Intrepid Commuter blog in my web list). You'd think with all the open spaces in the conveniently located motorcycle parking this Sportster rider could have figured it out. Not at all; he parked as though he were steering his large pick up truck:On closer inspection the parking style wasn't the only oddity here, I've never seen stainless handle bar grips before, which probably speaks to my lack of familiarity with the Harley Davidson accessories catalogue:I wonder how one rides in the rain without losing one's grip? Probably one doesn't ride in the rain is the answer to that futile query. I did see a man on a mission at Home depot and he was getting on with the business of being practical, hauling his load away:I know, tut tut, no safety gear. I like it that some people in Key West use their two wheelers as practical means of transport, instead of just toys.

On an entirely different note I saw a rather nice Road King at the Community College the week before. The Road King is my favorite Harley:The shade of blue had a twinge of purple in it which was a bit off putting and the flames down the side looked decidedly puerile. I guess my inhibitions reinforce my desire to ride a staid Bonneville instead, I just don't have the nuts to exhibit myself on a Harley.