Winter Commute

"Did you see the sunset?" my wife asked with excitement in her voice, after she drove in to have dinner in Key West Saturday evening. (She went to the Colombian Restaurant on Petronia Street: excellent food, disorganized service was the verdict.) I have been noticing the spectacular shades of red and orange and purple for some weeks, ever since we switched to winter time at the end of October. Before the change the ride home after work in the morning looked like this:Now with the return of winter time it looks like this at 6:15 am:The wind is continuing to blow out of the north bringing clear blue skies, bright sunshine and cool dry temperatures. This is a spectacular state of affairs to wake up to at lunch time, but it does tend to wash out a little of the violent, moisture laden mornings of summer. Still, the rich orange glow across the flat waters and the mangrove islands has it's own beauty:I was standing on the bridge near Mile Marker 18 between North Harris Channel and Park key and in the distance, to the east, I could see the traffic light at Sugarloaf School, the one they installed a few years ago to help school buses get on the Highway. It's the green disc seen below:Commuting is supposed to be a penance in the modern world but in the Keys it's not so bad at all. Traffic tends to get a bit heavy between seven and nine going in to Key West and between five and seven in the evening coming out, but for a wild card like me, commuting is just a pleasant motorcycle ride. Working at night puts me against the traffic flow, and the scenery is always spectacular. I love my commute.Even when the traffic is heavy there is rarely any stop and go on the commute, it's mostly a matter of sitting in a line of cars traveling a little less than the speed limit. For me, the ride is mostly an open road.

By the time I got to Summerland Key, a couple of miles from my house the dawn was well underway. I liked the contrast between gas station sign and the orange of the rapidly brightening sky:The one lane road leading to my house was in the shadow of the houses and the trees but to the south I could see the big puffy clouds of moisture gathered over the warm waters of the gulf Stream, on the horizon:

And finally, forty minutes after leaving Key West Police station I could see the shaded window of my bedroom. The ride home in 73 degrees (20C) should have been enough to wake me, but in a few minutes I know I will be fast asleep, like a vampire, before the sun hits my eyes.

The ride home is a great way to slough off the dramas of a night at work.