I started this blog in Summer 2007 to find something to encourage me to get out and wander by Bonneville, and recording the changing Keys seemed like a good idea. The blog thing came about because this remote, electronic way of storing the images is easy, cheap ($20 a year) and easily accessible. In the bad old days of print photography I took pictures with no idea how they would come out and spent a fortune processing variations on a theme of which only a few were worth keeping. Then with the advent of automated, drug store processing my pictures came back over exposed, under exposed badly cut and generally degraded. Living on a boat I never had room (nor the inclination) to devote a piece of my space to a dark room though I was best friends with a kid in school who taught me photo development years ago.
Blogspot, for all it's technical imperfections and occasional failures is a great place to store pictures of daily living and my sometimes acerbic commentary on the nature of the human condition and our apparently endless ability to fuck it all up. I invite readers who want me to photograph something to drop me a line at conchscooter@hotmail.com and I will do my best. Native Mom wants an essay on signs so I will see what I can do. I am really terrible at themes not least because most of these essays are generated on an impulse because I always have the camera in my pocket. For instance I have been meaning to go to Mel Fisher's Museum a place I really like, for years. And still...nothing!
I got a note from Special Services (HR in the Police Department) telling me I had accumulated too much leave and had to use it or lose it, so here we go. I have planned two vacations this summer, ten days in June to go to North Carolina to visit the sister-in-law in Asheville and then Outer Banks for a few days as we have never seen those islands. Then after a week back at work Layne and Cheyenne and I are taking off on the Poof Tour 2010, starting the 3rd of July, a cheap camping vacation to Maine visiting gay friends (yes, they are all gay, it turns out) along the way. We were going to go to Italy burning up a credit card on expensive Italian food and lodging and souvenirs (and motorcycle rental) but this economic climate does not seem the time to make impulse purchases in Euro even if the exchange rate is 1.20 to a Dollar. Secondary plans to go West got scrapped so now I get to see New England for the first time in my life (I want to move to Vermont and join the Secessionist Movement...fat chance).
What all this means is that essays will be irregular until late July or the beginning of August depending on computer access and time and all that. I am sure this comes as a shock as for the past three years I have managed at least one essay a day, but there it is, this is a chance to check the archive and take time off from wondering how many essays you have missed if you turn your back for the blink of an eye. Five weeks off is more vacant posting time than even compulsive, anal retentive little me can manage to fill completely ahead of time. However I have organized a bunch of essays that will appear three times a week until I get back.
All these plans are subject to change of course (a hurricane threat would bring us home quickly enough, no doubt though Tim our house sitter is very reliable) which is why I dislike explaining a lot of stuff in advance on the blog but an absence of essays just means that I am too busy living to be downloading for a short while. To Cousin Lyn: I am sure Chicago will be on the cards this year as Layne and I will be ready to get out of town later when it is still hot, for a long weekend Up North. To everyone else I hope you have a pleasant summer, oil free, hurricane free and with a job and a roof over your heads.
18 comments:
Mike, you could move to Canada
after you retire. Maybe Victoria BC on the left coast. Still salt water, good biking, and sailing.
Dear Sir:
So that's it? A brief paragraph on how people want to be your friend, followed by three paragraphs on why they will not hear from you (at least personally) anytime soon.
I find it fascinating that you, your pink crocs, and your Amish motorcycle are adored by knitting blogs the world over. I am putting in a pay toilet in advance of your visit.
As long as you are taking requests for pictures, could we have a nice portrait of you, wearing your white shoes and white belt -- the uniform of Florida?
Have a good trip...
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Bryce- I want to move to canada now and get my provincial medical card and live among sane, calm , rational neighbours.
On the subject riepe, I don't take requests from people who wobble around Amish country on BMWs and get run down by horses and carts. By the way, the work computer won't let me read your latest piece of tripe- they know whats good for me at the police department, see?
When that Amish motorcylce starts to leave piles pf poop behind watch out. Have a good and save trip and i'll give you a buzz when I'm in town.
Come up and ride the Catskills or Adirondacks with me.
Sal Paradise
Conch:
I have always been amazed at how some people are "ordered" to take leave at the risk of overaccumulation. Seems inconceivable to me, and I can proudly say that I have never been ordered NOT to go to work... I hope you have a great time, though I can assure you that getting your blog thrice weekly is just not going to work for too long.
Also, do you wear pinc crocs to a gay summer soire, or is that just way too "over the top" cliche?
Dear Sir:
I prefer tripe to treacle any day of the week. (And so do most women who are poised to lift their shirts at the sound of my K75.) To quote the late, great actor Jonathon Harris (of TV's Lost In Space fame), "This acquaintanceship has become most distasteful."
In giving this essay the most cursory of glances today, I couldn't help but note a comment from "Sal Paradise." Wasn't that a character on the Sopranos?
Sal — do you live in the Adirondacks? I have a few riding buddies up there. I plan to return to those mountains for a late summer ride with these guys. It would be fun to meet you. Do you have any special dietary needs? Conschscooter is coming to visit me in July and I was told to have plenty of apple sauce, cottage cheese, and prune juice on hand.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
I will not attempt to explain the difference between "friends" and "followers" (although technically on Blogspot, I didn't think there was a difference, it was used on other social media sites).
As for things to photograph/essay themes, there is a micro brewery in Ashville called the Green Man Brewery that I have heard good things about their beer. http://www.jackofthewood.com/ (now called Jack of the Wood). Just a suggestion.
Have a fine time on your trip to the south and its mountains (I recall the "great exodus" from FL during the boom real-estate years to NC/SC/GA mountains).
Just think, you have all of those people who have become friends or followers and that doesn't even begin to touch the myriad of people who subscribe to your blog in their RSS feed. You're more popular than you ever thought!
I keep coming back for the photo essays. I love the way you explore the lesser known parts of the Keys. One of my favorite trips was by bicycle all the way down and then back up the Keys. I saw side roads, back roads, and places I never would've seen driving through at car speed. Keep up the great blogging.
P.S. I don't have a knitting or craft blog, but I do have a dog blog. Cheyenne and Kendall may have become friends, but we're 3,000 miles away.
Noooooooooooo!!!!! Say it aint so Conchy...say it aint so..!! i hope you and Layne have a great time on vacation.Just know that there will be one...bacon loving,artic circle dwelling,master barber...that will miss your rants and (dare i say) pink crocs..until you get back in the swing of things..!!!
Buffalo Bill
Conchscooter:
I will certainly miss you. I will also shed a tear when you aren't out west for our gathering, and I'll eat your buritto for you too.
I can't wait for you to move here. No oil yet, no hurricanes and as you know, we are the "Key West of Canada" . Lots of water views if you can afford it. One great advantage is we are further away from rIEPE
bob
Wet Coast Scootin
Conchscooter:
I am not officially a "follower" but I do check in often. I have a dream of retiring (in oh, 30 years perhaps) to the Keys, and we visit every other year or so. Your blog with its pictures of the nooks and crannies of the island brings a little Keys happiness into my days. So that's why I visit :)
Enjoy your vacations!
Conchy-Everyone has a wish to retire or live in the Keys. As a prerequisite they should be required to do your job for one month. After they heard all the strangeness that happens, then and only then, are they allowed to try it out.
We are 400 miles into the trip and the Fusion returns 27.1 miles per gallon, and regular is only $2.50 a gallon.
Sal. - I have thougt about how it might be done.I'd July maybe.
Jeffrey I have a Facebook account but I rarely use it as people get into trouble with it and I have more control here. Lots of cops use Facebook.
Floblo- my job actually seems pretty good at my age. I didn't have to see the cyclist squashed by the 18 wheeler on North Roosevelt. Plus I stayed indoors duringthe recent thunderstorm that hit town! Ialso helped solve the case of the dead vacationing grandparents who weren't actually dead, just online and not able to return calls.
Riepe - do you have a nice glass for my teeth?
Jud- it is a date
I have pink crocs with me and will wave them out the window at 103 degree Jacksonville as we drive by in an hour.
Mr Conchscooter:
Hey, wait a minute. If you are waving the Pink Crocs out the window, then what is pushing down the gas pedal ?
bob
Wet Coast Scootin
Drive safe and say hi to the NC relatives for me! Cuz Lynn
Hi Lyn, tread carefully this place is an asylum.
bob- bare feet is all I can say. we are going out to dinner in Savannah and i think this town is n't ready for pink crocs. Birkenstocks seem more appropriate.
I have been enjoying your blog for awhile now. I don't knit but I am riding my bicycle from Seattle to Key West and back, so I was searching for interesting blogs about Key West. I should be there in Dec and will be staying for a month.
Thanks for all the pictures.
Dave
http://threewheeljourney.blogspot.com/
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