We've had a number of dramatic thunderstorms too, loud cracks overhead, loud enough to wake Cheyenne and have her glance around with a worried look in her eye. On the other hand a few cloud bursts and sudden downpours aren't much to write home about when the Atlantic is full of storms and Hurricane Igor, which ravaged Bermuda, is in the middle of the Far North Atlantic and is replaced by another storm, Lisa, still at lower latitudes. This river boat, Lady Ann, has been anchored in Niles Channel for a while. I don't think it would do very well in a hurricane.
A river boat seems out of place in a land of no rivers. 
Most likely not a Beyond Petroleum grandmother. Though considering the size of the vehicle involved she could well be a petro-stock holder. Stopping at the post office on Summerland Key I saw this weirdly parked minivan. September is the quietest month of the year in the Keys, a time when the post office isn't overrun by querulous snow birds looking for mail, so the parking lot was actually quite empty. Not empty enough for this driver to avoid walking a few extra steps....
The yellow writing on the ground says No Parking Fire Lane (does not apply to lazy drivers).The van hadn't moved by the time I put my helmet on and left... And on the subject of controversy the relatively new Habitat homes are built and occupied alongside Highway One in Big Coppitt Key. I think they look rather good.
Frankly it looks like a model neighborhood especially when you look at the trash strewn streets elsewhere on this island, but disdain for the not incredibly affluent is rife across the country, not just in the Lower Keys, so when this project was seeking planning permission the solicitous neighbors started the usual bitching campaign to shoot it down.
They argued the project was located too close to the traffic on the Overseas Highway and would be too noisy for the poor dears contributing sweat equity to the creation of their new homes. Indeed the main road into Key West, which lies ten miles to the east, is right there in front of the Habitat homes.
I thought it was quite a creative explanation for the snobbish rejection of the Habitat homes. It didn't work though and as you can tell the habitat development has quite ruined splendid Big Coppitt Key with all it's prejudices. Better perhaps to have installed a strip joint and a liquor store, good honest businesses. Like this corner of North Roosevelt Boulevard in Key West.
It occurred to me as I sat astride the Bonneville in an ample puddle waiting to get out into traffic, that everything one needs is right here in one small strip mall. Rent a scooter, pick up Kendra's DVD, ride round to the drive through and wobble off home for an afternoon of doing something a lot more worthwhile than perusing the Internet.
Or get the stuff and sit outside to enjoy a brief interregnum of sun between thunderstorms. Or go round the corner to the movies and give blood all at the same time.
I haven't been to the movies much this summer but my wife and I went to see George Clooney in The American. I wish we had had such an interesting character in the village in Umbria where I lived in as child. We didn't have a whore with a heart of gold in our town, or an assassin either. We had rain though, but as we lived on a hillside flooding like this was rare:
The two year renovation of North Roosevelt is supposed to clean this up.
When I leave work in the dark after a night rain storm it's worth my while to remember that this part of the right lane will be under water. 
Traffic generally tends to hug the center lanes on the Boulevard after a storm. It's just what one does. My amphibious Bonneville:
My wife's Sebring has not been converted much this summer, a combination of heat and rain my wife says. I can't deny that about now, every year, I am ready for a cold front or two to break the back of summer.=======================================================================
One last note of interest to me is that yesterday we voted on a new one year contract with the City of Key West. I believe the contract will be ratified by the members of Teamsters Local 769. I voted yes, and was surprised to hear that not many members seemed very happy with it. David our Business Representative on the left and Kenny our Shop Steward on the right said most of the voters were grumbling.
The city has agreed to raises, 3.85% for people earning below $30,000 a year, 2.75% up to $40,000 and 2% up to $50,000 a year. In an era when furloughs and layoffs are the norm it struck me as incredible. They even managed to fend off any participation in paying for our health insurance which offers excellent coverage at no cost to the member, and $800 a month to the city. New city hires starting in October will have to pay $25 a pay period which creates two tiered membership which isn't the best thing in the world. There again this is a right-to-work state and the employees who aren't members get to share the wealth with those of us who are.
I wonder why Union membership is so hard to appreciate in this country. With 15 million unemployed, facing the prospect of more of the same all round we are lucky as hell here in this strange corner of the country where everything seems to be upside down and not properly appreciated.
13 comments:
Conch:
I was flabbergasted (and thrilled for you at the same time) that your 1 year contract was as good as you had described, especially in these economic climes... Any of your Teamster union mates that are grumbling are MORE than welcome to contact me and I'll be quite happy to just go over a few tiny details about our upcoming contract renewal, among which are:
A. Our insurance rate, which currently is an extremely do-able$27.50 per pay period (bi-monthly), is due to increase by roughly 600%.
B. We contribute 9% into our retirement, and the city may increase that requirement and decrease it's own contribution.
C. We entered into negotiations requesting NO raise and agreeing to a wage freeze at our current rate. We were promptly told to go fuck ourselves by the a 15% REDUCTION in salary as a counter-offer to our wage freeze concession.
D. Today 24, yes TWENTY-FOUR, police Officers are returning thier gear due to the lay-offs that we were told we were going to be able to stave off by agreeing to the above mentioned ass-raping details (and did I mention the unpaid furlough days?).
There are many MANY more "taking it in the can" fun facts I can share with them as well...so...to the grumbling faction of Teamsters Local 769 I extend an invitation to blow me if they think that thier contract seems otherwise inequitable. It's all a matter of perspective really... Ask my 24 brother and sister Officers that are wondering how they'll keep the lights on next month--they'll tell you.
I work for a major hospital that has its own insurance.(Obama has mentioned it before in some of his speeches). (no union) The CEO makes 1.2 mil a year. I make 11.00 an hour. We have the worst ins coverage. My daughter has the same ins.,but with a different employer. She has better coverage than I do.The docs at work don't have to pay for their coverage.The local paper just had a story about how well the hospital is doing.........we won't see any of it.
Yes Im grateful to be working, but I feel Im being crushed by the over paid ceo and his big wigs. My raise this year was 2.5 % And this is a non profit hospital......they say.
I'm out of work - and been looking for over a year... so I'd be thrilled of all of the unions in this country were decertified and the free market would let me compete for the AFSCME, etc. largese.
The average federal employee earns hourly cash wages 22 percent above what a similar private-sector worker receives. Adding in the value of non-cash benefits raises the federal compensation premium to between 30 percent and 40 percent a year.
Let's keep sucking the blood out of the private sector to feed the public beast. What's not to like?
Although I don't belong to a union, I'm pro-union. The corporations have won so much over the years, but they are always after more . . . Another luxury yacht, anyone?
Howard,
It sounds like you miss Dominique.
Egads. Everyone must have two jobs and a working partner, or have inherited their home. Seems like every city & county has public safety as their #1 mission. Few go so far as to put money behind the mission, generally preferring instead to, say, refurbish the admin offices. Good on Key West. Good work by your reps.
I remember when seven if us kept a 15 person dispatch center running. People turned their noses up at $16 an hour, endless overtime , fully paid health insurance and a defined benefit pension plan. They preferred to work in the private secotr nad make hundreds a night tax free slinging drinks on Duval. Now they want to destroy unions? How about getting royally pissed off at the people who created this mess, got bailed out with public money and now demand a 3 percent tax cut? Has the country gone mad?
We contribute 6% to our retirement and the city has the account audited annually and pays in waht needs to be paid to keep our plan solvent. We actually have a real chance of getting some kind of a pension. If it works in Key West why can't it work in Illinois? New Jersey? California?
Why can't we have a sensible national debate about our economy?
Mr Conchscooter:
when our economy stalled last year we did not get any increases either, but no layoffs. I think we were just happy to have a job. I don't think things were as desperate here as back in Eastern Canada where things are more automotive or manufacturing related. We only have natural resources and tourism. and house prices went through the roof and show no signs of coming down even though sales have dropped off, but it is now a buyer's market if you have a large enough wallet and ride a Bonneville.
I wished I could be with you and Jack. I would have flown East if I wasn't talked into flying West instead.
bob
Wet Coast Scootin
As a City Taxpayer who is going to see my homesteaded taxes go up more then 15%, I think the raises were inappropriate. Sorry. I am sure you deserved them and all, but when a City's income source (property Tax) is tumbling, you do not give raises. This is the reason people have no trust or confidence in Government. They seem immune to what goes on in the private sector.
I haven't had a raise in at least three years (it might be four; I forget and don't want to go look it up). The cost of living sure hasn't declined much, though. I was already in the lowest 25th percentile of those in my job nationwide; people in my field actually laugh when I tell them how little I make. Yes, I'm glad to have a job, but still.
The funny thing, in amnner of speaking, is how city taxpayers support cutting taxes for the very wealthy while trying to gut unions in the same breath.
If the private sector has let you down consider organizing. It's time to fight back together not pick each other apart at the bottom of the economic ladder.
What do you mean "city taxpayers support cutting taxes for the wealthy"? Did you do a poll? Most people I know are 100% against this. The City had no business giving out these raises while long term homesteaded residents taxes are going up double digits in one year.
Oh, I'd consider organizing in a heartbeat--both of my parents were members of unions, and wound up in great shape. But I simply asked whether there was a union when I interviewed for my job, and almost didn't get it because of that question. I'm in the part of Florida where "union" is a bad word, right there next to "communist", so it won't happen. I'm about ready to take a huge cut in pay to just get the hell out of here.
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