Rambling The Meadows

There is a school of thought that says the Federal Government is overreaching when it tells municipalities how to letter street signs. Apparently any time a city or county has to replace street signs the letters must be in lower case and no longer all in upper case. This rule was dreamed up by the Bush Administration in between conquering other serious problems facing the nation. This street sign is supposed to say Albury. This is Key West so Homeland Security rules kind of apply, from time to time. I suppose when eventually someone happens by and repaints this street marker it will get the now proper lower case treatment. Until then evil doers will have to guess where they are at this street corner. Cheyenne is not much concerned by any such issue. She enjoyed the trash dumped by thoughtless people. I enjoy the Key West skyline as always, mixed roof line, palm trees and wispy white clouds.This picture I liked because it made a charming old Key west turret look like something else entirely. Rapunzel never did toss down her hair.Red flowers, whose name continues to escape me. the open window may be a hint that it isn't yet as warm around here as it will be soon. There is a still a cool breeze blowing.I liked the pale blue color popular around Key West enough that I pained the underside of my stilt house a similar shade. The color supposedly has the side benefit of keeping insects and spirits away.I am always bothered (because I am weird) when I see a badly parked two wheeler. The rule always was back wheel to the curb, so that the bike is less likely to roll and tip and because when leaving the rider can see the traffic in all directions and leave the parking spot safely. A lovely red Buddy parked like this just looks odd to my old fashioned eye.I was about to stroll up the ramp, when fortuitously I saw the ugly yellow sign. Without the big black letters one would never have realised this was private property...I am no fan of Christmas, hallmark holiday designed to make frugal people feel bad, but some people can't get enough.I like my vehicles to be paragons of practicality. Even my lovely Bonneville is simply a daily rider. For others a car is a blank canvas and this car has a bunch of sea shells glued all over the bodywork. Whatever works.Even I know this old Porsche is called a bath tub model. At least i think it is. For some reason it reminds me of my youth though I have never owned a Porsche nor have I aspired to one.

Happy tourist chaps sailed by on rental scooters. I really enjoy the two wheeled focus of the southernmost city.Jose's Cantina has been resurrected as Caribbean Blue but the menu is simply Cuban as far as I can tell. I tend to think of Caribbean as involving foods other than simply Cuban as delicious as they are. Roti, jerk, and other Anglo-Caribbean delicacies involving fish and the like. Coconuts are quintessentially Caribbean and decidedly not native plants around here. It's funny because no one claims to actually like these trees, the arguments in their defense always go something like "Tourists like them..." or "Tourists expect to see them..." as though it is too much of a geek thing to like coconut palms.

I like the way they look very much but they are tremendous amounts of work. I have a dozen mature trees around my house and they produce tons of fronds and tons of nuts. These days fresh coconuts seem like they could be a real boon in a time of crisis but I get more of them than I can handle... This next picture is ART, "Conch shell on milk churn," ...and when you say that out loud please remember the "h" in Conch is silent.