The Things We Like

I love winters in Key West. It's nothing to do with what's happening elsewhere in the country, which this winter seems to have suffocated under an extraordinary blanket of snow and ice. My pleasure lies in what I see here, day after day. Driving Cheyenne into Key West of a morning, South Roosevelt Boulevard:

It's not like I ever lived in a freezing cold state. California in winter was too cold for me, and foggy coastal summers weren't that great either actually. Yet I knew tons of people who had emigrated from various mysterious places that got covered in snow in winter. It sounded miserable and they were delighted to be in cold damp frosty Santa Cruz. Around here a day or two of clouds, wind and sudden rain is followed by a gradual but determined return to normal, which is eighty daytime degrees and sunshine.

California lives through an appalling drought and our unusually wet winter is recharging the aquifers. Strolling Key West of a February morning is cool and fresh, and when summer comes and the tourists are fewer it will be hot and sticky.

Above we see a classic conch cottage while below a modern structure next door tries to imitate some of the architectural features in a building far too large to be a conch anything.

In Key West if you drink too much and pass out on the lawn in midwinter you won't get hypothermia or freeze to death. You will simply wake up with a headache. This is a very forgiving town, much of the time.

My dog on her walk doesn't care about the beauty of the foliage, the blue sky or the rising sun. She is looking for what interests her, which works for me as her rooting around gives me time to drink in the beauty of a warm colorful winter day.

I overhear people standing around talking about the weather "back home." This is my home weather and I like it. All year long.

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