Eaton/Duval Night

We finally got something approaching a cold front which didn't do much for temperatures but it does seem to have tamped down the ghastly humidity a bit. Check out in the photo below. Get your camera out of an air-conditioned car and you have to wait a few minutes for things to settle down. Usually I'm impatient and start wiping the lens with a microfiber cloth and but its bets to just wait for temperatures to equalize by themselves. Watch your dog enjoying himself as you wait:

I was on Eaton just off Duval looking at the posters advertising productions to come after we're gone at the Key West Theater. I am glad they have brought the long empty space back to life and I recall with pleasure a pre pandemic concert my friend Gary actually got us tickets to check it out. Covid would not encourage us to go to a public performance this winter so we leave town with less regret than we otherwise might. 

We closed down the yard sale after a slow Sunday but we did make about $1500 which seemed like a lot to me. I congratulated my wife and then we took a nap. My wife is friends with a Haitian pastor and she's invited his prisoners you d to collect anything they might want to help put our stuff somewhere useful other than the landfill. That will leave us camping at home for our last few weeks. Re-use is a great way to pass stuff along for others to enjoy in their homes.

As I step out the door at work the Teamsters have negotiated pretty big raises for my former colleagues. My wife looked at me for a minute and said two bucks more an hour? Sign up! And we burst out laughing. I'm glad they will get more money because life in the Keys doesn't get any cheaper but I am so glad not to have to think about all that anymore.

One thing I noticed at the yard sale was tenor of conversations with people new to the Keys looking for stuff. It was interesting to me to listen to their reactions to life in this new place. One new arrival in Marathon was really relieved not to live in Key West, home of the weirdos which made me smile. My grumble at the reduction of weirdness is clearly the perception of someone who has lived here too long. That was a thought provoking conversation.

There was the buyer who lives with an active wife and he's worried she may not settle down to a slower pace of life. I could do nothing all day he said, sweating to put his purchases into the narrow space in his car.

I stopped in front of the presbytery, the pastor's home, at St Paul's. In years past this has been a prime viewing platform for the Fantasy Fest Grand Parade. This year the parade is cancelled but Fantasy fest goes ahead anyway. No viewing platforms required, I guess. The gate was padlocked at four in the morning!

Tourism has been hot all summer. The thinking is that the desire to move is best served by visiting interesting places in the US no matter whether it's in season or not. It's not high season in the Keys but you wouldn't know it looking at the numbers.

AsI was standing there looking at details as Rusty paused at the base of every tree (no peeing, good boy) there were hung over looking people stumbling back and forth. We were supposed to be alone but Key West is the city that has a hard time sleeping this year.

And Bank of America is back downtown. They closed the office on Southard Street a few years ago and then I saw this employee-free box on the 300 block. It's a page out of Wells Fargo's book as there are a couple of rival ATMs just up the street. My bank on Summerland Key has been closed since Hurricane Irma trashed the Lower Keys so I guess inconvenience is the new customer service.  I like the trash can, it kales it look almost like a real bank.

Eaton Night

I stopped at Searstown first and let Rusty out of the car. He pottered around briefly as I assembled leash and camera and phone before getting out of the car myself. By the time I stepped out of the front door of the Fusion, Rusty had hopped back up onto his blanket on the back seat and was looking hard at me. Clearly he wasn't in the mood for an industrial walk this morning. I got back in the car.

I figured if he wanted an old town walk we could do worse than stop on Eaton Street and let him decide where to go. He led me to Whitehead Street and we turned past the Banyan Resort headed in the general direction of Mallory Square.

These early morning walks have been lovely with cool east winds keeping the humidity away and making walking a pleasure. I fear someone not used to hot tropical mornings might find the term "cool" unlikely but all I can say is I am not alone in finding this June's breeziness refreshing.

We walked past the old water tank inside the Truman Annex fence...

...and thanks to Rusty stopping to smell each tree truck I had time enough to photograph the explanation for the old water tank. Then I noticed the brilliant white Christmas tree- blazing on a June morning. Suitably eccentric thought I.

I describe myself as spiritually impaired, that is to say unimpressed by claims of the supernatural so essential oils don't hold a scented candle to vaccines. I should take my own advice and find out what exactly "smudges" might be on Google but I expect the results will appall my rational sense of orderliness. Barnum was right. 

The other essential oil comes in a  can though why the best place for the empty is the comforting embrace of the tree roots I couldn't say. There it is:

Puerile humor makes the ice cream go down I suppose. Not that my disdain will stop me enjoying this bizarre form of underfoot advertising. 

The sun started to appear as it usually does around here and with it came daylight. Rusty led me back to the car aftera  brief 30 minute walk and we drove home. 

He is decidedly not as energetic as he was when he was younger but I have to remember he was of an unknown age when he came into my life fully five years ago. He eats well, he sleeps well, and he knows what he likes and that's all I can ask. Quite a few years more would be nice.  

There was quite the color show on display and I had to fire off a bunch of spray and pray shots but I got one I quite liked. Summer does look beautiful in Key West at dawn. 

Eaton Street

I spend a lot of time looking up when I wander the streets of Key West. Usually summer  is the time of year clouds form and look menacing but naturally this weird winter we get random rain and extra clouds to keep things interesting.

I walked down Eaton Street and noticed a trend in my pictures. I used to meet my wife here for lunch with two elderly gents , one cooked the other served a fixed meal at a fixed price in the garden in back.  You got what you were given. Now it's all gone.

Subway seems to have closed too, a place where occasionally you get  a last minute sandwich of no great merit before or after a movie. One only gets sentimental about these things when they are gone. 

I don't get donuts here as unusual as they are because I don't much like the owner. They won't miss me as they do a roaring trade and sell out easily without my help! 

My last interaction here reminded me of the soup guy on Seinfeld and I am avoiding drama these days. They are just donuts and  I don't eat them very often. Lots of pastries in town all over the place. 

And then there is the occasional boarded up house. These always manage to surprise me considering the value of land the cost of housing and all that in this crazy town. I was listening to a  debate on the radio about the housing problems of San Francisco and you'd better believe you feel better wherever you live when you try to get your head around their problems...Anyway one of the "experts" pointed out that every single tourist destination around the world, from Barcelona to Bali has the same issues with rich people buying up housing stock for investments pushing residents out of the cities and tourist centers. Great, I thought, we are just like everyone else. Fantastic.

The Tropic cinema is fine as far as I know but I did enjoy the blank "coming soon" poster....it gave me a nice  caption for  Instagram. Good enough I thought.  It was about here I got the idea to do a series of photos about things closing. 

I know...St Paul isn't closed but I liked the skyline right there. Sometimes I allow myself to enjoy the beautiful in Key West. There is so much to get annoyed about in this town I can't wait to be retired and free to fulminate...No I want to be free to enjoy the good bits and not hear from the miserable, the drunk and the beaten up by life all the time. The sheer beauty of the church tower mustn't escape me and my jaundiced eye:

And this was my little joke.

The bicycles were in front of the Saints which I photographed another time. Very atmospheric:

Yes, that's what this city is, full of atmosphere:

And then I saw this fierce looking dude hauling his very expensive coconut. I expect it was expensive if he bought it. He looked armed for a good time with it though.

My Key West, not a sunset in sight but still a  splendid place.

Curry Mansion

A lunch break on a rainy day prompted me to go for a walk in black and white mode.

I found myself walking past the historic Curry Mansion built by an immigrant from Green Turtle Cay in the Bahamas in 1896. It was  a mail order design apparently and included all the trimmings still visible today.

In the days before air conditioning it was normal for people to sling hammocks and sleep outdoors and the mansion has a couple of wide verandas suitable for the purpose

The house was falling into disrepair by 1976  when it was purchased, restored and  turned into a guest house.  Below you can see the decorative fretwork that was a boast of the original plans:

Hurricane Irma tore down some of the massive tree cover from in front of the mansion which has opened it up to view.

And I find it very photogenic from all sides:

This last picture below is NOT the Curry Mansion but I include it here by way of saying, again, you don't need a huge historic pile to have an atmospheric home in Old Town...

Season's End

My wife saw the writing on the wall last week and when she went to the Farmer's Market on Big PIne Key near our home it was shrunk down in preparation for the end of the winter season. So we came to Key West, had breakfast at Azur and very pleasant it was too.

 Poached eggs on potato hash with ham...

 ...and walked over to the last farmer's market of the winter.

Rusty was at home though when I saw other dogs I got my usual dose of K9 envy:

 This is a farmer's market by the sea...with a  dog bowl in this warm climate. 

 And my wife loves this man's pickles. I remember the roof over the parking lot protected cars for sale at the Cates Auto dealership. A long time ago.

 The Coastguard was having fun with a remote controlled boat puzzling the kids:

We repaired to the new brewpub behind the restaurant store. The Cuzzy Bubba was a light refreshing lager-like ale that we shared and thoroughly enjoyed.

It's a part time operation that sells through the Restaurant Store. I want to go back and try some of their other products as they aren't all hard core bitter IPA derivatives. Check out: Bone Island Brewing.

I was interested to see the Cole's Peace sign on the bread rack, another local business that was folded into the Restaurant Store. Cole's Peace was around forever it seemed like, since 1997 actually according to the archives, and I remember when the closure was announced and I wondered what would happen to the remarkable recipes. I used to eat mango bread straight from the brown paper bag like cake, when I was on my way to my boat captain job and I needed/wanted breakfast to go. And here it is, still here, the name of the business celebrating the baker's son who must be ...in college by now?