The Waterfront

The business of the yard sale does not come easily to me. A client who stopped by and tried negotiating with my wife over some trinket or another gave up "You're good at this," he said and handed over his cash.  My instinct is to offer stuff that doesn't interest me at two bits and beg them to take it, then my wife beats me about the head and its it up for five bucks and negotiates it down to four and takes the cash and makes them happy. The psychology of the sale defeats me.

Its been a busy time organizing all that stuff and looking back at pictures I took last week cheers me up. Key West looks good!

Walking around the Bight is good relaxation for me and my camera and of course young Rusty. He has been perfect as usual around the buyers in our car port, allowing himself to be admired and petted as he lays there, his front paws crossed.

I've heard rumors a cold front may be descending upon us from the heights of South Carolina and we could sure use some cold air.

The heat and humidity has been stifling, so much so just standing outside prickles your skin with sweat and even I who likes the heat its too much. 

Here's the thing: in three or four weeks I'm going to be freezing my tail off somewhere north of here and maybe west of here in the desert crispy cold. When I start to whine I would appreciate the odd comment reminding me how hot I was in the Keys in September.

The picture above I took for Gary who likes to stay at the Galleon Resort when he comes to Key West. We plan to stop by his place Up North after we stay with my sister in law in Asheville.  I doubt we will see Gary's family at the Galleon again.  I'll miss that because the views are spectacular.

I look at the dinghies in the Bight, the vehicles they use to come to town from their boats out on the water, their immobile homes glued to the harbor bottom by lack of use and I'm glad we will be mobile in our funny little van. Living like this isn't fun to me,  stationary boats grow weed and mildew. I'm thinking stationary vans do too, so I'll have to guard against that!

I won't miss the chickens of Key West, noisy messy assholes much loved by some people. I figure the chickens will do fine without Rusty who is scared of them anyway. I'm glad he is, because chickens are valuable in Mexico and if a gringo dog kills a chicken in Mexico the gringo has to pay cash to resolve the situation.

Good advertising, life imitating art as you will see nicely painted bikes displayed around town. This machine seems quite pricey to me at $120  but I don't know much about bikes. To me bicycles are machines that require the concentration of a car with none of the speed or range. I'd rather walk. Does that make me too weird for Key West?

Dark Walk

Even at five in the morning it's hot so my  pre-dawn trips already circumscribed by lots of overtime have fallen away slightly. But look at what I find when I'm out watching Rusty sniff a nearby shrub. 

The one above was a slightly bizarre take on a some air vents on a common-or-garden air vent on an electrical box and below I spotted some stripy shadows on a  line of jet skis.  I thought they looked  pretty good.

Greene Street a few seconds after a scooter passed me by and I stood there thinking how quiet and easy it is to get around Key West at this hour. It reminds me of lock down, and then I think of the hope the vaccine brought, dashed by the anti vaxxers and the inevitable appearance of the Delta variant, transmitted even by the vaccinated who can become carriers. 

How have we become so uneducated, so prey to snake oil salemen and public liars? A colleague of mine with barely a high school diploma to her name says she wants to understand the vaccine better before she takes it. I am on my way out so I keep my peace (and my mask on my face) but I want to ask her how long does she expect to take to get her PhD in virology to reassure herself of the vaccine's value?

My last official day is October 2nd and I am on leave now so all the issues of working twelve hours a day in a room with idiots is over. it's just that the business of packing and moving is actually quite dull and a walk with a  camera is still a welcome relief.

Kermit the Key Lime Pie artist.  I wonder how far across the world has Key Lime Pie gone? I shall have to investigate.

Shopping reflections at Yours and Mayan.

Were I a smoker I might do my reflections like this.

As it is I don't...
 

Elizabeth and Greene

The city commission meets today to discuss how to handle the money making events next month that typically attract thousands of people to crowd downtown for ten long days. It is fashionable among locals (and if you plan to become one you must adopt this attitude immediately) to deplore Fantasy fest in all its crassness.

I felt the crude displays of witless stupidity reached a nadir and have been pleased to see an attempt to create a more witty, costume driven event. I don't mind Fantasy fest particularly as I live outside Key West and crowds of near naked people are at best peripheral to my life unless I choose to walk among them. The part I like about the holiday is the very fact of a purely local holiday in the middle of a normal part of the year for the rest of country. Its like having a private carnival. Every obligation gets put off till "after Fantasy Fest" which restores some of that much missed island time of yore.

Last year there was no Fantasy fest of course and this year there is talk of  Covid tests and hand sanitizers and best of all, "social distancing." Which sounds ludicrous to me. Covid exhaustion is obvious across Florida including in the Keys and I don't think Fantasy Fest will much care about masks, vaccinations, Covid tests or being a  super spreader. They have canceled the Grand Parade and the Locals March on Friday night is up in the air. The Zombie Bike Ride is also off this year. But no doubt people will keep coming to the private parties that are still scheduled and will no doubt spill over in the street. It's a compromise decision  and as always mixed suggestions produce mixed results.

I don't see the avalanche stopping at this late stage. Paying lip service to the virus is one thing but turning paying customers away is quite another and Key West has been doing well by virtue of diminished international travel. The organizers faced no good choices so I suppose this mixed bag is the best they could come up with. The city commission's response may be interesting.

Recently a Federal investigation into illegal hiring practices ended up with a contract labor company being shut down with the principals facing long jail terms for using foreign visitors unauthorized temporary employees. I'm surprised it took them that long to figure it out because Key West has a massive population of eastern Europeans, as evidenced by the reduced labor force in the city now.

I have no doubt a solution will appear somewhere or other and things will lurch back to an uneven normal but the search for employees is as bad in Key West as anywhere in the country.  The problem is a question of math as usual. If you can barely live while working three jobs, what's the point? You can slice it any way you like but that's the nub of the problem. The other side of the coin is that corporations that can do more don't pay enough and small businesses already struggling can't pay enough.

The city commission can meet till the cows come home, they can pay consultants all they want but the problem is simply mathematical. The numbers don't add up. Two of the great things I will enjoy when I retire is not hearing the tone to alert rescue to a call for help, and the other will be not listening to pious proclamations about affordable housing. I've heard it ad nauseam with never a solution. If you need housing for workers the only way to solve the problem is to build it.

From the Citizen, August 28th:

In the past week, 386 Monroe County residents tested positive, which is an average of 55 cases per day, according to the Florida Department of Health. The positivity rate is 15.8%.

Also in the past week, 717 people were vaccinated that week. The cumulative percent of Monroe County residents age 12 and older who are vaccinated is at 76%, according to the local health department.

Lower Keys Medical Center is caring for 30 patients who are COVID-19 positive. Seven are in the intensive care unit and five are receiving ventilator care, according to the hospital. In the past week, Lower Keys Medical Center moved from a green status to yellow.

“Yellow is an indicator that we require some additional resources, in this case, additional staffing, which we are in the process of obtaining,” hospital CEO David Clay said. “We occasionally bring in temporary staff to supplement our teams when the hospital is busier than usual, such as in season.”

Of course it is worth noting that this is the very low season and the idea that the hospital needs extra staff should have everyone up on their hind legs but there we are.  

I have noticed that governments are now talking about us learning to live with Covid as just one more manageable disease which I will  be happy to be vaccinated for annually just like the 'flu.

The police department is riddled with unvaccinated employees and that leaves me sitting at my desk all day wearing a  mask which is tedious but I see no way around it until my wife can get vaccinated successfully. She saw me on a  ventilator at the hospital and is completely aware of the agony of breathing through a  machine so she has a huge incentive to avoid the plague. 

I find myself resigned to living among people who have always exhibited a preference for short term gain over long term rewards. Even at work my young colleagues look at me jealously as I inch toward my last day. I'm twenty years older than you I say and they ignore me. Do you have a plan to retire I insist and they stare back at me balefully. I came to work at 911 for the pension.  I was always clear on that and I wonder why they prefer to buy expensive cars and daily lunches than look into their own futures and figure it out for themselves. They don't wear masks and hope for the best. I don't want to screw up after months of avoiding the plague for want of a little self discipline. 

I was talking with Rachel a few weeks ago and she told me how one either retiree who moved to Georgia sends her emails occasionally and asks how dispatch is getting on without him. " You aren't going toc are are you?" she asked looking thoughtful. I told her I've given it my all for 17 years and I've got other fish to fry now. She nodded. I plan to slip silently away and move on. I have no tell all confessions or snarky revenge memos to publish. I'm grateful for the career and the benefits and from time to time the companionship but the chapter has already ended for me.

Layne and I were having an outdoor breakfast with a friend at the Galley Grill in Summerland Key when a group of Sheriff's deputies strolled in. I recognized one as a former police department colleague. He drove a lot of dispatchers crazy with his low volume radio traffic but I loved working with Kevin. He got the job done with no fuss and cleared his calls and moved on to the next job with no wasting time. I trusted him to call for back up or to know when he could handle a situation alone and dispatching the shift was always easy when he was working. My wife was astonished to see him back in uniform. He loves his children I said and he has lots of them. Besides, what else would he do? He has health benefits and a second pension to work for on a solid salaried union job. That's the life that many would find very appealing and I get it. But I also get its not for me. 

Sitting back and watching the world go by...another way to live!

Joy On The Waterfront

Eat it raw indeed. 

It was all business as usual at the Historic Seaport at Key West Bight.

I find myself feeling pompous and rather silly every time I describe the Bight as the Historic Seaport...etc... but as it happens a  Very Important Consultant said the name matters and that's what they came up with. 

The transformation of Turtle Kraals into the Boathouse at Turtle Kraals is not moving especially fast. That's a good name though, connecting the new to the past.

For a mad moment I wanted to own the dinghy with the flared bow. Then I remembered that vans don't need dinghies. Another point in their favor.

Why you say? Because engines fail at the most inconvenient moments, that's why:

This was decidedly a good day to walk the Historic Seaport at Key West Bight on my lunch break:

It's called the Bight by locals because a bight is an indentation in a  coastline suitable for anchoring a ship. The original American settlers in Key West after they bought the island from the Spanish made this corner of the new city the harbor.

Now the shrimp boats are gone and recreational boats have taken their place. This is where the people anchoring out leave their transportation. The one closest has a bag of laundry aboard, reminding us of the joy of living at anchor and doing chores.

"This area is under video surveillance" Makes me glad I don't have to review hours of boring tape every time someone loses their marbles. I behaved impeccably while being surveilled, just so you know.

As usual I was walking against the flow. 

And there were quite a lot of people out enjoying the day.

I saw the potential for a vacation date here:

Telephonic vacation:

Schooner Wharf making people happy since forever. Its Schooner Wharf Bar, by the way, no plurals involved. Schooners Wharf sounds like finger nails on a  black board to my delicate ears. 

Key West: ideal for family vacations. And lots of people think this happy town is not child friendly.

Time to go back to the salt mines. It was good while it lasted. 

Night Colors

Driving thirty minutes into town to walk Rusty after he woke me up I was listening to a photography podcast. It was a discussion about the debate between color and  black and white and while I found it interesting I was not aware that I had been immediately affected by it. 

By the time I had walked from Caroline Street to Conch Republic Seafood I understood that I had internalized at least some of the discussion! I noticed a whole lot of color leaping out me in the dark. A city office on the docks painted the classic sky blue.

You'll see that color painted under a lot overhanging out door roofs. It is said the light blue color discourages bugs from settling. I have no idea if it's true but it looks pleasant enough.

The joke in Florida goes something like this: how do you recognize a newcomer in the supermarket? That's the person looking self conscious when they buy cockroach poison. After a while alligators and palmetto bugs( the tourist brochure term for roaches) are a fact of life.

It used to be the Key West Bight was full of commercial fishing boats. Now there's one holdout among the pleasure craft in the "Historic Seaport" and its attached to Conch Republic Seafood, a popular tourist haunt.

I've seen these charter boats below lined up but the green one on the end was new. So I thought it fit the theme that was developing my head, chasing colors.

Colors are everywhere when you look. I used to wonder about this weird mood lighting and then my wife got some installed in the van. I think it makes the cabin look like a darkroom but she likes it and wouldn't you now it there's an app to control the exact color too..

Wahlburger is a new restaurant on the waterfront where White Tarpon used to be before they moved to the Boathouse which is now at Turtle Kraals in the sort of musical chairs that often happens around here.  I've had their food and it was  fine which opinion seems to be seconded on Tripadvisor. 

The odd thing to me is how actors who have had perfectly satisfactory careers with all fame and wealth accorded them want to get going on all these weird unrelated business ventures. Still I suppose it keeps family members employed and proves something to some one who needs affirmation but I know I wouldn't bother, as I've heard running a  restaurant is a high stress business. Still, there it is, a eat a burger here and rub shoulders at some considerable distance with Fame the all important ingredient in the world.

The other place that did that was the Rum Barrell owned by a doctor to the sports world who spent his fortune playing pirate themed restaurants in Key West. Then apparently he found it more satisfactory in St Augustine so he decamped forthwith and left some gaps in the restaurant scene which are being filled now the pandemic seems to be over. For now. Maybe. 

And as I ambled down Greene Street pas the moment of colors I saw Peppers of Key West has closed and become a coffee shop. I liked that place and my wife loved it as she likes spicy food. The virus seems to have a lot to answer for.