Ramrod Tourists

Not too long ago I photographed a version of this sign  that appeared one morning, unbidden at the Ramrod Pool. This picture I took last weekend snagged at a poor angle for the light but which included my inseparable walking companion of course. 

 The thing is,  the last time I saw this sign it looked like this:

"We do not negotiate with tourists" which I thought was rather funny. Instead some delicate soul went to a fair bit of bother to rearrange the anarchic sentiment into the more saccharine and socially acceptable  "One human family" logo, which  crops up everywhere and seems to have lost its meaning in the gold rush atmosphere of modern Key West. Perhaps I am allowing my curmudgeonly instincts to get away from me.

The thing is there was a habit of lighting a campfire in a well formed ring on the "beach" at this undeveloped state park. People come here after work and sit on the shore and slap mosquitoes and drink beer and argue over how many angels can drink on the head of a pin. They are working people enjoying their Key and they are no bother to anybody. Except they were because some visitor or part time resident with not enough to do complained to the county who wrecked the fire ring and stuck up this sign:

The One Human Family ethos would condemn finking about something that hurt no one, was done responsibly and brought people some low cost fun. I don't know who created the sign but I'm guessing the original sentiment was a swipe at that whole :ownership and use" of the Ramrod Pool. Not exactly in the spirit of one human anything. 

So here's a nice picture of a mercifully empty Seven Mile Bridge under a hot sun. For no reason at all.

Ramrod Yacht Club

What an odd sign to see at the Ramrod Pool. Some great effort went into painting this sign creating a mythical yacht  club...that doesn't negotiate with terr...tourists.  I let Rusty do his thing around the edges of the pool, sniffing here and there as he went, but the Yacht Club was closed.

I quite like the pool even though sitting around drinking isn't my idea of fun necessarily, I find the people who come out here to drink and talk (loudly) are always very pleasant. Ramrod Pool attracts cars who line up after work and their occupants talk about this and that. Everyone I've ever met here has been entirely jovial and pleasant. Which to my way of thinking is a sound basis for a club.

The morning as still and flat and I rattled off a few pictures, just because I could.

A  year or two back some visitor filed complaints about people lighting a fire in a large fire ring here in the middle of the seawater drenched mangroves, and the county promptly sent out a task force to destroy the fire ring and put up signs forbidding any such fun. I remember feelings were running rather high against snowbirds at the time, and it's interference like this that gets part time people a bad name.

The fire was no kind of danger, it gave the spot a campfire feel (I liked to warm myself by the embers in the morning on cool winter days) but some body body got it banned.

Monroe County is now reviewing plans for one more gated community for the Lower Keys, an "upscale development" its backers call it, slated for the Dolphin Marina that currently serves swanky Little Palm Island. The idea is to close the marina and public launch ramp, give  a few crumbs of comfort in the form of some few cottages as low income housing "in perpetuity" (ie: until everyone's forgotten the deal) and in exchange we get more people who think they know exactly what will be good for the Keys on first acquaintance, like NO fire rings.

For now we have this lovely, undeveloped park, limestone salt water and mangroves. Rusty needs nothing more...

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Moon Set Over Ramrod

It was a fantastic opportunity to enjoy what may be one of the last cool fronts of the winter. Rusty was delighted to enjoy the cool north breeze blowing over the islands. 

The crisp air cleared the skies and we got the benefit of a sunrise to the east with an almost full moon setting to the west ( obviously). 

It's these moments that transition me from a night at work to my reward asleep in bed.

The transition starts when I leave the 911 center and enjoy a half ride home in the dark. Rusty's greeting is always over the top. He waits for me at the top of the stairs and ambushes me with leaps and kisses and toothy rubs on my cheeks while he desperately paws my chest. Then we get in the car and look for a place to walk. 

Like this. 

An excellent way to end the day. 

Cheyenne At The Pool

Even though we live on Cudjoe three miles  away I bring Cheyenne to her old stomping grounds on Ramrod Key from time to time. If the mosquitoes and sand flies aren't impossible this is quite a pleasant spot to wander around and enjoy the serene views of water and mangroves.

If the dawn is still, and if it has rained recently make sure to apply repellent of industrial strength in industrial quantities.

This is where we can be found frequently, around dawn after I have had a long night at work.

Come here too often and Cheyenne gets bored,

But this place attracts people and their dogs in droves, which is too noisy and busy for Cheyenne (or for me), but they leave behind attractive scents my dog enjoys chasing down.

Twenty minutes or half an hour at the pool and she's ready to go home, eat breakfast and catch up on her sleep.

Me too.

Hung Over

The threat of a cold front hangs over the Keys, which is a bit of a joke when the northern half of the entire country is being snowed under this week...However the possibility of rain under cloudy skies and a chance that night time lows today might reach 63 degrees requires some thought. We got sprinkled on yesterday morning as Cheyenne and I admired the ultra low tide at the Ramrod Key pool.

The moon was full when we arrived in the dark but clouds were busy flying across the sky covering the light source and plunging us into darkness. The moon affects the tides to maximum effect when the moon is full or new, roughly (spring tides) and the full moon here drained the bath water from the pool.

I find my life defined by my endless amounts of overtime, my work preparing the podcasts, sleep and lines of traffic clogging the highway. Winter is in full swing yet Key West seems to have priced itself out of the youth market, the winter visitors, lots of them, are older, wealthier as they need to be, and less inclined to be rowdy.

Winter weather in South a Florida has hot weird and I am not the only one to notice. True cold fronts no longer seen to occur, and I can't remember the last time a true cold snap produced 50 daytime degrees. Rain seems year round now, lighter and less frequent in winter but we now get random unpredictable showers in winter where previously rain fell only before the arrival of a cold north wind. Now winter is humid and wet, similar to summer only less so.

I am not sure how I feel about these changes. I don't like the cold but some winter chill seems right and proper. The issue of how much our leaders ignore climate change and pretend it isn't there gets progressively more interesting as the effects become less and less deniable. If I had children I'd be getting worried and vocal.

As it is I have a dog and she reminds me that the here and now is what matters most. It's not raining right now so a walk is possible and the hunt for interesting smells is possible.

Perhaps my judgement is impaired, perhaps I spend too much time at work but sometimes it feels like the whole world is hung over.

Everywhere the trash cans are full, the New Year's celebrations are a memory, represented by empty bottles and cans, bulging plastic bags and a scene something like this:

Cheap gas, another sign of what..? Demand destruction, geo political chess games or some other strange need of the powerful which will only become clear later when the dust has settled and prices go back up to normal peak production levels. Still it's good to be alive in the Keys, even if the planet really should stop over indulging.

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Raining Frogs

There is a school of thought along the lines of: cold nasty wet weather is the right weather to sit indoors under a blanket with a cup of tea and a "good" book. I say screw that, I am perfectly capable of hunkering indoors on bright sunny days if I feel like hunkering. As to what constitutes a good book versus the alternative, I have no suggestions. I like a book that absorbs my interest and whether it's good or bad I don't much care. And if you are an anti-Kindle holdout let me tell you electronic books are amazing wonderful and utterly brilliant. You don't need weather like this to get into your Kindle:

There is a part of me that likes the idea of renting a cabin in February, a week in Vermont say, under a blanket of snow with supplies, a fireplace and a happy dog. The trouble is I keep forgetting how antsy I get when the sun stops shining. On foul weather days I stand at the window with a vacant stare like I'm waiting for my ship to come in. Actually touching snow gives me the creeps, I don't like being cold and the invigorating effects of cold noses and cold feet do nothing for me. The idea of being trapped in a cabin in Vermont is, in reality, so absurd for me that I catch myself wondering how self deluded am I really?

It's an ill wind that blows no one any good, as the saying goes, so the forecast that predicts heavy insistent rain all this week has its good side for night police dispatchers the week of Fantasy Fest. Rain usually keeps calls for service in check. Alcohol consumption drops and with it we get fewer incidents which is great. Which also means less money is changing hands which isn't so great and a lot of people are watching their much anticipated vacations in the sun turn into soggy mush which is even less great.

On the other hand rain at Fantasy Fest seems to be a tradition even though this year a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico is pushing a stream of rain at us. So dampness should be expected, if not this level of continuous heavy rain. Cheyenne does not like walking in the rain nd her frustration s palpable as though this stuff is my fault, a state of affairs created to please me, and annoy her. I wish it were because then I could turn it off.

I am benching my Bonneville this week to commute by car. It's not so much the rain as the number of distracted drivers. Next week we return to highway somnolence until Christmas but this week people are arriving in long lines of drivers texting, or fiddling with GPS as they drive the sole route to Key West. At night one can add a high proportion of alcohol impaired people nd riding a motorcycle becomes a losing proposition. In the rain people drive even more badly so I'm sticking to the Fusion.

It's been raining so hard my wife sent me this picture while I was at work, a frog escaping he rain by clinging to the patio door.

And that wasn't the only wild animal she had to contend with while I was at work.

Rain, rain,go away...before we all get cabin fever.

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Thunderstorms In Blue

Sometimes my phone camera surprises me. An exposure setting left from a previous expedition produces unexpected results. I was at the Ramrod Pool with the hound early one morning, but not too early as darkness persists to beyond 6:30 these days... I love daylight savings time!... and instead I got this surreal shade of blue over everything. What the hell...thunderstorms in blue, so be it.

"Blues With a Feelin'"
(Little Walter, Paul Butterfield)

Blues with a feelin',
that's what I have today
Blues with a feelin',
that's what I have today
I'm gonna find my baby,
if it takes all night and day

What a lonesome feelin',
when your by yourself
What a lonesome feelin',
when your by yourself
When the one that you're lovin',
have gone away livin'

Courtesy of GarytheTourist.

 

Lo! What light through yonder window breaks..? Just another thunderhead ready to swallow my car.

 

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