My wife and I took a little time to walk and talk one afternoon in a hot key West neighborhood. Cheyenne needed to stretch her legs and a dog walk is always a good excuse to get out of the car. We started out walking along the canal behind Poinciana Housing, the former Navy homes now devoted to low income housing for the city.
Looking down, for some reason I cannot recall, I saw this frog burnished by the sun and painted permanently into the asphalt. You just never know what you will see when you are out and about. In my left hand I was holding the extenda dog leash, in my right I held the poxket camera to my head. And all of that was preserved for posterity, in shadow, with the frog.
My wife ignored this foolishness as she communicated through her iPhone. Students came back to school Monday and teachers have lots to do, even after they leave the classroom, to get the new school year up and running again.
We took the broad median on 17th, a shady walkway back towards North roosevelt in the distance. It's proportions and trees remind me of the so-called "neutral ground" of New Orleans medians, those pieces of turf that used to separate the French from the Spanish neighborhoods of old.
I had previously photographed this garage door with a painting of an elderly Ford, and lately the elderly Ford has been on display with a "For Sale" sign on it. This day it was protected from the sun and hard to view.
I wonder what the value of this camera is to the occupant. These kinds of arrangments make me think that if the camera worked the sign wouldn't be needed. I wanted to scribble "so are you..." on the sign after I took the picture.
Time to collect the mail (or put a stop delivery order on the address).
Cheyenne was getting her money's worth on a short walk. She likes to walk even in this hot time of year but her energy flags much sooner than it does in the cool of winter. I keep a close eye on her when it is this hot.
We got back to the car, watered the panting dog before we set off for some shopping before heading home. As we drove off I noticed this car stop in the middle of the street. A young woman carrying a package or large envelope got out, left the door open and ambled up to a house as though to make a delivery. Meanwhile I observed in my rear view mirror that a truck was coming down the street and approaching the open door. It stopped, puzzled, and I snapped the picture.
It was the work of a moment for the truck to pull out and go round, but the puzzlement was justified. There was ample room for the young idiot to pull up to the curb, parked properly and make her delivery without this display of weird thoughtlessness. I wonder how we will cope as the stresses of poverty descend upon us and stretch our manners beyond the limit.
Looking down, for some reason I cannot recall, I saw this frog burnished by the sun and painted permanently into the asphalt. You just never know what you will see when you are out and about. In my left hand I was holding the extenda dog leash, in my right I held the poxket camera to my head. And all of that was preserved for posterity, in shadow, with the frog.My wife ignored this foolishness as she communicated through her iPhone. Students came back to school Monday and teachers have lots to do, even after they leave the classroom, to get the new school year up and running again.We took the broad median on 17th, a shady walkway back towards North roosevelt in the distance. It's proportions and trees remind me of the so-called "neutral ground" of New Orleans medians, those pieces of turf that used to separate the French from the Spanish neighborhoods of old.I had previously photographed this garage door with a painting of an elderly Ford, and lately the elderly Ford has been on display with a "For Sale" sign on it. This day it was protected from the sun and hard to view. I wonder what the value of this camera is to the occupant. These kinds of arrangments make me think that if the camera worked the sign wouldn't be needed. I wanted to scribble "so are you..." on the sign after I took the picture.Time to collect the mail (or put a stop delivery order on the address).Cheyenne was getting her money's worth on a short walk. She likes to walk even in this hot time of year but her energy flags much sooner than it does in the cool of winter. I keep a close eye on her when it is this hot.We got back to the car, watered the panting dog before we set off for some shopping before heading home. As we drove off I noticed this car stop in the middle of the street. A young woman carrying a package or large envelope got out, left the door open and ambled up to a house as though to make a delivery. Meanwhile I observed in my rear view mirror that a truck was coming down the street and approaching the open door. It stopped, puzzled, and I snapped the picture.It was the work of a moment for the truck to pull out and go round, but the puzzlement was justified. There was ample room for the young idiot to pull up to the curb, parked properly and make her delivery without this display of weird thoughtlessness. I wonder how we will cope as the stresses of poverty descend upon us and stretch our manners beyond the limit. 
I have an overwhelming sense of foreboding about the economy this Fall as kids head back to school this week and the news cycle revamps for the post vacation discussion of What Happens Next In America. Me? In my life I go to work, I ride home and I sometimes stop to smell the roses. Or in the case of Keys living I stop to admire the views, alongside my drive home.
I ride my Bonneville every work day, but rarely leave home early enough to pause on my commute. On my days off I like to haul Cheyenne around with me which forges me to take the car, because I enjoy her company, and she seems to enjoy mine.
It's been strikingly hot lately, proper high season for a summer time in the Keys. That means daytimes have hit 95 degrees and humidity is full on tropical. I enjoy the weather actually, as long as I remember to apply mosquito repellent before leaving home. With insect life held at bay I can stand and admire the play of sunlight and shadow on the waters of the Gulf, known locally as the back country, north of the Overseas Highway.
Park Key is an acre of gravel fill overgrown with mangroves at Mile Marker 18, just south of the traffic light at Sugarloaf School. It used to be a place to launch a boat as evidenced by the crumbling cement seawall, but the entrance to the island is blocked off by cement barricades, making the "No Parking" sign at the water's edge redundant.
The water temperature, especially in these shallow waters is bath-like and comfortable.
I am enjoying this summer in the Keys. Tourist traffic is down, and while that is generally the case this time of year, one has to wonder what our winter trade will be like in a year of burgeoning unemployment and the continued destruction of the American middle class.
Today is election day in Florida when Republicans and Democrats go to the polls to decide which party candidates will go forward to the Fall election. As primaries go we Democrats don't have many races to decide but my wife and I will be voting this evening to support local election of the School Superintendent in Monroe County as well as voting for Alex Sink in the Gubernatorial campaign. In this next photo the 16 million dollar Fat Albert balloon operated by the Air Force keeps guard over the straights of Florida from it's position above Cudjoe Key, a modest white speck among the clouds.
We also received our annual estimation of property taxes for the next year. I noted our taxable value has dropped and our tax rate has gone up by 200 dollars from $2450 to about $2650. Lots of my neighbors are up in arms about increasing tax rates on homestead properties (primary residences) but I've always felt paying taxes is my membership fee for participating in society. The other side of the coin is that my home's estimated value is down to $235,000 and with a $50,000 Homestead Exemption my taxable value is a modest $185,000 which sounds reasonable enough to me in this economic climate. Unfortunately we bought the house in 2005 for $559,000 which means we are asking ourselves why Wells Fargo, our taxpayer-bailed-out-mortgage-holder has proved unwilling to help us out, despite repeated polite requests for consideration and as our own income has shrunk. We are drowning in debt on a home worth one third what it was worth. And it will probably never again be worth as much as the mortgage in our life time. What would a sensible business leader do? If we were AIG we would ask for 180 billion in government money to bail us out. Fat chance. We face the prospect of no returns on a mortgage that doesn't seem worth the struggle now our own investment income has shriveled.
My wife and I were heading into Key West and we stopped, as we frequently do to walk the dog at the Bat Tower on Sugarloaf. To get there you turn north on an unmarked road next to the aircraft parked near the lodge. It's an old single engined plane, decommissioned and used to advertise the Sugarloaf Airport, a single runway airfield that also offers one the opportunity to jump out of a plane far above the earth. 
Simple aircraft have the ability to enchant us as we stand anchored to the ground, but people dangling and floating have the capacity to make us stand and stare slack jawed. 
I have no desire to try parachuting myself though when one looks at the website advertising Sky Dive Key West: 
There are many more such pictures at their website, where a mere $250 can get you doing the same thing. Rather them than me, thanks:
I have watched people indulge themselves in this form of flight and for whatever reason one seems to feel the need to dangle with one's legs wide apart.
It just seems so unprotected.
I have mentioned how plans have been shelved to build a convention center at the entrance to Key West and I noticed the Florida Blogger had a pithy comment to the effect that Key West hardly needs one more hotel. True enough, but as I recently left the city on the Boulevard (North Roosevelt Boulevard) I took three pictures of the mess that currently exists at this place, this first encounter with Key West that drivers get as they arrive on the last island in the Florida Keys.
And here is the triangle, turn left for US One north, go straight for Smather's Beach. To the right, flying the rainbow flag is another anonymous chain hotel, in this case the Holiday Inn, I think, which used to sit where the Beachside sits today. While it's true a full blown convention center offering the "Key West experience" minus the panhandlers and the day old smell of beer on Lower Duval might be an odd sort of improvement it seems like anything could be better than this series of architectural disasters currently lining the Boulevard. Probably any replacement would have to show off the delights of tall mud brown walls just like the Beachside, designed apparently by someone other than Pritam Singh's architect who uses the "key West style" to good effect in Tranquility Bay ion Marathon and the old stand by, Truman Annex, itself a walled pale reflection of the truer and messier Key West tourists seem to crave.
For now.The weather has been hot, as it should be in August, up around 95 degrees but recently we have enjoyed a spate of southerly breezes that cooled things off significantly. Cheyenne has been quite active considering the time of year. Short frequent walks and lots of resting, here on the bridle path. 
No matter what the temperature she is not one to let a good garbage can go to waste. In this case at Smather's Beach. 
The cool cave on the truck looked inviting in the August heat. The air conditioning sign at Kelly's Caribbean Grill struck me as rather old fashioned. Isn't everywhere air conditioned and damned the energy requirements?
I have never been inside this place so perhaps the sign refers to outdoor air conditioning or something truly spectacular. City trash cans (public recycling at all street corners is still a pipe dream in this determinedly backward eco city) display a sense of humor if you know where to look:
She of restaurant fame and once upon a time, up and coming movie star used to live in Key West. And had the restaurant mentioned above. I think her ghost still rates a mention in the Conch Train tours.
TAMPOA doesn't like dogs. Boo hiss. There again the Truman Annex Master Property Owners Association isn't my favorite group either so we can agree to steer our separate routes through life, they in the sterility of their walled compound, me and my dog out here. Among the tandem riders.
Looking over the top of the wall along Whitehead Street I could see this long lost park area out of reach and abandoned. A worm's eye view:
In foul weather this resident could lift up the campaign sign and use it to keep the rain off the modest little cottage behind the fence.
