Matthew Chapter Six

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.






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Limin On the Porch With El Che

Cheyenne and I were home alone so we did what we do best.


We hung together on the porch and waited for the boss to get home. My chores were done, laundry- check. Cleaned the car- check. Washed the Triumph and adjusted the chain- check. Trees trimmed- check.


The shopping was done too and somehow accidentally a four pack of Boddington's fell into the shopping cart. The book is the story of a US writer touring South America on a BMW retracing the steps of Guevara and Granado on their 1952 trip on La Poderosa IIthe 500cc Norton which powered the trip made famous by the movie Motorcycle Diaries.


Skies were gray but dry, a cooling breeze was blowing through the palms. The Boddington's was delicious, as was Cheyenne's rawhide. All was well with the world.


I felt like a proper Keys visitor imagining this is all there is to life in the Fabulous Florida Keys. Limin all the time.

(with thanks to Amanda in the BVI )

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Key West Bight Boats

It's the weekend so everyone who works regular hours starts thinking about what to do with two precious days off. Not that anyone wants to thank a trade union for struggling to create the weekend so many decades ago.


Surprisingly enough it actually took organizing and protest to convince employers that the sky would not fall in if people got two whole days off in a row.


Sundays used to be reserved for religious observances on the theory that six days of labor, at ten or more hours a day was good for the lower orders and keeping them on their knees Sunday mornings would help keep them out of mischief.


Which would not have left much time for going boating had the lower orders even had such manifestly inappropriate objects. Fiberglass and mass production of leisure craft was a long way into the future when the weekend was created.


I am off this weekend leaving the police, fire and rescue dispatching to my very capable colleagues who will no doubt fumble through without me. I get to devote Columbus Day, our third precious day off this weekend, to my dog and my wife, not necessarily in that order.


Sitting in a classroom from eight in the ante meridian to six in the post meridian all week long gave me a taste of how miserable it is to work regular hours.


Strangers view my twelve hour shifts from six to six as horribly long but the reality is we get two nights off for every two we work, plus I have time during the day to get things done.


Working all day and coming home knackered sucks. Now there is a pile of laundry, the motorcycle needs washing, the car needs vacuuming as Cheyenne won't listen to me and tracks gravel in the car all the time! Besides all that I need to trim the trees which are brushing the house, load the boat on the trailer...and the weekend will be done.


Ah yes, the weekend. We love our weekends.


And remember as we celebrate Cristoforo Colombothat it was neither bankers nor wars that brought you the weekend. Though the people in charge won't tell you that.



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Key West Recycling

I wonder what it is about Key West that the recycling center is right there on prime waterfront land.


I understand that this is city land and which is leased to the businesses at use it, but you'd think the recycling bins could have a found a less prominenthome.


Recycle your oil here and it's easy as pie. There is no way to claim that recycling used oil is complicated. There is no excuse not to and you'd think by now the point has been made.


But isn't it odd that this is where the transfer station found a home. Give the city credit it's not as chaotic or as ugly, as it might have been but still...


If you drive to Key West and decided to Dona curbside oil change while you are here...


Now you know where to drop off your oil, or your cardboard or your bottles and cans. It may not look like much but it's progress in a town that recycles seven percent of the waste stream.


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Key West Pix XI

The older generation tells us there was much ado about President Kennedy's Catholicism when he ran for the top job fifty years ago. That proved to be a non issue, not least because he took some of the Church's social mandates with a large pinch of salt. A thought that comes to mind when riding past St Mary's where flies the flag of a foreign potentate.


When I became a US citizen I took an oath not to submit to the authority of foreign "princes and potentates" (their arcane wording, not mine) and I have never flown the flag of a foreign power since then, not that I did before either. Catholic Churches are apparently not bound by the same code. Besides which the Vatican City State flag is even flying at the same height as Old Glory. Faux pas!


Golly gee willikins, the No Trespass signs are getting serious.


I loitered happily in the shade of this sign-free palm for a while.


Waiting for Godot. Some people do a lot of loitering and waiting in the Keys. The inability to show up on time is supposed to be charming, Keys disease they label it. I just find it irritating.


Pay attention! I can barely begin to imagine how uninteresting most of the footage must be next to then public bathrooms at The Bight.


It would be much prettier had they turned the camera on the other side of the building overlooking the marinas.


Monroe County spent almost 300,000 dollars last year removing abandoned boats from county waters. This year they are proposing some very mild legislation that would outlaw the anchoring of motor-less boats (hovelcraft in my lexicon) and require boaters to pump out their shit. Large predictable uproar to follow.


Live on a hovelcraft or live in Bayview Park. Not much of a choice for those seeking to corral the free spirits.

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Murray Marine

Murray Marine is south of Highway One, as vehicles arrive on Stock Island in the approaches to Key West.


The marina is what you would expect in such a facility at the southern end of the Keys.


Including a feathered greeter outside the office...


The marina basin opens to the east giving access to Boca Chica Bay, also south of US Highway One.


Racking center console boats is popular in Florida marinas.


They use a giant fork lift to rack the boats.


Though why boat owners what to rack their boats with their biminis acting as sails, I don't know.


It's a long way up there...


I ride by Murray Marine on Stock Island, every time I visit the city from my home up the Keys and its become little more than a part of the landscape. It's actually one of those useful facilities we would miss were they not the.

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