The Less Things Change

It would seem obvious to most right thinking people that running for public office is  going to be grueling, and winning public office will be worse. It's like becoming a social media sensation with all the calamitous character assassination and none of the money. And yet people keeping putting their names up for election in the hope they can effect change and in their minds for the better. This is an act of courage no matter how you view their positions on issues. 

On Tuesday voters in the city of Key West decisively re-elected the mayor to another term. She got 60% of the votes cast obliterating the 50% plus one hurdle of the primary race which seems like an extra noteworthy achievement considering the parlous state of political unity across the country and all the debates brought about by coronavirus. I don't vote in the city as I am a county resident but every decision she makes as mayor affects the Lower Keys one way or another. Many county residents like to moan about Key West's influence but in a county of 75,000 residents one third live here and the city has to be a powerhouse and a civic leader by virtue of that fact alone.

The next question is how will mayor Teri Johnston put into effect her ambitious program to change the face of tourism in Key West? It is possible the upset caused to the city (not to mention the planet!) by the virus may give her an opening to restart Key West's approach to tourism and cruise ships and mass marketing. If the mayor really does want to implement a move away from mass marketing to selective upscale tourism there may be no better time than this. Key West alone in the Keys has a gorgeous Old Town neighborhood and physical structures of a beauty found nowhere else in the Keys. It would seem there is an opportunity there.

Her first opponent Mark Rossi who owns Rick's bar railed against suggestions that mass tourism should be changed but with 20% of the vote his argument for more of the same did not find much favor. The other 20% went in slightly smaller actual numbers to Rick Haskins who ran a polite low key campaign of no radical suggestions at all. A Conch Haskins said he wanted to restore the town of his youth which appeal went only so far.

Whatever does come next was announced well before this election and the fact that 43% of registered voters turned out looks at first glance to be rather pathetic and yet the Supervisor of Elections was chuffed as that modest turnout is considered unusually high for a primary. On the back of this strong turnout she is predicting possibly 80% turnout in the general election in November. In fact the general election will settle a lot of questions about the future that we all have starting in Washington and drifting down to our own local communities but in Key West this mayor got elected on a platform of change so one can only hold one's breath and hope that the change is good.

The promise to try to attract smaller groups of high end tourists interested less in getting drunk and more in learning about Key West and it's history carries a certain allure and it may be a good time to implement such a plan as workers are priced out of the Keys in always higher numbers and frantic "affordable housing" projects spring up and fail to keep pace. I have enjoyed the history of this place and find there are many myths and falsehoods worth debunking as the true history alone is quite colorful enough. But I don't depend on slinging drinks for my living. At least not directly. What the mayor's hopes mean for hospitality workers will be interesting as they unfold to become reality and her hopes become actual plans. I wish her well as change always stirs up fear which tends to lead to raised voices.

The mosquito control board voted on Tuesday to move forward with their plan to release genetically modified mosquitoes developed by a British company called Oxitec. Plans for their release in Key Haven created massive protest so this time the release of the mosquitoes was approved without a location specified. A dengue outbreak in Key Largo may have helped the four to one vote but I have no doubt protests and lawsuits will follow. The debate over the proposed genetically modified insects is loud and furious and though I prefer to side with science from what I have read previous tests in the Caribbean have shown the modified mosquitoes effectiveness at reducing disease carrying insects doesn't seem to last very long. Nature still abhors a vacuum and apparently the effect of the modified mosquitoes declined after release in the Caymans. However the prospect of Frankenstein becoming real seems to animate most protestors and the way things tend to go wrong among humans combined with every degree of conspiracy leads one to wonder if the release is worth the trouble. I reach for my Deep Woods Off and am glad DDT has been banned. Genetic modification can wait, my walks in the mangroves can't.

Walking the Key West Bight I pondered my switch from water based travel to land based and I am content with my choice. Then I saw two forms of watercraft neither of which appeal to me but looked good through my viewfinder. Paddleboarding is popular with everyone except me and flats fishing seen below with the poling platform in the bow appeals equally little. Yet they are both beautiful things to look at.

I hope after the hubbub of 2020 passes into history there will be better things to look at than our failires as people and communities with better prospects ahead for everyone.

Day Tripping

It was my wife what dreamed it up so after work we piled ourselves and the always reluctant dog (Rusty hates  the van) into the Promaster along with a picnic dinner and drove twenty minutes from home to Sammy Creek on Sugarloaf Key.

Layne organized dinner, a salad followed by a bowl of indian curry from a  long life bag. We are experimenting with foods that are easy to cook and will last a long time in storage and are also relatively good to eat. I think this one was a Tasty Bite package and if I recall they are supposed to last four years. The idea is to have something to eat if we get caught out on the road. This one passed the test. I hope she remembers what it was as I haven't a clue.

We all three walked to the waterfront to see what sort of a sunset we had in store but either we were early or the sun was shy because my wife gave it up for a bad job and Rusty dragged me to the top of the bridge overlooking Sammy Creek, a tidal waterway between mangroves. The sun woke up and jet skis passed under the bridge, I got my photo and Rusty spotted a racoon. All was well with the world aside from a  positive plague of mosquitoes no see'ums and horse flies that descended on us all at once. My wife was smart to be inside the van preparing dinner.

I think Rusty had to kill and eat things before we got him but he's decidedly domesticated now and he trotted down to where the racoon disappeared and sniffed around the bushes for a few seconds before remembering his domestic dinner waiting for him in the hated van. I'm not sure why he hates the van so much, perhaps for his sensitive ears it is a noisy box that moves around too much but whatever it is we are on a  course of attitude adjustment with our dog of fixed habits. Part of our adjustment is to try to be less stressed when we tangle things up as I fear sensitive Rusty absorbs those lessons too. So in that spirit my wife suggested I take the van to walk Rusty and have nothing more than fun with him. I persuaded him into the van before dawn and took off for awesome sunrise spotting.

My destination on this short trip was Veterans Memorial Park near the Seven Mile Bridge, a twenty minute drive from home. We were alone until a solitary angler drove in and walked off up the beach and cast his line from some bushes far away. I took some pictures of what was developing into a lovely morning while Rusty inspected the premises.

There used to be a Cuban Chug which came up on the beach and was formally incorporated into the park. Then Hurricane Irma blew through in 2017 and the Cuban Refugee Raft disappeared. So for new visitors there just is a mysterious space at the east end of the park.

It was a lovely peaceful morning even though the Highway reverberated with the sounds of passing vehicles. The Seven Mile Bridge is right there:

It's almost impossible to find a spot in the Keys where traffic can't be heard in these flatlands but no matter which way the wind is blowing the highway is right there, in this case, so noise is inevitable.

Hurricane Irma came through here with 140 mile per hour winds in September 2017 and they have put the parking lot back together along  with the access road but everything else is pretty much still inoperable. Picnic tables and porta potties are your portion if you decide to stop here. Unless you have your facilities in a  van. Ah ha.

It occurred to me as I stood at the water's edge that a swim would be a refreshing thing to do on a morning of increasing heat. And there the van stood complete with a  fresh water tank, a solar shower, towels and best of all, a swimsuit. How d'you like them apples? I liked 'em pretty good.

So I put the camera down and used the van as a changing room. It really is quite versatile. I was feeling peckish so I rooted around in the fridge and shared a cheese stick with Rusty who quite enjoys the bounty of the van's water tank and it's shade, despite his misgivings.

It was a great day for a swim.

My only deadline was to go to the Marathon Publix, pick up some groceries and be home by eleven thirty when my wife gets a break from her distance teaching classroom. There was a scandal in the county this summer when teachers posted pictures of themselves on boats when they were "working from home" so my wife is extra careful to stick rigidly to her schedule. When she has students starting next week I may use the van in the driveway as a refuge from the hullabaloo of online teaching which pervades the house.

I had half filled the solar shower before I swam and  found that to be just enough water to rinse off. As it happens the temperatures are such that water in the van's tank is quite warm enough to shower with and I could have saved myself the extra step by rinsing under the water faucet which is extendable outside the vehicle. Still this was all a learning curve so I figured a few things out as I went along.

Remnants of someone's forgotten camp out.  The chair wasn't even broken:

I had the day off while the commercial fishing crew was at work. Score one to me:

I had fun sitting at the beach with my dog.  It was no epic adventure, just a morning away enjoying a new way of seeing the Keys. I think I'm going to do more of this as it's good for Rusty to have fun from the van and it isn't bad for me either. I had a really good time and I think the little tyke did too.

It's a bit like putting together  a jigsaw puzzle piece by piece, testing the various elements that go to making living out of a van comfortable and easy. I am surprised how different and more complicated in some respects living out of a van is, when compared to the many years I spent living on a  boat. Perhaps I've just forgotten the early struggles but there again I'm older so perhaps this narrow land based mobile living will take more adaptation. I do recommend to anyone thinking of making a radical change in lifestyle, if you have the ability do it one slow step at a  time. Going to the beach for a swim is a good way to start,  I find.

Election Day

Today they vote, do the citizens of Key West, for leaders to govern the city and its budget. A thankless task in my opinion and in the most watched race a second round of voting is expected as none of the three candidates for mayor is expected to get a simple majority of votes cast. 

Meanwhile back in the real world life goes on, people go to work, others struggle to get unemployment and tourists argue with themselves and police as to whether or not they want to wear masks, that endless tiresome tirade against common sense.

In the photo above we see Horace O'Bryant middle school a relatively new building that caused outrage by the sun blocking properties of its mass, mostly its height. My wife doesn't think it looks huge but she's about the only person I discuss it with these days as the public outrage has simmered down. I can't make up my mind. I suppose it is huge but I'm not sure it's too huge. 

Wandering Garrison Bight Marina and pondering the meaning of nothing very much at all I came across a gaggle of pigeons. I don't know if they have some sort of communication system but they sure did remind me of people hanging out in the shade talking about nothing very much. I didn't bother them at all by standing there and they didn't even get annoyed when I took their picture.

Garrison Bight is a place I like to go and be by myself and look at the water right in the middle of town. Even on scorching days I can be found lurking there staring into the depths from shade of the Palm Avenue bridge,  with the pigeons.

And make no mistake its hot though the numbers indicate it was actually hotter a month ago when they were telling us it was over 100 degrees. I'll take what I can get but it is August in the Keys.

I am astonished to discover by looking through old pictures that we have had my wife's Fiat 500 for 105,000 miles and eight years. Now she works from home for her last school year before retirement  and I take her 40 mile per gallon car to work. Time does fly by. 

Beyond Normal

A  few pictures from a quiet walk in darkness, old town Key West. I am not much of a  fan of photographing the moon as it doesn't seem to change much from month to month but on an excessively dark morning there was one solitary star which was I suppose the planet Venus. It usually is Venus when there is a star next to the moon but perhaps there is as much confusion up there as there is down here these days, who knows what normal is.

Everything is for sale. It always is, isn't it? However against the garish banner I saw the rather delightful door ornament. One thing about the pandemic is that it has me looking harder for stuff I don't normally see. The five dollar stores with their irritating barkers I try to avoid normally. 

I hope it was Venus up there in the darkness as that white spot seemed to be tracking Rusty and my progress down Front Street as we passed that weird bank which has been a landmark forever at the corner of Duval and Front. I've seen it looking just as it does today in photos from more than a century ago strange brick designs and all.

Fantasy Fest has been canceled this year of course and I caught this reminder of that fact.  I am one of the few who doesn't mind the week off. I particularly like how the new organizers were trying to get it back to a carnival and less of a tasteless strip tease in the streets, but there was always a certain pleasure in having a private holiday that mucked up normality for week. Fantasy Fest is that time of year when appointments get put on hold "...until after Fantasy Fest." Naturally the gormless side of the week off grabbed too much attention but I shall miss it this year. Then I'll only have, God willing, one more to go.

Reflection of a store window sign. Not normal at all but I liked the effect.

Bar pilots are out of work according to the paper and though one doesn't often think about their line of work when you do you realise that indeed with no cruise ships they have nothing much to do. Their boat tied up near the Galleon Resort probably won't see any before next year some time. Guiding large ships into a  small harbor seems a ghastly way to earn a living to me but the four of them apparently make a great deal of it so you know its not easy work. Imagine stepping off this metal deck onto a ladder off the side of a thousand foot long cruise ship moving through not so smooth seas... and then telling the captain where to park and directing the crew what to do. Not for me. Not normal at all.

 Key West muted. For now. Back to normal next year maybe?