Shadows And Light

I was trailing around behind my dog rather less interested in my surroundings than she was, when it occurred to me one doesn't often think of Key West as an industrial city. Yet, this tiny slice of light between two County buildings on Whitehead Street make this town look like something positively industrial.


That set me to thinking, an activity I tend to indulge in to excess. So, I reasoned I bet there are other pointless pictures to be taken.


It was a brisk sunny evening and as a result the shadows were crisp and well defined around the Freeman Justice Center on Fleming Street.


This sort of play of light is something I am used to seeing in summer in temperate climes when it's snow free, say on a warm summer evening when the shadows are long on the ground.


Around here coconut fronds are often found lying on the ground which can look interesting.


These two had nothing to do with anything except I do like seeing couples dressed alike. Did they get up ad say to each other "Let's do the red and white sporting outfits," or was it just happenstance?


More shadows and light through the mesh link fence.


Ten. I saw two shades of yellow, that found in Nature and at which comes out of a can.


Cheyenne kept ambling and pretty soon we were round on the other side of the county building complex.


This is the old jail which was closed tow decades ago but whose reputation for overcrowding and inhumane conditions is legendary even today.


I have seen pictures of the jail towards the end and it was a classic row of cells with bars on the front stretched along a dank dark corridor. Above you can see the bars on the windows.


Above is the sally port where prisoners would be unloaded behind closed doors and entered into the jail for processing.


The old sign would indicate the building is still used but I doubt it. The new jail is massive and complete with all facilities on Stock Island


This old building really needs to be torn down and replaced. Perhaps China will loan Monroe County the money at a favorable rate.




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Snowbirds

This Hummer stopped in the intersection while I was filling the car with dead dinosaurs. And stayed stopped for ages, long enough that the white car pulled up behind. Long enough that I had time to reach in the car, turn the camera on and snap a couple of pictures and only a minute later did he pull out. I have no idea what possessed this guy with a Michigan tag to park in an intersection turning onto Highway One, when there was tons of space nearby off the roadway.


A few minutes later trundling through Summerland Key a New York tagged red car stopped suddenly in the traffic lane, forcing everyone to slam on their brakes. Then they took their sweet time moving into the turn lane and seemed surprised by an aggressively honking local van with a tag that read "DA BRONX" and was thus presumably trained on horn use earlier in life.

People driving Highway One in winter with out of state tags need to drive properly because otherwise it is too easy to dredge up those negative stereotypes about visitors. And I got two opportunities in five minutes on Sunday. Bloody snowbirds!


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Grinnell And Environs

I captured several essays- worth of pictures with remarkable light this past week. Everything had a golden glow and I enjoyed walking around in it feeling illuminated.


Then I found this mass produced sign and everything started to fall apart. Trespassing isn't that hard to spell is it? Especially if you are planning on printing up millions of signs with that very word embossed on them.


There has been some lively debate in the paper after a letter writer in the Citizen pointed out a few grammatical improvements we could all employ. Now I worry that I have standards to attain.


On the other hand there were a bunch of responses in the Citizen that showed the notion of correct grammar and syntax really does get some people's backs up. Public spelling is hardly an issue you'd think.


Bonnie Albury the former teacher might have had something to say about that but she died four years ago shortly after I started this blog. Her former home is still being worked on, slowly slowly restored.


As I was sitting there enjoying the light and the sound of my dog panting a family rolled by.


All present and correct Key West style, dog, roller skates and bicycle. The family SUV redefined.



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Sunday Stroll

We had a downpour last week, producing flooding and blocked drains and everything.


The rains ashes then city clean after the drains started managing to cope with all the water. This eyebrow home, the one with the overhanging roof hence 'eyebrow,' looked particularly scrubbed and elegant


It's been a funny winter, with no prolonged or even abrupt cold snap we've hardly seen any temperatures below 60F (15C) and time for cold temperatures is running out.


It may only be mid February where you love but winter starts to shut shop around here by the end of February so if there is to be a cold stretch it better come soon.


For the time being I am content to lounge in the sun, with temperatures in the mid seventies American (low twenties Canadian) and wonder who it was decided bilious purple was the right color for curtains?


I've seen pictures of snow drifts Up North and blizzards in Italy and I want none of it. I like sameness when it is accompanied by endless sunshine.


And even though the days are shorter than I'd like, darkness only falls at 6:30 pm so the days are getting decidedly longer and summer time is just weeks away.


Cheyenne ignored the head under the fence but I thought the vicious little brute looked cute contained as it was. My dog likes cold weather but luckily she doesn't have a vote. I vote for continued sun and clear skies but really I don't have a vote either and then latest cold snap saw temperatures last night in the. Mid 60s. Add in a strong breeze and it felt cold, at last.


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Stormy Weather And A Palm

Dawn over Marathon, and I was standing in one of my favorite places in the Lower Keys overlooking the old Bahia Honda Bridge.



It's been windy for so long I was quite surprised the waters were that flat.



It never did rain but as daylight seeped across the seascape the thick dark clouds looked decidedly menacing.



Little wonder this is one of my favorite spots along the Highway between the Seven Mile Bridge and Key West.



It is an iconic palm from any angle.



The abandoned pump station still stands guard over the old 1942 water pipe installed by the Navy to bring water to the far flung World War Two Base in Key West.



And my dog took a break up the hill, keeping an eye on my welfare from behind some cover.



We keep an eye out for each other, Cheyenne and I.


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Evacuations And Quality Of Life

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity was recently created by the state's governor, the one with the lowest popularity poll numbers in the history of these things, and those numbers seem likely to sink further in the Florida Keys.



The new state agency has come out in favor of lots more development in the Keys reversing a trend supported by the former Department of Community Affairs which used to try to slow down development in the Keys, an area of special state concern.



The idea is that state bean counters are supposed to figure out how many people can get out of the Keys in the hours before a hurricane lands and wrecks everything and that number is supposed to limit how many residential and commercial units can be built in the islands. That seems a sensible and simple enough formula to determine how much ravaging can be done on these small lumps of rock.



But it turns out those sneaky bean counters have figured out a way to ignore reality and realign things to the needs of developers. They now say lots of people don't evacuate from the Keys so we can assume lots won't and the highway won't be as clogged so we can build more and not worry.



Well that's a theory. It will be interesting to see what happens when we get one of those once a century category five direct hits when everybody does evacuate. There will be lots of recriminations afterward.



I remember when I lived in California winter storms would cause mud slides and homes would be washed away. The destitute occupants would announce proudly they would rebuild in exactly the same spot. Good job fellas, that way you know you will wash out again sooner or later.



Sooner or later is the defining paradigm of natural disasters. Sooner or later... The other amusing note comes from the governor's office once again, the ministry of magic.



There is this insurance company in Florida, publicly owned called Citizens and it was formed because free market capitalists declared Florida too risky and they all buggered off. So we got a state owned insurance company that has done quite nicely and has amassed, against the odds, sufficient billions to cover us for assorted hazards and all without wasting a red cent on a dividend or executive bonus.



Guess what? Free market capitalists observing the dearth of hurricanes for the past few years now want to get their hands on that cash cow and are asking Governor Cretin to disband Citizens. And I'm pretty sure he will because we elected a public servant who never saw a public service he believed in.



I wish North Dakota were a more benign place to live. They have no banking or loan crisis in North Dakota, they have a publicly owned bank. Almost as good as publicly owned home insurance.
Mind you this blog would look pretty silly: Bismark Diary indeed.

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