Go Fly A Kite

Riding by Higgs Beach one blustrous evening and I saw a bunch of kites flying high.


When I stopped by I saw a dude on the beach with a kite mired in the sand. It was perhaps too windy for the little guy.


Out the water the conditions were right for crashing through the eighty degree wavelets.


I suppose it's fun if you like that kind of thing.


The strong southeasterlies were still wreaking havoc with the dude's little kite.


I can appreciate the technique and the stamina needed for those racing around on the water.


I feel bad for the surfers who seek waves in Key West. The waters here are barely waist deep so rollers aren't on the cards. Except in hurricanes but we'll leave that alone for now and hope for another quiet summer.


Fun on the water, not so much on the beach.


I love how they race around without safety gear, life jackets, helmets or high visibility anything. It's nutter versus nature and they were having a blast.


Mind you, I'm not sure how much fun it is to watch other people having fun scrolling back and forth on a lovely fresh afternoon.


I watched for a while wondering had I been younger if I could have got int this instead of conventional sailing. Nah, not bloody likely.


I had a girlfriend once in Santa Cruz, California, who wanted to learn to surf in one of the world's surfing hot spots. Even lust couldn't drag the younger me into a wetsuit, to lie on a board and wait to get rolled by a very large cold wave. The relationship, such as it was, was doomed.


Some people find kite boarding fascinating. Some photographers carry around lots of equipment and a bevy of very useful "assistants."


I wasn't sure what caught the cyclist's attention as he paused in the shade, but I had an idea.


They make a nice colorful background I suppose the kites.


For me it was a pleasant little break on my way to work to do some people watching.


It exhausted me just watching these people.


And some people just sat there and got in the way of my pictures. Telephones are absolutely everywhere all the time. How did we do before some annoying person invented them?


Nice break.


Time for night shift in police dispatch. Better that than getting dragged across the water by a barely controlled kite!



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Yay Obamacare!

I grew up with single payer healthcare and for all it's short comings I prefer the individual freedom from fear that single payer offers. That single payer is the most cost effective system to deliver health care to the people is just the cherry. But the health care patch work system the President has been pushing is at least something. 30 million Americans gain access to insurance, insurance companies get a pool of healthy people to cover to spread costs, the capitalist way, and people like my wife with pre-existing conditions don't have to live in fear of refusal.

For the reactionary fuckwits who call it Obamacare derisively and take a "principled" stand against mandatory insurance, like auto insurance for instance, I say please do opt out and take your bankruptcy on the chin when you need medical help. I'm opting in.

I've been pretty down on the hope and change offered by President Obama, but this is one small victory for we the 99 percent. How odd it feels.

Mile Zero

I saw a gaggle of scooter renters gathered behind the famous mile marker.

In my grumpier moods I loathe how people treat the streets of Key West as a playground, where riding a scooter is a Disney ride, but really who can blame them? It's their vacation.

They do love the sign don't they? Everyone wants a picture of mile zero in their vacation folder.

Oh and as part of the whole experience here comes the horse.

Actually I saw the mounted patrol pull over a group of tourists in an electric car driving badly, Disney style on the streets of our fair city. Reality bites sometimes, even in Paradise.

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Bight Boats

The statue is supposed to represent the man who encouraged the commercialization of the fishing port called Key West Bight. I caught him looking longingly at a boat preparing to put to sea.


I would be no good as a charter fishing captain. I don't know how to chase fish but I am not too bad at sitting around waiting for something to happen.


This place is always busy with people out seeking controlled adventures on and under the water.


Unless they are at work, like Key West's finest patrolling the harbor.


Some visitors like to enjoy the tropical waters udder sail:


Some boaters look lime they live at anchor.


Others enjoy a special treat as graduation looms:


More workmanlike competence:


Some amateurish puzzlement:


And here they are again, circling and heading out this time, far from their class room.


Boating with a dog is hard work, I remember it well.


They look like they are having fun. Good for them.


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Parrotdise Is Gone

The rumor mill is spreading like wildfire and saying this cheerful restaurant on Little Torch Key has been repossessed by the bank. Not so said an employee saying the restaurant was closed Tuesday night for a private party. I like the place and hope the rumors are crap, but that happy outcome seems less and less likely.

Parrotdise Essay

I was advised this evening that employees were only told Tuesday morning that the restaurant was done. No one seems to know, or isn't telling, what went wrong with this popular restaurant's accounts. Blame the workers as usual, I suppose, never management!

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Snapper Creek Rest Area Florida's Turnpike

Every fifty miles or so they have these rest areas on the turnpike across the middle of the state.


Snapper Creek is at Mile 19 which is nineteen miles north of Florida City, the southern terminus of the pay route. Until now it had been a crappy place to stop and stretch your dog's legs.


But they have refurbished the place and, bless their hearts, they have included a fabulous little dog park.


It's securely fenced and nicely equipped:


Cheyenne approved.


Press the button and fresh cool water bubbles up. Nice!


They have other facilities here, besides reasonably priced gas and an inconvenience store.


I like the dog park.


It was hot and the freshly planted saplings threw very little shade but Cheyenne likes to smell where other dogs have been.


She rooted around for a while.


I marveled at the thoughtfulness of whoever decided to offer this space for the dogs in this narrow and most urban of rest areas.


I know that in rural areas some rest areas encompass acres with massive dog walk areas but for a place that used to offer nothing at all this is a massive improvement. Great stuff.

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