Good And Bad In Key West

I dropped my wife off at work and drove on into Key West from Stock Island. Cheyenne needed her morning walk so I started by stopping at The Pines, a shady spot near the airport, which gives a pleasant view across the ocean as the sun comes up. And there, on the horizon, a cruise ship shuffling up the ship channel.

Cheyenne soon lost interest so we headed downtown, her preferred hunting ground, and went sniffing around. I found this mark I the cement, perfectly formed and intelligible yet lacking any purpose. Boza was here seems a rather inadequate memorial in a town where Boza is a well know last name.

I love these notes that pop up in odd corners of the city. Keep off my fruit, I prefer to give it to my friends. The endless warnings to beware the utterly harmless, possibly imaginary, dog. And that perennial favorite asking we not block driveways. Then there are the more personal notes.

Well, it is a bit of a lump on a narrow street!

People get seduced by the beauty of old town but the profusion of signs entreating and pleading and demanding and threatening hint at the reality of close quarters living.

One of the other irritants that pop up in the endless litany of complaints are the leaf blowers. I have enough engines in my life already and I don't need any more so I use a machete, clippers, a broom and a rake. I am not alone apparently.

Green white and blue, the colors of the Keys. It's supposed to be mid eighties by day and mid seventies by night into the foreseeable future. Excellent.

Then there are the feral cats that litter the city, literally. Feed and spay would be the sensible long term plan for an improved outlook but I certainly don't blame the soft hearted for carrying out half the program. Some strays do better than others.

Then with one quick click of the display panel the camera transports me to another city, or perhaps the same city in another time. Windsor Lane looking toward the Olivia Street grocery.

Bamboo can't be native to the Keys, I know that much but there again a botanic failure like myself can be fairly certain I have never lived in a habitat native to the bamboo. That hasn't stopped me from liking the stuff. I have heard there is a kind of cane that doesn't spread out of control and I think I'd like to plant a stand for myself. A hedge against future next door neighbors.

It's a funny thing but because I live in the Keys some people think I am supposed to be if not an expert at least conversant with the flora if not the fauna. However as I never tire of saying I have no interest in storing lists of names in my head, so horticulture and I are barely on nodding terms. Just because I live here doesn't mean I'm going to change the habits of a lifetime and suddenly start collecting things and names and so forth.

Island Bicycles had a sign up indicating they are now keeping summer hours. Bloody hell, spring was short. Bring on the humidity somebody.

 

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Spring Downtown Key West

Of all the artists who have come and gone over the years I do miss the output of Captain Outrageous. He found a new life in Key West painting objects in daily use a kaleidoscope of bright colors. Key West Diary: Captain Outrageous . I saw this multicolored car on Eaton Street yesterday afternoon and it put me in mind of the late lamented middle aged financier turned painter.

St Paul's was looking good as usual highlighting the perfect South Florida sky, my favorite trio of colors, blue white and green. The Episcopal church got the best location on the island for their largest basilica in Key West, a town packed with churches. I miss being in town to hear the noon organ recitals in the church.

This next picture highlighted nothing terribly important, perhaps the bright light of summer, the long shadows of afternoon creating a striking zebra effect on Duval Street... I liked the typical Key West scooter rider and the family peering over the wall at the wild chickens in the yard at the realtor's office. Just another eighty degree afternoon in downtown Key West.

We had not been terribly impressed by the poorly written and rather trite Quartet. Which had watched Saturday afternoon at the Tropic Cinema. My wife dragged me to some flick about a woman getting screwed up by prescription drugs, as a second attempt to see something worthwhile. Through the first movie we had suffered by sitting behind a couple of old biddies who talked incessantly through the sentimental claptrap of Quartet. Side Effects directed by the ever excellent Steven Soderburgh mesmerized the audience into silence and compliance. This was a fabulous thriller filled with twists and turns preceded by a long slow introductory build up that led me into wondering what the hell it was all about. Then the remainder of the movie slowly unravelled the layers. What a great afternoon's entertainment! See it in a theater if you can.

A couple of hours later walking back up Eaton Street I looked over at the spot where this "street performer" hangs out with a dog in sunglasses and they appeared to have been vaporized, leafing behid. Their chattels on the sidewalk. I know a lot of tourists think they are cute but I dislike seeing a dog treated like a circus performer... Better that I suppose than being abandoned in a back yard for the Reston it's life with no hope of getting out of jail, or getting any attention from its owners. There are a lot of ignored dogs around.

Actually Cheyenne was one of them. I left her at home for the afternoon as its getting to be almost summer like warmth and a prolonged snooze at home seemed more in order for her, which meant it was a short downtown walk for me yesterday. The old theater building has lost its for sale sign so either it has sold and may one day become something - or not. They say is haunted whichnis also why, they say, you never see any homeless dudes dossing in the convenient covered entrance way.

Haunted or not, it's a pretty building. Yesterday was a good day as my long lost buddy Robert dropped by and dumped some early mangoes on me, catchingme by surprise in my French maid's uniform as I did some housework. Weird weather seems to be causing all sorts of unusual effects in nature. Pineapples, including mine, are fruiting early and mangoes too judging by the size and color of the ones Robert dropped off. He has lived in the Keys since 1976, watching the bicentennial fireworks from the deck of a boat, but he has never developed a taste for mangoes which I find odd. I love them.

We passed beyond the car to check the Carriage Trade quickly. I figured if the menu was out the. Te winter season was still in effect. There was no sign of a menu so I felt confident in telling my wife that wi ter in Key West is over. Therefore it must be Spring. Carriage Trade offers lunches in winter with dinners on Friday, one item, no choices, no substitutions and as such it's an appreciated and unusual offering in Key West. I'm guessing the owners are taking a vacation as their porch chairs are cleared away. I expect they will be back soon, keeping an eye on Eaton Street from their eerie.

We stopped to do some vegetable shopping at Publix in New Town on our way home. Much to everyone's amusement Key West has two Publix grocery stores since the chain moved in to occupy the building vacated by Albertsons in Key Plaza. Speculation used to suggest the new store would be devoted to organics but the stores look identical to me, and they're just half a mile apart. My wife prefers shopping at the "new" store rather than the original one in Searstown. Why? Beats me, she just likes it more.

My Conch is bigger than your Conch. Well, jeez, that's a bit personal isn't it?

 

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Duval Again

It had been a while since I had graced Duval Street with my presence and happily everything appears to be as it should. The Strand was looking good, an elaborate facade under which Walgreens sells sun tan lotion, beach towels and souvenirs. Every time I look at it I wish it housed the Tropic Cinema, but I suppose I should be glad they saved the front of the old cinema.

Willie T's was making noise as usual and keeping the punters happy in the afternoon sun. It wasn't hot yesterday with a cool north breeze blowing through town forcing me into long sleeves long pants and socks even. Not everyone thought it was cold.

Walking past Fast Buck Freddie's I was reminded of the rules of downtown redevelopment: you need anchor stores. With the old department store vacant, with promises of some sort of revival some day, the formerly busy crowded sidewalk was deserted. Margaritaville was as busy as ever with people struggling to get some of the Jimmy Buffett practical pixie dust to fall on their shoulders. Fast Bucks went well with Margaritaville next door.

Appelrouth Lane I like not least because it's a shortcut to Whitehead Street but also because it looks good in the afternoon light.

We went to see Quartet a movie about aging opera singers in a retirement home in England preparing for a fund raising concert, and though the preview suggested a hard edged English comedy it was pretty saccharine and predictable. That was okay, it was a nice excuse to head downtown.

My wife said she preferred the color picture to the black and white I took while I waited for Cheyenne to finish her dinner.

I'm enjoying the time between summer and winter, getting ready for hot and humid season the quiet days and the empty streets. Sure there will be lots of summer visitors but those of us who live here year round tend to enjoy the quieter neighborhoods and empty homes. I admit, I like downtown when there are fewer people too. It was nice seeing Duval again.

 

 

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Swimming Season

The cold front came and left in its wake a lot of grateful plants that have suffered through a prolonged drought this winter, but it isn't just plants that are happy for the rain. My dog was bright eyed and bushy tailed when I woke up yesterday and she was ready for a walk, big yellow tail flapping wildly as she waited for me to get myself together.

Cold fronts also tend to leave behind a bit of cold north wind which pleases my dog and clear skies and sunshine, which pleases me. So much change in so little time, from apocalyptic gray and dark to this, at the north end of Blimp Road.

These are surreal days to me as we seem to be edging closer all the time to some weird war that no one cares to explain to us. North Korea has suddenly got an extraordinary bee in its bonnet about military exercises carried out by the US and South Korea. Usually our leaders overplay stuff like this, getting all bellicose and full of rhetoric, making a lot of noise so we can be impressed when the enemy stands down. Then everyone calms down and it's back to business as usual. This time the war rhetoric is absent, indeed the news from North Korea is minimized everywhere as though there are no missiles with nuclear warheads in the Mad Kingdom. I checked the BBC, Al Jazeera, CNN, Huffington Post, ANSA and North Korea rates less than Roger Ebert's death. When our leaders wanted us to believe there were weapons of mass delusion in Iraq they beat the drum of war incessantly. No one is arguing that North Korea has weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them, but the beating drums are absent. That worries me.

The US has flown long range bombers and flying command centers ("doomsday" Mercury aircraft to keep control of communications when ground bases are nuked) to Guam. US Secretly Deploys B-1 Strategic Bombers, E-6 "Doomsday" Planes Near North Korea | Zero Hedge It's business as usual in South Korea but North Korea is warning diplomats their safety cannot be assured after April 10. Talk about a phony war!

At home our leaders mouth off to each other about the economy while fewer and fewer pay attention to yesterday's news, which is high unemployment across the land. Time to Look Behind the Curtain and See Who is Against Full Employment « naked capitalism Not as high as the European Union where the BBC reports young Portuguese entrepreneurs are emigrating to former African colonies to build a better standard of living for themselves. BBC News - Portugal's unemployed heading to Mozambique 'paradise' And where they are embraced as they bring work to the world's poorest countries....

Meanwhile, as we head into a new week, all I can think is that it's time to get the boat out of hibernation and start getting it ready (not too much work, please), for a summer of swimming and being out on those beautiful translucent waters. North Korea be damned.

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One Last Cold Front?

Cheyenne wanted a longer walk but I was glad to get her home before the heavens opened, and I listened to the rain as I got into bed after a rather dreary quiet night at work. Often Thursday nights, for some reason not known to me, can be incredibly busy in police dispatch in Key West, but last week we were spared the frantic rush of calls and the endless triage of trying to figure out which might be in need of the quickest attention. Those sorts of nights leave me drained, spending hours treating the city as a chess board and trying to move officers around the city attending to the most urgent calls frost. It gets incredibly wearing knowing calls are holding and lacking the resources to deal with the right away. I don,t know how big city dispatchers do it, holding dozens of calls, many of them invoking violence. It would give me ulcers. As it is I have to hold back the low intensity calls on busy nights, which annoys people but at least callers aren't getting hurt.

It rained all day yesterday on and off and I had high hopes Friday night revelry in the city would be tamped down by the appalling storms with wind and slashing horizontal rain, the sort of conditions that often persuade even hard core drinkers to stay home for the evening and raid the fridge. It was the end of ,y long week of work, six nights out of the past seven and I was ready for the weekend off, at last.

I set off from home just after five o'clock and got nice and damp just going downstairs to get into the car. My wife as supportive as she is, was relieved I agreed to not take the Bonneville I to work. What the hell I thought, I ride enough in the rain to feel any compaction about not starting a twelve hour shift damp. The satellite radio worked nicely in the car throughout the storm, thank you. I took this picture below, from the top of the Niles Channel Bridge, not terribly accurately but it shows what there was to see across the water: not much. It was a study in shades of gray, and I was glad not to be at anchor in that mess of rain and fog and damp and cold (relatively cold, that is).

Coming down the hill into Summerland Key I could see a long line of white lights piercing the gloom, as much of the rest of the world packed up their Key West offices and went home to get a start on their regular weekends. I enjoy working my odd hours, two nights on and two nights off alternating my three day weekends, and I wonder how I would cope with the regular dreary schedule of five on two off in regular sequence. I also like driving in the opposite direction to the bulk of the commuting traffic...

Summerland Key looked dull and dark under the rain clouds, the usual lack of urban planning looking worse than normal in these wintery conditions. Often I find a ray of sunshine and some shiny green palm fronds work wonders, positive effects that dissipate under the weight of gray everywhere.

I am astonished how many vehicles on the roads don't turn their lights on. It is a phenomenon that boggles my mind, especially. Considering how distracted others are when driving. It's as though these numbnuts expect everyone else to notice their dark vehicles in these marginal conditions and I started counting how many of them there were on the Overseas Highway. About one in ten failed to turn on their lights, which gives me poor survival odds I the event I choose to pass only motorcycle at dawn or at dusk. Nice way to end a as radiator ornament on the front of a car with no lights!

I have noticed snowbirds are starting to leave, Easter is come and gone and with it the hope of Spring is I the air, making it safe for winter residential head back North. Apparently some late snow has been falling and cold weather has't quite dissipated but these are creatures of habit and the migration mode is upon them. This is about time that cold frogs wrap up for the winter and though this one was wet and windy it is not expected to produce temperatures even into the mid sixties so it will blow over in a hurry. By Monday we should be back to eighties by day and seventies by night. Perhaps even by tomorrow.

I noticed when I was in Ocracoke that the cold weather did not improve my disposition. I was on vacation which made it easier to bear, and briefly I enjoyed the change, but I do prefer sunshine and dry conditions. Sitting in the house watching everything drop yesterday afternoon did very little to cheer me up. Cheyenne slept next to the open door, and she was happy as she prefers fresh to canned cool air. She isn't fond of the rain but she likes the cool weather. I just don't.

The rebuilding of North Roosevelt Boulevard is about halfway done and the storm was a timely reminder of why the work is so necessary. I am not looking forward to extra traffic lights (they are so painfully slow to change in this town! Green never comes!) bit it would be nice if the engineers got it right and flooding went away. It sure hasn't gone away yet on the south side of the street!

In the end last night was intensely busy at work and it seems the rain, which passed over the city of Key West earlier in the afternoon was not enough to keep people home. And so now to sleep with the hope that when I wake the sun will be back, palm fronds will be glinting and white clouds will replace the black monsters of the past hours.

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At Home In The Keys

What the pictures don't show is yours truly trying to keep up with his dog. I was in shirt sleeves and Cheyenne hadn't been walking the Bow Channel Bridge for a couple of weeks so we both  were happy. South Florida delight!

Going away even for just one week leaves me feeling out of touch. I come back to my world wondering how the world has been spinning in my absence, as though I had taken off for another planet eight days ago. Now I'm back from my interplanetary travel and not much has changed. One of my potted plants was looking dehydrated so watering was the first order of business.

A house, unlike a boat, is a fixed place in the firmament, and is likely to be found as left. I read many years ago an essay by the late William Buckley, conservative thinker and avid sailor. He was a one percenter with a Swiss villa he visited occasionally and he noticed the same thing. He could leave the building with a coffee cup on the table and come back a year later for winter skiing and find the cup where he left it. The joy and the curse of a boat is that it is like a living thing, in motion and thus unreliable when left alone. His politics sucked mildly in those far off genteel pre-Gingrich days but he wrote well about sailing and in the stability of homes he was correct.

I went back to work wondering what might have transpired in my absence. Not much. One young officer resigned and moved on in my absence, no new trainees appeared in dispatch and thus we continued as before. It's good to go away because you realise that things move on just fine without you. I was reading about a terribly controversial proposal Up North that employers give five whole days of paid sick leave to their workers. Deal Reached on Paid Sick Leave in New York City - NYTimes.com Controversial indeed it would have been during the Pullman Strike in the 19th century but today? We regress it turns out and even as we read about the exposure of offshore financial havens allowing our leaders to evade taxes by putting their fortunes "to work" in offshore banks, we turn our national noses up at the notion of paid sick leave. Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact

I've banked nearly 300 hours over the past nine years and I am grateful to the city for my sick leave (and to my genes for my good health - so far).

Locally our state representatives have been feeling the heat over a new law that would allow multinational corporations to avoid paying local property taxes if they take over land formerly owned by the US military. Monroe County protested saying we the people were owed nearly twelve million bucks, back dated to 2007 for land formerly occupied by the military at Peary Court. Our Republican representative leapt to their defense saying Balfour Beatty of London England needed the tax break, a position that came as a surprise to our tax assessor. So she changed her position did our Republican representative in Tallahassee, and said they should pay taxes only on the homes lived in by civilians... A position taken up by the Republican leadership which currently runs the legislature in Tallahassee. That it will be impossible to prove who lives in what and that Balfour Beatty is not the US military and is thus subject to taxes has nothing to do with anything. Money talks and we the people get screwed again.

The newspaper had a pretty good piece of news inasmuch as the recycling rate in the Keys has gone up from the piddly six percent of yore to 26 percent now. Miraculous you might say but I just hope it's true because it would mark a real change. I've heard the arguments against recycling that it is not much more than a feel good stop gap to justify our consumer society. On the other hand if we do nothing...so I'm prepared to recycle and I'm glad to see the Lower Keys are getting with the program. Next up getting the bars on Duval to recycle their bottles and cans...

I caught a glimpse of the half moon reflected on the waters below the bridge. It wasn't much of a picture but it reminds me I could see the bottom shimmering under the moon's reflection. Water clarity isn't what it was but it's still not bad. Sewer installation is on the agenda for the Lower Keys, a public work that would help immeasurably to clean up the waters and revitalize the reef, but it's a slow business and it makes everyone crazy as there will be charges (taxes!) to pay for the installation. While the state government is busy giving away taxes to corporations infrastructure improvements go begging for that precious  cash.

We are moving inexorably and I might add at speed, toward mid summer so the dawn is coming up about the time Cheyenne and I go for our morning walks. Glorious stuff.

Winter was weird in the Keys with three measurable cold fronts as I recall, and the coldest of them hit while I was away in the Outer Banks. Spring is coming in with heat and humidity and light breezes. Some mornings the breeze is absent altogether and you get this:

No matter how hard humans try to screw it up it's good to be home.

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