Happy Fourth!

You could be anywhere, I'm here, working the weekend nights. I'm where I want to be and I hope you are too.

Best wishes,

Conchscooter.

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Vespa Tag

I have been looking for excuses to ride to find a few moments relaxation between doing my night job and starting my business. Scooter tag hits the spot as opposed to all those threads arguing about chrome accents and go fast alterations. Here the tag was a musical sounding street name, so I went with Wong Song Alley, off Truman Avenue:

For a tag I offered this photo up the street. "A business with a woman's face on it," I offered and got a scooter in front of a  rather innocent Wendy's from another tagger.

My seized old Vespa has been off the tagging route lately and I do miss it. It'll run a mile or two before the engine gets too hot and the piston deforms and it stops running. I don't want to spend money fixing it at the moment as all energy is focused on our start up business. Fixing it will be for later this year.

Meanwhile the Ford Dealership on North Roosevelt seemed like a likely tag, so I snagged it one afternoon while I was in town.

After I grabbed a not-very-scenic picture of the Vespa at the airport I posted another tag of your scooter at a picnic table, sleeping bum and photo bombing chicken optional. This one is  at Pines Park in front of the airport.

I also went geo caching and failed to find the cache for the third time. But that particular spot on Big Pine got it's revenge as my arms are itching and I think I got some poison wood on myself. There's a just reward for getting out into the heat and living a little!

Have a good weekend and remember the next podcast interview will go up next Wednesday at http://travelandsafety.com/.  Cheers.

Key West High School

The new high school campus was finished in 2005 and I had to ask around because I couldn't for the life of me remember that date. I like the color and layout of the buildings at the back of a massive parking lot off Flagler Avenue.

This aerial view by Dale MacDonald from the State Archives Florida Memory:

   The student body amounts to 1150 students more or less with half of them White, a third Hispanic and fifteen percent Black.  I am not terribly well versed in educational matters being child-free myself, but in talking to a parent recently she said one of the things she likes about local public schools is how integrated the kids are. She said her step-daughter who is of mixed race likes going to school here as compared to Up North as students at her previous school were reluctant to cross racial lines.

It wasn't school policy she hasn't to add so I am assuming it was the parents who teach their off spring that sort of behavior but at a time when being gay and being Confederate is causing so much upheaval in the country and winding people up so badly, I like hearing some laid back news from the Monroe County School District.

I hear  a lot of grumbling about education in Monroe County and I'm no great fan of the School Board especially as my wife is a teacher (not at the High School) as they seem to prefer charter schools over their mission to offer everyone a decent education, but I don't know what the truth of the matter is. I guess it's like anywhere, some good some not. I hope they get their 8.3  million dollars-worth every year! 

I like the open campus this small town school still enjoys. There are some who want the place fenced off like a zoo and maybe there is good reason for that but sneaking off campus to buy candy seems not quite enough justification. 

Sports  are huge in Key West especially among parents and students, the Fighting Conchs, which is tough as the nearest competition is in Marathon 50 miles away and some games take place in Homestead 140 miles up the road.  I asked a former student if he was a member of the "Fighting Conchs" sports team and he said he was so I was forced to ask him how a Conch fights. "Put your hand in the shell and see," he replied with conviction. 

Until the second week of August all will be quiet here, one hopes, until the next year begins and the yellow buses inflict themselves on the traffic flow once again.

Government Road

The  end of October mess will be upon us soon enough but in the meantime this is where they store the paraphernalia when it's not in use.

I guess Coca Cola provides the recycling bins and here they all are securely locked up by the city. 

For Cheyenne the very end of Government Road is  a reflective spot to wander a little and check out what's going on. My girl has been under the weather lately causing me all kinds of stress and anxiety. First she pulled a muscle in her leg and could hardly move. That caused her to yelp in frustration whenever we left her alone and I was worried my wife would have to cancel her trip to California. In the event Cheyenne recovered enough and then stopped eating and drooped around the house. More anxiety for me but she is back on her food, back drinking water, back walking around with her stiff legged gait of old age. Every day is a gift.

 I wrote about this place  fully five years ago: LINK

 I have been back more than once. LINK

Cheyenne soon tired of walking even though I took her out late in the day to minimize the heat. She rested and I played with the camera in my phone, looking at the airport in the distance.

Government Road runs alongside the airport property. Decades ago there was a road cutting south from theis road to join Smathers Beach on the other side of the runway, according to old photos and maps.The road is visible just past the end of the runway:

 

Photo Courtesy State Library  Florida Memory

I watched the planes for a while and saw a bunch of people high tailing it out of Key West.

I was glad to be driving home with my worn out dog.

Dusk

My wife has gone to California for two weeks, partly for business. I'm at home partly looking after my dog. Partly spending time helping create a website with a lot of words. With no wife and my dog I went out after the heat of day and emptied my head playing with my iPhone.

 

 

 

I don't wear hats but I found one.

 

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Key West Heat

I was sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office reading my Kindle when a couple came in and sat down huffing and puffing. "Hot out there," he groaned. "She agreed. "Too hot for me," he muttered. I said nothing but inside a small voice was gathering strength in my chest wanting to ask in no uncertain terms what the hell he meant? It is but June and there is still a fresh breeze blowing from the east. The damp flat heat of August and Seotember isn't yet upon us.

Why on earth choose to live in Key West if you don't like heat? Makes no sense to me, but I was reading on a web forum recently the complaints of some pantywaist complaining of 106 degrees in Illinois. Around here it's getting into the low 90s, so why people flee the Keys in the summer to stay among relatives Up North I couldn't say. Might as well stay here, enjoy the breeze and the water and the reduced summer population.

I love the flat white heat of summer, with the proviso that air conditioning be available to sleep in. I don't even mind riding in it, walking in it, sweating a little, but I did not find downtown Key West that hot this past week. I got a clean bill of health at my annual check up so maybe that had something to do with it but the day felt good and I was walking with brio.

Living without air conditioning isn't at all impossible but there are certain requirements that have to be met. Buildings need to be built with breezes in mind. Standard closed cubes masquerading as living spaces turn into convection ovens. Cities absorb tons of heat and radiate it back and you can feel the difference between Key West and the canal-lined suburbs.

Seeking Out shade is always a good idea summer or winter. And when you are on vacation you don't have to deal with a lot of the aggravation that comes from working in the heat. Even working in an office has its issues. I can't stand being at my desk when the a/c breaks. I work at night and we have fans and open windows for back up, but sitting in a 24 hour chair sweating is gruesomely uncomfortable. So you get used to a/c and then you get in your car and you go home and a/c is the way of life.

The primary colors of bright summer dun make me feel good, the shifting patterns of shadows on the ground intrigue me.

I am not alone in enjoying riding under the sun!

One gets the distinct impression that making progress on the unbaked sidewalks can be a chore.

And dogs too need shade.

L

Those misting devices make outdoor seating, or phoning bearable.

Or close up in the heat of the noon day sun.

Sloppy Joe's as Hemingway never saw it:

The Bull, nowhere too terribly full this time of day:

Or take your drinks with you.

The family that sweats together stays together:

Duval Street baking gently at lunch time. Suits me.

 

PODCAST NOTE

My podcast schedule is changing slightly. New interviews will post on Wednesday mornings at TravelandSafety Thus this week's new interview with Tim Fargo a traveler who has seen most of the world, built and lost businesses and had great success, will be up on Wednesday. It will be worth the wait. Thank you for your patience. Meanwhile Peter Easton, the human Dynamo, gets a couple of extra days. Cool.

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