Duval In The Rain

I will say the weather is weird at the moment, not that struggling to reach seventy degrees in winter is odd on cold days. It's that the wind is blowing out of the north east and the rain clouds are sweeping in from the opposite direction, the southwest. And boy, it just won't stop raining.

The weather is one of two topics on the mind at the moment. Yesterday I touched on the absurdly heavy traffic and numerous accidents caused by distracted driving when people cross into the oncoming lane and there were many nasty injuries by people being ejected from their cars. I guess it's phone use and lack of seatbelt use respectively.

Food shopping at the new Publix, the one in Key Plaza not the one in Searstown, I landed in the check out line of a chatty cashier. I had hoped I wasn't going to be chatted at because I am nothing like the cute young blonde in front of me, the one with the Christian Academy jacket who declined to donate to the special Olympics despite Mr Chatty's best efforts. I donated promptly but I wasn't spared. He commiserated with me about the weather remarking his only day off is Sunday which is supposed to be sunny, the only day in the forecast without its share of rain. I refrained from pointing out my working weekend ahead, and plodded out into the soaking wet parking lot.

Wandering up Duval Street I was amused to see outdoor heating on the patio at Willie Ts. Cold wet soggy Duval Street. Frigid cold.

I am not fond of rain as it makes everything more complicated, even simply finding your way:

It wasn't crazily heavy down pouring rain like a summer thunderstorm, more like a constant niggling persistent endless annoying drizzle imported from the Pacific Northwest. I'm about ready for the next stage of a normal cold front, crisp sunshine out of cold clear skies. I think we have at least another week of this nonsense, on and off.

I was properly wrapped up against it. Decidedly not my cup of tea.

Cheyenne likes it but she likes anything that isn't 80 degrees. It wasn't 80 degrees when I got home. Grr.

 

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Better Living Through Chemistry

I decided to ignore the rain hammering the roof when I woke up yesterday. I made tea and stared out at the canal, all stifled by rain drops. Cheyenne thought the 65 degree morning was splendid and after breakfast she stretched out on the deck keeping an eye on the weather while I worked on some annoying 911buddy stuff. Apple is having fits approving the app so we have to work to appease the Gnomes of Cupertino. Then the rain stopped.

Cheyenne got up and tottered out to the head of the stairs which freaked me out as I had forgotten to put the gate back in place. Last week I found her at the bottom of the stairs resting comfortably, oblivious to the nosebleed from one nostril. That was the only visible sign she had slipped on her weak hind legs and taken a tumble. Our mobile vet Edie Clark came by and pronounced her fit and suggested a pill that "has worked miracles for some elderly dogs." With our recent streak of bad luck I doubted it would do much but the alternative was pain and death and gloom and tears. I needn't have worried.

Cheyenne swaggered down the stairs with me hovering like an anxious fairy godmother and then she stood by the car door. The message was obvious: my walking dog was back. The only thing was we aren't supposed to over exert our nearly 15 year old Labrador. Which is a bit difficult to measure. I got over exerted dealing with absolutely appalling traffic cluttering up the Overseas Highway. I got stuck at the light in Big Pine and snagged a picture of some prize turnip blocking the road while trying to force his way into the turn lane. He could have gone forward me turned around but no, winter's discontent is thoughtlessness.

No one got rear ended (while I was around) so that was very good but accidents are piling up and the death board driving out of Key West can't keep up with the fatalities. People are dropping everywhere along the highway as too many people cram these tiny islands. Everyone is bitching about it and let me tell you I joined the chorus as I confidently passed St Peter's church and expected the highway to open up, but I was wrong. The line of cars heading into Big Pine and ultimately Key West stretched out of sight, inching south bound. At three o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon. Too much, so I turned onto beach road and took a long cut back road back to Big Pine. I saved no time but I enjoyed driving around a bit as did Cheyenne who also hot a walk, a snooze in some grass and Aldo a little wet with some light rain.

I stopped at Morita's to pick up dinner as my wife has been feeling a bit run down, and was glad I had but a hundred yard drive to Spanish Main and home. Traffic is that bad, every day. Cheyenne refused the offer of a lift and stumped back up the stairs, much to my amazement. Then she took up her favorite position during cool winter days.

I know 65 degrees and rain isn't that cold but combined with endless gray skies and winter winds day after sodding day it gets a bit much. We split dinner and I continued to drink tea with my half portion of an eight dollar plate of bisteca milanesa rice beans and yuca, and some crispy soft well flavored yuca it was too. We feel lucky Morita's is just around the corner for take out in this stretch of the Overseas Highway. Friday is the wife's birthday and we are having Italian with friends at the other new best joint, Bella Luna. That should be an interesting follow up.

It's funny but sometimes I think it wouldn't be do bad if it were cold from time to time, but when I faced the tiles in the shower yesterday morning and later I got my arms wet while cleaning the Bonneville all I could think was how much I love summers in the Keys with not too many people and a lot more sunshine. Can't wait. And hopefully the Gnomes of Apple will be in our rear view mirrors long before then.

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Cool, Gray and Slow

I had to go into town yesterday and I woke up to the unmistakable sound of water hitting the roof and slashing the palm fronds outside the house. It was a cool crisp day and Cheyenne had made the choice to ignore the open doors and lay on her bed snoozing full of breakfast and unwilling to get up. I checked the weather map and it looked like the rain clouds were breaking up. I pulled on my Frogg Toggs and set off on two wheels. The air was cool, the skies were gray and the traffic was slow. Great, but I was snug and enjoying my ride.

Much has been made on Facebook about the nastiness of 65 degree days combined with cold north winds and rain and it's true I did hesitate a bit before plunging into the shower especially as my feet have been cold for days but really its not hat bad. Maybe I am hardening up but I haven't even hunted up my woolen watch cap (though I have thought about it). This weather is all right, it's a change and it makes me feel like I am part of the great eastern freeze gripping the states Up North: 

And yes, I know some people enjoy the snow and the transformation of the countryside but all I can think is that some people leave their pets outside which thought makes me ill, and then too riding is impossible. I did ride to school when I was young and living an hour from a technical school I was enrolled in. I rode through the outskirts of London in snow because I preferred my motorcycle to train travel but in my defense I was 21 and stupid. But I managed without falling off and quite enjoy the daily adventure of truly foul weather, and darkness on the ride home.

Gray skies, uniformly cloud covered, and a break in the rain convinced me to stop to let slow traffic pull ahead and I wandered around for a bit around Mile Marker 13, enjoying the views and the flat waters. I had expected some white caps on the water but there was none to be seen. 

The Bonneville is running nicely even though I have found a rather odd quirk in the starting procedure where the bike starts easily without a choke and just wants a little applied after it starts running. I was flooding the poor bike by pulling the choke out as one would normally and I was thinking maybe it needed new spark plugs. Nope, it starts fine and runs fine just as it is. I appreciate the ease of use and light handling of the Bonneville more and more especially after riding the 800 pound Indian Chief. 

I am looking forward to sunshine but the forecast looks rather gloomy so I fear I may be a bit gloomy myself into next week. That and struggling to get Apple to approve 911buddy which is a profound annoyance as our first submission got one list of changes they demanded and I am sure more adjustments will be required as the process moves forward at a  glacial pace. The whole process is Kafkaesque - the government has nothing on the faceless bureaucrats of Apple headquarters in Cupertino.

New Town Tour

Duck Avenue looking wets toward the setting sun, except there are no tourists here. They are all crowding Mallory Square, the beaches, odd roof tops and more familiar places. 

New Town is where the business of key West carries on, shopping, homes with yards hold workers who have a grip albeit tenuous on homes not desired by snowbirds who just love Key West. These streets are wide and straight and not at all historic.

Homeless dudes hang here with their bicycles and their bundles just like they do in Old Town. Some aspects of Key West don't change no matter the neighborhood.

New affordable housing is popping up here at Flagler and Eleventh. Half million dollar homes on stilts complete with parking, air conditioning, they are waterproof structures with windows that close. Features you cannot count on when you buy a million dollar cottage where the writers used to live when Key West was bohemian. 

Some people decided that stilts were a good idea after Hurricane Wilma flooded a third of the entire city. I've heard stilt homes derided in New Orleans as "olives on toothpicks." But dry in a flood.

Yes, not fashionable but practical if you don't like a car commute, New Town is within cycling distance of what you need in Key West.

The Meadows

It's been too long since I went for a look at one of my favorite neighborhoods in Key West. They call it "The Meadows" because that was what it was before they built over the pasture. The neighborhood lies between Eisenhower Drive, Palm Avenue, White Street and Truman Avenue. Pick the 1200 block of Petronia as your Google Map starting point and you'll be in the middle of it.

The Moose Lodge above is about the only non-residential building- that and a couple of churches ironically enough, that lie within the neighborhood. Below I took a picture of Peary Court, the former Navy housing now being rented to civilians for $2600 a month I am told, safe behind the fencing. Thus not exactly part of The Meadows neighborhood.

The marina and Yamaha dealership at Garrison Bight backs up onto Eisenhower Drive:

Angela Street, typical of the quiet narrow streets around here, full of greenery and dog walkers:

 This is one of the largely unknown, unmarked lanes in Key West. It's actually Gonzalez Lane and its most prominent feature is the row of storage lockers:

The speed limit is one I am happy to comply with as this is a very residential area without sidewalks:

 Sunset caught on the trunks:

 Key West in winter, always green always summer:

Albury Street is named after a prominent local family with ancestral roots in the Bahamas, where Albury is a well known  boat building name in the Abaco Islands. Key West has connections to the Bahamas as much as to Cuba. 

No convenience stores, few tourists, peace and quiet as much as you can hope for in this busy town.

Streets Of Key West

I desperately miss the simple pleasure of walking Key West, at random and taking pictures. I will get back to it because I could use the exercise and because I enjoy it. For now I have to dig in the archives, these pictures from June 2013. Might as well be two decades ago, not just two years (and a few months!).

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Key West Street Scenes

I started this blog in June 2007 as an experiment. Six years later I have almost 3200 essays logged here, almost all of them photo essays with between one and two dozen pictures. I have avoided formatting anything so I could avoid having to come up with blue pictures for Monday or wooden pictures for Friday or any such limitation. I just do what I feel like doing and throw in my opinions because this is after all my diary of my life in the Lower Keys.

I have previously explained the reason why I started this blog, partly in disgust at the food fights and name calling so popular on open Internet fora and partly too because when I started exploring the Internet looking for blogs that might illustrate places of interest to me, so few appeared. I figured why not try to show Key West as it is; or at least how I see it.

Above we have Telegraph Lane which runs behind Rick's Bar on Duval Street a minor alley beautifully paved not leas because it serves the business of a Very Important Person. There are quite a few Key West streets that could use some repaving, but so far no luck for them. The gate shown below was demolished by a motorist so drove into at full speed I believe down Caroline Street and across the stop sign at Whitehead. As I recall the gate won, but even so it is taking an age to fix.

Key West streets are unique to Florida, St Augustine comes close but nowhere else has retained the intimacy and history of this tourist town even with its drinking problem.

Cheyenne loves walking anywhere in town, a place filled with vitality and alluring scents even at ankle height or lower. She gets to hydrate as she goes thanks to the myriad water bowls littering the sidewalks all over the place. Some are fancy like this one others aren't, but she isn't picky when it's eighty degrees and humid.

I prefer Duval Street early in the morning when people are few and crowds aren't elbowing me and my dog off the sidewalk. In the picture below it looms lie it just rained. It hadn't, they just like to use fresh water to clean the city. We are told the 75,000 permanent residents of the Keys and their associated businesses have no perceptible impact on the flow of potable water out of the Soith Florida aquifer. Just as well as the millions of mainland residents are working hard to dry it all up.

I love walking the streets of Key West and it's an activity highly recommended to visitors. With reason.

Every street, Greene Street below, is a center of life and activity, human or of plant life. Full of color.

Greene Street is named for Pardon Greene one of the four Anglo purchasers of the island from the original Spanish owner. Juan Salas got the island as a land grant from the Spanish king and did nothing with it, except to sell it (twice) to eager Americans. Below we see the city public works department cleaning Duval for another day of riotous living and another night of riotous drinking.

Mallory Square as can only be seen by the early bird visitor. Stephen Mallory was US Secretary of the Navy who subsequently joined the Confederate cabinet of Jefferson Davis. Which act did not convince anyone to change the name of the principal trading area of Key West harbor.

It was an historic day for me, being the first time I ever drove my car onto Mallory Square and parked there. At four dollars an hour I expect it it will also be the last time. Paradise don't come cheap.