Business Changes

Last week someone called 911 to report an incident on North Roosevelt Boulevard somewhere near the Banana Bay Motel "near the construction where they are tearing it down" they said. Tearing down Banana Bay? First I'd heard of that, another character-filled motel disappearing I figured. I like to check locations when I can't visualize them so I stopped by the motel parking area to see what was being torn down and I found nothing. Everything looked as normal. I wasn't even surprised as eye witnesses frequently get confused. 

Relieved to see no change at the iconic motel I started thinking about the latest changes planned for the city's biggest business strip. On big one is the Duncan Ford dealership now about 60 years old and just recently sold by the daughter of the founder. The new owners have retained all the employees according to the newspaper but have big changes planned. I suppose it's reasonable to think the place could use some refreshing.

Another old time business that could use some refurbishment is the tire shop on the Boulevard. Apparently this place will be torn down to make way for a restaurant to be built later. Glad I get my tires

 Mixed emotions among the people I have talked to with the news that the old TGIF building will be replaced by a Sonic hamburger joint. Not an inspired choice but franchises are the way this world works and the Conch Republic can't set its own standards, more's the pity.

This is a time of ferment in Key West I never know what will disappear suddenly. I keep checking Banana Bay on my way to work to make sure it's still there.

Don't Fence Me In

Rusty was as surprised as I by the appearance of an actual boat barreling down the canal that was originally supposed to be surrounded by homes. There are some homes way up the canal but I've never seen one on it.

They swooped by with a wave and headed for the jumping bridge. I'd heard the sounds of body flops earlier so I hoped the swimmers were out of the water. 

Further on as we came back on the paved Loop Road we found signs of new fencing about to be installed. Why? Who knows but it feels like another step along the path to gentrification as always.

I have no doubt there are good reasons to put up a fence but I find it unfortunate that things have to be improved all the time. I wish they could be left well enough alone.

It all looks terribly sturdy...

...and they have lots of them. Presumably the road will now be fenced off from the wilderness all around.

Oh well. New signs and new fences. I wish this could be a forgotten backwater. Pretty soon it feels as though we'll have nowhere to go to escape he daily grind.

Coming In From The Cold

I think it is more true than ever that you have to live your life at home, not at work. Rusty greets me at the top of the stairs outside our stilt house, every morning I'm at work. I pull up, park the bike, take off my helmet and he rushed down and leaps into me happier to see me than he can express, though he does let loose a few howls and mewls to show his relief that I am home. 

I value my dog so one night last week when a hotel called us to say they had a dog loose on the property it actually felt like a kindness to send out an officer to try to get the dog and find the owner. All of which happened by about three in the morning. The officer located a phone number on the collar and radioed me asking me to call the owner with the good news.  I shouldn't have bothered. He acted as though I was telling him his mother was dead. Is this a joke? h kept asking as though it was impossible his hound had gone walkabout. Are you really the police? You aren't even a US citizen. You must be a Russian spy. I kid you not. 

I don't sound as though I was born this side of the Atlantic but there is nothing Slavic about my intonation (I am a US citizen as it happens)  and I simply couldn't understand what he was talking about. I was trying to get his dog back where he belonged...and I was an Enemy? In the end the weird man's wife was convinced to go to the hotel and save the family pet, a cheerful Labrador apparently on the lam, a night in jail at the SPCA. The call bothered me though. So my wife sent me a picture of Rusty in his favorite spot, not on his couch, not on MY couch, not on his bed or mine but on this corner of the carpet:

I have heard stories of people feeling empowered to hate immigrants, and indeed a friend heard his trailer trash neighbor screaming at some guy on a scooter to "go back home" to Poland. I think the Pole was being an asshole but sending us immigrants "home" every time we offend is no answer to anything. Yet this behavior is now condoned by the top dog:

I see huge ironies writ large all over the US these days.I remember President Reagan telling the Soviet Union to "tear down that wall" speaking of Berlin and today our President wants to wall us in. I recently heard an appeal from the new President of France calling on the US's best and brightest minds working on new technology and climate change issues to make France their home. In France he said they would have everything they need to do their work.  Meanwhile the US President digs in and says coal is best and climate change is a hoax. The German Chancellor is now being described as the "leader of the Free World" a title she rejects but one that is filled with irony in light of Germany's past.  I feel like we have all slipped down a rabbit hole and landed in a world made upside down.

I am bracing for more anti-immigrant tirades especially as the constitutional guarantees seem to be holding up better than one might expect. But I miss the country I emigrated to, one filled with optimism and belief in itself and fearlessness in a world that needed those qualities as much as it does today. I hope it comes back soon.

Dawn Patrol

How I decompress from nights of taking 911 calls.

I love these spiky cactus plants, even without the bloom. In my ideal world my home would be surrounded by them several ranks deep, which would allow wildlife to approach but would keep humans, zombies, nosy neighbors and predators well away. My idea of a welcome mat.

Rusty was running in circles nose down while I had my head up watching the sun come up. The mornings have had this wintry feel to them lately which is totally bizarre as mid-May is the time of year when heat and humidity make themselves known in the air: summer is here. This year it's not been like that all week.

We stepped out of work one morning to a brisk north wind and Nick the Conch shrugged and said welcome to the new world order where its hot in winter and cold in summer. It has been feeling frigid riding home each morning and I've been forced to wear a jacket. I know 68 degrees doesn't seem cold everywhere but in May in the Keys its an arctic blast. I expect to see melting icicles hanging from the branches of the trees as the first rays of the sun hit them at seven in the morning.

There were a bunch of birds observing our terrestrial progress. I wanted to ask how they felt about cold winter mornings this time of year but they ignored me. 

 I wondered why the woodpecker below looked so plain until I realized I was accidentally in monochrome mode and I was so fixated on his lack of color I failed to notice how puffed up and indistinct he was. Maybe he was feeling the cold too.

I surprised myself photographing this dragonfly far above me in the trees. I could see his jaws moving in the telephoto lense so he was either breakfasting on dried wood -yum- or his teeth were chattering.

It has been rather pleasant feeling cold this late in the spring. Summers around here are long enough stretching well into November so a period of fresh cool weather is quite welcome. It reminds me of Mediterranean summers when I was a child, the low sunlight the col early morning air when I used to get up before the rest of my family and I wandered out into the woods and fields looking for trouble. 

I thought I found it too, a face peering out of a dead tree trunk. The harder I looked the less like a face it appeared to be. No trouble at all actually.

The art of photographing bougainvillea still escapes me  as the blooms end up looking fuzzy and indistinct. I liked the colors though and Rusty was still dodging back and forth, nose to ground tail well up in the air very busy.

 I think he enjoyed himself.

I'm sure he did.

Which is what counts.

On The Water

A few pictures from running about on the flat waters under a blue summer sky in the Lower Keys.

Sunrise Light

The sun was coming up over Key West, through the clouds and trees.

That hour gives a peculiar slant to the light.

Though even the immensely tall traveler's palm can be kept in shadow by a taller home:

A low wall by contrast bright with sunlit color, vibrant:

A pelican keeping guard, grumpily watching me drive away home with my dog:

I snatch it's portrait as we pause at a stop sign. Good bye Key West, for the day.