Fort Zachary Taylor

I admit I went to Fort Zachary specifically to check out the Civil War Heritage camp out and it was great fun. But there again I am very fond of history as it helps me understand where we are as a civilization. Luckily I had no clue where the reenactors hung out so I made a beeline for the beach and parked in the handicapped parking (I have a temporary placard through April though I'm hoping I will ditch it before then) and stumped off with camera around my neck and walking stick in hand.

It was a glorious day, edging up t 80 degrees, but not humid and slightly breezy. I got a hankering to go for a swim but I am quite well aware the water would be freezing by my elevated standards. 

This is a state park one of almost two hundred in Florida and they are all worth a visit. This flat state has more stuff to see than most critics have any idea of but if you check out the state parks you'll be off to a great start.

I was hardly alone in taking joy in the day. 

Danger Will Robinson!

This beach has  rock break waters that give a photography something to focus on and provide foreground for a picture looking south toward the Straits of Florida.

I'm not sure he cared about the break waters but I think they serve a couple of purposes and mainly to help break up wave action and keep the sandy beach intact but they also provide a safe boat-free swimming area.

This photograph made me want to throw aside my cane like Lazarus abandoning his funeral garb and walk unhindered into the water. 

I think you can argue this is hands down the nicest  beach in Key West. There's lots of sand, there are no bums thanks to the entrance fee, there are fresh water showers, a concession stand, park workers cleaning and rangers patrolling. It's about the most peaceful beach experience you can have and it cost me $4:50 to come in alone in my car.

Then there are a multitude of picnic tables, and I mean lots of them scattered under the pine trees. Bring a  picnic and no alcohol of course as it is forbidden, but you can have a nice day here drinking whatever from a thermos flask and snoozing in the shade in between swims.

I couldn't move around like in days past before my accident and sometime sit does wear on me my inability to crouch or lean or swivel or dodge to get a better angle. Every limited change in posture takes me ages and even then I am not at all sure I can get a good angle. So I found a spot and swiveled around as best I could shooting in a  rather peculiar static sort of way and glad to have a big telephoto lense on my Lumix.  

There is the question, and a vexed question it is about the fate of the pine forest at Fort Zachary.

I took a bunch of pictures in black and white and also in color so you can decide which you prefer, if either of this wooded portion of the fort. The black and white looked interesting to me but honestly I wanted to record the place in its natural color because some days I wonder how long it will be here after all the shouting that went on a few years ago.

The state has a policy, reasonable enough on its  face of requiring non native vegetation to be removed from state lands. These so called pine trees are actually casuarina tees or Australian pines an they are very acidic so when they drop their needles nothing grows under them. They spread by projecting their roots and they are rampant. Also they don't dig deep and strong winds tend to topple them. All of which is very bad, right?

The thing is the pines of Fort Zachary have been here since long before the anti-invasive policy put about by the state parks and in a town like Key West with limited land for picnics and family beach gatherings no one wanted to see this shade stand cut down and replaced by scrubby little bushes as planted elsewhere in the park.

Boy did people get riled up! Half the city turned out and threatened mayhem and I tell you honestly I didn't give them a chance when you lined them up against state law. I was wrong. They sent the state packing and the pines have been allowed to stay. It was an uneasy truce and I dare say the subject won't come back up for a while but I don' think the state has given up on he idea of getting rid of the shade trees. 

I think they need to build up the native plants growing, slowly on the edge of the meadow across the parking lot and perhaps we might see a slow transfer of shade to another part of the park. But it will all take time.

The new plantings are behind the parked cars and vans in the picture below:

You can see why no one outside of the park system wanted these trees uprooted:

My buddy Robert, an eco-warrior of impeccable credentials opposes the presence of the pines but it's not a subject we bring up between us. I like the way the pines look and I like the clear ground underneath and I have happy memories of fun picnics here like everyone else. Call me sentimental. I'd like tow watch my wife eat a few more helpings of bright green Fausto's seaweed at a  picnic table before the place changes too much. There again why anyone likes seaweed baffles me.

This picture seemed like the perfect foil for all those people Up North under snow. They always get annoyed when I seem to enjoy perpetual summer in the Keys. Sorry about that but I do. I live here because I like summer year round. I don't ski, I don't like seeing my breath, I like turquoise water, impossibly high rents and ridiculously small amounts of land to live on.  What can I say?

This is the meadow. Dogs are allowed anywhere in the park outside buildings which means no walks in the fort and not on the beach as no one wants a surprise in the sand and not enough people pick up after their animals unfortunately. Even I who walks like a drunken sailor can pick up after Rusty, with difficulty but I can do it. 

The fort when it was built was an island with a long causeway back to land. Then they dredged the harbor and threw up the dirt from the bottom and built up the land around the fort which was supposed to guard the entrance to Key West. Nowadays it's a low brick shadow on the horizon. 

It's odd too because the view from the top of the walls is lovely and I'll walk the steps as soon as I am able. I took these pictures in 2013 when I could climb stairs three at a  time and not lose my breath!

Country Skies

This has been a winter of clouds and rain and cold fronts like the good old days. For  quite a few years it had seemed like winters were going to be bland and warm butthis year we have revertted to what seems to me to be normal.

Cloudy skies make for great pictures but sometimes you need a fur as thick as Rusty's to keep no-see-ums and mosquitoes at bay because before the cold front arrives it gets hot and muggy and the insects thrive. In a related matter the Key West City Commission caught a lot of people by surprise when they passed the first reading of an ordinance banning sunscreens with an ingredient considered harmful to coral reefs. Naturally skeptics argued the science isn't conclusive and there is some  uncertainty as to whether the commission will pass it on the second and critical reading, but in the meantime Key West has taken a weirdly green eco vote in a  town that prefers to avoid such brash statements of public intent.

I look up at these cloudy skies and notice the sun struggling to peak through. Which is another reminder that the Sunshine State is woefully short of solar panels. 

It has been my contention that some smart person needs to figure out a way to make solar panels profitable for utility companies and then their use will flourish. The problem as I see it is that solar energy doesn't offer the providers of the electrical grid infrastructure a chance to make a buck or two. Put in a panel, or an array and wire it up and that's that. I think we need to offer incentives, not as grants or tax cuts, but profit motives to energy providers to use solar. How to do that I haven't a clue, but innovation only comes when someone makes money off it.

I have found  a quiet spot  away from the highway and it has become my refuge for me my rolling walker and my camera. I see birds here usually in the distance...

Occasionally a cyclist comes by,  a silent speedy dot...

Or  we get a wave from mosquito vector control out checking their traps for signs of activity. 

But mostly I sit in my rolling walker or I stand and do some cloud gazing.

Me and Rusty together in peace and quiet.

Under the cloudy, glowing skies:

Caroline Street

I wear slippers because my feet are still swollen. Usually the problem is that they can be a bit warm for my feet, though luckily it is winter...Until now when unluckily for my slippers it's been raining cats and dogs. 

Rusty doesn't like the rain but he does like his walks as long as I can time them between showers. We got caught out at first and took refuge under an overhang at the Ferry Terminal until the rain eased up.

If my dog was ready to walk I was ready to brave the puddles. He didn't seem to mind walking through water and I was honor bound to follow so I got wet slippers, wet socks and wet feet. At least they weren't cold. I also got some rather decent pictures (I thought). These around Caroline Street and others posted previously from the marina.

I had happened to notice  a newspaper in a box announcing consideration of a possible second bridge between Key West and Stock Island. That possibility has clearly come up among a whole load of people with the looming bridge restrictions next year as the sole existing Cow Key Bridge  gets repaired. Among those pondering increasingly sticky traffic jams is a Spottswood according to eh paper, a name filled with power money and prestige. 

If you or I called the state department of transportation with a  query about building a second bridge I doubt we'd get the time of day. The newspaper was pleased to report state officials hopped to when he raised the question. Supposedly the second bridge would cross from 5th Avenue in Stock Island and would lie  approximately where I fat fingered a couple of black lines below: 

It's not a done deal they say mostly because the studies to consider the plan would cost $7 million and the bridge construction would cost $16 million more. I guess no check is forthcoming from the local promoter so there will likely have to be a few more fumbles to get such a thing going. The state suggests it might take 8 years to plan and two to build if all hurdles could be surmounted.

If they did build a bridge from 5th Avenue it would put a flow of traffic right into the heart of residential Stock Island which might be  a hassle. The good news for proponents is that many wealthy community leaders live at Key Haven and Shark Key and I guess they are getting fed up with the daily jams on US 1 so perhaps something will change.

Rain tends to cut down traffic in Key West. It was actually a pretty empty downtown early in the morning. Even the homeless population normally perched at the New Market was hiding from the weather so I took a rather unsavory seat on the edge to rest my legs. That was when Joan happened by. She didn't want me to post a picture but she said she spends time between the District of Columbia, home in my  mind of the world's best museums, the Jersey Shore in summer which she says is less stereotypical than television claims and she really likes it, with winter spent in Key West, deep in Old Town. Which she also loves. And between all this flitting about she finds time to read this page. Jolly good. If she relents and lets me post her picture I shall. I showed it to a cop at work and he said she looked fine but there we are.

I am not a fan of amateur videos but I made this one to send t my sound artist friend Mandy to cheer her through a cold St Louis winter and prove it isn't perfect in Key West either. Maybe it will play. If it doesn't I'll delete it. There's nothing special but I was hoping for lights and sirens as the fire department went by but they were subdued and i ended up filming a one minute street scene. Hence my dislike of amateur videos.

I have to say it wasn't very easy taking pictures as I had an umbrella, a walking stick, a dog on a leash and the camera to handle all at once but as we ambled I got some pictures that I liked using the old time filter that washed out some of the color. IT seemed to suit my mood:

The pigeons dived on the barrels of mush from the Waterfront Brewery pushed out by a guy as sour as the stuff he was pushing.

The sun gave up a short while later, clouds covered everything and rain set in for the evening and night.

Henry Flagler from behind:

Steam Plant Condos, built from the old generator that supplied the city with electricity.

A good walk.

Mangrove Dawn

I was not expecting much under a clear blue sky because usually it takes  some clouds to produce  some drama. And yet it  was a perfect morning standing on the road waiting for the sun to come up. Rusty was off running and chasing his tail. We were both happy. 

It was cold too a few degrees below 70 with a light breeze, such that when I left the apartment complex in the dark I had turned the car heater on to  clear the chill and discovered to my surprise it worked perfectly and offered not the least hint of cat fur singeing which is what usually happens when you don't use a heater for a long while. It's normal in the Keys where heat is rarely needed for dust to settle on heater coils so when you turn them on they burn the dust and make a gruesome smell. 

I wasn't alone in my travels when I looked up and heard the swishing sound of pelicans traveling overhead. 

Finally the sun put in an appearance and started to do me the courtesy of warming me up. 

The morning glow was reflected on some of the mangrove leaves along the roadway. I was feeling at peace and happy to be there. I have discovered since I left rehab that my life changing experience has not changed the people around me and with that realization came the understanding that I can't make changes beyond my very narrow sphere of influence. 

I had a conversation to that effect with a detective at work. Detectives are odd people in that they move through the world looking like civilians but they deal close up with the worst of human behavior. And unlike uniformed officers they also deal with the impact of that behavior, talking to family members, consoling and pulling their investigation through the most intimate details of people's lives. Consequently when I talked to a detective I met on my way to my office she actually understood me when I said I had seen some positive aspects to my recent hospitalization.

The mental clarity I gained came at a high price but unlike other people who write me off as crazy when I say the experience wasn't all bad the detective understood my point. I know now I where I want to live and how I want to live as hard as that may be to achieve every day. I know my time is limited and I am reminded every day of what I want to discard from my life and what I want to retain. Even in my own negative experiences when I am feeling annoyed I can see past the momentary in ways I couldn't before the accident. I can measure the extent and nature of my irritation before I allow myself to be overwhelmed. I wonder how I will cope when I have another big test to face, a problem of greater magnitude than a mere irritation but I hope I shall have the inner strength to cope.Right now if you tell me I have a messed up work schedule or my glasses are broken I shrug and move on. Not worth getting upset about. I used to let things like that bother me. 

The difficulty comes in relations with others. Other people haven't had their clocks re-set for them like I have. I fear I come across as insincere sometimes because I now have a tendency to make light of everything and I have to guard against that. What seems inconsequential to me is a matter of grave disturbance to my neighbor. I watched a young motorcyclist forced to swerve to avoid a car that moved into his lane, obviously not noticing the motorcycle. It was a mistake not a deliberate act of cruelty and perhaps the  driver should have seen him but the rider twisted in his saddle shaking his fist at the car driver for several city blocks until the car turned off. Then the motorcyclist finally turned back to his own direction of travel and promptly deliberately ran a red light. I laughed glad at least he didn't get knocked down. I don't think he would have thanked me had I reached him later and pointed out the irony of his dangerous behavior.

I know a man I'd like to befriend. I think he has lived an interesting life and now he has settled in Key West I see him around town from time to time. His girlfriend is garrulous and assertive and difficult to take in large doses, but like so many successful relationships the combination of personalities seems to work well. I think I grate on her nerves and so I cannot make a new friend as it seems I have to go through her to him. Too bad. I of course have made a promise to myself not to be around people who grate on my nerves! And her boyfriend is  part of a package deal. My wife has no interest at all in dealing with her. So I slowly learn to tread lightly and think before I speak and not to take stuff personally. Every day is a test.

Those thoughts went through my mind while I was reveling in the solitude of my slow walk, pushing the walker up the road, my big camera around my neck and not a human in sight. I felt rather as though I should not permit myself such pleasure in my solitude, as though enjoying so much being alone was a betrayal of my attempts to be more social and more open as I reinsert myself into the world. 

I found myself surrounded by Nature and it felt good. I had to answer to no one and please no one, not even my dog who was off enjoying his own space. In the distance I could hear the flat roar from over the water of  un-silenced commercial fishing boats, but closer to me there was nothing. 

I snatched pictures out of the sky, discarding the worst and hoping the remainder would express my solitary idle pleasure. You can't make people bend to your view of the world and telling strangers to make the most of every minute is a terrible insult when you don't know what path they are walking in the first place.

As I write this my friend Webb, the inveterate circumnavigator is poised to take off on a sailing journey to try to complete his sixth, and possibly last trip around the globe.  He describes going sailing as entering the monastery of the sea, a place where he has no communication with people sometimes for weeks at a time. It's where he is most comfortable and he makes no bones about it. He enjoys land, he has been married several times and is married now, but he lives to sail and to explore the boundaries of human experience. Part of my own rehab is finding, at this late stage in my life the boundaries between my solitary restored self and the part of me that I want to push like a reluctant barge into the flow of human companionship and conversation. 

These seem heavy thoughts when written down but in giving up hope of making a new friend I felt like I had taken another step along the path, finding my way one rejection at a time. That's right I tell myself, removing clutter from your life is a fad right now on Netflix but I'm pretty good at getting rid of stuff. The intangibles are harder to sort out, measuring an appropriate amount of solitude, whether or not to agree to a social event is much more complicated for me.Perhaps the first thing I should do is stop navel gazing and just get on with it, whatever it is.

It was a good day out in the boonies. One short whistle and my little brown bundle of joy burst out of the puddle and came trotting right alongside me. I have learned to trust my own judgement at least a little when it comes to figuring out people but the easy way is to see what Rusty thinks of people we come across. He is never wrong and if he avoids you, I will too.

That's what I should do, use Rusty as  people barometer, clumsy but accurate!