White Street

 Ambling around on White Street around 8:30 with the sun low and behind us. Sandy's Cafe now offers smoothies. Maybe it always did but I only ever order coffee to drink from them. Why else go to a Cuban coffee shop?

 This building cracks me. A Commercial paint shop also housing totally hippy food outlets. Both valuable but they just don't look quite right set in the same location. In Key West where space is at a premium and land costs are correspondingly high it makes perfect sense.

No one could remember how to say the original name of this rather interesting restaurant so now they call it The Oasis, which any American can grasp. "Al Maidah" means table spread for a feast in Arabic according to the ever alert Wikipedia.

 Early Christmas detritus outside the county building.

I paused to exchange pleasantries with this guy. I've seen him shuffling around Key West for years refusing help and minding his own business. How long have you been walking Key West I asked. 46 years he said. Does it get boring hanging around I asked. My fear of homelessness is having all time and no money to spend every single day. Boring? he said. Key West is never boring.

The yoga studio sign prompted me to post this one on Instagram while alluding to his patience waiting for a bus.

 Probably better off being a passenger on Truman Avenue in winter:

 Or better yet riding a  skateboard up the sidewalk.

 Rusty prefers to walk.

A rare selfie. I forget why I took it but I can never coordinate a smile with the photograph. Because I am incompetent.

More wheels sharing the road, deep into the shade of the Meadows. A former meadow and now a neighborhood. 

Across Truman I knew of a spot to take a break with a  low wall for me and a patch of grass for Himself. 

Jose Marti, the revolutionary claimed by everybody. The Cuban government praises him for fighting Spanish colonial domination in Cuba meanwhile the right wing exiles in Miami hold him up as an example of the fight against oppression and in Key West he is one of the most famous people to blow through town in the 19th century.  Read all about him: Wikipedia

Companionable silence, always golden.

Stormy Weather

We are told we face a few days of harsh weather. Yes of course I know that lows in the mid 60s and highs in the mid 70s. doesn't sound like a blizzard to those more used to winters in Michigan and other places where winter sports reign. However in a town where fishing is one of the highest rated activities I fear there will be the inexperienced who will try their hand going out in boats in winds strong enough to drown them. It happens every winter people have to be rescued from unsuitable craft in harsh conditions. This is not small craft weather.

The cold front has blown in with rain and wind as you might expect. I always feel bad when people come for a few days escape from winter and this is what they get. For those of us who made it through one of the longest  and hottest humid summers in Keys memory a cold front can be quite refreshing. I don't much like rain and damp and gray skies but I console myself in the knowledge that it doesn't last long.

Just the other day I was walking Duval Street before going to work for my scheduled evening shift  and I saw plenty of sunshine.  The Tuesday evening shift which comes by every couple of weeks puts me downtown after a class at the gym before I have to report to work  so knowing what was to come I took a stroll with my face to the sun. 

Let's be honest a seat a drink and some music might have been nice...that's the future of the retired not the life of the resident. 

They say children are not the target audience on Duval Street but apparently they can wear themselves out as well as anyone.

The parade that is Duval Street is never ending. I wish there were more shops that would attract shoppers but mixed in with the t-shirts we seem to attract mostly chain candy stores, gift shops and bars. Not. magnet for people who live in town.

I suppose a telephone is more attractive under the circumstances but I have to say I saw people cycling and skateboarding with their faces in their screens.I trust if something goes wrong they will have the strength of character to acknowledge their share of responsibility for their lack of attention.

The epicenter of it all. I am amazed how Key West manages to keep selling itself as vacation central. I understand the draw of mild winters but the myths and legends and tall tales never  fade. The wild chickens, the silly pirate stories, Hemingway and the other less manly writers, the hippies and wild squatters of the sixties and seventies,  Cuba the Bahamas, the southernmost everything and coconuts in your yard. The fascination is endless.

No one should live here, and be allowed to peep behind the curtain of fibs that makes Key West the back drop to so many lives.  In a week the winds will die down the clouds long since gone will come back with the winter heat and flat waters.  May piracy rule even only as myth and offer a glimmer of romance far beyond the reach of tropical winters.

Not Really Flooding

The spotlight that was recently centered on the Keys and the prolonged flooding, followed by an article examining the cost and return on investment of raising roads to stay above high tide flood levels have all combined to create some reaction in the Keys. And no, they tell us the sky is not falling.

Indeed the Key West Weekly devoted three pages of interviews with the national weather service who points to weather not climate as the culprit for flooding. Then there are the local politicians who assure us they are actively engaged in dealing with climate change issues. If you read through the assessments and plans and fears the idea is to create public buildings that stand high enough to stay dry in future prolonged high tides. What is clear is that flooding is not expected even by the pessimists to be a permanent Atlantis-like state. The idea seems to be that gradually more and more tides will sweep in, settle around human infrastructure and slowly retreat. And then come back in shorter intervals and for longer and no one knows when that will happen. From what I can glean it may be messy by 2045 maybe?  The other problem highlighted in The New York Times writing about the Key Largo neighborhood flooding is that the water is sea water and corrosive making driving through flooded areas a mess for vehicles thus submerged in salt water. Pumping stations for water and sewage are a concern also as they could be flooded for weeks unless raised up. Around here the submerged mangroves did fine though they are dropping a lot of yellow leaves as they disperse the salt from their systems. Grasses and ground cover that were submerged for weeks are now dead at the margins of the mangroves along the trails I walk.

The Weekly also carried an opinion piece filled with optimistic proclamations that the Keys will survive by adapting and building up beaches and encouraging plant growth while also raising the roads and buildings. No one has yet explained where the money for all this will come from and in the spirit of blind optimism expect no answers here. "....that which challenges us leads to new ideas and better days."  And much higher taxes I dare say, in a community averse to taxation to start with.

The former journalist in me prompted me to look up America's WETLAND  Foundation and the suspicion is that we are getting our own dose of Astroturfing to play down the climate implications of unprecedented flooding.

Wikipedia:

America's WETLAND Foundation (AWF) is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) organization with the stated mission to save and conserve coastal wetlands in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The organization aims to achieve this mission through a public awareness campaign on the impact Louisiana's wetland loss has on the state, region, nation and world.

AWF is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The public education campaign started in 2002, when the AWF board hired the public relations Marmillion + Company.^[3]

Since being formed in 2003, America's Wetland officials say its message and outreach has resulted in more than 1 billion media impressions worldwide. That tally includes documentaries, news shows, feature stories, billboards, festivals, special events, public-service announcements and Web sites

Sourcewatch.org:

America's Wetland Foundation (AWF) has been called a front group created in 2002 by Shell, and funded by the American Petroleum Institute, BP and a host of other oil industry companies.^[1] The group has been described by the Huffington Post as the "oil industry using a perfectly-named front group to solicit taxpayer assistance for BP's cleanup bill" for coastal damage resulting from the Deepwater Horizon spill, although the organization disputes that characterization

Aside from the expense incurred by raising public infrastructure above expected flood levels the value of property won't be sustained if the tipping point arrives and there can be no avoiding the fact that these islands are indeed sinking. Property values are bound to plummet. For now the best tactic seems to be to continue hoping for best. Comparing the Keys to Venice is just weird in my opinion. Venice was built on pilings deliberately and in the face of massive overcrowding and flooding is taking measures to limit tourism and to limit cruise ships. two suggestions that indicate a totally different mentality and set of expectations. In the Keys we expect life to continue as normal, seren peaceful suburbia in the tropics. In Venice they've had thousands of years to get used to periodic floods and on a continent that is actively acknowledging climate change and taking steps to reduce emissions drastically a certain resignation is appropriate.  In the Keys we are forced to pretend none of this is really happening. this is all just a media scare. Okay then.

We all have a stake in ignoring climate change and the 97% of climate scientists worldwide who are sounding an increasingly frantic alarm. I have no idea what to do as I too would prefer a technological check mate to the problem, a mechanical solution that lets us all continue as we are. And with the leadership we have I guess we might as well hope that somehow we will deal with it. 

Come on down, prices are still astronomical. It's hard to see how climate change has impacted anything around here. Long may it last.

Winter Cemetery

In winter on a  sunny afternoon there is nothing more restful than a walk through the bright ever colorful, evocative above ground cemetery.

 "Born in Cuba, 1839....Died in Cayo Hueso, 1887"

 Maybe I'm not paying attention but a bright orange iguana with a bizarre tail took me by surprise. 

 Like everywhere else in Old Town the cemetery is the flight path....

 Above ground graves as the water table is very close to the surface.

 Beautiful mower work.

 The cemetery has its own beauty of course but the pain of loss can hardly be overstated. 

 Am automotive rite of passage, but for some the passage never comes; eternal youth is their portion.

 The cemetery is undergoing some energetic restoration. Signs are everywhere.

I saw a ghost wandering the graves ahead of me. Where s/he came from I'm not sure. Not sure where s/he went either, except out of my life, if s/he was ever in it.

Lanes Alleys And Colors

I couldn't help but compare the home town cemetery to the one I saw a couple of weeks ago in New Orleans. If you tried to buy and sell plots in the key West cemetery like the plots  were bitcoin on eBay I can only imagine the uproar. That's what they do in New Orleans. As the tour guide explained the bartering of graves you could have knocked me over with a  feather. Tomorrow I'm posting a page of photos from the cemetery itself.

You could have done the same to me when I was strolling past the cemetery on my lunch break. This really is a beautiful little town when you look. It's winter now so the climate is ideal, so much so people are doing their winter thing here and boy do they ever have a lot to complain about!

Now that I'm in the 911 center during daylight hours I am exposed to the full range of angry neighborhood annoyances that drive people nuts. Parking and noise and all those things that ruin the serenity. It was great to get out for an hour and cast all those things aside for a while.  Look at these colors:

When I worked nights you will remember I spent a few lunch breaks wandering around with my camera set on black and white shooting moody pictures of a Key West Sam Spade might have felt at home in. Now I'm on days I get to see purple gates and stuff like that.

My wife and I were talking about the forthcoming winter season in Key West and now that swimming season is over it's time for live plays. That's what we always hope to get done because winter visitors include players from Up North of some talent escaping the cold by prancing about on the stages in Key West. 

In fact we  don't  get to enough live plays. Work interferes and scheduling becomes a secondary consideration...and I'm sure this doesn't just happen in Key West. Besides that I'm not interested in musicals of which we get a lot. On the other hand I suspect musicals make much more money for the theaters than solid dramas so I don't begrudge them another rendering of Hair or Grease or Rocky Horror or whatever. 

I like looking at Key West through my lens, it takes away the noise of daily living, the stresses of work and it reassures me I have a stack of memories of this place. It's hard to believe I started this page on June 7th 2007 and here I am still finding joy on the streets just by observing shadows and light.

I'm not riding my scooter much anymore. No one would blame me after the Catastrophe but it isn't that directly. Partly I don't like modern traffic with so many distractions and so many drivers here unable to find their way, oddly enough. I would generate contempt and compassion fatigue were I to get knocked off again and I wonder how well my pelvis might be rebuilt for a second time. But aside from that I also want to spend more time with Rusty and my wife and less alone. Riding has always been a solitary pleasure for me and I simply don't feel like disappearing all by myself at the moment. 

Life changes and we change with it. I want to explore but to explore with a camera and no dog makes as much sense as a goldfish without a  bicycle...No wait...what I mean is...I guess I don't want to ride right now. That is all.