My wife recently turned down her chance to get a blue and silver convertible Smart car. She decided we should keep her new-to-her Sebring convertible and wait for a better choice of small, more fuel efficient cars to come to the US market in a few years. I was surprised by her decision because she seemed to have really fallen in love with the little two seater. 
I doubt somehow he would have the same effect driving a smartfortwo instead of his BMW.
Others in Key West use scooters to get around town and parking really is a breeze:
Others rent and wear the sort of clothing that would get loud tut-tuts on Modern Vespa and other motorcycling fora:
Oh and they drag their feet too, the heathen. I ride a Bonneville and it deserves a picture here too I think:
Away from the hustle and bustle of commerce downtown. Of which there is plenty:
I think they meant this:
Not this:
I spotted Curt striding off across the street looking for more conch fritter supplies, so I stopped him in mid flight and we chatted about this and that. He said business was brisk (mid August before Fay) as parents were enjoying the dregs of the summer school holidays:
Then he asked me something about my work and he wanted me to confirm a rumor. he asked if its true that we get lots more calls on the night of the full moon, and i had to confess that in my experience it is a lot busier for the emergency services when there is a full moon. I pointed out I don't believe in such superstitions, but it does seem, in my experience, that we are busier at that time. Hmm, he pondered, that's odd, because the moon is just the same, only more of it is visible. He has his feet on the ground does Curt, but we had to part ways with the conundrum unsolved.
All this activity in downtown Key West was started by a man who is still alive and well and could claim to be one of Key West's first waterfront developers. They named a street for him:
Apparently his family had the land that the Pier House was built on, and that erection started the trend that ended up with all the waterfront sporting large hotels. Wolkowsky himself retired, until a short while ago, to a lonely island about seven miles west of Key West. Woman Key is the only inhabited island in the Wildlife Refuge and his house is quite visible from the water. A friend of mine had business out there one day and he said the affable old man greeted him warmly as he docked his boat and sat him down to a breakfast of coffee and Dunkin' Donuts. Somewhat to his surprise because he had thought the place remote.
Nowhere down here is really remote anymore. We have tours and taxis:
Expensive homes:
And humble Navy Officer housing converted to million dollar waterfront condos:
Thanks in large part to the spark ignited by the old man of Woman Key.
Well bugger. Its official, all leave is cancelled and we get locked down Sunday at work. The good news for me is I am ordered in at midnight Sunday (overtime!) which gives me time to get the house sorted. In the spirit of this emergency I have postponed my planned essays around town and the Keys and will be writing storm related essays as long as the Internet is up, about what I'm doing and what is happening. I apologize to those that come here for rest and relaxation and a few nice pictures but the storm is sort of uppermost in my mind even though it can't seem to make up its mind about how strong it should be nor which direction it should take. And for those of you dreaming or planning a life in the Keys, this is just the Serpent in Paradise that one has to deal with every summer...
And yes I have cut down my coconuts, not because I could get sued, as ownership is hard to prove but because they become cannonballs in 100 mile-per-hour winds. Coconuts are non native trees and are prolific so it takes work to keep them trimmed and I harvest hundreds of coconuts from the dozen mature trees I inherited around my home. My house is a stilt home and we use the downstairs for storage, as a workshop as an outdoor laundry and we hang our clothes to dry down here too.
Stilt homes are handy not only for flood avoidance purposes but because all wiring and plumbing is easily visible overhead if anything breaks. Plus you get tons of shade to keep cars and motorcycles out of the sun which is the real ruin down here, not necessarily fresh clean rain that washes everything off.
The barbeque grill (which will get strapped down to the deck) sits on the cement chamber that would store 12,000 gallons did it not suffer from periodic leaks...be that as it may we haven't run out of rainwater in the past 18 months and we only use the piped aqueduct water to run our washing machine mostly. My home was built in 1987 among the first in the subdivision before electricity and water were supplied to the street.
Furniture should fold or collapse, be comfortable lightweight and stack able. These are not the normal criteria but when we buy stuff we try to picture ourselves in this very position: storm coming!
I have a small (2400watt) gasoline generator by Yamaha. It can power the fridge (800 watts) lights fans and TV/DVD player (we don't have satellite or cable reception) and of course Sirius Satellite Radio- all the essentials except a/c. We decided to go with small and portable in our generator for simplicity and ease of maintenance and it is also very quiet; you can talk while standing right next to it. I might have gone for the Honda 1000 but I like the Yamaha dealers at Garrison Bight much more than Victor the Honda dealer on Simonton Street...
I have a skiff at our dock,a 14 foot Dusky which is self bailing (very important for those sudden summer squalls that drop four inches of water while you are at work!) and it rode out all the storms of 2005 at the dock...but I decided I need to get it together to put it on the trailer and stop pushing my luck:
They slide into the upper frame on the window and are screwed in using butterfly nuts at the bottom, overlapping as you go:
This type are laborious and awkward to use especially if you don't have decks to walk on, but I think they are the most secure and my insurance company agrees. Modern sliding shutters are very easy to use and are very good also while plywood sheets are a pain in the ass t nail up, labor intensive and awakward to store. 
That's looking south towards Cuba whence cometh Fay. I hope its"only" a Category One, or pehaps a modest near miss.
Since those early days the new homeowners have repainted them of course, various shades of this and that:
As well as the larger, and straighter, thoroughfare called Eagle Avenue:
These are all streets with fairly abundant greenery which adds to the charm, and homeowners in Smurf Village enjoy duplexes with yards large enough to grow a bush or two:
I haven't heard the term Smurf Village used in a while so perhaps it has faded from the lips of newer arrivals, perhaps the Smurfs are no longer the craze they once were and perhaps too, people who paid half a million or more for their duplex may not want to think of themselves as living in a cartoon character's toadstool. Even though they do boast those pronounced overhangs and easily identified silhouettes:
Make no mistake these are duplexes:
I know a couple of people who live in Smurf 
And like everywhere else in Key West, when it comes to real estate, if you wait long enough it will come on the market:
This sign looked pretty weathered so a cute Smurf home with pool may or may not still be looking for a happy new owner...
These papier mache things are everywhere around there, posed and staring fixedly into a future that will never come. It is bizarre, but at least some of the visitors think they are great fun:
And this guy isn't a statue at all, he just looks a bit like one owing to a slight lull in the flow of customers:
This next one looks like a New England purveyor of tinned seafood more than a rugged Key West Conch hunter. I don't suppose the punters really care one way or the other, it's just me being fussy:
And this one with his idiot's grin plastered forever on his vacuous face has overtones that dare not speak their name:
I am probably just too sensitive for this sort of thing. I needed something pure and innocent and traditional but the best I could come up with was this, though what the hell this little tableau is all about I have no idea:
And though it is decidedly traditional some critics argue the Pez Garden is not Art. It all defies definition if you ask me. The Pez Garden is the local name for the Sculpture Garden wherein some notable heads from Key West history are on display:
This is Commodore Porter who vanquished pirates and buccaneers from around Key West and set such a high moral tone locals petitioned the Department of the Navy to get him out of there:
He ended up a mercenary on the Barbary Coast helping North African governments deal with their own piracy problems. Which goes to show virtue is definitely not its own reward. I need to be invited to write school history textbooks, the little dears would get quite an eye opener.
And across Mallory Square, a young man was busy impressing a young woman:
Hemingway had his movable feast; I have my movable statue. Home James, and don't spare the horsepower!