Circling The Cemetery

I have paid  quite a few photographic visits to the cemetery but really it's too easy to get lovely pictures here.  The cemetery is picturesque because the high water table requires people be buried above ground for the most part. The tradition here, like the better known but rather creepy New Orleans cemeteries is for the vaults to tell stories, to illustrate history, but unlike New Orleans, no sane person would ever tell you you are at risk of assault simply by wandering through this place.

On a walk through a couple of years ago I made a determined effort to hunt down the famous  burial plots in the  cemetery.

And from time to time I exercise my peculiar sense of humor by photographing these road signs on either side of the cemetery. The one above on Angela, the one below on Olivia. 

I like the cemetery because I like history, I don't fear ghosts and I enjoy the park like ambiance of the place.

 And I enjoy the photographic opportunities.

Rest in Peace.

Posted with Blogsy

Conchscooter Is Gay

Let's face it: its been a tough couple of days for me. Wednesday it looked like my dog had terminal cranial cancer in her snout, and then I discovered that I had been outed by a new employee at work. I had simply tried to be nice to her but she was, and as far as I know may still be convinced I'm gay. Buggered if I know why. As far as I know my conversations with her have been asexual, work oriented and as I know almost nothing about her I fear extrapolation and wild speculation is at play here. Not that I would mind being gay; frankly I am rather envious of gay men, but sadly, buggery is not for me.

Well, yes I do have a funny accent but so did Alastair Cooke who was renowned for having a Mid Atlantic manner of speaking, and he wasn't gay. I like opera true, but I grew up in Italy and that's not so weird looked at through an international prism. When I received a text from a friend indicating my sexual preference had changed my (female) wife burst out laughing. "Is that because you are so well dressed?" Very funny. Some bears, I'm told aren't flashy dressers.

Honestly though this little Cage Aux Folles moment  ( I speak Foreign too, so sorry, but see above) illustrates why I feel so at home living in these parts. In a town where men wear tutus and sing like women a bloke like me manages not to stick out too much at all. Were I to have settled in her hometown, poor dear, I would apparently have set the Daughters of the American something or other all in a tizzy. So I'm better off, as are they all, if I stay here, snug among the poofs and derelicts and embarrassed millionaires and refugees of all stripes from reality. Here I can wear pink Crocs and not be bothered by people who are bothered by them. Here I can be off kilter (gotta get a kilt too come to think) and not be something I'm not.  Key West is great. Thank you for proving the point, dear newcomer.

I had a  bit of a scare Wednesday when Cheyenne's swollen face was diagnosed as being more than an insect sting. I had administered Benadryl tablets for a couple of days and her face was, if anything, worse with the left hand side bloated like a balloon. I took her to the vet hospital and they gave her a shot saying it should go down almost immediately. It didn't and I started to think this was the end for my dog, as the only alternative offered at the hospital was the possibility of inoperable cancer. I was distraught.

It was a long slow dinner we had planned previously with friends and we didn't want to cancel. I ate some excellent fish while my dog waited in the car, drooling from all the steroids and stuff she was shot up with, and I had to keep my mind on small talk, not my greatest skill at the best of times.

Cheyenne's home visit vet came by yesterday afternoon and looked and felt and and checked her face and said: "Snake bite. Too much swelling for an insect. No discharge, no impact on her palate, no lumps in her bone structure. Not cancer,  its all in her soft tissues." With a 99 percent certainty she will be fine the vet stuck a couple more needles in my dog, who decided she'd had enough and spent the rest of the conversation keeping me between her and the vet. Edie said she seen hunting dogs bitten by Georgia cottonmouth snakes and they survived similar symptoms. Well, good then. Cancer bad snake bite good. I was over the moon.

"Hmmph," Jack Riepe said when he called me yesterday afternoon. "Just as well. That goddamned dog has carried your blog for years when you had nothing to say. Which is pretty much every damned day."

I guess he's right.

No Name Sunshine

Its the time of year when mosquitoes are not in evidence, cold enough to allow a walk without repellent so one might as well take advantage. Cheyenne would not say no:

No Name Key has commercial electricity now, and the anti-Castro Cubans who trained here before the Bay of Pigs are merely a distant memory having left no sign.

I have my own happy memories of walks in the deserted woods here, among the big waxy leaves of the sea grapes:

We found a patch of grass, Cheyenne found a nearby pool of tannic fresh water and I could hear her lapping away in the trees. Then she joined me and we shared a companionable half hour, me reading my phone and she...thinking perhaps.

Its not a sequoia forest or a pine barren but it's far enough off the beaten track that only rarely will you meet someone out here in the back of No Name Key.

The main road, Watson Boulevard now has light poles but it also has Key deer, so when people approach and ask about where to see them I usually send them here. 

No Name Key is best known for the pub by that name that is actually located on Big Pine Key. As recently seen on this page!

Posted with Blogsy

Things To Do

The freshly paved William Street approach to the new Marker Resort is a reminder that money talks. Caroline Street nearby is an abysmal street, rutted and torn enough that you could get bounced off a scooter by the imperfections of the roadway. The city has plans to make the whole area look like this, properly paved, with kerbs, sidelwaks and everything, including landscaping.

For the time being Lazy Way Lane which runs between the brand new Marker and the funky Schooner Wharf is still a one way street though this sort of circle seems to indicate that access could be closed anytim.

I ask myself how long a loud music venue like Schooner Wharf will last next to a carefully landscaped fenced  hotel next door. For some its music for others its noise and Old Town tourist businesses are always struggling to straddle that fine line.

Though I noticed the Marker did participate in the Wine and Food Festival event last weekend, one of several resorts with sold out events. For everyone else the waterfront is he place to stroll and admire the boats and take pictures. Just like me, looking for signs to catch my eye.

50% off today only! Sure, hurry on in before they refuse to sell you something. Advertising is so weird.

 Another event that passed me by, no wine and food for the workers, no art either..!

It's winter time and Key West is busy.  

Posted with Blogsy

BANANA -Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything

The Federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission a few decades ago gave a whole load of land to the city of Key West, which has always been a  frontier town and filled with military bases and people. Its known to officialdom as Poinciana Plaza and it still looks like the Navy Housing it once was, complete with fencing and park-like grounds. 

Not the best use of precious land in a city where housing is not getting more affordable.  So when a proposal came before the city commission to build 40 new units of housing naturally the commission voted it down.

from Keys Weekly: 

The proposed Poinciana project entailed 40 new units to be built and operated by the city’s housing authority. Commissioner Terri Johnston said the project is a drop in the bucket towards the city’s overall need, but a beginning at least.

The proposed Poinciana project entailed 40 new units to be built and operated by the city’s housing authority. Commissioner Terri Johnston said the project is a drop in the bucket towards the city’s overall need, but a beginning at least.

“We have got to start somewhere. We have a location and let’s look for all viable sites. We have got a property with an executive director willing to work with us. Let’s be proactive,” said Johnston.

Chairman of Florida Keys Outreach Coalition (FKOC) Sam Kaufman agreed with commissioner Johnston and said nothing happens until the commission makes a decision.

“Poinciana seems to be an excellent location, with the site control and space. Procrastination is perpetual however. We don’t want affordable housing to move at the same rate as the Truman waterfront. The White Paper was presented two and a half months ago and Don Craig said that was urgent. I have not heard anything since Oct. 7,” said Kaufman.

The commission voted against directing the city manager to work with the Housing Authority of Key West for the development of affordable and workforce housing at Poinciana Plaza at the city commission meeting on Wednesday.

“Upon seeing this item on the agenda my immediate question is why are we not looking at Easter Seals. The property was already voted down as becoming the next homeless shelter,” Commissioner Tony Yaniz said. In December, the city commission voted against using the Easter Seals property as a homeless shelter site, however City Manager Jim Scholl and Mayor Craig Cates have said it is the only viable property where the shelter can be located. The deadline to move the shelter is in late February.

Affordable housing has been a serious issue in Key West for more than a decade, but the issue came to the forefront after City Planner Don Craig brought forward a document called the “White Paper” in October, explaining the urgent need for 6,000 affordable units. The document also directed the city to hire a fulltime staffer to tackle affordable housing and work with the city’s land authority, as well as state officials.

I think the paper laid the issue out very clearly and when you look at the vast open spaces at Poinciana Housing you have to wonder why the elderly Navy units aren't demolished to make way for modern, compact units that would go a long way to help people afford to live in one of the most expensive towns in Florida. 

This is New Town, several miles from the precious leafy streets of Old Town where the tourists flock but there is no sign the city commission is in the mood to make any decisions. What they do want to do is increase height limits to help disfigure the city on the specious grounds that the city is built out and  thus helping home owners increase the size of their homes would be a good thing.

City Commissioners Tony Yaniz and Clayton Lopez said they felt affordable housing might work better on other properties and the city should look at changing building heights before building any structures. Lopez suggested putting affordable housing units on part of the 6.6 acres of the Truman Waterfront Project, Yaniz said he would like to see other locations and buildings tower to six stories.

“If we cannot build out, the only way to go is up,” Yaniz said.

 Which if you look around the city, not just at Poinciana Housing you will see is not the case, Key West is, inexplicably not built out at all. With 34 acres of land handed over to the city by the Navy 15 years ago you'd think that would be obvious, but Truman Waterfront remains a barren wasteland with development proposals aimed at a luxury marina and country club facilities rather than open space, an old folks home and why not a few units of affordable housing.

Walking past the Keys Energy headquarters in Old Town the public utility is gutting its elderly building and renovating the shell. Not a bad thing at all and perhaps an example to the city of making a decision and getting on with it. 

The homeless shelter has to move and the city is having kittens worrying about who is going to sue them the minute they make a decision about a new location. The obvious thing there too is to simply decline to decide even though the old Easter Seals building is the logical relocation site on College Road. The logic is impeccable; until it no longer is.

Posted with Blogsy

Summer In Winter

I must have photographed the Customs House on Clinton Square a few hundred times but this is the time of year the colors leap out under the at intense blue sky and bright winter sun. This is the time of year the sloping roofline, designed to shed snow looks more absurd than usual as one thinks of similar Federal buildings doing that job properly Up North.

I read a protest on Facebook about the destruction of downtown with street closures in the busiest time of the year. I think it has something to do with sewers so one would like to imagine the work is urgently required. I think tourists kind of expect functioning loos even in this southernmost outpost of US hospitality. 

Like I mentioned last week every foray into town garners a fresh set of cooing pets for my overly indulged Labrador. She puts up with it very politely, as long as there is no food in the offing...

 ...but when there is the hint of a taste of food all good manners go out the window. The Cheyenne food plow is unstoppable. I have no idea what it was but it crunched satisfactorily.

 It is a perpetual hunt.

I've had falafels from the place at the end of the alley and they were quite delicious. The store front for the aptly named Falafel King faces Fitzgerald Street on the other side of the building but Cheyenne likes to hunt her prey in narrow alleys and dark corners.

This picture below I posted on Facebook wondering if there was a connection between smoking dope and smoking bicycles. Everything is illegal in Florida, except riding a motorcycle without a helmet which makes it all worthwhile.

I'm sure some people feel like they've been smoking a bicycle or something else when they see these birds wandering all over the place. 

 Winter as it should be.

Posted with Blogsy