Key West Bight

It was early in the day,  a slow walk around the harbor with Rusty in one hand my cane in the other and my camera around my neck. I have been struggling with low light situation that always seem to come out better with my iPhone and i wanted to see how to get the Panasonic to do better. I knew the problem was me.

I set the camera in full automatic mode figuring that would replicate the phone camera and the results seemed to improve. So off we went.

My life has slipped back into a certain routine, commuting up the highway, dropping into town from the suburbs and then drifting back to the suburbs alongside Highway 1.

We have been talking about how to get me swimming this summer, a desire that was spurred by the sight of a woman pulling herself down our canal with a powerful over arm stroke. I have so much weakness to overcome I figured buying a long aluminum ladder would enable me to bypass the vertical dock steps we normally use to get in the water. I find the idea fascinating and I am going to investigate further. If the canal is impossibly deep the ladder would have to be impossibly long to get a decent angle to climb out, but I live in hope...

Walking the docks put me in mind of sunset cruises which I haven't done in ages. I am in a reflective enough mood these days watching the sunset might be quite the thing to do. Must be the influence of all these boats. We went ahead, Rusty and I, loitering on our way.

The boat is a  charter operation yet it looked more like a quiet comfortable study afloat....I was impressed!

Hindu is quite a well known boat, a traditional wooden boat that has apparently attracted a more modern catamaran sidekick.

Reality intrudes, as this is also a gas station,

...and there was a customer getting ready for a day on the water one imagines:

Rusty sat beside me and I sat and pondered boats afloat, a world away.

Looking to the east the sun was coming up and infusing the sky, we walked towards it drawn like moths to the light.

Cuban Joe's they call the independent hardware store, filled with fisherman's needs and sailor's accessories holding the line against mass marketing and chain stores. 

And soon enough the sun was up, the light was white and we were homeward bound.

Pancake On A Stick

A couple of weeks ago we visited the winter Artisan Market at Higgs Park and so it was this weekend we went back, this time well before they closed.

On our first visit we missed the weird pancake on a stick food which was why we made a beeline to the taste of Brazil.

My wife knows one of the workers at the stand and so she was able to confirm they had won the lottery and secured one of the sought-after spaces at the market.

My wife got the pancake with grilled onions in addition to meat and cheese and it was excellent. 

 We sat in the shade, sipped ice cold Cokes and listened to music suitable for our generation. It was exceptionally laid back and pleasant.

My lunch was a tapioca enchilada filled with cheese and ham and I should have asked for grilled onions. The pancake was of a firm consistency not strongly flavored, petty much as you might imagine tapioca flour to be. As a fan of tapioca pudding I was glad to know this stuff is "healthy" in the modern jargon. It tasted much better than that.

Since the accident I have not been drinking much alcohol at all, and thus my already feeble tolerance has slipped a few notches, but I was surprised by the reasonable prices on display at the event and they were doing a good business in the massive sweltering heat. 

Drinking at the market is fine but not outside. It is a very tolerant atmosphere and there was no one even remotely badly behaved at the market that I could see.

 Shade was welcome everywhere.

And I mean everywhere. Rusty was at home, far from the heat and madding crowds. He has a dog door and comes and goes as he likes, switching between shade, sun bathing and air conditioning. He likes to sit in the unfenced driveway and watch the world go by. Visiting the market would have been hard for him.

And they came and went from the bar. Resilient people. I like he heat at Latitude 24 but I do appreciate being able to enjoy air conditioning too. I am not at all like some of my friends and acquaintances who rejoice in living and driving in daily humidity. Stepping into a cool dark living room after a spell outdoors always pleases me.

I heard that yesterday was a day of record heat in the United Kingdom with the highest February temperature ever recorded of 68 degrees in Wales. Around here everyone has been noticing the high temperatures this February and highs all week should be above 80 with humidity to match. Okay be me as outlined above.

I have seen pictures of vehicles trapped in blizzards in the Upper Midwest but it is odd how one gets used to these conditions in the Keys being the norm year round. A friend of mine from Virginia is taking off today on a madcap journey to bring home to me a Suzuki Burgman he spotted online on sale in Texas for a ridiculously low price of $2000, and with only 400 miles on the clock. "You've got to have it" Eric said, as shipping would cost another thousand he offered to use his airline miles to fly to Houston and ride the scooter back to me by next weekend...Astonishing. His big worry is thunderstorms along I-10 as he rides East. I envy him the 1400 mile trip and can't wait to see him and the scooter next weekend. I won't be able to ride it for a while but I'll sit on it and make vroom vroom noises until I can.

My wife loves the pickle guys so that stop is required each visit. They had one really hot model that I incautiously tasted... I am not the asbestos mouth in the family.

Fresh bread is not something one eats every day at my house but we got some really decent homemade fish sandwiches out this ciabatta. 

 Fruit makes for great vibrant colorful pictures so I did.

 Take pictures of heirloom tomatoes...

 And passion fruit which oddly enough feel as light and insubstantial as ping pong balls. Who knew?

 A great day at the market followed by a movie (Stan and Ollie the tearjerker...)...

... and a reminder that just because we live in the Keys doesn't mean we can't get to see the fruits of agriculture on our doorsteps. Great stuff! 

Mindfulness

I have heard the term mindfulness used a fair bit around me since the accident. Then a friend pointed out that perhaps, I'm abbreviating here, mindfulness is actually gratitude. I can't say I'm sure that one excludes the other but the point was that a better description of my state of mind might be "gratitude."

I am not fond of quoting definitions but in this case allow me to make an exception to my rule...from Wikipedia to keep it simple:

Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training.

Keeping that description in mind I don't see any mention of gratitude so perhaps there is a distinction worth bearing in mind.

I mentioned to a friend that my brush with death changed my outlook considerably however it hasn't changed everyone else's! This tends to leave me out of step. Everyone can see my physical improvement, my ability to walk with a cane, my relative independence at home and my increased hours at work, now 32 per week. But inside my head the things that were so positive for me are impossible to see and harder to explain.

Gary's description of "gratitude" fits the bill I think, much better than "mindfulness." Which still leaves me with a difficult explanation to offer as to how one can be grateful for a calamitous injury...And that's where one has to be aware of the process of recovery. That's where gratitude comes in, thanks to all those who took the time to make it all a bit easier, the visits, the mail, the conversations.

However outside of the gratitude there is the simple pleasure of being alive. My dog is grateful to see me and expresses it much more than he did before. I find Rusty is attached to me very tightly these days, a form of gratitude I'm sure. Mindfulness? who knows.

But there again I am mindful as best as I can be in a world not dedicated to meditation and and introspection. I try to be aware of each day lived,a day that was almost taken from me. When I consider how easily I might not be here I have to be aware of the passage of that every day. Mindfulness even at a crude level is inherent to my every day life. As an extension of both sentiments I have far less patience with myself  on those occasions I don't live up to my self imposed requirements to appreciate every single day.

However I am also very aware that others haven't had this harsh lesson dished out to them and they aren't aware of this evolving thought process in my head. Avoiding people vexatious to my spirit has become more important to me these days. Life's too short to be around assholes is the short version. Yet in the spirit of gratitude how much allowance do I award them, how much string do I unspool for them? Do I just cut and run? It's an interesting dilemma for me as I keep asking myself how often do I forgive myself for coming up short? The answer has to be that I forgive myself endlessly and have therefore the obligation to do the same for others. Forgive them for  annoying me? Sure, but perhaps one can be mindful silently, in an interior dialogue.

Mindfulness and gratitude.What a lot to think about.

Docking

The approaches to Mallory Square, early morning  not many people. 

 It's that time of day when stuff gets done to make the rest of the day look easy. 

 Sunrise on the water as the winter fleet of homes afloat sits at anchor in the deep tidal waters of Key West harbor:

 Meanwhile downstream at the Margaritaville dock a cruise ship that at first I thought was called appropriately "Huge" was in fact a ship called "Edge."

 Rusty wanted to inspect closer up but the connecting bridge to the resort is under construction. 

Heavily under construction... 

They say Key West harbor can't handle the largest cruise ships these days, and there was a whole huge argument about dredging the channel to accommodate the largest ships. Nevertheless these things look big enough from a dockside perspective:

It takes a few small humans and a tiny boat to lock these giant craft to the shore. Astonishing really.

They drop off a couple of their crew on the platforms called "dolphins" and then pass them the dock lines from the ship.

The crew on the dolphin drop the loops over the bollards and the ship's crew winch the lines taut. 

Meanwhile harbor traffic, including the Sunset Key ferry seen here keeps on trucking by:

All this work closely observed by the passing population:

And then when the humans leave other locals fly in:

And then I caught sight of the Coast Guard returning from a  patrol. They go all over the place loking for smugglers of one sort or anther:

All this excitement had me thinking about one thing and wasn't I surprised to find the loo out of order when I finally stumped over there? We quick marched as fast as I was able to the car and I drove off to find my back up public restroom option, a portapotty by Truman Waterfront.

There is always time for more one more photograph up Tift's Alley. Asa Tift was an extremely successful wrecker and trader in Key West's early years and he got a tiny street named for him. The Historium hereabouts has more on his life and times, which included building what's now known as the Hemingway House..

Rusty was ready for a rest.

And so was I.