Digging Up The Shoreline

I had two reactions when I returned at last to the Old Bahia Honda bridge at West Summerland Key. One reaction was puzzlement and the other dread.

There has been a concerted effort to rebuild the sandbag wall holding back the soil under the new (1982) road bridge. The sloping part under the bridge was torn apart by Hurricane Irma in September 2017 and now it is restored and very well done too. I suppose work will be done to restore the small park at the water's edge where anglers gather to hunt fish.

I was however very puzzled by the new efforts that have been started to repair the shoreline leading up to the bridge area. Where on earth I asked myself did the state of Florida get the money for these public works?

Florida has no personal income tax which means property taxes and fees for services are important sources of income, even in such a  populous state with so many demands on its money.Yet here we are tearing up the shoreline and the only reason I can figure is to shore up Highway One behind the remaining trees.

There is machinery everywhere where we used to walk and had I arrived unwittingly in the middle of the work we'd have had nowhere to stroll. Luckily there was no one there and we had the work site to ourselves so we strolled touching nothing and disturbing nothing. 

There are little wooden survey pegs in the ground so I suppose clearing the land and reinforcing the support for the road up above will stretch all the way along the seawall. 

Rusty wasn't to know our walks are going to be elsewhere for a while until all this digging gets done. He took advantage of being there. Another reason to like dogs as they remind you to enjoy the moment. Which is not say dogs don't fear the future or worry as I'm convinced after decades of sharing their lives they do lots of that. But when things are good they know to live the moment.

Out to sea a boat was slicing along under full sail heading towards Marathon, not stopping at Bahia Honda State Park. The moment at sea looked good too with enough wind to make smooth progress.

I see all this work and I get a feeling of dread which I hope won't be justified after all this work is done. I dread improvements as they encourage more people and less time for Rusty and I to be alone.

I have always liked walking here even before the hurricane when there were trees and thus  the place attracted van campers and people in tents sleeping illegally. Since the devastation in some ways though aesthetically challenged, with fewer people stopping off for less time it has been good for us two. We both need time away from the hurly burly of crowded Keys life.

Fiberglass boat bits have drifted ashore from somewhere and there they are all beached up. I wonder where that came from? Blown up by the recent storm I suppose.

I wandered back up onto the sidewalk which has been cleared ready for shoring up and rebuilding, all swept clean and cleared of any growth.

Rusty was enjoying his open space. I hope they leave the big cement wall along the roadway after they are done securing the foundations of the sidewalk and road. 

It's a big  job for sure:

Machinery gravel and construction everywhere. 

I fear that after it's completed it will look new and enticing and properly park-like and people will stop in greater numbers than ever and my selfishness will struggle with my inner sense of decorum and I shall be disappointed to find myself surrounded by people and asphalt and all that stuff. I shall have to be polite and evasive and seek hours when they are elsewhere. It could be a drag.

I have no doubt it will in the end be a good thing, and the people seeking a  clean modern suburban park environment will be properly grateful. I shall see one more sign of gentrification, one more sign of wilderness getting edged out. I hope I am wrong.

The Razor's Edge

"There is a line between good and evil, no wider than a razor’s edge. I hold the line. I am the line." 

Anon

When strangers find out what I do for a living they have a tendency to think I know more about stuff going on than I do. Most people have no idea how police dispatch works and it's as well they don't as when you call us your life isn't going as well as it might, safe to say. The fact is I know very little about the police work that follows on from a dispatch. You call we send they go and then I move on to the next call. And of course I work only a quarter of the time so things happen when I'm blissfully unaware of the calls that are being dealt with by the emergency services. Plus I live 20 miles outside the city, so when I am at home I am well away.

So when I read in the newspaper that a former Key West resident was killed apparently by her own son I was, to put it mildly surprised. The death occurred in North Florida but the suspect was apparently arrested by Monroe County deputies when he came back to the Keys. People ask and I keep saying that crime is less than you might imagine in Key West. I mostly deal with acts of stupidity brought on by drunkenness and infidelity and road rage, run of the mill moments of loss of control in ordinary peoples' lives. It is rare to come face to face with a hardened criminal and even the most appalling crimes are usually a mistake or a momentary loss of judgement. We have no cartels or gangs or hardened predators causing mayhem in the Lower Keys. Boat thieves, scooter thieves and crimes of opportunity abound like anywhere but murder is not common.

Indeed I would venture a guess that if you plan a murder don't do it in Key West where the clean up rate for serious crimes is very very high. I doubt there have been a dozen murders in the 16 years I have been dispatching and I don't know of any unsolved killings. You can't park your car facing the wrong way without neighbors calling it in. But I have to say when I read the story in the Citizen I was taken aback. If the young man did kill his mother as alleged the range of suffering that act will provoke is beyond my comprehension.  

A moment like this puts the other issues in this town into perspective for me.  Parking? Noise? Partying neighbors? I appreciate not working in a town where shootings are routine. I think about the way this community reacts to hurricanes and how locals really do pull together; where police work after a disaster isn't crowd control or preventing crime  but mostly coordinating efforts to help each other. 

But then things go wrong and its time to count one's blessings and around here that usually means being glad it doesn't snow. I was on the phone one day recently when a caregiver was calling for an ambulance to take an extremely elderly patient to the hospital as he seemed to be slipping away. I dispatched the ambulance and took the caller off hold to see if there was anything I could do and the caller told me he had passed away there and then and to cancel the ambulance. Which I did as the patient was in a medical setting and I sat there for a moment just pondering that end of life. Apparently there was a do not resuscitate order and there were family members present and all was in order and from afar I witnessed a good death. I was overcome with sadness for some reason, the loss of someone valued who must have lived through and witnessed so much life, almost a full century of  history.   

I was out walking Rusty around Mallory Square and the cleaning crew saw me checking out the doors to the restroom. Very kindly they came over and opened the doors for me while I tied Rusty off to a nearby tree. I do it to reassure passersby not because Rusty would bugger off just because I was taken short. I thanked the cleaner profusely as he pulled out his mops and brooms when I was leaving and he smiled because it was such a small thing. Small for him but enormously kind for me.

I see more crappy behavior during the course of my days than kindness but there are days when you get a reminder that it's better to be kind than it is to be bitter. It doesn't make it easier to be kind but  those numb nuts that provoke a sharp reaction are probably just having a  bad  day themselves. 

I wish I could have my mother back and I dare say the young suspect might very well have the same feelings now. I'm not sure I could manage the stress of living to be a hundred but if that fate befalls me in some inexplicable way I hope I shall be able to pass along something useful enough to make such longevity worthwhile. Till then we have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and try not to slip off the razor's edge of daily living.

Winter Exercises

Another gorgeous day yesterday coincided with my day off which must be some sort of record so Rusty and I were out before dawn, watching the sunrise at Boca Chica Beach whence we left before others arrived and we finally washed up several hours later overlooking the end of the land. A couple of motorcyclists were astride their three wheelers discussing the phenomenon and it occurred to me as I filled Rusty's water jug at the fountain that I need to regain my sense of wonder about being at the end of the road. Danger Charters was looking good even if not making huge progress in light airs.

 I think Danger offers excellent boat rides if you are interested as they sail a Chesapeake Skipjack with low decks and they will haul you out to mangrove islands where you can kayak and snorkel and enjoy a slow paced day on the water. They have been doing it for years and I suspect they're rather good at it by now.

The Truman Waterfront park has retained this huge strip of Navy Base cement, probably horrendously expensive to remove and it s the perfect place for people to exercise their limbs and their bicycles. In winter they do a great deal of it. The decommissioned Coast Guard Cutter Ingham , a World War Two survivor makes an excellent museum plus they offer drinks at sunset on the aft (back) deck.

We had been walking long enough Rusty was as ready as I was to take a seat. He sat next to me and pointed with great interest at two large dogs walking by on leashes. There was a day a few years ago he would have freaked out but he is a lot more confident now and I hope the memories of his abuse are fading. 

 I caught the picture above half by accident as I wasn't properly ready but my speedy camera saved me and I really like the pose with the shadows. She ran with an easy grace the photograph only hints at. In the distance I could see passengers piling out of the Celebrity cruise ship for their ride downtown in the Conch Train and the colors of the cement barriers and the train struck my eye:

 This mad cyclist was keeping himself young by cycling speedy circuits around the waterfront exhausting me just by looking. I spin a lot at the gym but cycling is a meditation for me. The name of the ship seemed like the perfect caption for the search for eternal youth.

"You come here often then?" They showed up together actually and he spent his time running up and down in panting bursts while she sat and languidly stared at her lap. The photo froze what I saw as a pick up moment.

 In summer some few people come down here mostly much closer to dawn when it is marginally cooler. In winter it is a crowd of bored snowbirds stretching their muscles and propelling themselves out into the sunshine rejoicing in the shortage of snow. They dress properly and ride clean and tidy machines. In summer I see baggy untidy clothes long fishing poles and not a helmet between them. I prefer them honestly to the trim fashionable well behaved winter primness. 

Exercise is serious business. We went to a play last weekend, "Life Sucks," a spin on Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" which was as always a worthwhile visit to the Red Barn. The players talk to the audience and that sort of thing makes me cringe, especially when one actress, the object of several characters' attention asked "Anyone in the audience want to have sex with me?" I don't see any good answer to that question. She was making a point about private morals and public displays of virtue but It seemed rather clumsy to me. I looked around and most of the audience looked past it to me, which observation was balanced by a group of middle aged patrons who imbibed apparently quite heavily in the intermission and were entirely ready for some audience participation.  I leaned over to my wife and whispered "At least we aren't the youngest ones here tonight" which is a common occurrence at live theater it seems in Key West. She looked at me puzzled. Not by a  long shot she replied.

 I felt positively juvenile at the Waterfront as parades of people older and faster than myself whizzed by on their endless circuits. Soon they will be gone and measure of torpor will fall back upon us turning the cement into a blazing reflective oven and driving the pelicans to their summer homes.

One day before I retire I want to fly to the Dry Tortugas. I may have to drop birthday hints to my wife. I've camped at the fort (and got powerfully rained on too) but I rather fancy the bird's eye view there and back. That should make for some pictures landing on the water. 

Not sure if the harbor is historic or the tour is or both are. Seemed like a nice calm old folks way to see the waterfront while Danger took off west to the Lakes and shallow waters and back country silence.

There was a lot of activity on the water, looking good after the windy days kept sensible people bottled up. 

And the cops were out talking about fishing and making citizen contacts to let people know all is well in the city.  It was my day off so I turned my back resolutely and focused on my dog at my feet. Rusty has more curiosity than most people I know and he was watching everything going on around him. He slept solidly once we got home.

 I took this picture to send to my wife with a note remarking on how young people go adventuring and take a bed with them. We thought about a Toyota FJ with an off road camper trailer like this one but we decided that firstly we aren't going to go rock hopping and secondly we want areal home on wheels, not a bed with an outdoor kitchen and off road capabilities that we will never use. But for weekending this set up looks brilliant for a young family.

I really rather like the illusion of forest created by the camera and the distance at the very urban Truman Waterfront. Today is another day off (two in a row! Be still my beating heart!) so I plan more travels with Rusty and more reading and I hope less napping...

The Details

I am not much driven to seek details with my camera, as I prefer the documentary look of the Big Picture so from time to time I force myself to look close. This was a piece of graffito on a cement barrier:

These cold front days bring night time lows between 60 and 65 degrees which with a north wind feels cold. The benefit is clear blue skies by day and in the sunshine out of the wind it is quite warm which wakes up the comatose  frosted brain. Sunbathing seemed quite sensible out of the wind to one as cold averse as myself.

Walking The Meadows near the police station on my lunch break i looked up and saw the sky properly which act of conscious seeing reminded me how much I enjoy the cloudless blue.

Photography is supposed to be drama and storytelling and clouds are considered helpful, if not a requirement. But some days the negative space of an empty blue sky is lovely and worth recording.

 Especially when you have roof lines and gables like those in Key West.

I love watching bees at work but photographing them, even at a distance and with no special photographic tools professionals use, is almost impossible. This little guy allowed me a couple of pictures that expressed some sort of bee effort. Here he is out and about in February in the land of eternal summer: