PROTECTED CAR AGAINST DORIAN…..PARKED IT IN THE KITCHEN

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Danger, calamity, etc. awakens ingenuity in man. Hurricane Dorian did.

Jacksonville the place. Dorian on the way. Home owner had a new car. A Smart car. Could not park it in the garage. Garage full of junk. Car had been staying outside in the driveway.

Where to put the car? Dorian due.

No problem. Car owner drove the car into his kitchen. Through the sliding glass doors. Easy to get in. Fit perfectly.

Dorian has passed. Wife is on husband’s ass. Get the car out of my kitchen!

Donna and I apparently birds of a feather. Not sexually.

Donna fell yesterday going into the post office. I fell last week going into the post office. Donna fractured her knee. I broke nothing. Both of us now using canes.

Donna has to be out of town next week. Knee will not prevent the trip. I will be chauffeur and dinner companion to Terri as needed during Donna’s absence. We are already scheduled for Dueling Bartenders and Antonia’s monday night.

Key West has had various businesses over the years. The business came, stayed quite a while, then left.

Each business extremely successful while here. An example is the cigar industry. In 1906, Key West was home to 40 cigar factories employing a total of 2,000 persons.

Today, no cigar factories in Key West.

The old B’nai Zion Synagogue on Simonton street was sold this day in 1969 to a serviceman’s Christian Center. B’nai Zion moved to a new building on United Street.

Today and for many years preceding today, the original synagogue building on Simonton has been home to one of Key West’s finest restaurants. Sarabeth’s.

I may be old fashioned. I believe City Commissions exist to care for local needs. My former home town Utica elected politicians on a regular basis. The politicos knew/understood what the people required. Two things of importance. Plow the streets of snow timely and collect the garbage timely.

The Key West City Commission many times thinks they sit in the Congress of the United States in Washington. They take on the big issues. Forgetting the small ones along the way.

A few months ago, Key West banned certain sun screens that contained particular chemicals. The chemicals purportedly bad for the reef. Scientific proof limited.

This past week, the Commission banned plastic straws.

In the meantime, Old Town roads are a mess. A disgrace. Bumpy as hell. If the holes sink any further, a car may disappear! Said of course with tongue in cheek. The roads are bad, however.

Traffic and parking continue to be problems. The Commission has for years been addressing the problems. With little success. The Commission should spend more time on these local issues.

Then there is Mount Trashmore on Stock Island. Key West’s responsibility. The Commission has been investigating doing something with the mountain of garbage. Perhaps housing.

Whatever, an impossible and extremely expensive task. But time is being wasted examining the possibilities.

Let me place Mount Rushmore in perspective. This morning’s paper announced Key West real property taxes would rise 3.5 percent this year. New parking meters are going up at Smathers Beach. The City needs money.

The cost of removing the garbage top of Mount Rushmore and delivering it somewhere else to be disposed of would cost approximately $75 million. The number has nothing to do with erecting anything. Why waste time even thinking about the issue?

Key West is not the only community involved in matters that belong elsewhere.

San Francisco recently declared the NRA a “Domestic Terrorist Organization.”

The noose is tightening when it comes to our rights. Trump step by step has been eroding basic rights.

No question Trump has screwed up the immigration situation. Yahoo News announced tuesday it had obtained a document setting forth a new area for FBI monitoring. Per the document, the FBI is now tracking border protest groups as extremist organizations.

What happened to freedom of speech? Freedom to protest?

Relations between the U.S. and China are strained to say the least. War a concern. Could be inevitable.

Nicholas Kristof is one of the most well respected columnists in the world. I consider him knowledgeable and generally on point.

He is a New York Times Opinion Columnist.

Kristof published a war with China column tuesday. Titled: This Is How A War With China Could Begin.

The article began…..”First, the light in Taiwan goes out.”

Taiwan and China have been at each other’s throats for some time. Things getting worse, not better. The conflict could find the U.S. being drawn in. A 1979 American law commits the U.S. to Taiwan’s defense. The verbiage a bit ambiguous. Sufficient however to get us involved.

Kristof’s analysis not one you would expect. The Taiwan/China conflict would not begin with an amphibious invasion. First, a cyberattack. Then sabotage of underwater cables. Concluding with interference by China in the South China Sea with tankers carrying oil to Taiwan.

At what point would the U.S. get involved? Is the U.S. prepared to get involved?

So many years the U.S. has been involved in Afghanistan. Our first general was finally killed. Major General Harold J. Greene, age 55. The highest ranking member of the military to be killed.

Communication moves fast today. Same day. Cell phones, e-mail, the internet,  etc.

There was a time when things were slow. Very slow.

Take for example Robert Peary and the North Pole. Peary had discovered/arrived at the North Pole. Word of his success took 5 months to arrive. It was not till this day in 1906 that the world became aware of Peary’s great feat.

Syracuse plays its second game of the season saturday. Against Maryland. Noon. ESPN.

I shall be watching the game from the comfort of a chair in my living room.

Enjoy your day!

5 comments on “PROTECTED CAR AGAINST DORIAN…..PARKED IT IN THE KITCHEN

  1. Lou, you ask “What happened to freedom of speech? Freedom to protest?”

    Answer – Trump!

    The prevailing change since Trump was elected is the suppression of free speech and the freedom to protest! Just ask anyone who works at the White House, as house that belongs to the public.

  2. But think of all the tax money Key West people saved by electing to create Mt. Trashmore instead of paying extra to have the stuff trucked up to the mainland.

  3. I’m a bit confused by Lou’s reference to the death in Afghanistan of M/Gen Harry Greene. That death occurred more than five years ago when the general and several others were fired on by a turncoat Afghan soldier. Not sure that it is still relevant with regard to US involvement in Afghanistan.

      • Good response Lou, and well said.

        Have you noticed how Donald Trump’s official reelection campaign has actually started selling “Sharpie” branded permanent markers under the heading of “Set the record straight?” Everyone but FOX news that is!

        Going to be hard to accuse amyone else (like the MSM) of unfairly making an issue of this issue, isn’t it.

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