JENNY BEAMING POST MASTECTOMY

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The Chart Room last night.

John back from his Mexican vacation. Good to see him. He was missed.

Met Scott and Jenny. Fortyish. From northern Florida. Honeymooned in Key West. Visit 3-4 times a year.

Contract soft ware engineers.

Staying at the Pier House.

Jenny a cheery personality. She had a story to tell. Told me. Gave me permission to share it.

Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer during the summer. A fast moving 2. Opted for the mastectomy. The breast was rebuilt during the surgical procedure.

The woman is alive! A personality. She had to be the same prior to the cancer. Her attitude clear. Meet the enemy and knock it down. She did.

Gumption the only way to describe her.

She requested no nipple. Strange, I thought. She plans on having the nipple area tattooed. With the Key West setting sun.

She still has to undergo chemotherapy. Six chemos. Each three weeks apart. The first scheduled for next week.

Heidi Schrammer back. Met her a few nights ago at the Chart Room. She is the Marathon bartender who was in Key West for a few days.

Finally figured out why she was here several nights in a row rather than back in Marathon. Her home was wiped out. FEMA agreed to provide a roof over her head. The only available rooms left were in Key West.

Heidi has a problem. The FEMA program ends monday. Four hundred hotel rooms FEMA occupied. Where the occupants will go, I know not.

A moving force is requiring what amounts to a FEMA eviction. Fantasy Fest begins this weekend. The hotel rooms are needed.

David came in. Spent a while enjoying his company.

Left for home. Stopped at Denny’s on the way home for a bite to eat.

Parrot Heads are a nationwide, perhaps worldwide, Jimmy Buffett fan club. They meet once a year in Key West. They are here this week. Easy to recognize. They wear large crazy hats. Always laughing. Enjoying themselves.

Fantasy Fest begins tomorrow. Goombay. A Bahamian/Cuban street festival. Petronia Street.

A crocodile here. An alligator there. Such has been the story the past few years.

This morning’s Citizens Voice reports a snorkeler off the White Street Pier ran into a six foot crocodile. In three feet of water.

Crocs and alligators have been popping up in greater frequency. Still small in number, however. Ten years from now may not be the case. Crocs and alligators may be here in larger numbers. I do not recall croc or alligator sightings ten years ago.

Still waiting for my new book Irma and Me to hit the stands. Any day now.

I keep several book writings going at one time. Several months already invested in Key West prostitutes. The history of prostitution in Key West.

The prostitution business was healthy and thriving in the 1880’s. As was the liquor business. Seventeen liquor saloons.

Key West’s population was just under 20,000. A thriving city. Key West was the largest and wealthiest city in Florida. Miami and Miami Beach not yet in the picture.

One third of the residents were Cuban born. The cigar factories induced them to come to Key West. Excellent employment. The cigar factories were turning out 62 million cigars a year.

Education had a bi-ness to it. The students were taught in Spanish in the morning and English in the afternoon.

Big Brother is watching us! 1984 just around the corner!

I have been mentioning the armed masked mercenaries in Puerto Rico. An unknown force all of a sudden appearing on the streets of San Juan.

Could happen in a U.S. city tomorrow. With the same suddenness.

Los Angeles is playing with Big Brother/1984.

Los Angeles has 110,000 street lights. A company manufacturing SmartNodes and SmartPoles is on the verge of doing business with Los Angeles. Street pole lights that provide a surveillance network.

Each street light equipped with cameras, microphones, speakers, etc. Microphones sensitive enough to pick up a conversation between two people.

Los Angeles and many other American cities will jump at the chance to install these street lights that spy. There is an inducement. The manufacturer will pay $1,200 to a city per year for every SmartNode installed. Note, per year. For Los Angeles, the pay back amounts to $13.2 million a year.

Politics has not changed in the United States in more than 200 years. Defame your opponent! Exhibit the evilness in him!

In 1796, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were opposing each other for President. Alexander Hamilton supported Adams and personally hated Jefferson.

Under the phony name of Phocion, Hamilton wrote an editorial published in the newspaper Gazette of the United States stating Jefferson was having an adulterous affair with one of his slaves. Later established to be Sally Hemings.

Big night tonight! Dinner with my benefactor and dear friend Jean Thornton. Stone crabs at the Conch Republic!

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

STRANGE RAIN

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I have seen this before in Key West. Never mentioned it, however. Rain, no rain, and then rain again!

It poured big time around 6 last night for an hour. Heavy stuff. I was driving up Flagler. All of a sudden, no rain. The roadway was bone dry for about a half mile. Then, the storm again.

Not uncommon. I have seen it rain on one block and not on the other. Even across the street once. Lisa will occasionally call and say watch out, it’s raining. What rain? No rain in Key Haven.

My day yesterday started with the anti-gravity treadmill. Love it! I am still taking steroids. Today, the last day. I hope the problem is resolved. I am concerned the pain may return.

Then to the Conch Coffee Queen for Cuban cheese toast and cold Cuban caramel coffee. Read the newspapers. An ad for a painting grabbed my eye. I was shocked.

It was a 4 inch x 4 inch ad on the bottom right hand corner of the first page of the Life Section of USA today. For an oil by Jean-Paul Cassigneul, a French painter. No price listed.

Cassigneul is a contemporary  by reason of age. We were both born in 1935.

I bought a Cassigneul around 1970. Cheap. My recollection $200. Liked the work. He painted women. All beautiful, tall and slender. All from another era.

I never bought anymore because he was basically an unknown. Not any longer apparently!

My problem is I have to go back and find the painting. I did nor bring it to Key West. It is stored somewhere in Utica. I have no idea as to its value.

These happenings are unusual. They do happen, however. Many years ago, I purchased a small watercolor in a tiny shop on Route 20 in upstate New York. For $40. I never liked it. Always wondered why I bought it.

Two years after purchasing the painting (I cannot recall the artist’s name), I gave it to a doctor friend as a birthday gift. Several years later, he sold it for $14,000. The painter had become somewhat popular.

Oh, the pain!

Don’s Place first last night. I wanted to see David. David is captain of our bocce team. Bocce begins a week from thursday. The team will be shorthanded the first evening. Don is on vacation somewhere up north at his lakeside home, Stan and Claire are going to be in Michigan City.  There will only be 5 of us.

I was curious as to David’s plan re allocating team members. I should not have been concerned. He had it all worked out.

Had a drink with Grant before leaving.

Decided to try Sq. 1 again. The paper noted Sq. 1 was providing a 25 percent discount to locals. A light dinner at the bar. The meal inexpensive. I like the setting. I am not sure yet the food moves me. The issue is selection, not preparation.

There is no honor among thieves. Or is it, there is honor among thieves? I do not know. Not important. I merely want to note that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been arrested for securities fraud. So many State politicians arrested in recent years. Most convicted.

Then there are those Congresspersons who obviously dance to the tune of the rich. Not proper.

My KONK Life column which hits the stands tomorrow analyzes the issue. I call it The Stealing of America.

My blog talk radio show tonight at 9 my time. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou. Topics include the Federal judge in the NFL/Brady matter big time out of line, see Planned Parenthood videos before commenting, Lois Lener and immunity, Big Latch On month, the rich taking over America, and more.

I am not a religious man. I believe, but do not actively practice my faith. I am a fallen away Catholic. I preface what is to come because I do not wish to give the impression I am a church going Christian. Especially, a Bible totting one.

I would further preface my comments with the fact I have many friends of different faiths or no faith. Non-Catholic Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and atheists.

Somewhere in my readings yesterday, I came across the statement…..Lord, I am tired. I was at the moment. I googled the phrase to see what would come up. Jesus was tired and Jesus wanted to help people rest.

John 4:6 makes reference to Jesus being tired…..”Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.”

Matthew 11:28…..”Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

I especially like the Matthew quote.

Enjoy your day!