JENNY BEAMING POST MASTECTOMY

 

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!

 

 

 

DEMOCRAT FORUM LAST NIGHT A WINNER

A time when Republicans are screwing up. In just about  everything. One being the Presidential debates. Terrible. A disgrace. The candidates in revolt.

Last night was a Democrat debate. Described as a forum. I can understand. All three candidates not on the stage at the same time. Each had his/her own time seated directly opposite moderator Rachel Maddow.

I learned more last night regarding Clinton’s and Sander’s positions and thoughts than I had before. The debate/forum a success from my perspective. Assuming of course that the purpose of these things is to make people aware of policy positions.

Maddow deserves credit for the success. She handled the entire event skillfully. No gotcha attempts. Previous moderators from debates by both sides could learn a lesson from Maddow.

Martin O’Malley for the first time got a chance to show his stuff. He is around 2 per cent in the polls. Made no difference. He was a candidate and got equal time. As a result, for the fist time people are aware of his positions and learned he is an intelligent personality.

Lunch with Jennifer yesterday at Roostica. We had business to discuss.

I ordered also a Sicilian deep dish pizza to go. My dinner last night. I stayed in to watch the Democrat forum.

Syracuse/Louisville at 12:30. I plan on watching. Hope I can get it on TV down here. So far every game has been available. Though none ever listed. I believe the game will be shown on CBS itself. Whatever, I look froward to watching.

Syracuse a 14 point underdog. Three key defensive players did not make the trip. Injuries. Not mentioned as an excuse. Merely for information purposes..

Syracuse is 3-5. Louisville 4-4. Just maybe Syracuse might win.

Howard Livingston tonight. At Casa Marina. He is entertaining the Parrot Heads. I believe the public is welcome.

Sick minds on the island. Nothing new. Still commenting negatively about Fantasy Fest. Specifically, this time the Zombie Bike Ride. A “drunken sexually charged, skin and leather affair…..madness.” As set forth in this morning’s Key West  Citizen’s Voice.

I have never participated in the Zombie Bike Ride. Just about everyone I know doses, however. Ingenious costumes. Bikes decorated. Faces skillfully disguised. Many families. Tons. Entire business offices.

I cannot believe drunken, sexual, etc. Most of the riders not the type who would do such things publically.

We live in a crazy world. I say it every week on my blog talk radio show. Another shooting. Marksville, Louisiana.

Six year old Jeremy Mardis buckled via a seat belt in the front passenger seat. His step father driving. Six year old Jeremy shot to death. His stepfather hospitalized with bullets lodged in his brain and a lung. The shots fired by police officers.

Two police officers arrested and charged with murder yesterday. The police chief on TV said the “…..most disturbing thing I’ve seen.” Meager details so far. Vague. I hope they come out today.

Today in the year 1917. The first free Russia government was overthrown. The White Bolsheviks headed by Alexander Kerensky were deposed by the Red Bolsheviks led by Lenin. Kerensky had been the first President of free Russia.

Alexander Kerensky taught me Russian history when I was in college. Exciting courses. Learning from a man who was there for the revolution and played a big part in it.

He had to escape Russia immediately when deposed. He escaped through European countries and then into South America. Eventually, he made his way to the United States.

Enjoy your day!

PRE-SEASON BASKETBALL POLL…..AN INSUILT

Yes, my blood does flow orange! I am furious this morning. The Associated Press pre-season poll came out. Nowhere is Syracuse listed. Not in the top 25 or at the bottom re those teams that received even one vote.

I am not going to dwell on the NCAA findings and judgment. Syracuse will survive and excel. This year’s team is as talented as prior teams. With or without Boeheim for the fist nine ACC games, Syracuse’s coaching staff is experienced and deep.

Screw the numbers, Syracuse will be in the mix at the end of the season.

Spent yesterday afternoon working on tonight’s blog talk radio show. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou.

Interesting topics. Highlight’s of my Looting of Social Security article, a tea party Congressman retiring after only five years because he wants more time spent with family even though Congress only works one week on and two off, religion and politics, Saudi Arabia afraid U.S. becoming anti Saudi Arabia, a Monsanto update, and more.

Join me at 9 o’clock my time. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Dinner with Don and Chris at Marquesa last night. Good people. Return to Key West several times a year. Don is presently spending a lot of time working in South Korea.

Fantasy Fest is over. It was obvious last night on Duval. Quiet like a cemetery.

Parrot Heads arrive wednesday. Convention time. Jimmy Buffett people. Strange as it may sound, Howard Livingston has been asked to entertain the group saturday evening at the Casa Marina.

Seaking of Howard, the front page of today’s Key West Citizen carries a photo of Howard. A detailed complimentary article. Tells Howard’s story yesterday and today. A terrific human being!

An interesting news bit in the Citizen, also. Keys Energy has a large abandoned building in Bahama Village. It has not been used for over 50 years. Keys Energy wants to give it to Key West. The facility was formerly a diesel generator plant.

Louis says, beware of Greeks bearing gifts. The building is an economic disaster waiting to hit.

Keys Energy admits there are some environmental problems. The some are gigantic. I have not seen the paperwork nor the facility. However, I spent my legal career as an environmental attorney. my work included facilities such as this one. the contamination has to be fantastic It will run down into the soil itself. Contaminated soil is one of the most expensive things to remove.

A point to be considered also is that the law generally requires the owner at the time of a cleanup to be responsible for the cost.

The building is no bargain.

The last play of the Miami/Duke game will not be forgotten. Ever. What bothers me is that post-game, the ACC suspended the referees for two games. The ACC determined post-game that the refs had not made calls it should have made during the play.

Wrong on the part of the ACC. The determination on the field is the last call. In all sports, collegiate and professional. Confusion the only guaranteed outcome of the ACC’s decision and what will follow.

Enjoy your day!