WHAT HERSHEL AND EMILY BRONTE HAVE IN COMMON

Hershel is a today type guy. Intelligent, interesting. Also has a great wife. Erika. Love her!

Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights. The greatest love story ever written.

Hershel’s birthday was July 29. Turned 54. Happy birthday friend!

Emily Bronte’s birthday was July 30. Not sure what her years would have been if still alive. Her life was short. She was born and died in the early 1800s.

The common factor: The closeness of their birthdays.

It is just after one. Comcast just left. It was not the computer that was on the blink. It was something to do with the outside wiring. I am up and running! I will not be late tomorrow with the blog. Promise.

My last night was pleasant and quiet. Spent a couple of hours at Don’s Place. My new found friend Tom the photographer came in. We had a drink together. Chatted with Clare a bit. Visited with Grant.

That is all I did last night. Don’s Place.

Marilyn Kaple is a frequent visitor to Key West. She is a FB friend and reads this blog religiously. She dropped me a note after my shark tales of yesterday. Remember Katharine? The great white female shark who made her way from Cape Cod to Gulf of Mexico waters to have a baby. She had her baby. Mother Katharine is no longer in the Gulf. She is somewhere in the middle Atlantic. I know not where the child is.

All of that has nothing to do with Marilyn Kaple.

Marilyn wrote to tell me there is now a Mary Lee. Another great white female shark. Sixteen feet long weighing 3,500 pounds. Mary Lee was traced from Cape Cod to the off shores of the Carolinas. Maybe pregnant. Not sure. She either gave birth off Cape Fear or was not pregnant. Mary Lee is now back in Cape Cod waters.

Enjoy your day!

 

KEY WEST & BICYCLES

Bicycles on the road scare the hell out of me! Especially during tourist season. Each time I drive is a disaster in the making. Ant the funny part of it all is that those riding the bicycles are not even aware of the situation.

Front page in this morning’s Key West Citizen was an article concerning Key West getting a crash course in safety. Turns out the #1 small city in bicycle accidents is our beloved Key West.

Bicycle riding has become an integral part of the Key West vacation package. It must be retained. However, it needs fixing. It needs more than a special police program to assist in making riders aware of the road rules regarding bicycling. It requires the City fathers, the City Commission, to stand up and get involved more deeply than it has in the past. Thought must be given to revamping the scenario. Not to do so is to court disaster.

Note that I am not critical of Key Westers who utilize bicycles as their means of transportation. They are experienced and know how to ride safely.

Katharine! The great white pregnant female shark making her way into the Gulf of Mexico. I stopped at Schooner Wharf in the afternoon for a drink. Chatted with some old time fisherman who were standing at the back end of the bar. They all said the same thing. Each had thought that large fish such as sharks lived in one area as part of a group. The GPS tracker affixed to the dorsal fin told another story. Great whites travel great distances. They can cover a 100 miles in one day. Astonishing! The GPS tracker had radically changed their knowledge/view of  how great whites live and their traveling habits.

Old time crucifixions are on the rise in the Middle East. Renounce your Christian faith and accept Islamism…..or be crucified. This weekend it was first announced that the Sudanese women who was sentenced to death because she would not reject her Christian faith was to be released. Twenty four hours later it was reported not so. The government made the initial decision. Now the government has backed off and said it is up to the courts. In the meantime, it was also reported that the woman was required to give birth in jail while her legs were chained/shackled.

We think we can teach these people democracy? The crazies are in Washington, not the Middle East!

An article I wrote re the crucifixions appears in my COMMENTARY column published in today’s KONK Life E-Blast. Read it if you have the opportunity You will find it interesting.

Ally’s birthday party last night! Fun as anticipated. Worked out just as I had predicted. Ally was thrilled. Ran the whole show. Lights out, sing, Robert don’t get in the way! My Princess!

Gym time this morning at 11. I walked the past three days. Once on a tread mill and the other two times around my house. Twenty minutes each time. I am trying.

Enjoy your day!

KATHARINE UPDATE

The world is full of oppression and depression. International events bombard us. Russia, Ukraine, Crimea, China, etc. Nationally, the VA problem, military suicides, the economy, jobs, etc. Yet, a natural event has captured the attention of many.

I refer to Katharine. The Great White Shark. Pregnant or no? Traveling to the Gulf of Mexico or returning to the waters off Cape Cod?

I first spoke of Katharine several days ago. What follows is what I know as of this morning.

Katharine is now somewhere south west of Key West. Between Key West and Cuba. She definitely appears to be heading for the Gulf of Mexico.

Pregnancy comes into play. If pregnant, she will go to the Gulf to deliver. If not, she will return to the waters off Cape Cod which apparently are the breeding grounds for great white sharks. The present assumption is that she is pregnant since she continues in the direction of the Gulf.

There is a video on You Tube taken by a diver spear fishing off Vero Beach last week. He saw Katharine and filmed her. The guy had to be nuts! The music of Jaws was added to the video. Made it more menacing. The shark darted around the diver. Fortunately, never that close.

Katharine’s Twitter following continues to grow. It now exceeds 8,000.

A contractor spent the morning at my home yesterday. Someone considering buying the house wanted some numbers. I had to get out. Went to Lisa’s. Did my blog and next week’s KONK Life column while there.

Jake has it made! It is his home!

No question about it. He lies in his small bed, on the couch and on the floor. He lets Lisa know when he wants to go out. He chases the tiny lizards through the bushes. When he wants a treat, he stands at the bag holding them and looks at Lisa with sorrowful eyes.

The title of next week’s KONK Life column is “You Should Know…..” Little things that escape the attention of many. Like the giant rise in CEO salaries while most CEO’s are opposed to a raise in the minimum wage, General Motors dragging its ass in repairing the more than 2 million recalls with the defective ignition switch, Sears in bigger trouble because of the 1 percent not having purchasing power, the shocking number of military suicides since the first of the year, the shame of the VA screw ups, the government profiting to the tune of $41.3 billion last year off the college tuition program, and why didn’t the government tell us Snowden was utilized as a spy as well as a computer geek when his story first broke more than a year ago.

This week’s edition of KONK Life hit the stands yesterday. My column concerned demanded renunciations of faith or crucifixion in certain countries. One was Vietnam. In addition to crucifixions, I also mentioned Vietnam having a special unit of religious police.

As with most communities today in the United States, Key West is a veritable United Nations. Two Vietnamese contacted me after reading the article.

One has been in the United States 20 years. She left Vietnam when she was 14. She recalled hearing about crucifixions when there, but never saw one. As to the religious police, she knew of one. The other said right on. His former country was very anti Protestant and Catholic. It practiced forced renunciations.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

KATHARINE TWITTER UP 2,000 IN 1 WEEK

Good morning! Another lovely Key West day! A totally blue sky, water the same color, sun shining, a slight breeze. What could be better!

I wrote about Katherine the great white shark earlier in the week. Spelled her name with an e in the middle. Today in the title, I spell it with an a. I am confused. Not sure which is correct. Suspect it may be the one with the a. I researched the spelling on the internet and came up with both versions. Some stories use the e, others the a. For the time being and until further notice, I shall spell Katharine with the a.

Katharine is in the news again this morning. Front page of the Key West Citizen. Main article. Reported Katharine now heading south and last pinged off the coast of Marathon.

What is most interesting is how Katharine has captured the attention of people world-wide. Earlier in the week , it was reported her Twitter followers numbered 4,000. In less than a week, the number has moved up to 6,000. Katharine must be thrilled!

I wrote next week’s KONK Life column yesterday in the afternoon. Renounce Your Faith or Be Crucified. The story of cross hangings which have become popular in certain Muslim countries. I also did a bit of a historical walk. I traced crucifixion from Jesus Christ to present day. Interesting.

The article will be published in KONK Life beginning next Wednesday.

It was all Chart Room last night

Met two new friends by prearrangement. Betty Whilley and Larry Sullivan. Both first timers to Key West. Both from Selma, North Carolina. They are here for several months. Their RV is parked at Fort Zach Beach where they lending a hand.

We chatted forever.

Betty is known as BJ. She and Steve were high school sweet hearts. They have reunited in their later years. True love! BJ has a small business. She make hand crafted soaps and ships world-wide. Larry is a retired federal agent with a most interesting background.

We talked about everything. Became instantaneous friends. We met through the blog. BJ is a loyal reader. Wrote me to say she would be in Key West for a while and could we get together. Happy she did.

While I was spending time with BJ and Larry, I ignored my friends Don and Chris. Only caught a fleeting glance of Don and a quick exchange of hellos. David was a the bar. I do not see him enough. After BJ and Larry left, I chatted a while with David.

Dined well last night. At Burger Fi. Me and the newspaper.

The bar at Burger Fi was packed. They now have karaoke. A new bartender, also. Alice. I don’t know what it is, but there is a different bartender each time I stop in.

Alice is an attractive young lady. Has been in Key West two years. Does not like Key West. Took me back a bit. Rarely have I run into some one not thrilled with our community. I could not ascertain why. She was too busy working the crowded bar.

Book sales are moving along. Whether sufficient, I cannot tell. This is my first book. The publisher is happy. Must be a good sign.

If you have not purchased the book, consider doing so. It will make for enjoyable summer reading. The World Upside Down can be purchased at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

I have nothing to do today. Work on the Greece book? Take a walk? Go to the beach? Do nothing? I have not made up my mind.

Enjoy your day!