LIONFISH IMPOSSIBLE TO ERADICATE

When I purchased my Key West home 16 years ago, few had ever heard of lionfish. Then 2-3 years ago, we all did. It was beware! Lionfish are here! They are bad! Eating everything up! Which ironically was followed by lionfish being good to eat and that we should all eat lionfish. The demand and fishing for them would help with the problem.

Appears ain’t nothing going to help eradicate the lionfish population. Eat all you can and there still would be too many left. Human consumption is not occurring regardless. People have not taken to consuming lionfish.

The problem with lionfish is that they impact the ecosystem. Negatively. They eat small grouper and snapper. Eat the underwater food normally consumed by grouper and snapper. Feast on other type marine life, also.

Lionfish are not common to the Florida keys. They originated in the Pacific Ocean and Red Sea. Today, they are all along the Atlantic coastline.

They got here the same way the pythons did. Pythons you will recall were kept as pets in homes. Came the big #5 hurricane that leveled Homestead some 20 years ago, these pets were strewn all over the Everglades.  Pythons being sexual creatures, propagated. Till their numbers exploded. Today there is no talk of eradicating pythons. Control is the solution being pursued.

The same with lionfish. People kept lionfish as pets. When they tired of them, they dumped the lionfish into Florida waters. Now there are millions. Lionfish are sexual as well. They reproduce swiftly. Something like 12,000 to 15,0000 eggs every four days.

Lionfish can be found along shorelines and as deep as 1,000 feet. They are all over.

Authorities admit control is the order of the day. There are too many to eradicate.

The State of Florida has banned the importation of lionfish. Florida is the only state so far to have done so.

I missed the parade celebration of Peter Anderson’s life last night. I seem to have a black cloud over my head. First, my computer. Now, my air conditioning. The upstairs went. I figured it was the thermostat. Needed new batteries. Batteries turned it on again. The thermostat is one of those new super dooper ones. Does everything! Except keep the air conditioning running for me. The air would not stay on for more than 5 minutes. It took me three hours to figure it out. By the time I did, the parade was long over.

It was a bit late. Lisa telephoned and said meet us at Chico’s if you have not eaten. I had not. I had dinner with Lisa and family. Robert was present. Not Ally. She was at a sleep over.

First time for me at Chico’s Cantina. Surprising because I drive past it at least two times a day. The why is I am not particularly fond of Mexican food.

I was very impressed with Chico’s. The place was smaller that I had expected. Unusually clean! From floor to ceiling. Even the men’s room. I had a chicken burrito. Ok. Not thrilling.

It rained a lot yesterday and last night. Still raining this morning. Big time. Dark. I suspected it might be the fringes of Bertha. Bertha was to hit Puerto Rico this morning. If not Bertha, it had to be a usual Key West August day. August is mid point in the Key West rainy season.

I looked outside to evaluate the situation. You live in Key West long enough and you think you can predict the weather. The wind was from the northwest. I could tell because of the way my palm trees were bending. The clouds moving ever so slowly. They were moving northwest to southeast.

Bertha is to the south of Key West. Ergo, the rain had to be part of Key West’s usual rainy season.

I should get a gold star for my weather prowess and also ability to have finally figured out how the thermostat worked.

Enjoy your Sunday!

 

BURMESE PYTHONS REVISITED

I spent my Sunday in bed yesterday. My back problem continues. Better, but not right yet. A pain in the ass!

I filled my day from the bed with visiting the Burmese python situation again. Additionally, I watched two great basketball games. Still having time on my hands, I communicated with several friends in Italy regarding Obama’s visit.

There is nothing new to report re the Burmese python invasion. The past year has been undramatic.

Recall there are an estimated 150,000 Burmese pythons living in the Everglades. Where did they come from? Florida is not their natural habitat. It is south Asia and southern China. They most certainly did not swim here.

Hurricane Andrew is given part of the blame. A #5, it is thought the hurricane captured pet pythons and the winds dropped them off in the Everglades. From whence they mated and gave birth to the multitude.

I learned something new. The female after mating can store sperm. For years. She also can store eggs. The baby pythons are born years later.

I am aware of only two sightings in the Keys. One in Key Largo. The other in Key West. Key West’s was a seven footer. It was discovered in the grass off one of the airport’s runways. There is a question as to whether it got there by itself or someone dropped it off nearby.

Two years ago, a Miami family got up one morning to discover a 13 footer in their pool.

I learned another new thing. Burmese pythons are fresh water reptiles. The Everglades are soft water. They are not salt water beings. The keys are salt water. Ergo, the possibility of Burmese pythons reaching Key West is remote. Not impossible, however.

A year ago, the State of Florida permitted a one month legal hunt for Burmese pythons. The State figured the python population would be diminished with a western type shoot out. Permits were required. Five hundred obtained. The number of Burmese pythons caught in that one month period totaled 68.

The bottom line is nothing of any importance occurred since my last story regarding Burmese pythons a year ago.

Great basketball yesterday afternoon! Connecticut was a #7 seed. Beat Michigan State in an exciting game. Kentucky a #8 seed beat Michigan with a very long 3 point shot with 2.3 seconds to go.

Next week The Final Four! More exciting basketball!

I watched the games on TV and the internet. The internet is not a bad place to watch the games. Yes, the screen is much smaller. However, you are right there on top of each play. A constant closeup. Audio included. Try it. Free. NCAA.com.

I spoke with several acquaintances in Italy again. How did the Obama trip go? Any more news?

Contrary to what the American media is reporting, they were not impressed with Obama’s visit. They were of the opinion that Obama was there to sell them gas and planes.

Italy presently gets a significant portion of its gas from Russia. It comes through Ukraine pipe lines. Italy has been in close negotiations with Russia for some time regarding a direct pipe line from Russia to Italy. It would bypass Ukraine and run under the Black Sea. Obama wants Italy to scrap the plan.

Italians seem uncomfortable with any long term plans being entered into at this time. Their concern is they have a new President every several months. They would prefer to wait till their government is more stable before deciding anything so important.

Tomorrow night my blog talk radio show! Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Nine o’clock. A fast moving revealing half hour.

One of the topics will involve my opinion that the international banking system is a more deadly threat to Ukraine than Russia. The Euro Union, the United States, and the International Monetary Fund are ready to give Ukraine $17 billion plus now. Conditioned upon austerity measures being put in place immediately. As in Greece, Spain and Italy. An inevitable disaster in the making!

Enjoy your day!

THE DAY AFTER

 

This is the day after. I loaded up on garlic yesterday. Jean Carper’s home remedy for a bad cold.

I had to go to Publix to buy the garlic. I do not keep it. Lots for sale. Two different types. One more expensive than the other. I bought the cheaper one.  A nice hard big one. I could not wait to get home to try it! Ho ho!

Was not bad! I cut out a couple of cloves and chewed away. Not the best thing I have ever tasted. Not the worse, either. Got it down.

The garlic worked. I did it four times yesterday. Kissable I was not. But must tell you, the garlic kills everything! The sneezing, runny nose and sore throat. Two cloves good for 2-3 hours.

I feel better today. Cold still with me. The worst behind me, however.

On top of it all, I fell. In my garage. I was on my knees checking out the numbers on a tire. Need a new one. Went to get up. Difficult for me to do in my old age. Pushed too hard. Shot forward before falling on my right side. Head to toes. Head ok. Shoulder and arm sore this morning. Right hip sore. Scrapped my right knee good. Have it covered with several band aids.

Way to go, Louis!

Today Syracuse/Miami basketball. At one. Syracuse should win. Who knows. I appreciate Syracuse will lose a few games before the season is over. But as I die hard fan, I am always wishing the team does not.

I will be viewing the game at the Sports Pub. I assume Dan will be joining me.

I love Southern old white men. They are at it again with women’s bodies. They should make love to the ladies  rather than dominate them. Huckabee said a couple of days ago in a speech that Democrats believe women need government to control their libidos and reproductive systems. To the contrary Mr. Huckabee, they need you guys to stay out of their vaginas and bodies legislatively and recognize the inherent right of women to control their own bodies.

It was reported this past week that a kindergarten teacher locked one of her pupils in a closet. It was a time out for something the 5 year old had done. The teacher forgot the child in the locked closet and went home early because she was not feeling well. The child’s mother wants blood! My recollection of my early school days was that if you were bad you were made to sit on a stool in the corner with a dunce cap on. Both screw up the child’s mind to a degree. The dunce cap one is easier on the child from my perspective.

Enjoy your day!

 

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NORTH DAKOTA OIL BOOM…..WOW!

 

Very interesting evening last night at the Chart Room!

Che and Peter engrossed in conversation in the corner with a couple from Las Vegas. Dorothy and Doc in for a drink. Mary bartending.

Me, I met Kevin from North Dakota. What an education I got! Learned so much! I want to share every morsel with you.

Kevin owns a small company that manufactures drill bits. He sells world wide. He is on vacation in Key West with his wife Sheila. First time. They love it!

He and I really got into North Dakota. Recall news over the past couple of years of building an oil pipeline running from Canada to Louisiana. Build or not to build the issue. Environmentalists strongly against it. The pipeline was an issue in the recent campaign.

North Dakota is presently benefiting from an oil boom. It would benefit even more if the pipeline were built. The pipeline would create thousands of good paying jobs up and down its length in the United States..

Here is what Kevin told me.

Young men just out of high school are earning $100,000  a year. Work a 60-70 hour week. Employed as roughnecks.

Wal-Mart is not know for generous wages. Wal-Mart pays its stock clerks $17 an hour.

MacDonald pays $15 an hour with a $300 sign up bonus.

There are presently 3,500 unfilled jobs. People are coming from all over to fill them. Kevin told me he sees many Florida plates.

Kevin lives in Williston. Five years ago it had a population of 15,000. Today, 50,000 and growing.

The United States is in an economic recession. We need jobs. Plain and simple. To build/extend the pipeline to Louisiana would create a ton of jobs. Good paying ones.

It is the eternal clash. I was an environmental attorney. I understand the importance of protecting our lands from damage caused by corporate greed. However on occasion the pendulum must swing when there is a greater need. In this instance, jobs!

The rest of my yesterday was not as exciting as my conversation with Kevin. I did the dentist thing again. Will be doing it for a while yet. Pain still there. However, minimal. Read a small news piece in the Key West Citizen about a Senator Stephen R. Mallory. From Key West. He as a US Senator in the 1850s. Came the Civil War, he went the other way. Joined the Confederacy where he served as Secretary of the Navy. Mallory Square is named after him.

The python hunt ends monday at 5. 1,500 hunters involved. Through last friday, a total of 50 pythons killed. Does not seem to have been worth the effort.

Pope Benedict XVI is retiring at the end of the month. I find his retirement strange.  I do not buy the age/health argument. Last Pope to retire was around 415 AD. I think it has more to do with the ongoing Vatican Bank investigation involving money laundering. Time will tell.

The Olympics have decreed wrestling will no longer be one of its sports. Beginning with the 2020 Olympics. What are they going to replace it with? Foosball?

I did my blog talk radio show this morning at 7. Still not enough people calling in. I had one this morning. It was over the Pope’s retirement. I am considering trying a new time. If it does not get enough call ins at a later time, then it is me. I would not have been cut out to be a blog talk radio host.

Enjoy your day!

 

BOB BURTON GONE

 

Bob Burton passed on over the weekend.

Bob was one of Key West’s nicest people.

I first met Bob and his partner Jack Baron 25 years ago when I started coming to Key West. They ran the Jack Baron Art Gallery in Duval Square together. Jack did the painting. Bob handled the business end.

I loved them both. There was no other way to feel about them.

Jack died several years ago. I am confident Jack was waiting to greet his life long partner at the Pearly Gates. Probably chastised him for taking so long.

I was privileged to be invited to their 48th, 49th, 50th, 51st and 52nd anniversary parties. Outstanding! Although same sex marriage was not yet legal anywhere in the United States, these two gentlemen considered themselves married all those years.

May Bob rest in peace.

Yesterday morning was spent working on this morning’s blog talk radio show. The Key West Lou Talk Show. Then I was off to Higgs Beach. The temperature was 80 degrees.

I did not wear a bathing suit. Too cold for me! I was in a tee shirt and shorts. Eighty is warm to the tourists. They fly down for a few days. Their blood is still thick from the northern cold weather. Mine is not. I experience cold easily. Strange as it sounds, eighty is cool to me this time of year.

I sat in my sand chair for 1.5 hours and read. Tourists all around me running in and out of the water.

I am presently reading two books at one time. I am still reading the one about President Grant. I am also into a book on Eisenhower titled Ike’s Bluff. It was the Ike book I was reading on the beach.

The more detail I read about the various lives of our Presidents, the more I wonder why anyone would want the job. Grueling. Crushing. The pressure never lets up.

Picked up the virus infected computer. Virus gone. I was worried. Thought the computer was gone.

Then to my heart doctor for a routine visit. Everything A-ok.

I have written in this column, in a KONK Life article, and discussed it on my TV/Internet show. Pythons!

The State of Florida sponsored python hunt is now up to 800 participants. I think the State and hunters are crazy. They remind me of the people who went out in all size boats to capture the great white shark in Jaws. The python hunt scenario is a disaster in the making. A hunter is going to get shot by a fellow hunter or crushed by a python. Guaranteed!

Completed another Key West Lou Blog Talk Radio Show this morning. Amongst other things, chatted about a woman’s vagina and an incestuous relationship. Nothing bad. But real and truthful for sure.

I suggested that a woman’s vagina is more regulated than assault weapons. Think about it. I am correct.

As regards an incestuous relationship, one of sorts exists between the military, the military industrial complex, and Congress. Right on, again.

The statistics/analytics were available to me immediately following the show. A number listened in. No one called in, however. Please, I am trying to develop a talk show. I need you to participate. It costs nothing and gives you the opportunity to be heard.

The stats told me something interesting. People listening to the blog talk radio show are reading this blog for the first time. I would like it to work the other way, also. Go from Key West Lou to the talk radio show.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

 

 

 

COURMAYEUR…..FOOT OF MONT BLANC

Spent most of yesterday preparing friday’s internet show. The Key West Lou Legal Hour. KONK Broadcasting has been moving. I have been unable to do the show for two weeks. I missed doing it! I am thrilled to be preparing for a friday show again.

Remember, the show has a new internet address. Reception supoposedly will be better. www.konknet.com/tv/personalities.

Some of friday’s goodies include the ten foot python found last week at the Key West Airport, contraception to be taught in Key West and other Monroe County schools, eating worms and roaches, teaching the young to make Molotov cocktails in Tunis, a son who stole his mother’s jewels so he could visit a brothel, a medical theory that castration leads to longer life, HIV and jail sequestration, and more. The more of course includes my take on the Presidential campaign, last night’s debate, and an update on Greece’s economic problem.

A good show in the making. Join me.

I did get out of the house briefly during the day. A noon manicure with Tammy. A neighbor airport pick up at 5.

Last night was dinner at the bar at Hogfish. Fish and chips and read the newspapers.

Parking was unusual last night at Hogfish. There was none. Cars everywhere. Even way up the road. The place was packed.

The Presidential debate. A few brief comments.

Neither candidate answered questions. If either were in a court room in front of a Judge, they would first be yelled at and then held in contempt.

I thought Obama the winner. Far and away. Romney continues to be weak on foreign affairs. He is also too combative. A tough opponent. On the other hand, if he conducts every day business in a similar fashion, he would not be successful as President. Putin would knock him on his ass if Romney got in Putin’s face. Similarly, Romney evidenced a lack of respect for his opponent and the moderator.

Lets move on to happier things. Like Courmayeur. A small ski village at the foot of Mont Blanc. Another stopping off place on my European trip.

Courmayeur is in northern Italy. One half hour car drive to France and a one hour drive to Switzerland. It is located in a valley high up on Mont Blanc. Mont Blanc is the highest point in Europe. Part of the Alps.

I was in Courmayeur in August. It was warm. But…..I woke one morning to snow. That is how it is on Mont Blanc. The temperature had dropped from a mid 70 high the day before to a 20 degree temperature the next morning.

I found Mont Blanc awesome! Magnificent! Over powering!

The favorite food of those living in the Courmayeur area is polenta. Ground corn. It was eaten with every meal. Huge plates of it. I could not stand the polenta. My only dislike on the trip.

There are nine photos of Courmayeur.

If I was on the side of a mountain near Switzerland, what else would I live in other than a Swiss chalet? Which I did. The first photo is of the chalet. The building actually contained four condominiums. Each with a balcony facing Mont Blanc.

The next photo is of some other chalets to the right of the one I was staying at.

The chalet buildings are old old. Hundreds of years. They are purchased and renovated. The outer stone reset. Wood stairs and balconies added. Some of the wood additions are reflected in the next photo.

Shadows intrigued me. They were caused by the angle of the sun and the position of the staircases. The next photo hopefully is representative of the shadows.

The next pic is the dining room of the chalet.

The next photo is the best! I took it from the balcony of the chalet. Mont Blanc with clouds below its peak.

The next two photos are different shots of Mont Blanc taken from different places and angles.

The last photo is interesting. It did not come out as intended. However, I still want to share it with you.

Mont Blannc is high. Very high. Trees run up its side. Then suddenly stop. As if a line were drawn. Beyond the trees were rock and dirt running to just below the peak. I was trying to capture the tree line break and show the difference.

The top of Mont Blanc is neither dirt nor rock on the surface. It is glacier ice and snow! Twelve months a year.

Enjoy your day!