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!

 

 

 

BALLS IN NORTH DAKOTA

A strange title. Refers to male testicles. As this story develops, you will agree it appropriate.

If I could video the Chart Room, the shows would be terrific. The conversations some evenings would be difficult for a professional writer to compose.

Last night an example.

It was David, Kevin, John, Mike from Liverpool, Ollie, and me. Ollie the star. He was wound up. Irma still getting to him.

Ollie is a first class citizen. Always volunteering, helping the community. Does for others. The nature of the man. From the heart.

Ollie lives at Santa Clara. He is President of the Homeowner/Tenant Association. As such, he tried to keep things under control as Irma struck.

He had keys to each apartment. Important.

Water never hit the building. It was 3 feet high in the parking lot, however.

Owners/tenants had friends stay with them during Irma. The building considered a safe place.

Some young adults arrived with their scooters/mopeds.

Ollie discovered the scooters parked in one of the hallways. He yelled and screamed and said get them out of here. Against fire laws.

When he returned, the scooters were no longer in the hall way. He discovered them in the apartment. The next time he looked, they were no longer in the apartment. They were on the fire escape.

Frustrated, Ollie called the Fire Department. By the time they arrived, the scooters were gone.

Later, there was smoke. Fire smoke. Not from the scooters. A main breaker caught on fire. He called the Fire Department.

Ollie heard a lot of noise coming from one apartment. A strange yet familiar noise. He entered to find someone trying to blow out the candles in the room with a leaf blower.

Pool water was used to flush toilets. During the several no power days, tenants swam in the pool. Ollie had cookouts for the tenants. Somehow, he got some food. Cooked on the outside grill. A party each evening. Sounded like Birmingham.

FEMA has been supplying the people of Key West with food packages. Labeled MRE. Stands for Meals Ready to Eat.

Ollie a bit of a joker when not taking his President duties seriously.

He handed me a gray squared small packet. Labeled MRE-P. It was a prophylactic. A condom. I looked at him and said, you’re kidding. No, he said. FEMA also had MRE-Ts. Tampons.

It was a joke.

Ollie got into a dissertation  as to where he wanted to be buried. He had visited the two local cemeteries. Shocked at how expensive! Decided the only thing of value he  had to leave were his testicles.

He has signed the necessary paperwork and also placed in his will what he wants done with them.

His family has a burial plot in North Dakota. He wants his testicles removed and transported to North Dakota for burial. He does not care what happens to the rest of his body.

The man was serious!

Ollie walked behind the bar. There sitting amongst all the pics was what Ollie described as a Ball Coffin. A cylinder about 2 inches wide and 4 inches long. Military green. His testicles were to be transported in the cylinder.

Ollie ended the story by raising a fisted hand and shouting…..Balls in North Dakota!

He was sober.

Stopped at Denny’s on the way home for a sandwich. Sat at the bar. Robi bartending. Another customer nearby, Bob. Bob is a marine mechanic.

The three of us had a lengthy conversation. Discussed many things. Including Puerto Rico and grown children. Each of us have adult children. Our stories of them similar. A different generation from ours.

Spent a couple of hours at Dr. Norris’ office yesterday. My new primary care physician. A first visit. I believe I will be in good hands.

I have a dinner date this evening. With Brenda who I met last week at the Chart Room.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

GOVERNOR RICK SCOTT…..AN IRMA SHINING STAR

I was not a fan of Governor Rick Scott till Irma. His performance during Irma has turned me. One hundred eighty degrees.

The man has performed outstandingly. And continues to so perform.

He knew Irma was coming and his State was in danger. He prepared. Florida could not have been more ready.

That alone turned me. However, his performance subsequent to Irma proves my change of mind to have been correct.

Scott was in Marathon yesterday for a meeting with various public groups working to help Keys’ residents. Expeditiously. Matters such as debris removal, temporary housing, small business assistance, etc.

He announced at the meeting that 400 Florida National Guard were being deployed to assist with debris removal. Six thousand tarps were on the way also.

Scott’s coordination with FEMA has been spectacular. Twenty seven thousand have registered for assistance already. Ten thousand approved thus far. Those approved have been funded to the tune of $14.9 million.

More has been accomplished.

Most telling is that yesterday was Scott’s seventh visit to the Keys because of Irma. Few of the visits receiving any notoriety.

His assistance each time more than handing out a few sandwiches.

The man performs.

Duval Street. Did the tour last night again. Conditions improving, though slowly. More store fronts visible. A few additional businesses open.

The trend re open for business is running from the Gulf towards the Atlantic. The bars and restaurants closer to the Gulf the first to open. By mid-Duval, a few more. At the other end of the spectrum, La Te Da opened sunday.

It will take till Fantasy Fest for things to return to normal.

The tree/foliage debris is beginning to stink. Awful. Especially after a rain fall. The humidity adds to the odor.

The Key West Citizen is only publishing two editions a week. Not because of Irma. A business decision. Its printing shortly moving to Miami.

I miss the Citizen! I subscribe on the internet and it was one of five publications I read first thing every morning. Local news is gone. Even where the weekly publications will pick it up. Not an everyday thing.

Started my evening last night at Aqua. Jean Thornton called from Alabama to advise there would be no Dueling Bartenders, though Tom Luna might sing a tune or two.

I needed to get out. Monday is Aqua night for me. So I went.

The bar itself filled with locals. A peppy group. Tom did not sing.

Met Ray and Tom. Ray a former Virginia judge. Look forward to running into he and Tom again. Good company.

Then to the Chart Room. Shaun bartending. Met Amy. An insurance representative from the midwest somewhere. Sent to Key West to do an informal report and evaluation of damage to certain of her company’s insureds. Preparatory to the claims people coming down.

Stopped at Denny’s on the way home for a bite to eat. Denny’s not my kind of place. However, I was there for breakfast with Robert and Ally a month ago and was impressed. Big, clean, shiny and new.

Good for a quick sandwich, I figured.

Sat at the bar. The only customer at the bar most of the time. Robi the bartender. We chatted a while. She has a son now 19 who has had significant heart problems since birth. Her war stories re not having insurance on occasion and her inability to get proper medical care for him tragic to hear.

I overstayed my time with Robi. When I returned to my car, the battery was dead. I had left the lights on. Thank God for AAA. I waited only 30 minutes to get a boost.

My cell phone’s Voice Mail apparently a victim of Irma also. I woke this morning to find 8 new messages running from 9/19 to 9/22. I assume lost in never never land because of Irma.

Puerto Rico being ignored. It appears Trump and Congress have forgotten that 3.5 million American citizens live there.

Government, get your ass in gear! They are our people!

My podcast tonight. The first in four weeks. Irma prevented me from doing the show during that time.

The show a quick half hour of interesting topics. Some eye openers. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou at 9 tonight. www.blogtalkradio.com/key-west-lou.

Topics include Irma, past Keys hurricanes, China’s new credit card the customer’s smile into a screen, killer robots, opioids top tobacco use in U.S., the kneeling sport dilemma, Trump’s ignoring of Puerto Rico, North Korea, healthcare, and more.

Guaranteed informative. Many times from a different perspective.

Enjoy your day!