GOOMBAY NINE DAYS AWAY

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Ho ho ho! Fantasy Fest around the corner. Nine days away. Goombay the start. Begins friday October 20. The Fantasy Fest Parade October 28.

Hope Irma does not keep tourists away. Except for debris on some side streets, the town will be ready. Bars and restaurants waiting.

Spent 1.5 hours at the hospital yesterday. The first of many tests I am scheduled for. Tomorrow another one.

One of the topics discussed last night on my podcast Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou was Puerto Rico and solar power.

Telsa’s Elon Musk met a few days ago with Governor Ricardo Rossello. They discussed solarizing the whole island rather than rebuilding the electrical system. Musk claims solar power cheaper and quicker to install.

Musk has already solarized the entire of American Samoa and a part of Hawaii.

The United States is lagging behind in the development of solar power. Blame the electrical companies, their well paid lobbyists, and federal and state legislators who dance to their tune.

China is the U.S.’s major competitor in anything economic. Beating the hell out of us. Solar power an example.

China’s solarization is twice the capacity of the United States. China also manufactures solar panels, etc. for export. China exports 99 percent of the panels it manufactures. Jobs a plenty.

Brilliant! Certain of our leaders have told us over the years that solar panels would be a new industry employing many. The U.S. should be the world leader. The words never turned into deeds. Politics, again.

Stone carbs! My favorite food!

The stone crab season begins October 15. This sunday. I can’t wait.

Irma behind us, Key West boards and commissions are back in business. One is the Tree Commission. For years, their business appears to have been ordering the removal of trees. Too many. To the abhorrence of Key West citizens.

Irma took down many trees. Removal should not be part of the Tree Commission’s agenda any further. Key West needs trees! Many kinds! All kinds!

The order of the day for the Tree Commission is to preserve the trees remaining and add to them.

Jenna Stauffer. My Jenna. Loveliest of the lovely. This 82 year old man loves taking 30 year old Jenna to dinner. We have been friends for 9 years.

Jenna just received her real estate license. Her shingle hangs with the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services team.

Everyone affected by Irma. Even baby turtles. Might never become  baby turtles. Most nesting beaches washed away by Irma.

An unnamed  group has joined together. Concerned. They are working at the preservation and restoration of the nesting beaches.

What follows not a Key West problem. Yet.

Reptiles are being found in toilets world wide.

A lizard was found in a Florida toilet. Probably an iguana.

Malaysian toilets are the squat type. Squat over an opening in the floor. A big lizard resting in the toilet.

The best in Pretoria, South Africa. A five foot snake. The commode the style we are accustomed to. A sit on toilet. The police could not get the snake out with poles and hoops. Finally, one officer grabbed the snake by its head and pulled it out.

Can you imagine sitting on a toilet, looking between your legs, and seeing an iguana or snake cuddled in the bowl? You might never go again!

Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this date in 2002. Carter achieved more in his post Presidency years than while President. The award much deserved.

I am pleased to announce the publisher has agreed to go forward with Irma and Me. The body of the book, the meat, is complete. It is that which surrounds it that I have to complete in the next few days.

Enjoy your day!

 

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

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‘Tis the season to be jolly…..

My KONK Life column this week is An American Christmas. I went all the way back to Christmas’ beginnings in pagan Rome and traced its development to modern day America.

Christmas in Roman days was not as it is today. It involved all type of debauchery, rapes, killings, etc. An example is caroling.

Today groups dressed go home to home singing Silent Night and the like. In pagan days thousands of years ago, it involved naked people dancing around stone circles. In addition to going house to house. The frivolity included rape and other sexual abuses.

Since I had gotten my column out saturday, yesterday was basically a free day. The one exception was working with Sloan in the morning for an hour. With nothing to do, I did nothing. Laid around in a lazy fashion.

The Miss Universe contest. What a screw up! The winner was Miss Philippine. By mistake, it was announced that it was Miss Columbia. After Miss Columbia had been crowned, the mistake was revealed.

I suspect Miss Columbia will reap benefit from the mistake. Being second in this instance might be more beneficial that having come in first.

Sadness follows Jimmy Carter in his later years. Carter recently disclosed he has a terminal cancer. Last week, his 28 year old grandson Jeremy died.

Key West’s proposed Truman Waterfront Park has taken 15 years to reach the ground breaking ceremony which took place last week. A black cloud seems to hang over the project.

The groundbreaking is an indication things are ready to move forward. The first stages.

The City Commission has a new member. Richard Payne. A retired Florida Judge. An excellent jurist.

Why Payne wanted to get back into politics at the ground level by running for Commissioner, I do not understand. There comes a time to sit back, relax and enjoy.

Payne appears to screw things up. First, he did not appoint the Planning Board member who had served for years. He wanted to appoint his own. Technically, Payne had the power to do so. Not a popular move, however.

Now comes the Truman Waterfront ground breaking. Payne announces that the waterfront would make an excellent place to locate a Key West-Havana ferry service. He was aware there was an agreement with the federal government that donated the land to Key West that use of the water area itself was forbidden.

Payne suggested no problem. He was going to go over the paper work to see if the government was guilty of any breaches.

I can see another 15 years going by before anything further is done with the Truman Waterfront.

Payne should drop the issue. It is not feasible from a time perspective. I am sure other problems will reveal themselves if Payne’s move is continued.

Syracuse/Montana State tomorrow night at 7. The game is televised in Key West on ESP3. ESP3 is Comcast channel 7.

It took me a while to figure out. Hope it is helpful to some.

Enjoy your day!

 

KEY WEST A RICH SMALL TOWN

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I did my good deed for the year during the night. Maybe for the next ten years.

I received a telephone call at 4 this morning. A friend was in trouble, needed help.  It was out of bed, into clothes, and into town.

As a result, I am dead tired. Probably will be all day.

Duval at 4 in  the morning is strange. Almost no one on the street. It was like everyone had disappeared. Only the buildings remained. Eerie.

Bloomberg Business did a survey to determine the 20 richest small towns in America. Key West one of them. Came in 13th.

I question the survey result. The survey was based on real estate values and median salaries. Real estate values have  been out of whack in Key West for years. Whether buying or renting.  The mean salary based on the survey was in the low $50,000 area. Not many making that much. There must be an unusual number of millionaires residing in Key West to raise the average to that level.

So much for the study.

Yesterday was the anti-gravity treadmill in the morning, lunch at Roostica and the Galleon’s Sunset Tiki Bar at cocktail time.

I thought I would run into Jean, Sheila and David at the bar. Generally their friday haunt. Found out Jean left town two days ago, and Sheila and David were no where to be found.

Someone put their arms around me from the back. It was Pati. We spent a couple of pleasant hours together.

JJ bartending. He previously worked the Chart Room. A great personality. He was thin. Obviously lost weight. Told me 20 pounds. How, I asked. He is building something outside. He is at it from 7 in the morning. The humidity a killer. A lot of sweating. The pounds just fell off.

I asked him for a job.

I was on my way home when I decided I was hungry. Stopped at Outback. Glad I did. Enjoyed great conversation with two guys sitting next to me at the bar.

Both in their thirties. One a government worker, the other out of work. Both extremely knowledgeable. We talked of our country, politicians, Trump, and life in general. The life we credit/blame on our political leaders.

Both would like to leave the U.S. and move to another country. One has property in Mexico on the Pacific coast.

We agreed as we left, it had been a good evening.

My KONK Life column Black Lives Matter / Play Tough is being correctly run in this morning’s E-Blast. You may want to read it.

Danny is fickle. First a nothing storm. Then a category 2 yesterday which turned out to be a category 3. We are told Danny will die after Puerto Rico. We shall see.

Market down 530 points friday. Monday will tell if the market was adjusting or we are at the start of another recession. China the culprit. All has to do with oil.

Trump announced 36 thousand for last night’s rally. He had to get a stadium to hold all the people. Turns out the stadium was only half full. Twenty thousand. Still a good number. In fact, an excellent one.

Will the Trump mania run its course and burn out?

Watched Jimmy Carter on TV yesterday announcing his medical problem. The man is a class act.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

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Let my people go! Famous Biblical line. Moses speaking to Pharaoh.

A similar situation exists involving Florida keys’ residents. This morning’s Key West Citizen in a major front page article told the story of Aziza Petro and her two children 11 and 4 who are being held hostage in Turkmenistan.

Aziza has dual citizenship. U.S. and Turkmenistan. She was born in Turkmenistan.

She lives and works in the Key West area. Married to Mike. Mike is a well known realtor and political figure. Their two children are Mercedes and Mikey.

Aziza’s mother died two years ago. Aziza and the children returned to Turkmenistan to visit her mother’s grave. They were to return home July 1. The Turkmenistan government refused to let them out. The government did not recognize Aziza’s American citizenship. Claim she is stuck in the country. The fact that the two children were born in the United States and have no connection to Turkmenistan appears immaterial. They are not being permitted to leave.

A tragedy!

All members of the Petro family suffering.

I make mention of Aziza’a story because I met her some four months ago. I was at the outside bar at Louie’s. As was Aziza. She had an hour to kill while waiting to pick her husband up at the airport.

The conversation was interesting. I was impressed with Aziza’s sense of community responsibility. She proudly showed me pictures of her children and husband. We spoke of my Albanian friend Flora who I met on Amorgos. Albania and Turkmenistan are both former Soviet Union block countries. Turkmenistan still being run like one.

I wrote about my meeting with Aziza in my blog the next morning.

Aziza and her children cannot get out of a country. There is also the story of another local who cannot get into a country.

Friday, Secretary of State Kerry will be in Havana for the raising of the American flag at the U.S. Embassy. The Cuban government is refusing to allow who they describe as “dissidents” to participate. Credentials to enter Cuba are being denied to some. One such person is Key West’s own Rob O’Neal.

Rob’s relationship with Cuba goes back years. He has lived there. Married a Cuban. Spent years trying to get his wife to the United States. Rob has not had a kumbaya relationship with the Cuban government. Ergo, he is not being permitted to attend the Havana flag raising.

My relationship with Rob is limited. However, he is well known and loved in Key West. He is a friend of my daughter Lisa. He took her wedding pictures. Rob is a professional photographer and is the Citizen’s photographer. His press credentials could not gain him admission to Cuba for friday’s event.

Jimmy Carter has cancer. Sad. Not a Presidential great, he has become the best ex President ever. His good works since leaving office are world wide. I wish him well.

Bocce season begins tonight. I am excited!

This week’s KONK Life column is Hemingway’s First Love. It was linked to my Key West Lou website this morning. keywestlou.com. Read it. You will find the story interesting and informative.

Enjoy your day!