HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

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Happy Fourth of July!

Independence Day. The birthday of our country.

Two hundred forty two years old. It was July 4, 1776 at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia that the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

We are a young nation. Compare our age to that of European nations. Still growing. Tensions abound. The Trump era crazy and dangerous.

America celebrates. Tonight, fireworks! In Key West, off the White Street Pier.

This past week has been strange politically. Relatively quiet. We have not heard from Rudy Giuliani and other Trump cohorts who were making the news. Are they quiet because of Michael Cohen on the verge of possibly flipping?

Cohen is making noise like Trump when he wants something. He is using the media. Cohen seems to be telling the Second District he wants to jump fence and play on their side. Thus far they have not picked up on his offer.

Spent yesterday afternoon fine tuning last night’s podcast. Tuesday Talk with Key West Lou. Thoroughly enjoyed doing the show. Covered a multitude of sins. Wish I had had more time.

Casey joined me for dinner before the show. At Roostica.

Casey and his 70′ x 30′ catamaran sit in the water off Hogfish. Casey new to Key West. Been here all of 10 days. Yesterday, he took his dingy and visited Wisteria Island. He is interested in Key West lore. The day before he went out into the Gulf a bit and did some diving.

Jennifer waited on us. It has been two years since I last saw her. She was pregnant at the time and due any day. She proudly showed me her son’s picture. Two years old. A handsome little man.

Good friends Fran and Tom Dixon have arrived. Buffalo their home. They visit four times a year. Stay at Ocean Key. Tom is on the Board.

We are doing dinner tonight. Meeting at 6 at the Chart Room. My turn to host. Probably the A&B Lobster House. Plan on calling for a reservation since today is a holiday.

Fran is concerned for me. She thinks I am not well fed. She brings me food from Buffalo. Tonight, I will receive at least 4 jars of homemade sauce containing pork, sausage and meatballs. Plus low carb bread and home made candy.

Love the woman!

You have to believe in guardian angels! God, too! Two examples evidencing why.

A few days ago, the cruise liner Norwegian Gallery was 28 miles off the northwest of Cuba. A crew member fell off the ship. His fall seen. The ship backed up and searched. Could not find him. Authorities notified. Air and sea searches proved fruitless.

The next day, the cruise ship Carnival Glory was traveling in the opposite direction. Twenty one miles off the north coast of Cuba. Saw the crew member in the water. He was rescued. In good health.

The man had been in the water 22 hours. Treading. No life jacket. Fortunately the water is warm and calm this time of year. Even more fortunate, a shark did not come upon him.

Did the man have a guardian angel? No question in my mind. God was looking after him.

A Thailand event the other example.

A 12 member soccer team and their coach got lost in a mountain gave in north Thailand. The boys 11-16.

The cave is part of a huge mountain. Full of corridors of all sizes. Some entrances small. The boys had to squeeze to get through. The team was able to get down into the heart of the mountain about one mile.

Then stuck. Water all around them. The caves have flowing water in various depths.

They could not get out. Spent 10 days in the dark and without food. Searchers and divers arrived from all over the world. A total of 1,000 looking to provide assistance. Two British divers found them over the weekend.

All basically in good health. Food, water and medical assistance provided.

At this point it is clear the kids and their coach had a special guardian angel looking over them. God directing their rescue.

The rescue is not complete however. It has been raining since the team got lost. The rainy season. Every day. The rain sometimes six inches in an hour. Cave passage ways flooding.

The team will have to swim and dive in order to get out. A mile.

None know how to swim or dive. Present plans are to teach them how to swim and dive. Then take them out. Two professional divers guiding each team person.

It is estimated the plan will take months. However so far the only way determined to get them out.

Hope the guardian angels and the good Lord stay with them.

Children detained in chain linked cages. We should be ashamed! I do not understand how Trump supporters find nothing wrong with the scenario: “They broke the law.” “They brought their children into the U.S.” “They invited what is happening to them.”

For shame!

The Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis is expressing its concern and disagreement. Statues of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus sit on the lawn of the Church in a chain linked enclosed cage.

BOB says it is a holiday. He is not writing today.

Enjoy your Fourth!

 

POST ERIKA

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Sorry to feature Erika three consecutive days. However when you live on a sub-tropical island subject to all kinds of tropical storms, weather is all important.

No more Erika after today. I promise.

Key West was supposed to experience heavy rain and winds yesterday. Can’t always trust the weather man. There was a heavy rainstorm for about 10 minutes in the morning. That was it. Gray all day. Minimal wind. No more rain.

I stayed in and lounged around all day. I did not want to be somewhere with streets flooded and I would find it difficult to get back home.

It appears it did not rain during the evening. The sun is breaking out this morning,.

Two banks of clouds. A white one on top. A gray one below. An hour ago, the white ones were moving south and the gray north. Just now, both moving north. Direction important. Most adverse weather comes from the north. Rarely from the south. Yesterday and today so far, most items moving south to north. The remnants of Erika.

Fred is still off the coast of Africa. Over the Cape Verde Islands. A category 1 already. Expected not to make the U.S. Anticipated it will peter out somewhere over the Atlantic.

We shall see. Wind is fickle.

Part of yesterday was spent composing this week’s KONK Life column. Private Prisons. Publishes wednesday.

Interesting material. The column covers prison slave labor as constitutionally protected by specific words in the 13th Amendment. The observation that private prisons are proving not to be financially feasible for governmental agencies. Wall Street investing heavily in private prisons.

Corruption. A judge recently sentenced to 28 years because he took $1 million in bribes to send over a five year period 2,000 plus youngsters to private detention centers. The 2,000 plus young people did not commit anything warranting detention time.

Gene Thornton wrote a comment to yesterday’s blog re American Pharoah. Note, not Jean Thornton. Gene Thornton.

I used to enjoy Saratoga when I lived up north. I enjoyed betting at the track. Generally losing. The cost to watch beautiful horses run.

Gene gave me an education. I thought when a horse was put out to stud, he wandered around grass fields having fun impregnating female horses. I was wrong.

What I learned. Gestation period for a mare is 11 months. Most mating takes place in February. Mating takes place in a special stall inside, not outside in the fields. There was wisdom in continuing to run American Pharoah after his Triple Crown victories. American Pharoah should be run through the Breeders Cup late in October.

I would repeat the comment in its entirely. However, it is too long. If you wish to read it, it can be found under Comments following yesterday’s blog on WordPress.

Thank you, Gene Thornton.

We are into lobster season. Eighty percent of the spiny lobsters caught in the Keys are shipped to China and other Asian markets. Big business!

This morning’s Key West Citizen in The World Almanac section published its quote of the day. William Sayoran in one of his writings said, “Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success…”

True. From my experience. I have always maintained that you have to be a loser before you can be a winner. Winning is a learning process. We learn from our mistakes. So it was in my life.

Enjoy your day!