What can I say...life is tough here in Key West.
It's Sunday morning in the southern most point in the United States, have had a really relaxing few days with Claire, and now additional friends Pam Dawson and Carol McDonald who came down Friday from St. Petersburg to join us, we are also quietly celebrating Pam's ascension into the life decade I've been in for over a year now. I met Pam back in the early days of eTrade in California, in the mid 1990's; she and Claire became good friends through Claire's long association with eTrade, and Carol keeps Pam honest and practical (we discussed the similarities of this to the Tom/Reinold dynamic last night at dinner).
Days here have consisted of the following general pattern - up around 8am, walk with Claire, splash in the pool, coffee and breakfast, catch up on email/internet stuff, plan lunch, eat lunch, nap, splash in the pool again, go to the gym, come home, glass of wine, dinner. Speaking of dinner, we have had some blowout meals this past week at Michael's, Antonia's, Santiago, Salute, complimented one night by my own culinary attempts (TG's version of chicken paillard; Claire liked it, wants me to make more for her to have for lunch after I'm gone Tuesday) (Bob, the asparagus was good too, thanks for the temperature guidance).
Weather has remained consistent, by afternoon quite warm and very humid, it's rained a great deal up in Miami, but not down here, not a drop. Still some breezes in the early evening, last night we had a drink at sunset before dinner, the view was spectacular.
Me and my lovely host
Evident throughout Key West is the impact of people on this pristine environment. Yesterday I walked over to the Key West Cemetery to have a look around. I was captivated by many of the head stones and the engravings, some of them close to 200 years old - people have been partying out here for a long time!
In addition to this history, some of the departed left humor and mystery on their headstones. One had an encryption "I told you I was sick", another said "At least I know where my husband is sleeping tonight". Of particular interest to me was the following plate on an occupied mausoleum space:
I googled GROK, and have yet to figure out what it meant, there's a good bottle of red wine for anyone that can email me the answer.
During the cemetery walk, I also encountered two feral examples of mankind's presence in paradise, chickens and iguanas. In addition to a lot of cats and many inebriated tourists, Key West also has thousands of feral chickens walking around, often bravely crossing busy roads, some leading their chicks in maternal procession, roosters crowing at all hours, all descendants of chickens people brought here for eggs and food, that escaped and became part of the scene. Anywhere else in United States you'd have the local municipality rounding them up and dispatching them to the local Fosters Farms plant, but not here - the public tolerance of these birds is an example of the general relaxed and accepting attitude of the 15,000 year round residents in Key West.
Rooster in fast retreat from my camera - not shown was his lady friend hiding behind the green bin
Another exotic example of pet ownership gone wrong is the abundance of colorful iguanas. Discarded pet iguanas have very successfully survived and multiplied throughout parts of south Florida, and as voracious herbivores, they have laid waste to various home gardens, fruit trees, etc. A few winters ago, they had an unusual cold snap in and around Ft. Lauderdale, resulting in many frozen iguanas falling dead out of the trees they typically hangout in during the night - apparently a very messy scene to wake up to...
While I have heard many iguana stories over the years, until my cemetery tour yesterday I had yet to see one in action. Claire has one that visits her backyard, apparently their guano is fairly disgusting and not fun to clean up (but then again, what animal's guano is enjoyable?) however, the one that fouled Claire's deck has yet to show his/her face this week. In the cemetery, however, they were all over the place, multiple/vibrant colors, shapes, and in general very timid, they'd run away and hide under a grave stone before you could get a picture, with one exception....
Myron, one big, colorful, un-intimidated cemetery iguana
I decided to name him Myron, although quite honestly Myron may have been a she, I wasn't sure how to determine that with any level of anatomic precision. Myron also had very long claws, and while I know they are generally vegan, I decided getting any closer was probably not in my best interests. The iguanas in Key West are being fruitful and multiplying, and there is faint evidence of emerging intolerance of these lizards, as demonstrated by a sign in a home adjacent to the cemetery.
Reptile intolerance, Key West style
1.5 days left in Key West, then its homeward bound, via a lunch stopover in Ft. Lauderdale with our good friends Paige and Charlie. Key West top 10 coming tomorrow, stay tuned.
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