This Week on the Island 08/27/2006

'This week on the Island' is written by Doug Bennett and is an update to friends about happenings in Key West last week. Everything is true except for those parts that are lies.
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Key West: (I will start displaying pictures of places the Parrot Heads may want to visit when they come to Key West in November.) The picture this week is B.O.'s Fish Wagon on the corner of William and Caroline. Buddy Owens is the owner and this is one of the places Jimmy Buffett visits when on the island. If you look next to the sidewalk on Caroline Street, you will see the concrete from foot of the old Williams Street Pier. If you go to the bight from B.O.'s (1 block) you will see the concrete pillars that used to hold the William's Street pier (they are under the current wooden pier that is there). All this area was filled in when they dug the bight.

The Weather: Beautiful. It is cooling off a little at night. The days have been getting shorter since June 21 (the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer). We are down to less than 13 hours of sunlight a day.

This week book was 'The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua' by Randy Wayne White 1999. This is a book of short stories of true adventures of the author. The first story is flying a jet fighter in a dog fight, the second story is learning to mush in Alaska, and on and on. I really enjoyed the book.

Monday I had to take the 13 hour bus ride, to the VA Hospital in Miami and back, to meet with the orthopedic surgeon that is going to do a total knee replacement on my right knee on Sept 6th. Well, 40 years after my 'service connected injury' and it is going to be fixed.

The USS Saufley was stationed in Key West from 1951 to 1965. Later it was used as target practice for the Navy and sunk off the coast of Key West. This week Capt. Curt Barrett a retired crew member and many of the ships crew came to Key West to remember the ship. They were given a ride offshore to the ships underwater location. http://www.usssaufleydd465.com/

This week was 'The Miss Hawaiian Tropic - Key West Pageant'. Friday night was at Conch Republic Seafood and Saturday night was on Duval Street. These were some lovely ladies. The things they called swim suits were quite small.

This week we also had a 'Poker Run/Bar Crawl' to support Vet care for pet owners that can't afford to pay. It started at Bobby's Monkey Bar and went to 5 other bars. Each bar gives you a card and a shot and the best hand at the end wins $150.

Dan Dejay came by on his bike and stopped to talk. He is back on the island for a few days. Dan works for the government and travels to foreign countries and works with their judicial system. He is currently assigned to Kosovo. Dan has his own blog at http://dejatravels.blogspot.com/

We also celebrated Wyleigh Dog's 14th birthday this week at Schooner Wharf Bar (her favorite). She slept thru most of it.

Saturday morning while reading the paper on my front porch, a police car stopped and the officer began talking to a homeless guy on the corner. Five more police cars came and the all talked to this guy. After a while they all jumped back in their police cars turned on their siren and took off. I guess there was another homeless guy on some other corner they needed to talk to.

Key West, You have got to love it
'Meet me at the end of the road' - Conky Tonkin'- Jimmy Buffett
Doug Bennett
Lat 24.5597N, Long 81.8016W


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