This Week on the Island 12/13/2009

'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.----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The picture this week (click to enlarge) is ‘Cactus Flower and Banana Tree’ in our back yard.

Weather: I normally wear a loose sleeveless t-shirt in the summer. Sleeves hold in a lot of heat. I like to wear my golf shirts in the winter. Last weekend it got so cold I had to wear a t-shirt and a golf shirt. It is back in the low 80’s again.

The book this week was ‘A book of Famous Explorers’ by Edwin Erle Sparks (1938). I found a bunch of books in our storage room when we were cleaning up.

Things Tourist should know: Florida (65,795 sq mi) is larger than England (50,337 sq mi). Of course if you throw in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, then Great Britain is larger.

Monday, Dec 7th, was Pearl Harbor Day. I wore my dark blue golf shirt with the American Flag collar. The dogs enjoyed the dog park by the sea while I got some sun.

Wednesday was time for another bike ride. I went down to Mallory Square and then across Whitehead Street to the Southernmost Point. Next was Dog Beach next to Louie’s Back Yard and then over past the Casa and on to Higgs Beach. I peddled pass White Street Pier and up to Smathers’ Beach. Here I stopped for a while to look at the Atlantic Ocean and some lovelies getting some sun. I cut across the island and back toward the Gulf side. I went thru old town and around the cemetery and on back to home. Then I took the dogs for a short walk.

This week was lots of Christmas Activities. Last Saturday was the Christmas Parade. Schooner had a party for decorating of their tree. Later there were pictures of your dog with Santa on the wharf. Let’s not forget the lighted boat parade on Saturday night. Of course the Christmas party for city employees was as good as always (Jo works for the city at Garrison Bight).

-------------My thoughts-----------
At the time of Columbus, to help with navigation, charts were developed for major cities, telling how many degrees the sun was above the horizon for every day of the year. So if you left from London and kept the sun to the south and the correct degrees above the horizon each day at noon, then you went in a straight line across the ocean. This was measured with a sexton (many sea captains went blind after years of measuring the height of the sun at noon.)

People also assumed that the climate in the new country would be the same as the climate in Europe if they sailed straight across. They did not know about the Gulf Stream and how it brought warm water north and kept Europe from being an ice box. If you look at your globe you will note that Europe is pretty far north. As a matter of fact Paris is straight across from Montreal, Canada.

All that to get to this: The earth is warming and the ice at the North Pole is melting. Salt water is heaver than fresh water. As the North Atlantic gets less salty from all the ice melting, the Gulf Stream with its heavy salt water will drop deeper into the North Atlantic and not bring its warm waters to Europe. Europe will enter another ice age. When will this happen and how fast will it happen? No one knows. The thing that frightens me about ‘global warming’ is how long it will take to cause the next ice age and how high the water will get before it starts freezing again.

Key West, You have got to love it
'Living the life that others dream'
Doug Bennett
Lat 24.55967N, Long 81.80169W

You may join this group by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThisWeekontheIsland/
Sassi dancing to Schooner Wharf Bar Dog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_l9kgPmuQ