2001: A Sea Odyssey

Weathering the Winter in Key West

[Received Feb. 25, 2002]

Hello Everyone,

Finally I am able to bring you up to date as to my activities since leaving the great Pacific Northwest in early January. Much has happened during the interim; yet nothing has changed.

Arriving in Miami late in the evening of January 4^th, I was met by my good Czech Republic friends Henry and Margaret, whisked to their apartment about 15 minutes away, treated to a delightful dinner, put to bed in their two-year-old sons bedroom, and awakened at 5:00 a.m. the next morning in order to catch a greyhound bus to Key West by 6:30. Wow! How can you ask for better friends?

I used sweet-talk to get the bus driver (a woman) to let me off in Key West directly across the street from the H&R Block office, about 30 minutes before the start of a tax update workshop. Here I learn about many new tax rules and a reassignment for me, not necessarily what I want. Louise, the franchise owner, needs someone to manage the Sears office. How about you, Steve?

Working inside a retail outlet, with managerial responsibility, with no windows, is not what I want; didn’t I retire from this once? But she convinces me that I will earn more money, so I accept. Money doth corrupt. This means that I have to report to work immediately. I had planned on several days of no work, or at a minimum, partial days, leaving me time to get the Sirius II relocated from the mooring buoy to the City Marina at Garrison Bight. Wasn’t meant to be. Yes, I now have a slip, after four years of waiting and threatening to take legal action against the city for fraud. No more wet dinghy trips in the wind and dark from the marina to the Sirius II at anchor.

However, this move has domesticated me. Perhaps more than the itinerant sailor psychic can endure. I had to go to the City Electric office, stand in line, complete repetitious forms, pay a deposit with the assurance that after two years of good behavior (i.e., paying my bill in a timely fashion) I would get a refund. Then I had to go to another building (of course these offices are never in the same building, and of course these procedures have to be done in person) and do the same thing in order to get the water and sewer hookups. It was the latter that encouraged me to act with dispatch as the boat’s holding tank was sending messages.

Finally, I now have a landline telephone, for the first time in eight years. This task I was able to accomplish by phone. You would think so, wouldn’t you? But it wasn’t easy. The stern voice on the line needed to know my listing name. “Mr. Jones,” she asks, “how do you spell “R?” Then I am asked for my social security number. Why? “We have to run a credit check on you,” responds the stern voice as she puts me on hold. I gulp. She very quickly comes back on line (you can get a report of my credit history this quick?) and says, sweetly, “Mr. Jones, you will be glad to know that due to your good credit you won’t have to pay the $50 deposit fee.” Gosh, that made me feel good.

Bell-South has a freeze on new phone installations (?) so I have to wait a week to get the hook up. The following week I get a call at work from the installer to let me know that the phone connection has been made. She wants to know if I want to run the connecting line to the boat myself or pay the $85 for her to do it. So there goes my good credit. I already know the line was in place so I cajole her in walking down to the boat to test the dockside connection. She did. It was fine. I guess I owe her some tax preparation service. And now I have a telephone: 305 296-2304. And access to on-line service. Which is why you will soon get this e-mail from me. Oh, the little cogs that make this world go around.

Just think, with cable TV, I could be just as normal and regular as everyone else. That might be too much for this sailor to handle in such a short span of time. My new mailing address is 1801 N Roosevelt Blvd, T-25, and Key West, FL 33040.

Sears is about 1-½ miles from the marina where I now am. I am bound and determined that I will not gain the usual five to ten pounds during tax season that I usually gain so I am walking to work two or three times a week. The other days I ride my bike. I haven’t put my moped back in action yet. I will need it soon, though, as I have been invited to a friend’s party that is too far away to bike—a party to celebrate two lesbian’s 25 years together. Celebrations of this sort are what sets Key West apart from the rest of the United States. And chickens wandering around in the streets, restaurants, etc., as Renate wondered about in a recent e-mail.

When I did attend the above-mentioned gala event, I felt like that I am the only straight person in attendance. I strike up a conversation with a lady sitting at what appears to be the “family” table. She identifies herself as “their daughter.” Now wait a doggone moment. I may not understand the intricacies of interpersonal relationships, but I do have a working knowledge of the mechanics of same. Two women can’t produce a child. I’m pretty sure of this.

I ask the obvious: “Whose daughter are you?” I learn that she is the daughter of Judy, my co-worker off and on for the past three years. From her perspective she remembers the two ladies together in parental roles from her earliest childhood. Thus, her original answer.

In the interim, I turn down an opportunity to go to a drag queen show with a couple of my lady friends. Why they want to go is a mystery to me. Actually, one of the ladies likes to portray herself as more interested in women than men. But I don’t see the connection. I’ve been there, done that. Gone to a drag queen show, that is.

For the most part, now, all I do is work. About my only relaxation now is listening to the CD’s that my family got for me for my birthday and Christmas. Terrific music. I had to watch the video “Oh Brother” twice to begin to appreciate it. Now I want to see it again. Great music. Some of the selections I remember from my own childhood. But the best present was the Reiley and Maloney CD. Great nostalgia. All of my Reiley and Maloney albums got “destroyed” in the move from the house to the boat nearly eight years ago. Yes, it has been that long.

My good friend Rita got married in my absence. That reduced the number of neat single women available in Key West by 50%. I may have to go into the importing business.

The sluggish economy that prevails throughout much of the US is not very evident in my line of work here, although the local merchants say otherwise. The K-Mart store claims they aren’t closing, although the lack of inventory on their shelves suggests otherwise. That would leave Sears as the only chain department store here. Does this mean Wal-Mart is coming to town? Somehow I don’t see their marketing philosophy and the culture of Key West as compatible. The really good news about marketing is that Key West is starting to import from the Dominican Republic cerveza El Presidente. A half-case of bottles sells for $10.99, but the store Smart & Final puts it on sale for less than $10.00.

I enjoyed viewing the digital photographs that Brother Mike took over the holidays. I appreciate the special treatment of being included in the very first picture. Did you notice? Right there, behind sister-in-law Char, her mother Barbara, Larry, Julie and Nancy.

My plans for the summer? Nothing is definite, but I do want to spend several weeks in Washington State this summer, probably in July and August. And where/when will I go with the Sirius II this year? I don’t know. It partly depends on budget. Last season’s accident was pretty costly. And weather. If I am back in Key West in September, and the boat is ready to sail, this is peak of hurricane season. But I guess this hasn’t stopped me before. Accept that I am getting older and warier.

If all things go well, with this attachment will be a photo of my new “home” and my new work site.

Previous	Next
Homeward Bound	Index