Life in Key West is strange, pleasant, creepy, loud at times, lazy or is that a disguise? Lots of things happen and right now it is so hot that everyone is crawling around like lizards. A typical day is a ridiculous collage of events followed by a long dingy ride over moonlit ocean swells as we cross the channel to the anchorage. One day I had my guitar strapped on my back as I rode my bike up to Caroline Street Music to buy strings. There was a drunk dude with a straw hat playing the piano I had helped move a week or two earlier with Andy(also from deep chatham) and the owner. I have already moved two pianos and a keyboard since we got to Key West. Last year I did a grand piano. This particular piano came from the Red Barn Theatre on Duval St. This dude playing the piano was playing Pink Floyd. His style just makes your jaw drop cause you aren't expecting this Key Bum to be able to play that well. He asked me to play something and I said after I make my purchase, give me time to think about it. He was really good. He had played on cruise ships and probably everywhere else. That piano sounds like crap when anyone else plays it. That's why the Red Barn bought a new one. I came out after buying some strings and played him one of my songs. He asked if that was an original and I said, "yes it was". He thought I was really good and said he liked the words a lot. That was cool and then his friend Woody walked up and he played his songs on a guitar which were very funny and loud. Billy Crow was there playing harmonica with the pianist. They started playing another Floyd tune and Woody flipped out because he had never heard this guy play piano. They only knew each other hanging out on the Duval Street. Woody called his mom and made her listen on my phone because she had met this guy and thought he was just another drunk (which he is). It was fun. All this continued until the shop manager came out and said we needed to take a break so he could work on a customer's guitar. Every night when we pass the the music store by the dingy dock, we hear them playing while the rest of the city sleeps. The owner likes having the guy play the piano.



I jumped a bucket at Mallory Dock. Now I am officially a Snowbird.



This cute lizard ran out of wire during birth. It only has three legs. Sadly, Americans nor Europeans are very interested in purchasing this one. An artist at Keys Fest in Islamorada showed interest in a trade of some kind. Hopefully, we find a home for him.



We have been helping our friend, Melanie move her cart to Sunset every night. She was one of my first customers last year. She said she would put it on her house and I would get a lot of business. She was right. I get a lot of customers that say they saw it and are so glad they found me.



































Piper is learning music.



On Conch Republic Day they battle out on the water. The Coast Guard vs. everybody else. It's a re-enactment of the battle for secession that took place back in the early eighties. In an attempt to curb the flow of illegal aliens and drugs coming in through Key West, Border Patrol put a checkpoint up in the northern Keys on the only road in or out. It was very successful but it also killed tourism for the lower Keys. The three-hour drive from Miami to Key West became a six-hour traffic jam. The final straw was when the beer distributors said they would no longer deliver to Key West because it took too long. Key West seceded from the Union then promptly surrendered and applied for aid. The stunt generated enough publicity to end the "border" checkpoint. These days they squirt each other with firehoses. In years passed, people threw tomatos and sometimes an outbreak occurred on the pier. So I decided not to set up. It turned out to be pretty tame.










Down by the dingy dock we see lots of big fish, like tarpon, parrot fish, barracuda and nurse sharks. One day, we started noticing fish carcasses. They were around for days and started stinking up the marina. The sport fisherman do this. They aren't supposed to throw them in the bight. It's actually illegal. All the fish leave the area when this happens.



Here's a shot of me enjoying a morning dingy ride.



We've been helping Andy and Vicki look for a sailboat. I drove with her to Marathon one day to look at a real heap. It's amazing what people think they can sell. It was a beautiful drive. It is a great way to see the keys really. The drive is incredible. Never do it at night! Pull over and sleep until morning.



I kept telling them that there is bound to be something here in Key West in the 3-4 thousand range that is worth the money. We looked at this crappy Pearson. I don't know why people say things like, "It doesn't leak at all, we left it alone for a year until it chaffed though the line and started drifting during a storm and still doesn't leak even though someone stole the compass and there is a 6 inch hole in it's place." I looked in the bilge and there was water. The chainplates were dissolving from salt water exposure.












Thank God it has a temporary rudder! Does it come installed?





Eventually, They found a boat. It's a very reasonable boat for the money and it is ready to use.



During all the chaos, you have to find time to go dancing. We went to the Green Parrot one night to see the Spam ALLSTARS. We bumped into Sandra outside. She is from Dominica and sells ginger beer on the street. She is a bit of a pushy salesperson, but very interesting. She dances like a hoochi mama. Vicki and Saundra were speaking many different languages. None of them together.




Music at the Green Parrot is awesome. Every local in town comes if there is a good band. It's always free. Often it is so crowded, we just hang hang out on the other side of the street, because they open all the windows and doors, you can hear perfectly wherever you are. It's an all ages show over there. That's Toko's kid, Aaron, riding the skateboard.



Music is all over Key West. But most of it is classic rock and eighties covers. There are a lot of street musicians and performers with originals. Here is another video of Toko at Conch Republic every Sunday.



My Uncle Chan came to Key West and didn't realize I was living here. We were able to reconnect after ten years. He even sang a little song. The guy playing piano also has a tumbling act down at Sunset every night. His former tumbling troupe from NYC made it into the top ten on America's Got Talent. Unfortunately, they got kicked off the night he was going to join them.



In the mornings, we have breakfast with the pirates at Harpoon Harry's.






Often we party on Christmas Tree Island. This time there were two fiddles, a cello, an accordian or two, a bagpipe, hand drums, several guitars, an electric bass powered by marine battery, acoustic bass, recorder, harmonicas, ukes, and I'm sure there was more.

One day, Dusty, another tarheel asked us if we wanted to come over to his Tiki Bar for stone crab claws. We did. And they were excellent. We met his turtle.



































Here is Capt. Michael. He is one of the first boaters we met this year. He decided to wear his pirate suit. He says he always gets lucky when he wears it. Sadly, we were shocked to find out it is true. We heard he left sunset with the new photographer girl.

We often hang out at Melanie's house. It is in the Old Town Historic district. The tour buses always talk about the gingerbreading of her house and how it represented alcohol (during prohibition) and gambling. I built her a new display for her art one week. She lets me keep my art at her house which is close to Sunset. One night we painted umbrellas for a Boys N Girls Club auction til 5 am at her house. What a long night. The auction went well and Piper got to meet the host for the event, Veronica Webb from Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.







Piper worked very hard on her umbrella. I kept going out into town and watching the drunk dude on the piano at Caroline Street Music. I eventually came back and laid some chair cushions out and covered up with a blue tarp. i got a little shut-eye, then she woke me up at like 5.

The auction was held at the Garden Club which used to be a fort.
























OK i gotta get out of this coffee shop. I don't even drink coffee anymore. Just smoothies. The rest are pics of the Keys. A lot are photos from a show we did in Islamorada. There is an electric car expo in marathon today. Unfortunately, I can't make it. Peace Out.





















We had another party last night at Christmas Tree. Piper stayed on the boat and missed it. It was a slow start, but by the end, we had played all kinds of music. Toko's wife, Diane, played some songs that were really good. She has been playing and singing a lot lately. She said that's all she's been doing while pregnant and sea-steading.