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2013 August

Thursday, August 15, 2013

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[Old Seven Mile Bridge] What’s with all the love for that killer bridge. I will bet that everyone reading this knows someone that was killed or injured on that narrow,white-knuckle bridge and I also bet that everyone here has spent 5 hours or longer stuck because of an accident. I hate that old bridge!
CCR- Graveyard Train

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[Old Seven Mile Bridge] As a long time tourist in the Keys I’d be sad to see the Old 7 Mile Bridge torn down. Walking the full distance both ways, surrounded by blue water, sharks and stingrays below, warm breezes and gliding pelicans above, is something I’ve done many times and would love to do again.

Having said that, I have absolutely nothing but contempt for the people I encountered on Pigeon Key. Historical Society my ass. More like hysterical society. The one and only time we ventured down there was because my wife, who has a medical condition, was in dire need of a restroom. They tried to extort money from us, treated us like we had cholera, and wouldn’t even let her use the facilities. That’s okay though. They don’t know my wife. She had that bathroom break on their precious island anyway.   

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The best toilet ever.

advert-dennis-ward8.16.13

[Term Limits] The Mosquito Control Board is about to discuss a monumental change for the better about themselves — term limits.  If you agree with term limits, and want the bug board to have term limits,  please come to their meeting and say so. Board member Jack Bridges said on the radio that he wants to hear what the people want. Come tell all the Board members to change from unlimited, to limited terms.

The Mosquito Control Board meeting is  Monday 8/19/13,  at their office located at 503 107th Street Gulf, Marathon. Their Budget Meeting (also always interesting to hear how they spend our money) starts at 3PM,  and then the regular meeting will start about 4.30 or 5PM.

The more people who stand up and say we want term limits the better. The vote for term  limits,  if it passes,  will then be forwarded to state legislature for their action.

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cudjoesunset00Thank you Deer Ed, for all the beautiful Keys banners. After growing up in Mich. for 50 years, as a kid, I always wondered what half the greens & blues we’re for, in the Crayola box when coloring. Then at 50, and after 6 wonderful years of living on Cudjoe, I experienced them all in my garden, the sky, and the Ocean. Eye Candy everyday, that I will never forget. So thanks for refreshing my memory, everyday. Big Love from Michigan.

Radio-Shack2.20.13 
[Pay to Pay] I too have gone into Keys Energy and found all the Bubba Babes just sitting around talking and doing nothing because there were no customers there. Jeeze, talk about job security, but it’s not fair to the rest of us. 

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Here’s a really rare shot of a large white Falcon nesting in a tree.

Gas is $3.29.9 in rural Virginia today.

Bluewater-Ad

If you’re going to be a smart ass, first you have to be smart otherwise you’re just a dumb ass.

CashCow15Can you spell  cash cow?  Gastesi and the BOCC are salivating at all the extra perk money – aka permit fees – coming in the doors.

The bigger question: Ask the county what they have done with the extra permit money they have been receiving from all Key Largo property owners.  It has not gone back into the Building Department operating pot.

The upcoming budget for the Building Dept should be lower than ever,  based on expected income from permit fees.  But – it’s not.  The upcoming budget is looking to collect even more money from taxpayers – for salaries.  Like I said … cash cow.  

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[Fuelman] I had to go to Home Depot today so I decided to exercise my free market right to not get screwed. While I was in Marathon, I got 30 gallons of boat fuel and filled my truck with 87 octane. The boat fuel was $3.99 vs $4.69 at the Shell station, and the 87 octane was $3.55 vs $3.79 at Shell. Dion’s has dropped their price a few cents but no one other than Shell sells boat fuel. I saved almost $25.

Now tell me that there is nothing wrong with the gas prices in the lower Keys.

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[Bum Grapevine] Homeless, bums, hobo’s, dirtbags, people of the woods. Call them what you want. When one of these folks finds his or her way into the system there is a cost. Well over 150 dollars a day to hold them in jail. If they have any illness it must be treated. Problems with their teeth, feet, infections, mental Issues. All these must be treated. The cost is a bunch! I have no answer, but I am sure the cost of a bed and some food is much less than incarceration, medical treatment & lawsuits. Lets hope that faith based groups will help, as they always have and cut the cost down for John Q. Public.

[Gravity costs more than Grinder Pumps] How can this poster look itself in the mirror without feeling guilty of outright lying to the people. You have to be a FKAA employee or worse — the pump guy! This is what it is all about in two pictures.
Grinder-Pump-System15Gravity15

My parents got divorced after 40 years of marriage which was the longest game of “Chicken” ever.

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[Locally Caught Fish] Lionfish are great to eat.  Please support these restaurants selling locally caught Lionfish: Lazy Days Restaurant in Islamorada, FL/Key Largo Conch House in Key Largo, FL/Fish House Encore in Key Largo, FL/Castaways in Marathon, FL/Chef Michael’s in Islamorada, FL

If you spear you own here’s a video on safe handling and how to filet Lionfish. Video

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canal15

 

Today in 1914 the Panama Canal officially opened. Next year the new canal is set to officially open to much larger ships.

cards-poker[Poker Run] Saturday, Aug. 17 sponsored by the Marathon Elks Lodge.  It starts at the Lodge located at 82nd St. Ocean, Marathon at 4 pm  Cards for your “hand” can be collected at the American Legion, DAV and Moose Club in Marathon and returned to the Elks.  Appetizers will be served as well as Lemon Chicken Dinner.  Music by Papa Pete, prizes of $100 for best hand, $50 for second and a special booby prize for worst hand.  Tickets are $20 and can be picked up at the Lodge bar.  Come and join us for a great Saturday full of fun!  More info see Events

[Mark Sutton dies] Olympics stuntman who parachuted into opening ceremony as James Bond killed in wingsuit accident. Link

crowd15[Pay to Pay] I’ve decided that it’s ‘inconvenient’ for me to pay $3.85 to make a payment online from my checking account, and it’s also inconvenient to make a payment by dropping the envelope containing my handwritten check into the box outside the KES office on James Street.

So from now on, I’ll go inside with my checkbook and write the check (warning: I write slowly), then wait while the Bubba Babe prepares a receipt for my payment. No doubt while I’m standing there, I’ll have some questions to ask about KES and its policies. Maybe it will be necessary for me to go back to the customer service BB’s[?] to have my questions answered. It might even require that I speak to a manager to verify what I’m told by the customer service BB[?].

But hell, I’m retired so I have plenty of time to waste. Maybe there are others like me who might join in on a concerted action such as this one. Hey, we might even set up a flash mob, say 10 minutes before closing time.

Seriously, this move by KEYS is one of the stupidest things I’ve experienced in a community known for doing stupid things.

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[Bridges] Once we’re done building a replica of the Old 7 Mile Bridge (the real one is too far gone to fix) we can build a replica of the Old Bahia Honda Bridge (that’s also too far gone to fix). We’ve got plenty of extra money for that sort of stuff, don’t we?

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johnsons-ad-7.25.13

Bar Mitzvah dance. Remember when both your knees worked? Do you even  remember being 13? Video

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Who needs a spare when you have duct tape.

[Yeah War!] To the person yesterday who stated “Just say no to war”. Allow me to retort: Kill all anti-American terrorists and murderous thugs wherever they are found. I’m an American and they are trying to kill me. So, I wish them destroyed and say enthusiastically, “Yes to war!” That’s right, it’s called self defense.

nira tocco realtor 9.12

[Old Seven Mile Bridge] Charge a fee to walk on the bridge and let it pay it’s own upkeep. I’d rather my tax money pay for the sewers. Also forget buying Rowell Marina. Pay down the sewers first! Put everything else on hold. We need the Tea Party to reign in the BOCC from spending our money. I’d like to have the Marina and the bridge fixed, but I don’t like debt.

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I was trying to find a place in Marathon yesterday on 1st St. I drove from the 7 Mile Bridge to the Vaca Cut Bridge and the numbers were confusing. They get higher towards the Vaca Cut Bridge so realizing my error I turned around and headed back toward the 7 Mile Bridge where the numbers kept getting smaller until they abruptly ended at 12 Street. Huh?  No 1st St? Come to find out, 1st Street is at the other end just before the Vaca Cut Bridge by Auto Parts Depot and then around the curve. Huh again? Then I had to drive back towards the 7 Mile Bridge to go home. Driving 4 lengths of Marathon for a can of Benjamin Moore Primer–that they were out of!

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I wish FedEx in Marathon would use some of the money they take from senders to add some more gravel to their parking lot. It’s pothole heaven

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watercar-slide15[Watercar] Just what we need in the Keys? Not. One beam wave and it’s bottoms up. They are only good on lakes without waves. Link 

[Old Seven Mile Bridge] If you want to find private funding sources to fix the bridge go right ahead but saddling the locals to that kind of extreme expense for the few people who want to take a walk is B.S. “A couple of million here and a couple of million there and soon you are talking real money”. We are being bled enough.

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Butterflies could complicate development on BPK & No Name Key.  The pineland croton is their main habitat. Link

tarps bungee cords
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an_human-cannon

 

Attractions offer discounts.  Link

[Sewers First] The enormous cost of rebuilding the Old Seven Mile bridge bottom to top, which could reach 20 or 30 or more million dollars taken out of the pockets of Monroe County taxpayers, is not worth the  few minutes of enjoyment  you might have during your occasional stroll out on it on a whim.   You want this kind of  extravagance, then you pay for it.  If the County has this kind of cash laying around they should apply it to the cost of the  sewer system.

ad-manley-deboer6.27.13

x15-ct[Captain Doom and Gloom] It amazes me how the Democrats belch out their Commie propaganda and try to shake the foundations of the Right.  I never realized how bent the Left is and that my father was Right about them being born losers!

“Fun with polls” I gave up on Polls many years ago when I figured out who posted them in what news media. Polls are like Movie Critiques, one person’s opinion is not another’s and both will never agree logically or tastefully on anything. Exactly like this blog. If only people would read the freaking words.

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[Obamacare] Seeing how Republicans spend all their time trying to prevent the public from getting healthcare ( I think they sent forty bills to repeal it so far), isn’t it about time they admit that they are just flat out against any healthcare reform and like to see Americans lose their homes and savings due to illness? I’m not serious they they want us to lose everything we’ve worked for, but on the outside it sure looks that way. Are they all in the pockets of the healthcare industry? If they aren’t how come they’ve never made any suggestions, or sent a reform bill, other than to deny American coverage for something they can’t control?

As a former rodeo clown I am highly offended that our profession was compared to the present occupant of the white house.

Clown-Bush15[Bush Yes, Obama No] Rodeo used President Bush to distract violent raging bulls and the rednecks cheered. The big white gate flew open. The bull came out bucking. The rider flopped from side to side and the bullfighters held back, letting the bull make his moves until the rider dropped off. Licciardello crouched in a heavily padded barrel, a human target should the bull decide to charge. Hawkins waited near the barrel, holding his big inner tube. A dummy wearing a President mask stood beside the clown, propped up by a broomstick. J. Hawkins rolled out the big inner tube, and the bull lowered his head, shot forward and launched into the tube, sending it bounding down the center of the arena. The crowd cheered. Then the bull saw the George W. Bush dummy. That’s right George W Bush. And the cult left hater bigots cheered with delight. He tore into it, sending the rubber mask flying halfway across the sand as he turned toward the fence, sending cowboys scrambling up the fence rails, hooking one with his horn and tossing him off the fence.

Today the Missouri State Fair imposed a lifetime ban on a rodeo clown whose depiction of President Barack Obama getting charged by a bull was widely criticized by Democrats and the cult left going so far as demand the DOJ and Secret Service investigate.

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Republicans are against anything that is good for regular folks. They are only concerned with money. Most all their arguments and obstructions are focused on money not on people or programs that benefit people. They have money on the brain. Democrats – people. Republicans – money.

from the right

We’re front row center witnessing the Affordable Care Act come unraveled. Just yesterday we learned of yet another huge flaw in the Democrat Affordable Care Act.  This only adds to the dizzying number of faults in the act.

For example we know that Congress has exempted itself and it staff from its provisions. Now we know that the act will leave just as many persons without health coverage (30 million) as now have no coverage, 30 million. Yet we also know that the act will cost us a staggering $1.3 trillion dollars. By the way that the CBO’s latest estimate, it’s more than the previous estimate, and more than the one before that. The cost estimate is growing like its on steroids.

exempt15We know that an ever growing array of entities of all stripes are asking for and getting exemptions. It’s fascinating how many of them are historically Democrat.  Unions and businesses alike are begging to be granted exemptions. Unions are stridently speaking out against it. Businesses are providing proof that the law will force them to cut back on employee hours, wages, and business growth. We know that in most states the law will force a substantial increase in health insurance premiums.

In Florida, the average premium increase will be 35%. In Florida, a single person who makes $45,960.00 or less will get a sliding scale subsidy, but earn even a dollar more and you pay full freight, and remember that the full freight will be between 8% and 58% more than you pay now. If you are a family of four making $94,200 or less will get a sliding scale subsidy, but if you earn even a dollar more you will see a huge increase in your federally mandated health insurance premium. Please remember that the increase can be from @ 8% to @ 60%, for an average increase of 35%. Can you afford that?

The latest flaw recognized in Team Obama’s ACA mandate has forced them to delay until at least 2015 a major component of the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care. The law was supposed to limit your out-of-pocket costs, but now it doesn’t. Your out of pocket expenses including deductibles and co-payments, were not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. Forget it! The exemption, has been taken from you by Team Obama and the Democrat ACA. Maybe it will be reinstated in 2015. Maybe or maybe not!

In its latest screw up, Team Obama has had to declare that some health care insurers will be permitted to set higher limits on out of pocket costs. Or even worse, no limits at all on some costs until at least 2015. Simply put, living under the ACA is going to require all of us to have very-very deep pockets.

The Democrat Affordable Care Act is an abomination. It should be scrapped and we should start all over again with the goal of reducing the actual cost of delivering health care, not punishing health care insurers. Hells Belles, even Max Baucus, Democrat Senator from Montana, one of the chief architects of the bill now calls is a massive train wreck in progress.