Tuesday, December 3, 2013

[Dining out secret] The most busiest days for dinner restaurants in the Keys are Wednesday through Saturday nights, because many drive, or fly home Sunday. Therefore one would think Sunday or Monday would be the best days as it’s less crowded, which is true, however one gets the relief chef on those days and not the head chef. So actually Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best as it’s a rested new week for the head chef. Friday and Saturday are the peak days where quality, attention to detail or service may be more strained.

Another secret for better service is to eat earlier, one gets to occasionally see famous people that way. Usually attended by personal security, use hand signals to communicate your desire for an autograph to the security person, they will signal back if it’s ok or not or to wait. Some stars like their fans, some are not in the mood and others want nothing to do with them anymore, so be polite and not stare to let them enjoy their meal and privacy. Many stars interrupt their meals and walk off if approached by fans.

[Jan. 1, no more 60-40-watt incandescent light bulbs] Now if we can get them to produce only so-called “daylight” bulbs which emit the blue spectrum that reduces S.A.D., think of all the depressions, suicides, and self medication via drugs and alcohol that would solve. Of course the new light bulb law was created by environmentalists who unfortunately place the human condition at a lower priority, thus this idea never crossed their minds.

[Animal Testing] The National Institute of Health is retiring 450 chimpanzees because 90 percent of drugs that pass animal testing fail in human test. They are able to better test drugs on simulated body and organ tissue and the computer. Could the end of animal torture be in sight!

[Gas Gauging] “Owner driving a Rolls.” How about looking at it like the owner is an astute and very successful business man? The non-astute among us will always complain when someone is successful. It makes the rich look bad so the non-astute can temporarily feel better about their bad choices in life.

[“Shell stations”] They have put out a lot of money to renovate the stations. If people choose to work for whatever the wage, its that persons choice. I find all of the employees at Summerland Key and Ramrod stations to be very nice and they seem happy. If you are so concerned for the welfare of the employees do what I do at Christmas, stop in Christmas Eve and slip the favorite person of yours some cash. And really, who cares what they drive! I hope one day to also have my dream Rolls. Don’t forget our County provides very few public restrooms on the scenic highway. The Shell stations put up with a lot of s**t. Put a price on restroom use of visitors and you would probably add more to the cost of gas down here. Good grief.

[Drone Delivery] Amazon announced yesterday that it will start using drone delivery to major cities in about 5-10 years. They plan to deliver orders in ½ hour.

TSA parody, sung to the tune “Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer”. Video

Where to try looking for Comet ISON very low in bright dawn on the morning of December 3rd. Mercury and Saturn will be much brighter; start with them to find the spot to examine for the comet with binoculars. The comet symbol is exaggerated. For scale, these scenes are two or three times as wide as your fist held at arm’s length.

[Gas Gauging]  You all are lucky I don’t own the Shell stations, I’d raise the price $.10 a gallon just for hearing you complain.  Profit is the point of owning a business. Sometimes there is such a tone of entitlement in peoples’ posts, it disgusts me.

[“Shell Station Owner’s Rolls”]  Not just Rolls Royce, but also a Bentley, Ferrari, and two Lamborghinis. But can’t afford to pay above minimum wage while charging us at least .60 cents more than can be had on the mainland. Any one that gives the excuse that it has to be trucked here is a special kind of stupid. How many places in the country aren’t 120 miles form a major port or storage facility?

[Taxation without Representation] It should come as no big surprise to anyone that most of the people who live down here could care less what the County Commission dictates be done with our money.  Apathy has always been the word of the day and the Commissioners know it and count on it.  Now we have the grinder pumps, the brokenback  bridge and that marina shoved down our throats.  All that tax money should go to building a sewer system without individual grinder pumps on our property.

[“Clean and reputable place to eat and shop”] Another restaurant that offers good food, decent prices, air conditioning and easy parking is a 30 year old jewel called the Rusty Anchor on Stock Island. It’s not easy to find and the area is industrial with lower cost housing mixed, but it’s charming inside and not a price gouging, small portion, foo-foo tourist trap. If one spends any great length of time in the Keys or has a large family, one has to find these often hidden but very reasonable places to eat out or be taken to the cleaners by restaurants who are concentrating on the mostly one time tourist or first year snowbird.

There are occasions that going all foo-foo and pricy is called for, like wanting to get laid which Virgilio’s followed by the desert restaurant, Better Than Sex, both in KW, is a good combination, but use taxis to both as neither have parking or very little. Walking too far is a mood spoiler, she might break a heel or twist a ankle on the oh, so wonderfully, neglected sidewalks.

[Long Walk] Last May 8, this young man set out from Blaine, Washington to walk from the northwest Pacific coast to Key West, Florida.  He spent Saturday night out here in Port Pine Heights and resumed his trek at MM 18.6 Sunday morning. About 1:30 pm yesterday afternoon he reached his final destination, the Southernmost Point. En route he completed several college courses online and completed a 45-page thesis.

Lots of tourists down there yesterday stood aside while this young man took the final few strides to complete his epic journey. His name is Robert Lamb, he is from St Pete, Florida. He’s pictured at the Southernmost Point with Sharon Wells.

Watch the pro-gun, Daniel defense ad the NFL refuses run during the Super Bowl. Video

With all the spin and bull going around here in the Keys, what are the future plans from our County government and developers? Seem nothing is posted stating any future stuff they have up their sleeves. Something tell me my time in Paradise is about to end.

[“Bird walk & lecture”]  You mean I can take my bird out and walk around, like, telling people about it?

The most terrible pizza I’ve ever had tastes more terrible than a frozen Tombstone Pizza in a cold toaster oven. Nice try.

[“No Black Friday. I wasn’t born in a trailer park”] There is no correlation between Black Friday incidents and the participants being born in trailer parks. Since you obviously have a phobia, perhaps you should try living in a trailer park for a few years, instead of cowering behind your computer screen. You’ll come to find out that people are people regardless of their income status. I found out there are more phoney, abusive and disturbed types in richy rich houses because wealth affords them the insulation from others they need. They have to wind up buying many of their friends too. There is no hiding in a trailer park, most of the people living in them need to depend upon one another to survive. It’s like humans naturally exist for millions of years, in small cooperative groups. A group of rich types is like sharks in a tank with nothing to feed on but each other.

I have been asking various sewage grinder pump salesmen what makes their pump superior to the E-One pump that FKAA is so irrationally in love with. Here is a question and answer I just received:

Q: Does Keen offer a duty cycle spec? E/One is intended to run for < one minute at a time and have non-adjustable levels. Someone said they overheat if run much longer- know anything about that?

A: Any PC pump will over heat and burn up the rubber stator if run dry or too long of a time period. Keen pumps work off of floats and the E-One uses a pressure bell which can get clogged with grease. Keen does not publish a duty cycle spec, as long as you maintain the proper flow (at least 5 GPM) you will adequately cool the stator. The typical cycle times for intermittent duty apply: No more than 8 starts per hour and not more than 8 hours of run time in a 24 hour period.

Since FKAA decided it would be a great idea to use residential E-One grinder pumps in neighborhood lift stations serving over 40 homes instead of using pumps designed for the purpose, it appears they will be burning up a lot of grinders in the gravity sewer areas, too! As comedian Bill Engvall says, “Here’s your sign!” Link 

[Jobs] Coding is the skill that is eating all other areas of the jobs market. Coders are in high demand and are making the big bucks. Surprisingly only white, male, young people fill these jobs. Blacks, Latinos and women are missing from the roster.    

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[Bigpinekey.com classified ads work!] The very first caller purchased my slightly used living room set for the asking price.  Thank you coconut telegraph and also thank all those that called inquiring about it.

[“I wasn’t born in a trailer park”] One thing all trailer park people have in common is that they all resent successful people and they all want to be successful (rich) themselves, but won’t admit it because then they’d have to admit they live in a tin can.

I got gas at the Shell station using my WD Rewards but it wouldn’t print me a receipt, so therefore I’m not sure I got credit.

Are there any other stations on BPK that give you WD rewards?

[Revolt] Taking a page from the commercial fishermen and the dog lovers. Residents and business owners of Ramrod, Cudjoe, Summerland and Sugarloaf should pack the next Monroe County Board of County Commissioners meeting to protest them having the nerve to consider an incinerator in this county.  It’s been tried and it failed.  We do not want our homes filled with smoke, our walls dripping with the oily residue, and our home values sinking due to the pollution.

The Southernmost Coconut Castaways, the official “Friend” Club of Howard Livingston & The MM24 Band, will have their annual Christmas party, Saturday, December 14th at Pincher’s Crab Shack, located at 712 Duval Street.  They will be in the downstairs bar area from 2:00-5:00.  This way you can attend the party and still enjoy the lighted boat parade later in the evening. Eats & drinks specials, fun holiday music, and holiday movies too!

 Contact Us. Send us your comments and attach any stuff you want published to this email.    

Medications now say “Take one pill by mouth”. Thank god for that, in lieu of the other options I was considering.

Editor, Can we run the information on grinder pumps again for those who have been out of town all summer and those who may have missed it if we don’t flood you with more than two emails a day. This is serious stuff. Thanks in advance for your consideration. (Ed: Sure.)

Old Seven Mile Bridge repair estimates only $13.5 million apart but deemed “relatively close” regards the $66 million county repair estimate and the $79.5 million DOT estimate (see link). And this is before work is even started! How many projects of this size and complexity come in at budget? Can you spell n-o-n-e?

Taxpayer money down a hole big enough to drive a Flagler-era locomotive through. Over time it will suck money faster than a Dyson and make the Hickory House fiasco look like the bargain of the century. That the engineering report noted there were huge holes in the pilings is not reassuring. Concrete spalling is like herpes — you can treat the symptoms but there is no cure. First, Rowell’s Marina, then this. Yet there is no tax relief. The roads in my subdivision (Koehn) have not been paved — despite decades of promises to do so — in more than 30 years. But I am grateful, I will be the lucky recipient of a grinder pump. Beam me up Scotty. Link

Add a fresh touch to your desktop with a medium size Christmas tree. It can optionally stay on top and you can adjust transparency – a mouseover hint reveals how many days are left till Christmas. Link

[Citizen Of The Day Says] he enjoys ‘vegging out’ on the beach whenever possible.

If you sell your home: Full disclosure would require that the homeowner disclose that the property has an appliance on it that will require repair and replacement The potential buyer can choose to look elsewhere or renegotiate price based on future financial burden. As one plumber said, “I wouldn’t buy a house with a grinder pump.”

[“Shell”] I’m only boycotting the 3 Shells (all owned by the same guy) in BPK/Ramrod/Summerland – the rest seem to be reasonable. I met the owner, nice guy, but he has a number of nice rides (not just the Rolls), and, call me Scrooge, but I don’t feel like donating to his fancy rides… I can’t see that the renovation is a factor – look at all the other stations that remodel and keep their prices in range (look at Big Coppitt) – they just have a Shellopoly in this little stretch of the road… Kudos to Tom Thumb for keeping prices lower thru the Keys ($3.37 in some locations!) – they always get my business. I use the WD “points” at the other Shell stations. I hope the natural order returns, in the meantime I’ll buy elsewhere.

PS, did I use enough commas?

[Pickpocket?] One more thing to watch out for: I was walking downtown with my girlfriend and my cousin when an attractive girl on a bicycle was having trouble with her pant leg caught in the chain. I went over to give her a hand and when I bent down to free her pants I noticed that she “balanced” herself on my butt. The pants came out of the chain really easily and she went on her way after a short and curt thank you in an eastern European accent.

In the middle of the night I had a lightbulb moment. If I didn’t keep my wallet in my front pocket I wouldn’t have it today. That was in retrospect, a clever pick pocket.

[Burning] [?] Yep, same place, same people on Ramrod Key North. Without saying anything bad about anyone I can tell you it was not pleasant when it was done on Ramrod Key after the Hurricane. There are plenty of us here that remember. Calls are being made and if you are concerned you too should call your BOCC.

[Captain Doom and Gloom] “You’ll save an average of $143 per year on your electric bill” Do you people really believe they will not raise their electric bills to maintain their profit margin? dream on sheep.

“No cruise is a good cruise” If these cattle barges keep being built, it will kill any ideas of cruising fer sure.It will be worth the mega bucks to stay on small cruise ships without a heard of mutants and brats. What’s next? Forehead branding with a bar code? Or do they have the pill  in everybody already? Link

I don’t have the heart to tell FTR that Muslim fundamentalism has been around a hell of a long time and has been a menace to the world for a lot longer then Obama has even been alive.

Righties are so cute. They think the world was a rosy Tea garden surrounded by butterflies until Bill Clinton was elected. As I have said many times in here. The righties history books are only half the size of the rest of the worlds history. However their books on whining and crying about things is the size of a Ford truck.

Regressive thinking is that Obama’s policies didn’t cause the stock market to break all records. Now if Romney were President it would be:  Romney’s policies caused the stock market to break all records. The Republicans would be singing a different tune. Regressive Hypocrisy indeed.

The Department of Defense in yet another assault by the Obama administration on acting military servicemen and women, retirees and their families has asked the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) to submit plans in writing to close stateside military commissaries under the guise of saving costs in lieu of mandated budget cuts. Link

[“American economy put in the most incompetent hands one could imagine”] The Stock Market is propped up by the Federal Reserve printing copious amounts of money and thus pouring liquidity into financial asset prices.

On November 21, 2013, China announced that it is stopping the stockpiling of US dollars, this has serious implications for financing the US national debt. With more jobs moving from US to overseas and the transition to “part time nation”, China is ready to pull the plug on the patient. Would anyone, outside of DC and the 1%, seriously try to argue that we’re seeing a recovery?

[Delusional Democrat] A leftie commented that the stock market has broken all records in the history of capitalism in these last weeks and attributes this to effective Democratic leadership, far from it. This speaks volumes of their ignorance how our economy functions and what each role plays. First off we have a independent non-political Federal Reserve Bank that it’s sole funtion is to maintain a stable economy, its modeled upon the central bank of Germany. In order to combat deflation being exported from China in the form of cheap goods and their currency manipulation. The Fed is crediting itself $18 billion a month, which devalues the US currency, holds deflation in check and causes commodity and stock prices to rise (inflation). Their value remains it’s own based upon their separate conditions, its that a devalued currency it takes more dollars to trade. 47 million on food stamps, the subprime mess causing the poor economy, the Obamacare trainwreck are Democrat caused, they are just as hostile as China.

[“Democrats don’t like socialism”] Actually they do, centralized control of each segment of the economy with the eventual goal of dictating what and where people are going to work or get their care or necessities from is their objective towards a planned society. Take for instance Obamacare, people might have wanted healthcare reform, but what they really wanted was lower costs, better choices and care that capitalism brings via competition in a free market. Obamacare has delivered nothing but lies and higher costs for nearly everyone. It supports the current failled high priced system with the carrot and stick approach of IRS fines and unfair subsidies. It benefited the insurance companies who immediately cancelled millions of plans and forced people into the exchanges to pay more than they can afford. Democrats practice Democratic Socialism, meaning they abide mostly by our Democratic election system, their eventual goal is complete unchallenged control with no choices, or innovation, like the failed USPS.

[Yin and Yang] Democrats are mostly environmentalists and Republicans are mostly gun nuts. I chose the former.

He called me a “lefty” because I questioned cutting food stamps yet we want the government to not curtail subsidizing federal flood insurance. Also, I don’t know the “details.”

Gee, I didn’t know Citizens wind insurance is the same as flood insurance. Your conclusion that I am a “lefty” denotes my stupidity.

Gee, I guess I have my facts wrong when I thought the pending farm bill, presently in conference committee that further cuts the food stamp program, was the same as the sunset on recovery act’s increase in food stamp supplements. Me bad.

Thanks for letting me know we are running a deficit. I didn’t know that “detail.” And China is holding a lot of that debt? Oh my.

As to the government running the private sector “into the ground” I must be confused. My portfolio has skyrocketed as the private sector as roared back. As to your making an assumption that I’m making an assumption, my definition of that word is ass-you-and-me.

By the way, I’m a moderate Republican, but you didn’t know that “detail.”

So, if I follow correctly, the smartest president ever is not smart enough to ensure that his website works; he’s not smart enough to inquire of others as to whether his website works; he’s not smart enough to check that his website works before he goes out and tells people what a great website experience they’re in for. But he is smart enough to know that he’s not stupid enough to go around bragging about how well it works if he’d already been informed that it doesn’t work. So he’s smart enough to know that if he’d known what he didn’t know he’d know enough not to let it be known that he knew nothing.

[Regressive Hypocrisy #18] John Boehner and the GOP has stated over and over that the Republican Party represents the American people. Yesterday the RNC tweeted, “today we remember Rosa Park’s bold stand and her role in ending racism”. According to a recent Pew Poll, the majority of Americans disagree and believe that racism still exists. The GOP says it ended! Did we all miss the memo?

[Obamacar] My cousin bought a car a couple of months ago.  Unfortunately, it seems as if nearly all the things the dealer told her about it were not true.  It just seems to have problem after problem.  She calls it her Obamacar.

FTR, once again, read my lips. If W and Dick hadn’t upset the damn camel cart in Iraq there would be some order. H.W.B. didn’t go into Baghdad with Stormin’ Norman Blackhead (Schwartzkopf) for that very reason, because it would have caused an imbalance of power. Remember the good ol’ days? Kill a Commie for mommy? Drafting hippies and everything. (tongue got caught in me cheek again)

Some people are of the view that thanks to Democrat governance our economy is doing just fine. They routinely offer up the performance of the stock market as evidence. It is true that the market is hitting historic highs, but it’s not because of our economy which is in the doldrums. In normal times a declining stock market signals a declining economy and a rising market reflects an improving economy. Not so now. The reason for this current perverse stock market behavior is the Federal Reserve policy of Quantitative Easing. Simply put that means the Fed is pumping billions of dollars into our economy.

In complete opposition to the normal behavior of the stock market, for months now bad economic news has been good for stock prices. When job growth is below expectations, the market goes up. When GDP growth is slow, the market goes up.

The market is backward because bad news is understood to mean that the Federal Reserve will continue pumping money into the economy through its Quantitative Easing program. Good news is bad for the market because it makes people worry that QE3 (the third round of quantitative easing) may come to an end. In simple terms, what matters to the stock market is the easy money from the Fed, not the performance of the companies whose stocks they are buying and selling.

Cheap money made available by the Fed’s policies mean that large investors (hedge funds, institutional investors, money center banks) can borrow huge sums of money at very low interest rates, invest it in the stock market, and profit by the difference in returns. The Fed’s policies also mean that millions of individual, small investors have been driven out of certificates of deposit and other fixed income investments into the stock market in search of decent returns.

The Fed’s actions have depressed interest rates to such a low level that the stock market has become the only investment game in town.

Many experts say that the current state of the stock market is a bubble, and overblown bubble that is real danger of a massive burst like we had in 2007.

There are real indicators of the health of our economy. The reports are not good. Yahoo news reported that Black Friday retail sales dropped 13% from last year. Our employment situation is in the pits. Today there are 2.4 million  fewer people with jobs than there were in 2007. Our unemployment rate actually rose last month, and by the end of October there were 735,000 fewer Americans with jobs than there were at the beginning of the month. Americans are rapidly losing confidence in our economy, and with good reason. Consumer confidence which had decreased sharply in October, again declined in November. The Index now stands at 70.4 (1985=100), down from 72.4 in October. The Present Situation Index edged down to 72.0 from 72.6.

Our economy is in a horrible mess and it seems to be getting worse.

Thanks to Democrat governance, the fat cats get fatter while the middle class is in sharp decline, and the poor get poorer.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Sea levels are rising rapidly! Coastal communities are becoming more vulnerable to storms and storm surges! Small island nations are going to disappear beneath the waves!

Climate alarmists have been making these claims for years, trying to tie them to events like “Superstorm” Sandy, which was below Category 1 hurricane strength when it struck New York City in October 2012, and Typhoon Haiyan, which plowed into the low-lying central Philippines in November 2013.

For cult alarmists, it does not seem to matter that the strength and frequency of tropical storms have been decreasing in recent years, while the rate of sea level rise has fallen to about seven inches per century. Nor does it seem to matter that the lost lives and property have little to do with the storms’ sheer power. Their destructive impact was caused by their hitting heavily populated areas, where incompetent government bureaucracies had not adequately informed citizens of the size and ferocity of imminent storm surges, too few people had evacuated – and people, buildings and emergency equipment were insufficiently prepared to withstand the furious storm onslaughts.

The alarmist cries are not meant to be honest or factual. They are intended to generate hysterical headlines, public anxiety about climate change, and demands for changes in energy policies and use, and of course wealth redistribution.

Sea level changes over relatively recent geologic and human history demonstrate that alarmist claims do not withstand scrutiny. Sea levels rose significantly after the last ice age, fell during the Little Ice Age, and have been rising again since the LIA ended around 1850. In fact, Roman Empire and Medieval port cities are now miles from the Mediterranean, because sea levels actually fell during the Little Ice Age.

Since the Little Ice Age ended about 160 years ago, tide gages show that sea level has risen at a steady rate – with no correlation to the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Sea level is a dynamic property in our planet’s climate cycles, which are closely linked to changes in solar energy output and other natural factors. It is unlikely to change in response to tax policies that make energy more expensive and economies less robust, or the socially engineered wealth redistributive activism the cult left now demands as a Pavlovic reflex to every storm or hot day – no matter what politicians in Washington, say.