No Direction Home

This humble blog was started to document our travels around the country during the summer of 2006, We have opted to continue updating it due to the requests from family & friends. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 07, 2012

The Days Grow Short



September 26, 2012

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Photobucket Jed

Photobucket Ian & Holly
  
The Days Grow Short

The month of September in Key West is when the first perceptible signs of the change of season from summer to autumn begin to take place. The air seems just slightly less humid, the sun set comes earlier and if you are like me it suddenly can be still dark when you get up to begin the day. There are other harbingers of autumn as well as the first stirrings of the tourist “season” begin to show themselves during what is otherwise a very slow, yet still beautiful time of year in Key West.

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Photobucket Kathy & Suzanne

The tourists for the most point avoid Key West during the month, which is always something of a treat for those of us who live here year round, and the snowbirds are just beginning to trickle back to town. Traffic, in spite of the hideous construction, is fairly easily negotiable and there is a sense of relaxation, with full knowledge that October starts the roller coaster season and things begin moving at full speed with a crafty suddenness.

Photobucket Kathy, Elena & Lauren

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There are still enough things going on that we have something to do here, there is always something going on. The past few weeks have seen Kathy & I attending the opening show of the 2012-2013 season at The Studios of Key West, a birthday celebration at Michael’s restaurant for our good friend Gae and another in the series of candidate forums hosted by Hometown Pac.

Photobucket Gae

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The show at The Studios was a packed house, impressive considering that we are still at least a month out from the real start of season, but locals packed the dual show featuring members work in the main hall “Emerge” and a wonderful show upstairs celebrating Ann Lorraine and her work through the years designing the incredible window displays and Fantasy Fest floats for Fast Buck Freddies, which is gone but obviously not forgotten based on the size of the crowd there to check out the show.

Photobucket Ann Lorraine

The show featured many of the fantastic creations that have graced the glorious window displays at Fast Bucks over the years and also highlighted the many incredible Fantasy Fest floats that the store entered in the parade. It was an general consensus that whenever Fast Bucks entered the parade that everyone else’s floats were competing for second place. The incredible artistry and creativity can be traced back for the most part to one woman, Ann Lorraine.

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Photobucket Dwight Bullard

The fall season is also a very crowded election season and being on the board of the local political action committee, Hometown PAC, which organizes a series of candidate’s forums and events during the election season has kept me busy. The non-partisan group brings together state and local politicians for a series of forums that are designed to give voters access to the people running for office.

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The second to last forum was held at the Conch Flyer restaurant at the Key West airport and I was on hand to watch and photograph the event for Hometown. It was a packed house on hand to hear our panel of citizens and media members question the respective candidates. All the candidates are videotaped and you can watch the questioning via the youtube links below.

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http://www.hometownkeywest.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/hometownkeywest?feature=results_main