Explosion

June 30, 2020



 





 



Explosion

The past week to ten days has seen the situation with the pandemic spiral pretty much out of control across the nation, with sadly states that seemingly rushed to open such as our state of Florida and Texas leading the resurgence of the outbreak in spite of our political leaders trying hard to persuade the populace otherwise. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is leading the parade of ineptitude basically having to eat his assurances that everything was going to be fine less than a month after the rush to reopen. At least he is saying something, President Trump seems to have vanished from the public eye after the debacle that was the first campaign rally that he held in Tulsa. He has not spoken to the ever-exploding number of new cases of coronavirus at all.



 





And the cases have been skyrocketing. Nationwide there are now 2,603,743 confirmed cases with 124,861 deaths. Here in Monroe County we are up to 259 confirmed cases, 85 in Key West and holding at 4 deaths. Basically it took us three months to reach 100 cases, then three weeks to reach 200 and we are currently on pace to hit 300 a week later. That is a rapid increase and just about the opposite of flattening the curve.



Kathy

John and Debbie 



This has led to rollbacks in some restrictions as the state has now prohibited all bars from serving any alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption, basically shuttering all bars that do not get 50% plus of their revenue from food service. Some bars were not enforcing the restrictions of mask wearing and social distancing and some bars across the state became epicenters for outbreaks causing the backlash. It has been a madhouse here locally as tourists have returned in droves and many seem to be unwilling to follow the local laws about mask wearing.





Chuck 



The city had to tighten up the mask requirements, add civil and potential criminal penalties and send out police and code enforcement to enforce the requirements. They have also moved to cancel the annual July 4^th fireworks and order all local and county beaches closed for the holiday weekend in anticipation of large crowds of unruly tourists flaunting the laws. It is truly a surreal and uneasy time.

Rob


 


In spite of all of this life has gone on and Kathy and I have made small steps to returning to a small social fold. Realizing that all of our interactions involve risk, we have made the calculated risks to reengage and get back out into society with small, highly controlled forays into public settings. We are big proponents of social distancing and wearing masks, frequently washing hands and utilizing disinfectants regularly. But this past couple of weeks have seen our first serious ventures back out into the real world.





Nadene and Meredith



The first instance was for the sixth birthday party of our beloved friend Meredith. Her parents rented a private room at Benihana and we were able to spread out in the room which has the best ventilation of any indoor restaurant in the Keys with huge fans above each table that of course also serve as the cooking surface for the night’s meals. It was a joyous and fun occasion and Meredith gave each attendee a gift of a private portrait that she had made of each of us. We love them and are going to have ours framed.



 







It was so nice to be out among friends, socializing and celebrating one of our favorite people. This week also saw a visit to the Keys of one of my long-time friend of close to forty years, Debbie from Indianapolis. Debbie and her boyfriend John and another couple came down so that she could get her open water dives in for her scuba diving certification and I was able to join them a couple of times during their visit. First I headed up the Keys to meet them at KiKi’s bar and grill for a quick drink on Friday evening and then Kathy and I joined their group at the HogFish after they spent the day diving here in Key West.



 







It is always nice to have friends come to Key West and hopefully now that she has become an official scuba diver, they will be returning here on a regular basis. The idea of scuba diving made me want to get back on the water so we spent a few days this week snorkeling at our favorite nearshore location at Higg’s Beach. The water quality and visibility has been really awesome this summer and we have taken advantage of it to spend literally hours snorkeling off the Pier at Higg’s.







 



It is one of our favorite activities and we have been going during this pandemic more than we ever have before and it has been really magical with the quantity and diversity of life that is literally only a few hundred feet off the shore in fairly shallow and easy to navigate water that is filled with a wide variety of fish and sea creatures that I never seem to tire of seeing.