Time Travel ~ A Break from Reality

I've been way too involved in the recent North Miami political crap that's going on around here. One council candidate has a court hearing set, claiming that her opposition isn't a qualified resident. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is sending an investigator here from Tallahassee to look into that and some other problems with the recent election. Time for a change of pace!

The files turned up these shots from May 2006 when I had a photo exhibition at the local Starbucks. The other guy was the manager at the time and I think the woman worked there.

Thanks to James Mitchell my childhood toy monkey was becoming a regular character on The Price Of Silver. This was before Monkey flew out to San Francisco to visit Todd Frederick and returned to Miami with Monkette. Since Monkey was about 62 at the time I let him take early retirement and Monkette has taken over the Toy Monkey job on the blog.

The only other newsworthy thing to relate is that I have an appointment at 10 AM tomorrow for my first haircut since late October of 2008. I'll try for some before and after shots. Maybe even some during shots!

The Mysterious Dawn

Janis, as usual, hid behind the newspaper as soon as my hand moved towards the camera. She is one shy lady!

The blonde walking by in the background is very much the opposite. She comes over to Starbucks and a few other eating type places in the strip mall several times a day. She has one leg a bit shorter than the other so she has a nice well practiced limp to garner sympathy as she goes into her "Please can you spare some change? I haven't eaten anything since yesterday!" routine. It's not unusual to see some well dressed yuppie type, trying to impress his lady friend, hand Dawn a ten or a twenty. It adds up! She probably grosses more than I do, all tax free too.

A woman I've known for years, Peggy, lives near Dawn. According to Peggy, Dawn supports her boyfriend and the "habit" they share while he mostly sits at home doing nothing. What a life!

Sorry, one thing at a time...The New Computer...The Deaf Club...The Guy Beating Up His Girlfriend And Stealing Her Car, The Arrest

I'm still learning my way around this new computer set-up with a brain that's not set up for digital. Not at all, it seems. Maybe I need a slot in my forehead where I could just insert a disc and download the program?


Last night was exciting. I drove my deaf neighbor Janis over to Starbucks. Wednesday nights a bunch of deaf people, "The Deaf Club"they call themselves, get together over there, drink coffee, and sign with one another. Most can hear a little bit, barely, and those who've learned to speak have some strange ways of pronouncing words. After awhile you get used to it, even learn to read the hands to some extent. Everybody was sitting around a couple of tables pulled together out on the patio about 9 PM when suddenly I heard screaming and loud banging noises coming from across the parking lot, about one hundred feet away. It was loud enough so that Don could hear the ruckus also!


There were a few college students by a parked car screaming and cursing at one another. The guy had one of the girls in a choke hold under his left arm, pummeling her with his free hand all the while banging her head against the car, as he walked around to the drivers side of the car. He pushed her away as he got in and started to drive off. She ran around to the passenger side and tried to get in but he'd already reached across and locked the door. She then grabbed hold of the roof rack and got dragged maybe 40 feet before falling off. The car drove off up U.S. 1.


The two girls sat on a curb crying, one trying to console the other, as cell phone calls must have jammed up the 911 switchboard. Don went over and found out that one of the girls owned the car, it was her boyfriend that had driven off, and that her purse and her cell phone, ID's and credit cards were in her purse inside the car.


Within minutes first two, and then a third, North Miami police cars were on the scene. The girl declined having the paramedics check her out. Don and I told the cops what we'd seen, and then, amazingly, the boyfriend drove back into the parking lot. The cops dragged him out of the car, cuffed him and put cuffs on his ankles too, judging from how he was hobbling as they raised his hands up to shoulder level from behind, a very painful position even when you bend forward from the waist. At that point he started getting upset but they managed to get him in the back seat of one of the police cars, threw him in really, because there was no way he could have lifted either one of his feet high enough to step in by himself. The excitement was over.

Don and I went back to finish our coffee and I thought of how if I'd only brought my 85mm f/2 lens (and I HAD thought about doing so) and had the camera loaded with some 3200 speed film I might have gotten some great shots. Oh, well...win some, lose some.

The Times Have Changed !!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIG TIME

It was a bit of a problem buying a Miami Herald this morning, at least the English language version. There were still lots of copies of El Herald for sale at the various 7-11 type stores that I went to. Finally I just went straight to Starbucks in hopes of finding some already read papers in the basket. Instead I just bought a new one, and thought about the fact that they don't even sell El Herald. They also carry the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Different demographics, I guess. VERY different.

As I drank my coffee I started thinking about the very different outlooks of the various ethnic groups around North Miami. Sure, we all live on the same blocks in very similar houses, but the Haitian community got energized by Obama's campaign. The Jamaicans and native born blacks added to the lines of voters. People hurried, as best they could, to get their United States citizenship, then they stood in lines at the polls for hours on end in the hot sun and in the pouring rain for the opportunity to vote. The one thing that I didn't see, at least here in North Miami, was any significant Hispanic presence in those lines, all the more a puzzlement because there were plenty of local races on that ballot with Hispanic names.

Thankfully the ammendments to the North Miami City Charter were defeated. They would have favored the incumbants with no benefits to the citizens.

I'd also like to congratulate a young attorney, Yvonne Colodny, on getting elected judge. Back in the early 1970's her dad, Mike Colodny, a young attorney at the time, was on the city council and later served as mayor, perhaps the best mayor we ever had.

On another note, my new computer is on the way and I won't have to be pecking away at this keyboard here at the North Miami Chamber of Commerce office every day. Hell, that means I can once more forgo shaving every morning, wearing unwrinkled shirts, making sure that I pick out a pair of jeans without holes....I can go back to looking like a bum again. HOORAY!

No Photo (yet) No Audio

Janis is extremely shy. She's also about as close to stone deaf as you can get, and has been since early childhood. I first "met" her about 1980. She lives less than a block away. She wears a huge hearing aid but mostly reads lips. Even the hearing aid doesn't help much. For the past few years I'd see her on Wednesday nights at Starbucks where an informal Deaf Club meets. One of the guys, Don Meredith, is my age. He makes little tops and he can do amazing tricks with them, like getting it spinning on the back of his hand and making it run up his arm, or suddenly jerking his hand out from under it, flipping his hand over and catching it, still spinning, in the palm of his hand. For a few bucks he'll sell one to you and try to teach you how to do the tricks. Few succeed. I need to get some photos of him with his tops. With that 15mm lens I could get a big hand close to the camera with the spinning top, Don and some other folks in the background.

A few months ago Janis unexpectedly became a widow at 55. One day she knocked on my door asking if I was going to the market. Since then she calls a few times every afternoon and evening. It's after 11 PM now and I just got off the phone with her. We went shopping at Publix earlier, then stopped at McDonalds because they have fifty-nine cent hamburgers on Wednesdays. She loves them! At Publix all she bought was some peanut butter that was on sale. That's normal with her. She never seems to do much shopping at a time. We took the McDonalds burgers to Starbucks and ate them with our coffee. She seems to use food shopping as an excuse the get out of the house, but Don says that it's really an excuse to spend time with me, that she has a thing for me. As we sat around with Don, Don's wife Mary, and a few other deaf people signing one another, I finally managed to shoot a few photographs with the 21mm lens that included Janis, without her noticing. I should be adding a photo to this blog posting in the near future.

I also found out that a lot of tonight's sign language conversation consisted mostly of Don and Mary trying to convince Janis that I would make a good catch. She didn't tell me that, Don did. Things might be getting interesting around here.

* * * DON'T FORGET TO VOTE! I'M GOING TO THE POLLS TOMORROW MORNING FOR EARLY VOTING.* * *

Back To The Sunnyside Cafe Again

There used to be two chains of donut shops making traditional cake donuts, Mr. Donut and Dunkin' Donut. The amount of shops ebbs and flows with how worried people seem to get about eating fats and sugar. All of the Mr. Donut shops seem to be gone, although one hung in there for several years under the name of The Donut Connection

Forty years or so ago this place was a Mr. Donut but they used to make the donuts at the larger 163rd St. store and bring them down here to 139th St. Then one day ALL the donut shops were history.

Coffee is the twenty-first century buzzword. Starbucks opened shops all over the place. Somebody at Dunkin' Donut got the brilliant idea of featuring their coffee, talking about what a smooth flavor it had, not mentioning donuts at all. It must be working because there are new Dunkin' Donut shops springing up everwhere. I often stop to pick up a couple donuts on my way to Starbucks.

This location sat empty for several years, then reopened as a breakfast and lunch place with counter seating and a few tables. You get a choice of home fries, hash browns, or grits and the eggs are cooked like you want them, along with link or patty sausage, bacon, or ham. They've added a Kreyole speaking Haitian waitress to the already bilingual Spanish/English mix. When I need something more sustatial than a donut first thing in the morning I stop at the Sunnyside Cafe (then I go to Starbucks for some stronger brew).

Just Another Typical Afternoon At Starbucks?

Robin went back to Vero Beach today after a ten day visit. "You sure know a lot of strange people here!" she remarked after the first couple of days here. My first inclination was to reply with a "Really? Who else beside you?" but I was afraid of getting my face slapped or worse. The truth is we really do have a lot of strange people here, and I guess you'd have to say that I'm one of them.

This guy is the only person I've ever seen at Starbucks carrying a conga drum. He stayed for maybe fifteen minutes and he was a good player! Then he wandered away and I haven't seen him since. But I suspect she was referring to my friends, the local politicians she met, my doctors we went to, the folks at the post office and the bank. I mean, where else can youi go and find a sixty-something guy carrying around a toy monkey? And when I don't have Monkette with me everybody asks "Where's your monkey?" They're all concerned that it's too hot to leave her in the truck this time of year. If I say that the truck is parked in the shade they say "I hope you left the windows cracked open a bit so she gets some fresh air!" I sometimes wonder if it just might be easier to carry around a conga drum? "Strange people"? Hell, this town is full of crazy people!

Lunching With A Barista

First off, thanks for checking the blog. You've probably noticed that it's no longer an every day like clockwork situation. That was difficult to maintain. I expect that a more or less every other day schedule, 3 or 4 posts a week, is achievable. Just keep checking in!

When Starbucks decided to open another North Miami location, this time right in front of the Museum of Contemprary Art and next to City Hall they trained the new help at the 135th St. Starbucks where I usually hang out, and they also transferred some of the more experienced baristas to the new location. It was a smooth transition. The new location opened without a hitch and the other store kept ticking along.

No, off hand I can't think of her name but she was sitting there outside the new place eating her lunch as I was headed in the direction of getting a fresh cup of hot coffee. She remembered my name. We sat and chatted a bit about how life was at the new store, the usual. Small talk it's called. She soon had to get back behind that counter, I got my coffee and headed off to the next adventure. If cashing a check is really an adventure.

Just Another Two-Timing Little Bitch

Hi there, it's me again, Monkette, writing the blog today. (This is fun!)

It better be fun to make up for all the indignities that Al subjects me to...LOL. On this particular afternoon he insisted that I sit out the fun and games locked up in the truck. Gloria was having her afternoon coffee at Starbucks when we arrived and her little grey poodle, Sophia, simply loves Al to death. She gets all excited when his truck pulls into the lot and can't wait for Al to pick her up and put her on his lap. She dances around in circles on just her hind legs until he does! Then she stands up, putting her little paws on Al's chest, licking his neck and face and giving little yips of joy.

Gloria is always afraid that Sophia will get insanely jealous if she were to spot ME on Al's lap. Hell, she just might be right! She's afraid that Sophia might attack me, bite me, maybe even tear me limb from limb. She doesn't give a rat's ass about MY feelings, stuck in the truck watching the two of them carrying on like that for all to see. When Peter arrived Sophia jumped off Al's lap and ran around to the side of Peter's chair. She knows which side too. Peter always pets her with his left hand, leaving his right hand free for his coffee cup.

Al soon got pissed with Sophia paying all that attention to another man. He got back in our truck and let me ride home sitting on his lap. He's never let Sophia do that, although he probably dreams of having Gloria sit there! Not on MY watch! No way!

Art Museum Camouflage

Al has been doing much better the last few days, adjusting to the bigger dose of anti-seizure meds. I think he looks much better without the beard also. What do you think? It's his wardrobe that always has me upset. Tattered faded jeans. Rumpled fishing shirts full of coffee stains and cigarette burn holes. Topsider boat shoes that should have gone in the trash halfway through the Vietnam war. Does Al notice? I suppose not. He certainly doesn't care.

Now, about his hair. I happen to agree with Mayor Kevin Burns. It looks great! It's really HIM! It fits his character to a "T". His ex, Claudia, hates it. I told her "Look sister! He lives with ME now, not you, and I LOVE his hair!"

I got him to drive up to Outdoor World. They had a big sale and Al got new Topsiders, new jeans, new unrumpled fishing shirts without stains and holes, and then as we walked to the check-out line I spotted a clearance rack. Hey, us chicks can't help it! There was a gorgeous reddish orange rayon sport shirt, and any chick will tell you that rayon drapes and feels like real silk! Then I spotted this shirt! It IS pure silk!!!! And the two shirts together were less than twenty bucks! Can I shop or what, huh?

Next morning I dragged Al over by MOCA, the art museum. I climbed up on a bench, but compared to Al I am a bit on the short side...LOL I remarked "Look at how nice that shirt looks against the palm trees. The palm fronds on the shirt, the palm fronds against the sky!" Al replied "Let's walk across the plazza and do the Starbucks thing first". We did, Al got his coffee, I got my picture!

Cute Little Puppy Dog, Cute Little Kids

The dog had a towel so he didn't have to lay on the hot dirty concrete. The kids came along and wanted to pet the dog although the dog didn't seem too interested. Starbucks will gladly supply a free glass of water for dogs. Nobody thought to ask. I just watched.