Two Rescues

 

Cudjoe Key, Florida (high 85, low 70)

On Thursday we enjoyed another beautiful day out at Looe Key Reef.   The seas were calm, the water clear, and the breezes gentle. 

We didn’t get in the water, but were happy sitting in the boat watching the fish, snorkelers and reading our books.   I tried out my new underwater camera (Christmas present) and watched the activity below water.

This boat appeared to be sitting pretty low in the water, so I  used my “stalker zoom” to see what was going on.  The boat had a low freeboard (sides) and 4 people and one dog were all sitting on one side.   Not too smart, do you think?

Friday was physical therapy day for Al and a block party here at Venture Out.

A while back,  during a run up to Marathon for boat supplies,we drove over to Sombrero Beach, and found a little excitement there.

They have a beautiful walkway on the back side of the beach.

The pavement has special “Keysie” type designs of crabs and hatchling turtles.

 

People seem to be trying to aggravate me lately.  Many people seem to think they are the only people around and pay absolutely no attention to their surroundings, other people or vehicles. Everywhere we go we see clueless and rude people! 

We walked along the narrow walkway to the beach behind 4 very clueless and rude people.  This is what the walkway looked like so you can how narrow it was.

They spread out, slowed down, stopped, chatted, then moved a few steps, all the while blocking our path to get around them. They were oblivious to the fact that there were any other people in the world.  I was patient and didn’t say anything, but I sure wanted to!  We finally got past them and I was stopped with my camera aimed, ready to take a picture when one of those same women walked right in front of me as I was snapping the picture.   grrrrr.  Now, you’ve ticked me off all the way!  Again, I kept my mouth shut.

I got my revenge a minute later when her friend was trying to take a picture.  I decided to “photo bomb” her.     She got a lovely picture of me too!   Not very nice, but it sure felt good.  :) 

anyway…back to the excitement we found on the beach.

The beach was beautiful and there were lots of people enjoying themselves.

All was well until we came upon this pelican.

Something didn’t look right, so I zoomed in to get a better look with my camera.   I couldn’t see anything wrong, but I worried that he may have had a slashed pouch.  Some cruel person  around here is intentionally slashing the pouches on pelicans.  The pouch below their bill is where they put the fish before they swallow them.  A slashed pouch will cause them to starve to death. It turned out the problem with this bird was a fish hook and fishing line.

Some good Samaritans had already noticed the bird and called the Wildlife Rescue, but they were delayed in traffic due the annual Seafood Festival in Marathon.

The wildlife rescue guy finally arrived. That’s him in the turquoise shirt.  He examined the bird, and determined he would be okay, but that he needed a few days rehab at their facility.

It was a happy ending.

 

Later that same day, we stopped in at the grocery store and came upon this.   See what I mean about oblivious people?

Notice the yellow line showing where the parking space was? 

There was plenty of room for the truck, he just didn’t bother to worry about the car already occupying the other space.

It was obvious the red Cadillac had been parked when the truck decided to squeeze in and it was obvious who was at fault. 

Apparently, the truck had previous parking issues because  the left fender was also damaged in about the same place.

I grabbed a store employee and asked him to call the manager, police and page the driver of the red Cadillac.  I was concerned the truck drive would come out and just drive away.  My ex claim adjuster background made me want to see that this guy caught.  I paid way too many claims for this type of accident where no one was caught. We waited around for the police to arrive and to see if the truck driver ever came out.  The police finally came, but we had to leave before the truck driver came.  I really wanted to see what that idiot looked like.

I hope it turned out well for the lady with the Cadillac.

Today, it’s dinner with friends and tomorrow out on the boat to the “back country.”