There are things I love about Key West. The weather is awesome – my skin absolutely glows in the tropics. It is a small, eminently walkable island (only seven miles around). Key West is one of the safest places I have ever visited; I can walk home alone at any hour of the night without worry. Vegetarian food is abundant; in fact one of the best vegetarian restaurants I have ever been to – The Cafe – is located in Key West. The beaches are lovely and within walking distance. A strong arts culture ensures there is always some event going on, whether it be a gallery showing, an arts film, or a display of sculpture in the public parks.

The beach at Fort Zachary Taylor is my favorite - a lovely sheltered cove, pure white sand, and no tourists

But for all this, Key West unsettles me. After being here a few days I start to feel uncomfortable in my skin. I know that it is a real place with real people who live here year round; the problem is that the real people are overshadowed by the Read the rest of this entry »

I was lying prone on the table, blissed-out in the middle of my massage, when it began. The backup alarm on a construction vehicle began to sound – beep – Beep – BEep – BEEp – BEEP! I know the alarm must have been sounding at a constant level, but it was so aggravating that is seemed to be escalating with every repetition. Oh well, it’ll stop soon, I thought. But no, on and on it went.

From the sound of the alarm it was obvious that the vehicle had to be in the side street, which is only a block long. Even if it was crawling at 5 mph, there is no way it could have been backing up that long. Either the driver sat in one place with the vehicle in reverse or the alarm got stuck in the ‘on’ position.

Later, I did a little research. According to the Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America, 16 percent of all work zone fatalities are caused by backing equipment, primarily dump trucks. In many of those cases, the vehicles involved in the fatalities were equipped with back-up alarms, but that apparently was not enough of a warning. Read the rest of this entry »