This is John McQuiston's blog, where you can subject yourself to his musings, his music, his photographs and even some of his professional work. John does not always write about himself in the third person.
An iguana and I startled each other at the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden yesterday. Once we both realized that we didn't want to eat each other, the iguana returned to his previously scheduled lunch plans and I stayed and took his picture.
I spent part of yesterday at the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory right across Duval Street from our hotel. Twelve bucks to get in. If you're not staying just a few yards away, bring an extra shirt. They keep it warm and humid in there. When I first went in, my lens fogged up and I couldn't shoot for the first 5-10 minutes.
The title of the post is a misnomer. Only one of these butterflies is native to Florida. The rest are exotics from as far away as Australia.
First tip when traveling to Key West: Buy gas on the mainland. It's as much as 40 cents per gallon more expensive here than back home.
Second tip: Don't take the parking space under the tree at the Southernmost Hotel thinking that it will give you some shade. It will do that. But most of what blocks the sun is the layer of bird poop that covers your car the next day.
More tips to come as the wisdom becomes available. In the meantime, here are some pictures I took my first morning here. I got out of bed before sunrise. Hey when your alarm has gone off before 3:30 a.m. every Monday since mid-August, you're not going to sleep til noon. Especially if you fell asleep before 8:30 the night before.
The idea was to try to catch the sunrise. But I hadn't scouted where I could go to see it beforehand. So I walked up and down empty Duval Street, the main tourist drag in town, trying to capture whatever caught my eye.
The moon was full. The Denny's here serves beer and wine. The lights stay on even after daylight dawns. "Bottoms up" has a different meaning at 7 a.m. than it does at 2 a.m. The cats are on guard.
Ugh. I still need a lot of practice. Here were the ten best of my more than 250 unimpressive attempts today at Tampa Bay Downs, the thoroughbred horse racing track in Tampa.
More than four years has passed since I left Cincinnati's ABC affiliate after working there for only a little more than two years. Yet occasionally my statcounter will tell me that someone from the Cincinnati area has Googled my name.
The link above goes to the page on my site where I have a few examples of my work at WCPO. I watched them today and I can see why I'd remember them. They make me proud even now.
But I don't have enough ego to believe that they could have etched my name into someone else's brain strongly enough for the memory to last so long.
But it's cold. I realize that the cold we get here in Florida is not the same kind of cold I fled in the north. Our overnight lows in the 20s match the high temperatures in other parts of the country.
Even as temps struggled to reach 50 degrees yesterday even under bright clear skies, there's a part of your brain that looks outside, sees the palm trees and the sunshine and thinks, "how cold can it be?" Without a coat on, it's very freaking cold!
I don't need a thermometer to measure the temperature. I can tell by how friendly Annie is. If the cat sleeps on the bed, it's going to be a cold morning. She has spent the last two nights parked right next to me.
Don't worry, though. I understand if you don't feel sorry for me, especially since forecast highs return to normal for the weekend and rise to the mid to upper 70s next week.
A local Dunkin Donuts franchise sent the station two dozen donuts specially made to reflect the theme of this weekend's Gasparilla Parade in Tampa.
And I passed.
This, even though no Junk Food January has ended and I also successfully completed my related resolution to work out every day last month. That means that on a day when I could indulge in donuts and skip a workout I skipped the donuts and went to the gym.
What's wrong with me?
You know what I think it is? I'm starting to see improved definition in my physique. I'm not totally ripped or anything but unmistakable signs of riptitude have begun to appear. As much as I like donuts (and cake and cookies and ice cream and you get the idea) I don't like them enough to ruin the fitness progress I've made so far in 2009.
No, it's not an automaton-like news anchor robotically reading a news story she barely seems to understand. It's news from our friends at the Onion of the latest innovation designed to protect military service members who undertake some of the most dangerous duty anywhere.
Facing the slings and arrows of the media.
It's a "mobile press engagement unit" a.k.a. a "spokesdrone."
My tenure as traffic reporter at WTSP-TV will end Friday. For a week at least because I go out of town on vacation. I don't know what the station will do in my absence. I was the fill-in. I wasn't supposed to be here long enough to need a substitute.
Reporter, Writer, Video Biographer, Essayist, Photographer, Musician, Observer. On air, On-line, Whatever it takes to tell the story. These are some of mine. See more @ JohnMcQuiston.com
It will become immediately apparent that these pages and the opinions they detail are neither sanctioned nor endorsed by any of the fine people or companies that hire me to work for them. It will help your reading experience greatly if you enable your browser's tongue-in-cheek font.
