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This is a bird eye's view of Downtown Dadeland, from the 22nd floor of a unit in the Metropolis 1 condo, looking Northeasterly. Macy's is seen anchoring at the North end of Dadeland mall. To the right is US-1 whose North bound takes you to downtown Miami that is seen at the distant horizon.
Six years ago, I was at the Church of the Little Flower, a beautiful Roman Catholic Church in Coral Gables. Here I am again, but this time, I am inside its very ornate interior, the church's altar where scuptured marble with inlaid is to be seen throughout the spacious spaces where religious rites are performned. Tonight, a special mass is conducted for my friend Edgard. Many friends who could not come to his funeral service because of time constraints came to pay their last respects. Another sad reminder of the ephemeric nature of life.
Although Saint Patrick's Day is not going to be until Saturday, March 17th, we in Miami can't wait so some streets in downtown Coral Gables are closed to traffic early evening today for an early celebration of all things GREEN sponsored by John Martin's Irish Pub & Restaurant.
Of course, you've got to dress green and drink beer: Guiness, Harp, Smithwick's (an Irish red ale style beer from Kilkenny, Ireland) or a mixture thereof. I am tired of pouring these kinds of brew for 3 hours. I'm kaput! Not drunk, but kaput!
Today is the third and last day of the Orchid festival in Miami's Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden at 10901 Old Cutler Rd, Coral Gables. It is really a chance for local orchid growers to sell their plants. There is a large number of growers who come with their many plants in full bloom. It's quite a feast for the eyes and the senses because many of the orchid species are fragrant. It is so easy to grow beautiful orchid plants here in Miami. It will take you a long time to kill your orchid plant by long term neglect here (what I do now...) but if you just spend a little time to give some minimal care, you can have beautiful orchid flowers year round.
Would you want to ride in this truck? This is kind of a monster truck, which is a pickup truck body, modified and built with outrageously large wheels and suspension.
In the late 1970s, modified pickup trucks were becoming popular and the sports of mud bogging and truck pulling were gaining in popularity. Several truck owners had created lifted trucks to compete in such events, and soon competition to hold the title of "biggest truck" developed. The trucks which garnered the most national attention were Bob Chandler's Bigfoot, Everett Jasmer's USA-1, Fred Shafer and Jack Willman Sr.'s Bear Foot, and Jeff Dane's King Kong. At the time, the largest tires the trucks were running were 48 inches in diameter.
This is no Big Foot or King Kong, but you need to be as tall as a giraffe to get in and out of it. I would love to take a snapshot of the driver getting in to drive it away.
Look what I saw today: a newly reincarnated French Citroën 2CV (French: "deux chevaux" i.e. "deux chevaux-vapeur [fiscaux]." Literally, this means "two tax horsepower" and it was an economy car produced by the French car manufacturer Citroën between 1948 and 1990. This car is so nostalgic to me because it reminds me of my wild student days in Paris. Two of my class mates owned this 2CV car and we had tons of fun with them. This is a rather new construction and it looks like a "special edition" rather than the "real" original 2CV that I know. The license plate says it is an antic, but it truly is antic only in its name.
I asked the owner who told me he paid US $12K and it was shipped from France. Imagine that, a full 2 horse power among the killer cars of Miami!
The two cars I used to ride in more than often would not start, but for us lunatic students, that was no big deal. We can start this car by manually cranking it without breaking a sweat. You do that by sticking a steel crank shaft into a steel tube in front of the car under the hood. Our great challenge was to start the car with only one single crank. If you want to know how we did it, take a look at this Youtube link. I love this car's manual transmission control that is smack in the middle of the dashboard and into your face. But... it was truly remarkable that according Wikipedia, this car was designed to be a low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable four peasants to drive 50 kg (110 lb) of farm goods to market at 50 km/h (31 mph), in clogs and across muddy unpaved roads if necessary. The car would use no more than 3 L of gasoline to travel 100 km (78 mpg). Most famously, it would be able to drive across a ploughed field without breaking the eggs it was carrying.
Totally unexpected, I attended a funeral today. It's a very sad thing, a funeral, and I always cry. I can't help it. It's just me. My friend Edgard died yesterday, and here I am at the Kendall Mt Nebo cemetery, a few blocks South of Miller Drive West of the Palmetto Expressway. A single bunch of red roses lies atop of his coffin that has entered his final resting place. It's a sad thing! But Edgard had a good life and here is one proof... of it and this is the way I remember him.
If you have any doubt, trust me. Live it up! You never can tell what tomorrow may bring.
All of a sudden, I feel the urge of eating Cuban coconut shrimp! You want to know why? Look at this new drive through on the right hand side of this photo. It is very odd that this new eatery decided to settle here. My theory is that the adult business needs some extra income and has sub-leased this space to this store that sells coconut shrimp among other Cuban dishes. This may be used as a perfect disguise to sneak into the other store for some hot stuff. If caught red handed, one can say "Hey, I felt the urge of eating Cuban coconut shrimp." Voilà!
I can't resist to put this on line. This is a "oh so cute" bicycle fitted with a 2 or 4 Stroke Bicycle Engine. I am mighty tempted to get a 2 Stroke Bicycle Engine Kit Parts and build one for myself. Perfect for Miami! I want one! I hope the engine is waterproof so it can be used during a Miami thunder storm... But first, I need a bicycle. Help!
After a few restless nights, I have carefully thought that I feel worse stopping this blog cold turkey... A compromise is now in order... Although the title stays the same, it now reads Weekly Photos of Miami... But... in case you do not know or do not care to click on the odd cherries on the left margin, know that it will take you to the other side of the coin that is my life... What you see there is this clip that I think makes life worth living.
But let's head back to Miami... I know this small (come to think, not so small) cosmetic procedure used to cost between USD $5 - 10K, it now can be had for a mere $2,800.00! I wonder if this price applies for guys? The process would have to be "grown from scratch" rather than "enlarged!" What do you guys think?
I'm back, but it will not be EVERY DAY!
I feel bad not to honor the name of this blog "Miami Every Day..." It has become increasingly more difficult for me to daily update this semi-private corner of my life. Reluctantly, I must say farewell... at least for the time being... to this self imposed daily obligation.
As a tribute to my long time passionate search for a sentimental tree, the Alstonia scholaris, here is one that I found in Miami, a beautiful specimen in plain sight that I only can "see" after many years of learning how to recognize it.
Here it is, on Sunset Drive near 64th street.
Farewell... and thank you for reading.
This is the Freedom Tower as seen from NE 5th street, just West of Biscayne Boulevard. It was designed by Schultze and Weaver, and currently used as a memorial to Cuban immigration to the United States. The Freedom Tower is located at 600 Biscayne Boulevard on the Wolfson Campus of Miami Dade College.
On September 10, 1979, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places; and then designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark on October 6, 2008. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Freedom Tower Building.
Originally completed in 1925 as the headquarters and printing facility of the newspaper The Miami News, it is an example of Mediterranean Revival style with design elements borrowed from the Giralda Tower in Seville, Spain. Its cupola on a 256 foot (78 m) tower contained a decorative beacon.
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In 2008, CompUSA went into liquidation and was purchased by Systemax. All CompUSA stores in Miami retained its name until now. Tigerdirect.com has now replaced the COMPUSA name and this is how the store across from Miami's Dadeland Mall looks today.
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I know this IS a Sabal causiarum.
But when I look it up, a source I trust says this: "One of the most striking Sabal species is Sabal causiarum, the Puerto Rican hat palm. This palm is distinguished from other Sabals by its massive smooth gray trunk which can grow up to 4 ft (1.2 m) in diameter! Most Sabals retain their old leaf bases on the trunk, creating a textured crisscross or "cabbage leaf" pattern instead of a smooth trunk."
I don't know what to say. This S. causiarum certainly has the old leaf crisscross pattern and not smooth trunk at all. Is this a Puerto Rican hat palm? Or is it not? You tell me!
Today is the last day to cast a ballot early for the 4-year cycle general vote in the US. It's time to vote for the US president, which is the most important and the first item on the ballot. After missing the absentee vote by mail and earlier dates for early vote, today is the last opportunity for me to vote before Tuesday next week, which will be the official voting day.
I was in this line for 5 hours, from 2 PM to finally get to the voting booth at 7PM. The crowd was very jovial and civil. No one was complaining. The kids were having a grand time climbing the huge banyan trees lining the streets surrounding this early voting place that is the Coral Gables library. If you look closely, you can see a few kids in the crotch of the tree on the right.
If you have never known the voting system here, you are lucky. I can tell you that the political languages that, after months and months of battle, got into the ballot is so convoluted you never can tell what you have voted. If I voted Yes, was it a No for what I don't want? Or was it a Yes for what I want? If you are confused, you are not alone... So am I. Please don't ask me whom I voted for, or what I voted for. I am not sure myself! But I did vote today! Yeah! What a relief!
Here is a Veitchia spiralis, a species of flowering palm in the Arecaceae family. It is found natively only in Vanuatu, which is a remarkable fact. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, headquartered in the UK) Red List classification of plants by conservation status as follow:
LC = Least Concerned
NT = Near Threatened
VU = Vulnerable Species
EN = Endangered Species
CR = Critically Endangered
EW = Extinct in the Wild
EX = Extinction
The V. spiralis is assigned the status of NT, which is threatened by habitat loss. You may wonder where in the world is Vanuatu? Here is the answer: Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The volcanic archipelago is about 1,750 kilometres east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea. V. spiralis trees you see at other places like this one here must have been collected from this island and from nowhere else.
Talking about extinction, do you know that of the various species partitioned into: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, molluscs, plants, all have some percentage of population that are critically endangered... all except, you guessed it: the insects. Now, just think about this... us, human beings (well, at least the majority of us) belong to the mammal group... and we do have a finite probability of suffering extinction as a species sometime in the future. Let's hope that future is not coming too soon.
Every four years, the US population votes for a president and it's that time again. Somehow, this year it's more subdue than four years ago when it was the talk that was on everyone's lips. This time it's the contest between the current US president Obama vs former governor Romney. I watched all three presidential debates and already made up my mind so no matter how often both parties call my home phone and trying to change it, they are only wasting their time. Driving around town, I muse myself conducting a casual survey from the political signs posted in front of houses.
Today, my tabulation came out to be: Romney 11, Obama 0. But I need to tell you that I drove through a section of population that can safely be classified as "the haves." From this photo, you can count one vote for former governor Romney from the sign posted in front of this house. I understand this house is worth about US $8.5 Million. I need to find a different section of town that is more representative of "the haves not" for a more balanced survey... coming soon.
I took the photo of this banyan tree today. I wouldn't come here tonight for all the gold in China! Ever since a very young kid, I was told that all banyan trees are haunted. This is a banyan tree therefore it is haunted. By what, I never knew for sure, but it can't be anything good. In the pitch black of dark nights, walking under this tree would be interesting because these hanging strands would become what else but long and captive hair of the lost souls that inhabit this tree. Just that thought gives me the creep. I have shown you a scary looking banyan tree before, I am afraid of this one even more because of the hair undulating with the breeze.... Coming here tonight, on Halloween night? Are you insane?
It was a beautiful morning and the temperature was 63 degree Fahrenheit. As I promised to myself, I returned here, picked a dozen seeds, sampled two then ate a half dozen. They are really almond just like I remembered them. They are kind of too big and I hope that no adverse effects would happen to me. If I would turn into a werewolf or something wilder tomorrow night (remember... it's Halloween tomorrow night,) and you can tell from my weird blog tomorrow, you know what to do. Call a witch doctor and send him/her to my rescue.
Finally, the first cold front arrived in Miami today. The morning was crisp and beautiful, my kind of weather. If you want to visit Miami and do not care for tropical fruits that only are plentiful in the hot summer months, come now to enjoy our weather. Here, the students got into the warm sweaters that they tucked away until now, getting the warm sun to help them enjoy a beautiful day.
