M.I.A.

Greetings folks, and many apologies for being absent for the past five-and-a-half days. I got busy trying to make deadlines, finish stories, etc. And then I had to take a break. That M.I.A. is not a shout-out for Miami. With respect to all our military veterans, that is definitely for Missing in Action.

For the past few days, Burnettiquette World Headquarters has been relocated to the southernmost point in the United States, lovely Key West, Florida. The pictures you see above are of a six-toed cat at Ernest Hemingway's house, Hemingway's writing studio above a converted carriage house, and me standing on the steps to the writing studio. I needed some creative inspiration. Between the freak cats and the very cool house Hemingway lived in during his years on the island, I think I got it.

I'm trying not to come off like a tourist, though technically I am, since we've never been to Key West, or any of the Florida Keys for that matter. But this place has been great - beautiful weather, nice breeze, no smokey skies. A few more hippies than I tend to prefer, but you can't win 'em all.

It's just as warm as Miami, maybe more. But there's less anger in the air, much less bad driving, and there's a more relaxed pace.

Seriously, I observed at least two locals voluntarily stop on the sidewalk to ask confused-looking tourists what they were looking for and if they needed help. Even though it's less than 200 miles away, I swear the odds are higher that I'd see a bright green alien on the sidewalk tap dancing in M.I.A. than a human offering such help.

Even the dolphins here look chill and relaxed. I've seen Dolphins swimming in the M.I.A. waters, but I'm pretty sure they were reckless swimmers, cutting off the other sea creatures without signaling first. And I know the M.I.A. dolphins were probably armed with handguns.

Enough yappin' though. For the rest of the weekend, this blog becomes largely a photo-driven thing. I'll post more tomorrow.