Flordia Keys - Dream Home or Nightmare?

I received some discouraging news this week. Another local business has shut down after being open less than a year. Maybe what retail businesses need to survive in this market is a gimmick. Take this story about a neighborhood convenience store in Marinette, WI. You can’t buy advertising like that!

I don’t have a shoplifting seagull, just great books and there are plenty of those!

Duma Key was my latest escape from the reality of a harsh Wisconsin winter. Now when I think of Stephen King , I think horror and sleepless nights. Imagine my surprise to discover his latest novel is actually a memoir – not that of the masterful storyteller, but of a simple Minnesota construction worker who is, shall we say, a little down on his luck. Okay, maybe it’s not a true story, but I feel so connected to the characters, they must exist somewhere. Edgar Freemantle, or “Eddie” as I now think of him, lost his right arm in a construction accident and his marriage ends. Instead of giving up on life as he originally intended, he takes his psychologist’s advice of a “geographic cure” and rents a house on Duma Key off the Florida Coast. As the future winner of the Dream Home Giveaway, which so happens to be located at The Shore at Islamorada in the Florida Keys, this setting appealed to me immensely.

Eventually Eddie begins his movement out of a life of solitude and meets his neighbor. Wireman has had struggles of his own and his story absolutely breaks my heart. My eyes well up just thinking about what that poor man has been through. I still have to sleep with the lights on and I’m no longer sure about moving to the Florida Keys, but there is more to this story than just horror.