*This is a column that the Free Press ran in January when I went down to pick all my old stuff up*

Did you feel a cool breath of fresh air waft across Marathon last weekend.
If you did, then congratulations on being incredibly tied into the community (and probably way too nosey, creep).
That’s right, for a glorious 20 hours I was within Marathon’s city limits. What magical force brought me to the beautiful city by the Florida Bay (and ocean technically)? It was a little 10 by 12 foot slice of heaven known as a storage unit.
Despite actually moving out of the Keys over a month ago, I kept a little piece of myself here. Since I was too broke to hire a moving company to haul my junk up to my new place in New York, and too neurotic to drive a moving truck with my car tied to the back like a two ton water skier, I simply locked my stuff up in a micro garage and drove up myself with the three things that fit into my vehicle.
After getting sick of having to wash to one shirt I was able to fit into my car over and over again, I decided it was time to get my crap. “Marathon or bust!” I yelled to the confused person sitting next to me on the plane. I landed in Fort Lauderdale, rented a moving truck got to the Keys, loaded it up, partied at the Hurricane, then left town as quickly as I arrived.
Now, some people will tell you how interesting it is to visit a town where you use to live 20 years after you move away and see how much has changed. I find it more fun to only wait a month or so. It is more of a challenge. What has changed in Marathon over the past couple of months?
  • Apparently the Free Press has moved its offices out of its location across the street from Herbie’s and into a bunker at an undisclosed location. I hoped they remembered to bring the time capsule I buried in one of the walls. It is full of autographed pictures of me. Businesses that rent out space at strip malls 25 years from now are going to be pumped when they find it.
  • The City of Marathon hired a new city manager, in what has become the Spinal Tap Drummer position of Keys politics.
  • They are starting to renovate the Holiday Inn, just in time for, no joke, the national hotel chain to bring its “human bed warmers” to the Keys after its trail run in Europe. Sure, you could stay at some other hotel in Marathon and hop into a cold clean bed like a sucker, but if you want, Holiday Inn will have someone decked out in a fleece body suit get into your bed and warm it up before you use it. I hope this service also includes Holiday Inn making a courtesy call to local authorities so any maniac that wants this service can be locked up.
Although my time in the Keys was short, I arrived on Saturday and left on Sunday, it was a unique experience. I got to party with friends, not have to wear a jacket for the first time in two months and live like a tourist, albeit for a short time. Even better, I’m coming back in a couple of months for a  wedding. Apparently a couple down there values my friendship enough that they don’t mind my pale sickly face lurking around their wedding.
I wondered aloud in my last column, or perhaps that should be “awritten,” that you can’t go home again. I still don’t think you can, but you can always visit and mooch off of your hosts.
You can follow Rob Busweiler’s inane ruminations at tidewaters.wordpress.com
He also answers e-mails, tersely, at rob.busweiler@gmail.com. He can be hailed on ham radio at frequency 148.800 MHz.
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