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Slice of Life

Reading for pleasure implies the existence of reading for pain

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It Happened to Me Slice of Life

Sunday morning, August 7, 2022

Sunday’s my day to check the grounds before my daily 10K bike ride.

Aside from some weeding that I’ll need to do over the coming week, the front yard looked good, so I decided to take some photos.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorYou can’t go for a bike ride without a bike. After eight years of pretty regular riding — and near-daily riding since the start of the pandemic — my bike was beginning to show its age. It was getting to the point that it would be cheaper to replace than repair it.

The supply chain for new bikes is a bit thin at the moment, but the local Facebook marketplace had a decent-sized selection. Once I’d filtered out the bikes that people got at Walmart (the bikes are so-so, and they’re usually assembled by the associate who drew the short straw), there were a couple of good picks.

I ended up buying relatively gently-used bike pictured above. It had new brakes and tires, and I got it for less than $200 from someone who lived a few blocks away and rode regularly with my go-to bike repair guy, Jorge, whose business is named Bike Haus (which I highly recommend). It rides quite nicely.

I usually drop by the Seminole Heights branch of Spaddy’s — a coffee trailer with patio area — on weekends for a Cuban toast with cheese and a cold brew with condensed milk.

All in all, a nice morning.

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Music Slice of Life

42 years ago today…

Tony Pierce reminded me that two formative parts of my youth entered the world on this day…

42 years ago, on July 25th, 1980, one of the greatest albums of all time came out: AC/DC’s Back in Black, the band’s first album after the death of original vocalist Bon Scott. Brian Johnson debuted as the vocalist on this album, and it ended up being the third best-selling album of all time.

Brian Johnson now lives a 90-minute drive south of me in Sarasota.

Also released on this day 42 years ago: Caddyshack!

So now you know two elements that warped my youth.

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Slice of Life

Happy Friday!

Photo: Sign above door that reads “Be amazing today.”
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Be sure to follow the advice of this sign, which hangs above the door of St. Pete’s Chai Mixology, who make a damned good poke bowl:

Photo: Poke bowl with beer and accordion in background.
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Accordion, Instrument of the Gods Slice of Life

If you go out drinking the night before and call in sick the next day…

Poster: “If you go out drinking and call out of work the next day... YOU ARE SOFT. My generation showed up for work in the same clothes we had on last night with a wristband.”
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And hey, you have even less of an excuse if you can work from home.

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Slice of Life

Camera roll (Sunday, July 10, 2022)

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Friends from Canada were visiting Sarasota, so we drove down to meet them. It was one of those days where you’re enjoying the company so much that you  forget to take a lot of photos, but the ones I got were pretty good.

Bayfront Marina at twilight
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The Gulf at sunset
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Slice of Life

Another day, another 10K.

My bike.
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I hop on the bike about 5 days a week on average, typically in the morning before it gets too hot (or in the summers, before the storms hit).

I typically cover a 10-kilometer (about 6.2 miles) distance. I often get the grocery shopping and other local errands done this way, which cuts the number of times I fill my car’s gas tank to about once a month and reduces my risk of death from heart disease, stroke, or just general First World Flab.