The combination of many purple-hued street lights (which are the result of a manufacturing defect) and someone’s runaway pet goat have given my neighborhood, Seminole Heights, a Final Destination or The Omen kind of feel.
Fortunately, I am prepared for this eventuality:
I like to start most days with a 10-kilometer bike ride around my neighborhood, Seminole Heights. It’s also how I do the groceries; unless it’s raining or I need to get a lot of stuff or something large, I do most of my grocery shopping on the bike.
It was a pretty morning, so I took a couple of photos. The photo above was from the start of my ride and features our yard. The one below is of Lake Roberta, which is a great cycle track — the street that surrounds it is a quarter-mile circle.
Because the Walmart at 15th and Hillsborough (a.k.a. Supercenter #5964) is a bike-able distance from home, has Coke Zero (a vice that makes you productive can’t possibly be a vice) at the best per-unit price, and reasonably well-stocked “ethnic” and “specialty” food sections, I’m there about once a week.
And since I go on bike, I see everything that happens in the parking lot. And at a Walmart — a Florida Walmart — that can be a lot.
But I was really surprised when I saw a pair of jeans, fairly neatly laid out — just as you might lay out your jeans on a dresser for the next day — on a trash can, and on top of them, a black cloth mask, also laid out as if on a dresser.
It was in the middle of asking myself “Now why would someone need to remove their pants and mouth covering in a Walmart parking lot?” that I figured out the answer.
“Well,” I thought, “now’s a good time to leave.”
And I did just that.
It’s the time of year when Ice Cold Air (in Seminole Heights, at the corner of Sligh and Central) puts out this seasonal promo.
I try to do a 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) bike ride every day, but once a weekend, I take a mid-ride break at Spaddy’s Coffee, a coffee truck in my neighborhood of Seminole Heights with an outdoor seating area.
I’m enough of a regular that they can often remember my usual order: a “Heights Cold Brew,” which is their excellent cold brew mixed with condensed milk, in the style of Vietnamese coffee.
After all this time, I just noticed that they have something on their menu called “Espresso Lemonade,” which is what it sounds like: lemonade with a shot of espresso. I’ll have to try it the next time I go there.
This was a fun one: The Glazer Children’s Museum celebrated its 11th birthday with a big party at Curtis Hixon Park, located right by their front door in downtown Tampa. We’d already planned to attend when they suggested that I play some accordion numbers between acts on the big stage. I was honored by the request and was only too happy to play for a good party and a great cause!
Ever better, Captain Fear, mascot for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joined me onstage! We had a grand old time.
I played:
Here’s a video from a couple of Saturdays ago, featuring Anitra running on a giant hamster wheel that uses human power to create sno-cones:
The sno-cone-making hamster wheel is the creation of Joe Donoghue, whose company, Be the Hamster, was providing its services to the Glazer Children’s Museum’s 11th birthday bash.
If you’d like to try out the giant hamster wheel for yourself, you can always attend the Glazer Children’s Museum’s Evening of Play this Friday, October 15th at 6:00 p.m.. It’s a chance for us grown-ups to explore the Museum without the kids, and take part in games and fun activities, including making sno-cones (with optional alcohol!).