Category: Tampa Bay

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Florida Tampa Bay

Opening soon in Seminole Heights: Wicked Oak Barbeque!

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorFor the past few months, the Florida Avenue building that housed King of the Coop and what used to be Florida Avenue Eats has been undergoing renovations. The end result is getting close: a side-by-side corner of deliciousness featuring King of the Coop’s Nashville hot chicken and new entrant Wicked Oak Barbeque’s pulled pork, pulled chicken, loaded mac and cheese and BBQ nachos.

They have a phenomenal mango barbecue sauce that works so well with their pulled pork…

…and their loaded mac and cheese is something else:

This locations puts King of the Coop and Wicked Oak a very short stumble away from Revolution Ice Cream and 82° West Distilling for drinks afterwards. I foresee some nice nights out — once we get COVID-19 under control. In the meantime, I know where I’ll be getting some take-out soon!

(For more info, see this article in Creative Loafing — Wicked Oak Barbecue opening new location in Seminole Heights — and follow Wicked Oak on their Facebook page.)

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Scenes from this morning’s bike ride

Photo: Light blue bike parked on the side of Roberta Circle, a tree-lined street with nice houses.
My bike, parked on Roberta Circle. Tap to see at full size.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI’ve managed to not put on the “Quarantine Fifteen” by doing a 10K bike ride at least five days a week since March. In fact, I’ve lost a little weight over the past couple of months. I’m fortunate to be in a fantastic neighborhood for cycling — lots of tree-lined streets with interesting houses to look at, the Hillsborough River cutting an inverted “U” through the area, and parks all over the place.

Photo: The southern edge of Lake Roberta (actually a pond) as seen from its west side. The lake is lined with trees, and its still waters reflect the clouds and blue sky above.
Lake Roberta. Tap to see at full size.

The 2020 Saharan dust cloud has also made the weather a little drier than usual. Normally, during this time of year, we get either hurricanes, or the typical tropical “rainy season” weather where the day starts sunny, followed by a torrential rainstorm in the early afternoon, followed by sun. More than our fair share of days has been mostly sunny. It’s made for some pretty good cycling.

Photo: The middle of Lake Roberta (actually a pond) as seen from its west side. The lake is lined with trees, and its still waters reflect the clouds and blue sky above.
Lake Roberta. Tap to see at full size.

These photos are from a place I’ve written about before: Lake Roberta. I took them from its east side, looking west.

Photo: The northern edge of Lake Roberta (actually a pond) as seen from its west side. The lake is lined with trees, and its still waters reflect the clouds and blue sky above.
Lake Roberta. Tap to see at full size.

I think it’s a bad idea to ride with headphones on, but I sometimes  like listening to podcasts while I bike. So I do the next best thing: I pop my phone in my backpack’s “iPod pouch” and just play it through the phone’s speaker.

Photo: “Over the Road” podcast logo — Yellow truck door labeled “Over the Road”

I’m currently listening to Over the Road, a podcast where host “Long Haul Paul” Marhoefer, a trucker who’s also a musician and a great storyteller, tells the stories of his fellow long haul truckers, highlighting their experiences and explaining how they’re coping in a world that’s changing as a result of new technologies, new regulations, and changes in the way people live.

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Tampa Bay The Current Situation

Hey, Seminole Heights: Let’s show some local love for Whatever Pops and Bowls this week

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorOn Monday night, someone decided to help themselves to the bike rack outside Whatever Pops and Bowls, the gourmet popsicle/gelato/acai bowl/coffee place on Florida, just a couple of blocks south of Hillsborough. In the process, they smashed one of their storefront windows.

Things are already tough for businesses during the pandemic, and the last thing Whatever Pops needs is an unexpected expense like this. Let’s all show them a little love, give them a little business, and pick up a popsicle, gelato, bowl, or coffee sometime this week.

In case you need a little tempting, here’s a list of their popular flavors:

  • banana coconut
  • chocolate sea salt
  • coconut lime
  • earl grey lavender lemonade
  • orange cream
  • pineapple banana veggie (no sugar added)
  • pineapple cilantro
  • salty chocolate elvis
  • strawberry lime
  • strawberry mango
  • strawberry pineapple pomegranate

In case you were curious, my favorite is the Salty Chocolate Elvis, which is also the name of my next band.

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Florida of the Day Tampa Bay The Current Situation The More You Know...

Florida of the day: Please don’t microwave library books

Facebook post with photo of book with scorch marks around its embedded RFID chip: Temple Terrace and all Hillsborough County Library Cooperative libraries quarantine all materials for 72 hours after they are returned. Please do NOT attempt to microwave library materials as the RFID tags, located inside, will catch fire. Stay safe out there.
Tap the screenshot to see the original Facebook post.

The public library of Temple Terrace (a Tampa neighborhood just a little north of Seminole Heights, where I live) had to post a Facebook notice telling people not to microwave books that they borrow.

It’s generally a bad idea to microwave paper, including money…

…but it’s even worse to microwave library books, as they have RFID tags, which are made of a thin layer of metal. Microwaves heat up thin layers of metal really quickly, bringing them up to the temperature that will ignite paper:

The library quarantines returned books for 72 hours before loaning them out again, which is believed to be enough time for contaminated surfaces to become safe:

Remember, viruses aren’t made of living cells. From a certain point of view, they’re just chemicals — DNA, protein, and fat — but they’re chemicals that have a knack for replicating themselves by rewriting the DNA of cells that they infiltrate:

So yes, keep borrowing books and other materials from the library. Wash your hands after using them. But don’t microwave them!

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Flag of the day

I love this flag, which I saw on my daily bike ride this morning.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligator

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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

The neighbor I need to meet (or: Ooh! Unicorn boat!)

Tap the photo to see it at full size.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI saw this while going out for a neighborhood walk with Anitra this morning. I need to find out who the owners are, and make friends with them so th I too can cruise down the Hillsborough River in a unicorn boat!

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Tampa Bay

The Fast and the Spurious (or: Why does the school board need a car like this?)

Tap the photo to see the excessive vehicularity at full size.

Seminole Heights’ seal, which depicts a two-headed alligatorI snapped this photo during my bike ride this morning. I don’t know how many high-speed chases the local county school board gets into, but they are READY!

(Seriously, are Dom and the rest of the Fast and Furious gang skipping school?)