Seen on Central Avenue in Seminole Heights during my daily bike ride.
Category: Tampa Bay
I’ve already filled up our portable tanks for our generator with ethanol-free gasoline, in case the power goes out. The gas lines near me were only a little longer than usual, but that was at 10:30 a.m., which isn’t a terribly busy time. If you need gas for your car or generator, get it as soon as possible, because the crowds will get worse as the day progresses, and by tomorrow, all the gas stations are going to be like the old Mad Max movies.
This morning, ethanol-free gas was selling at the Wawa at Florida and Waters (which has 4 pumps that dispense it) for US$4.49 a gallon (CDN$1.62 per litre for my Canadian friends and family).
Gasoline has a limited lifetime — 3 to 6 months — and ethanol-infused gasoline lasts half as long. My typical approach is to stock up on eth-free gas in late August (a little before the hurricanes typically come) and, if I don’t use it in the generator, pour it into the car’s gas tank in December, after the end of hurricane season.
Once again, because a hurricane watch has been announced for Tampa Bay for Tropical Storm Idalia, the graphic above provides a quick explainer for the often-misunderstood terms hurricane watch and hurricane warning…but with tacos!
Simply put:
- If the atmospheric conditions are ripe for a storm, tornado, or hurricane to occur, weather a services issue a watch. A watch basically says “It might happen; be on the lookout for it.”
- If a storm, tornado, or hurricane has formed, weather services issue a warning. A warning basically says “It is happening; get to shelter NOW!”
The 2023 edition of Creative Loafing’s “Best of the Bay” is now open for votes, and you can select the best people, places, and things here in Tampa Bay. You may be amused to know that Ron DeSantis is one of the candidates for the “Best Stripper” category.
You know what to do, and here’s where you do it. Let’s make it rain!
Categories
Get outside!
It’s a lovely day — or at least, it’s a lovely day here in Tampa. Get outside!
The place I go to for car maintenance has great service, but they need to work on their spelling.
I try to do a 10K bike ride most weekdays and on at least one of the weekend days, and I manage to fit in most of my grocery runs on these rides (unless I need to buy stuff that won’t fit in my backpack).
As a result, I’m not as tubby as I could be, I’m lowering my risk for lots of health problems, I get to catch up on a lot of podcasts and audiobooks, my mind is clear for the day’s work, and I have to gas up my car once a month or even less.