I 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!
Category: Tampa Bay
I 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?)
Since I’ve been avoiding the gym since March due to the coronavirus, a good chunk of my regular exercise has revolved around a 10K bike ride that I try to do at least five days a week.
While Florida provides a fantastic climate for year-round cycling, Florida drivers provide a hostile environment for cyclists. The state is still number one in cycling deaths, and I have no intention of adding to that record. Luckily for me, my stomping grounds of Seminole Heights is a lovely residential neighborhood with plenty of quiet tree-lined streets with classic bungalows, “pocket parks”, gorgeous tropical foliage and other things to see that provide miles and miles of great cycling.
I take a different route every day, but at least half the time, I include Lake Roberta on that route.
The word “lake” is a little bit of a stretch — it’s actually a pond surrounded by a residential street, Roberta Circle:
Lake Roberta is home to all sorts of life forms, from the humans who live in the houses on Roberta Circle, to the creatures that live in or near the water. Those include an assortment of different kinds of ducks, a number of ill-tempered geese, ibises, turtles, lizards, squirrels, and possums. I don’t think that there’s a gator in there — with all the houses in the area, I can’t see the people who live nearby not calling wildlife control if they ever see one.
Roberta Circle provides a great way to help collect my 10K. By luck or design, each lap around the “lake” is a quarter mile, and the asphalt is nice and smooth. 4 laps around the lake adds an easy mile to my minimum goal of 6, and I get pretty scenery as a bonus.
I don’t have the room for them; otherwise I’d already have bought this set of 3 statues of “Rat Pack” members: Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, and Frank Sinatra for $200. They come with stools to seat them on (pictured) and cocktail glasses for them to hold (not pictured).
If you’re interested in picking these up, here are the details, courtesy of the seller:
Rat Pack Set of 3 Statues Retro 50’s Three Singers 3ft Prop Man Cave Fiberglass Resin Display – The Rat Pack. A set of 3 statues Sammy, Dean and Frank. 3 ft tall Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra Rat Pack Statues some of the titans of television and music sitting on steel + wood barstools + each has a drink glass they hold( not pictured). $200.00 cash ( all three – one price) ( excellent condition) Great for restaurant, bar, music studio, arcade or gameroom, music instruments band store, mancave, home decor or ?
The seller’s based in Palm Harbor. If you’re interested, visit the Facebook page for the sale and contact them!
In my opinion, the real take-away from this Tampa Bay Times article is that under the right circumstances, you can get a COVID-19 test at a strip club.
It appears in the article titled Mike Calta among staff with coronavirus at 102.5 The Bone. Here’s the relevant part:
The plan for now was for the Calta show to continue broadcasting live with with everyone working remotely from their own homes.
Drew Garabo, an afternoon host on the station who broadcasts from the same studio as Calta, said on his show Monday that he received a call from a supervisor Friday night while en route to a Tampa strip club in a rideshare.
…
Garabo said that he and a co-host were, coincidentally, offered a COVID-19 test in the back office of that strip club after they arrived. Both came back later showing no signs of the virus. He said he’s unsure if it could have been a false negative, or if he has been exposed since then.
My guess is that the tests at the strip club are for specifically for the employees and that Garabo was on his way to the club to do a DJ gig there. He probably needed the money — if you read the article, you’ll see a reference to co-workers at the radio station being roommates. The moral of the story is to tip well at the strip club; they don’t have the work-from-home options that many of us do, and they could use the cash.
Today’s Tampa Bay Times also has a story about DJs at Orlando’s Wild 94.1 coming down with COVID-19. DJ booths are tiny, high-touch environments; this story seems to be another data point about small, enclosed indoor spaces being a vector for the disease.
Tap the photo to see the source.
This photo was taken by the Reddit user “BornByFireandFlames”, who said it was taken while talking a walk downtown a few weeks ago. The photographer said in a comment that it was shot with a Nikon D810 and a Sigma Art 20mm (f/8 @ 30 seconds, ISO 64).
“Supposedly he was in the water up to his waist and he was looking for Frisbees when the gator took notice of him,” said Largo police spokesman Lt. Scott Gore in a Tampa Bay Times article titled “Alligator bites man’s face at Largo park”. The person in question is Travis Spitzer, was wading into the lake in middle of Largo’s Taylor Park…at 5 in the morning, looking for lost frisbees.
I should first correct myself. He was looking for discs. If you know anyone who plays disc golf, “Ultimate,” or any form of the game, you know not to use the term “frisbee” in their presence unless you want to set yourself up for a half-hour ultra pedantic lecture on how discs are not frisbees. Take it from me: it’s a half-hour of your life that you’ll never get back.
Taylor Park disc golf course. Photo by Megan Hoffman. Tap to see the source.
Taylor Park has a disc golf course that borders Tylor Lake in the center of the park, which is pictured above. Also pictured above is a sign warning you about alligators in the lake. The sign is actually intended for people new to Florida; if you’ve been here long enough, you’ve probably internalized the assumption that there’s a gator in any body of fresh water, natural or artificial.
Police did not know how big the alligator was, but Gore said Spitzer used his left hand to pry the animal off. He was transferred to a hospital with injuries to his hand and face.
Police said he is expected to survive the bite.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Tampa office responded to the scene and is investigating.
Some things to keep in mind:
- The fact that it was 5 in the morning means that he wasn’t playing disc golf, but just prospecting for lost discs.
- In case you were wondering if they were expensive, you should know that you can get disc golf discs for less than $20 each.
- Alligators are most active from dusk until dawn, so it was at the tail end of their active period.
- Alligators are more active than usual during mating season, which runs from April through to the end of June. Spitzer may have butted in on some gator’s sexytime.
In short: Standard Florida Man operating procedure — high risk, low reward, questionable judgement.
To give you some sense of where this all took place relative to Yours Truly, here’s a map:
Tap the map to see it at full size.