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The right mindset allows us to surpass what we perceive to be our limits. It’s just that in Florida, the “right mindset” often means “drunk”.
The meme above reminds me of this Florida Man story from 2018, where this happened:
We later found out more details:
If you haven’t seen it yet, go to YouTube and watch this channel now: James Blackwood – Raccoon Whisperer.
Blackwood is a retired RCMP officer who lives in Pictou County, Nova Scotia and now feeds raccoons full-time. The raccoons eat well — here’s what he’s fed them:
Sometimes he serves chicken hot dogs, hard-boiled eggs, grapes, apples, bananas and unsalted peanuts.
“I cook sausages for them, I do Hamburger Helper with sauteed mushrooms, Vienna sausages, roast chicken, pigs-in-a-blanket. And Tim Hortons doughnuts.”
(For those of you unfamiliar with Canada, Tim Hortons is more than just a place to get donuts. It’s synonymous with Canadian identity.)
Here’s more from a CBC article titled Meet the ‘Raccoon Whisperer’ of Pictou County:
One of his oldest raccoon friends, Rascal, will turn 13 in the spring. He knows her birthday because it was her mother that first reached out to him from the raccoon world. She had been hurt, likely by a car, and so Blackwood and his wife Jane took her in. That was 1999. “We gave a soft release into the wild and she’s been here with us every year since,” he says.
That raccoon later returned with her cub, which Blackwood and his wife named Rascal. His wife took to raccoons with a passion and on some nights 18 turned up for the late-night eats.
Jane Blackwood died in 2003 of cancer. Jim Blackwood merged her love of raccoons with his love for her, and so became the Raccoon Whisperer. “I fell in love with the animal and would not have it any other way. I am a retired RCMP officer and this is what I do full time,” he says.
It may seem that Blackwood is training his own Raccoon Army of the night, but I get the feeling the raccoons have trained him to be a reliable source of exotic food that’s just unavailable to most wild creatures.
He should be doing reasonably well if he’s monetizing his YouTube videos. He currently has 328,000 subscribers, and a number his videos have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views.
It’s not all raccoons and peanut butter sandwiches on his channel. Sometimes, he’ll throw in a musical performance:
Go ahead, watch this channel — it’s mesmerizing!
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Sunday sunset
I took this photo of our house just a moment before walking across the street to our neighbors’ house for a socially-distanced barbecue on their front lawn. It was just a few of us from the street, and it was a lovely way to spend Sunday evening.
I love this neighborhood.
This rider was seen cruising Lil’ Nas X style on Saturday in V.M. Ybor, an eight-minute drive south of where we live.
Note that he’s wearing a toque/knit cap. That’s because it was a relatively brisk 27° C/80° F that day.
Hey Tampa Bay! Are you a looking for a nice office that you can take on the road with you? If so, you might be interested in this little gem that appeared on Facebook Marketplace this afternoon — something the seller calls “2020 The Mobile Workspace”, and is willing to part with, for the sum of $9,600.
From the seller’s description:
Mobile Office built for 1-2 people with all the luxuries of a normal office while still has the full accessibility of 6FT x 12 FT of interior space for storage/transportation of your business needs. This also accommodates a standard queen sized bed with room to spare.
This trailer can run interior lights, refrigerator, TV, laptop charger, stereo, and sink COMPLETELY on solar/battery (off-grid). Refrigerator runs off of 12V so can run 24/7 if parked in sun.
Here’s what it looks like when you open the rear gate doors:
And here’s what you’ll find inside:
It’s a pretty decent-looking workspace:
The seller listed these features:
- 3/4” High efficiency Insulation
- 27” IPS LED HD LG Monitor (on extension swivel mount)
- 10,000 BTU Air Conditioner
- Microwave
- Coffee Maker
- All-in-one Cannon Printer
- 12V Large Deep Cycle Battery
- 200 Watt Solar Panel -6 LED Interior Lights
- 2 Rockford Fosgate Speakers (Front and Rear)
- Bluetooth Stereo
- 1500W DC to AC Inverter (120V Power on Battery)
- Built-in Battery Charger (When connected to shore power)
- Marine Grade Control Panel (W/USB chargers)
- Standard 120V Hook-Up
Here’s a view of the top of the rig, where the solar panels are located:
Here are more views of the office:
This might be a good portable office for a field engineer, construction manager, or general contractor. Maybe you’re a digital nomad living the RV life and need a little extra space in which to work (if your RV has the towing capacity). Or perhaps you’re in sales or marketing and need a portable showroom. Or maybe you’re trying to work from home and it’s too small for you to set up a home workspace.
Interested? You can contact the seller through their Facebook Marketplace posting.
I took this picture after having a couple of friends over for socially-distanced drinks in our front yard on Saturday night.
The temperature was a lovely 24° C (75° in Herr Doktor von Fahrenheit’s old-timey system), we had groovy jazz organ playing on the porch sound system, the company was excellent, and the string lights made our corner lot look so cheerful that we got compliments from the neighbors. (They’re also perfectly timed for Diwali!)
It was a lovely evening all ’round.