Sept 27 - Oct 3, 2020 - St Petersburg, FL

Sept 27

Coronavirus US CASES 6,980,115

Coronavirus DEATHS 192,761

 

Oct 3

Coronavirus US CASES 7,234,219

Coronavirus DEATHS 197,206

 

 

• Gil’s Birthday Celebration continued through Sunday.  We started out doing a liter clean up at Sawgrass, I’d signed up a month previous and I decided it might be a fun additional to the rest of the activities.  The liter cleanup was joined by Lisa and Chris and Carla.  It didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped.  I had received a message from the park ranger that the canal at the front of the park was a high liter area.  They had something called a water goat in the canal and it prevents the liter from floating down stream.  It was a good collection of trash but unfortunately much of it was out of reach.  We had liter pickers and a net and this was helpful, but it still left a lot of liter.  We talked about getting a boat but launching into the canal would have been problematic.  I talked about getting hip waders, but due to the gators and snakes, that was voted down.   I contacted the park ranger later in the week and we talked about other options.  I’m signing up to do liter patrol on a regular bases, I’m there multiple times a week, I might as well get credit.  They are going to try to move the water goat to different area and angle it so it pushes the liter closer to shore.  Park Ranger also said hip waders were a bad idea.  I filled out my application to be a volunteer this week, so hopefully I’ll hear something soon.
• After doing our part for the community, we headed downtown to check out these little cars called Scoot Coupes.  Its basically a scooter but its 3 wheels and holds two people.  The controls are the same as it is for a bike.  Chris & Carla joined us and we rented two Scoot Coupes.  I was concerned that it wouldn’t be fun.  After I bought the Groupon, I started wondering if they were street legal or if there was designated paths we could use or were we going to be stuck driving circles in a parking lot.  It turns out that they were street legal and we could go anywhere except the expressway.  We drove all over downtown, Roser Park and the Vinoy area before our was hour was up.  They turned out to be a lot of fun.  We switched around drivers and everyone got a chance to drive.
• Lunch took place at one of Gils favorite restaurants, Three Birds.  We all did lunch before heading over to Sunken Gardens.  We had spent a much longer time at lunch than what I’d planned and we only had an hour at Sunken Gardens before they closed.  That was a little disappointing, but we still had a bit of a buzz from lunch and it was a good place to get sober before we hit our next attraction.
• My final Groupon experience for Gil was at the Flying Boat Brewery.  I’d purchased him a tasting but I didn’t purchase one for myself as I was trying stay Keto and there was never a guarantee that a brewery will have a low carb beer.  But Flying Boat Brewery had a hard seltzers that was very good.  After finishing our alcohol there we all ended up at 4^th Street Shrimp Store.  This one wasn’t in the budget but we’d been talking about bay scallops drowned in butter and I was easily convinced.  This evening I discovered my love of scampi butter, melted butter mixed with garlic and herbs.  I ended up taking some home.  So far I’ve used it with imitation crab, broccoli and put the remainder in my chicken salad for the week.  The recipe is easy and I’m totally adding this to my condiment shelf.  Or go buy more for 4^th Street Shrimp Store.
• A couple of weeks ago, during a big thunder storm, Gil’s car alarm went off.  I didn’t even know he had a car alarm.  Every time it thundered, the alarm went off.  We tried to figure out how to turn it off but eventually had to disconnect the battery.  The battery was already too drained to start the car.  The next day I called his mechanic to see if they would be able to disconnect the alarm so it wouldn’t happen again.  His mechanic wouldn’t touch it.  Grrrr.  Last week I called my mechanic and as always they are awesome.  “Bring it on in, I’m sure we can figure it out”.  And they did, cut the wire, removed the alarm and Ken said – slip my guy $20 and we’ll call it a day.  I love my mechanic.
• I got my first spa facial in over a year.  It was glorious.  I’m making plans to get something else done next week.
• I’ve started getting some emails from the local theaters and they are beginning to open up to a limited degree.  So I decided to check out the Straz to see if they are offering anything in the upcoming weeks.  I splurged and bought tickets for an outdoor stage production called “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” (abridged), I think it’s a comedy.  Its cheap and will get us out of the house and I miss the Straz.  I also picked up tickets for me for My Fair Lady in December and I got my NatGeo subscription renewed.  I probably won’t be here for the last show, but I’ll catch the first two and if I can’t leave in March, I’ll catch the 3^rd.  Otherwise, perhaps Gil or Gina will use it.
• Tried a new park this week.  Eagle Lake Park.  I don’t know how I missed this park before, its like a mile from Largo Central.  I expect I’ll be spending quite a bit of time there in the future.
• Gina messaged me this week and she has purchased her very own ZooTampa pass.  Her and Phil were going to the zoo on Saturday and wanted to know if we would join them.  They had reservations for the “Creatures of the Night” Halloween special that day and we were going the Straz anyway, so it worked out well. 
• I purchased the starter kit for MINT Cellular.  I’ve been struggling with what to do with my cell phone, as the monthly bill is high but it allows for free text/data for a lot of other countries.  I could change to another provider that’s cheaper and buy SIM cards with each country.  Chris & Carla switched to it and haven’t had any problems.  They switched Gil over to it and he’s pretty happy with it.  So I went on the website and did some research.  They have an international program that is pretty much on par with buying a SIM card at every new location, and that makes me happy.  And they run on a T-Mobile network, so service locations will be the same as they are now.
• Saturday came and we had great time with Gina and Phil at the zoo, ended up at a BBQ place for dinner.  They only had sweet BBQ sauces so I opted for some Crystal hot sauce instead.  The BBQ menu looked reallllly good and I was sad I couldn’t have anything other than naked wings with hot sauce.  But I’m happy I’m losing weight, and I don’t want to disrupt my progress.
• We went to the Straz for Shakespeare and there were concerns about the weather.  We got there a bit early and when we walked to the theater about 45 minutes before the show, it was clearly not taking place.  It was weird that we were the only ones that showed up, but I guess everyone else figured they’d eat the cost rather than get stuck in the rain.  I talked to someone at the box office and they said they were sending out emails letting everyone know it was canceled and refunds would be available.  It worked out well, because Gina wanted to come too.  I can re-book a table for 4 rather than one for 2.
• I pulled out my new fancy hiking shoes for the first time on Oct 3^rd.  I was hiking Boyd Hill and the grassy trails are always wet so I figured this would be a great test for my waterproof shoes.  They weren’t broken in yet, but I decided to do the full 10k I was planning on to give them a real test.  I think I’m going to need to add inserts for more support on the bottom and I got a nice blister on the back of my right ankle, but other than that, I’m really loving the shoes.