Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

What’s with all the recent information about roads and roadways? When Ray Charles passed away, I went along with a suggestion to rename Nebraska Av. Mostly because I did not know where the name “Nebraska” came from. Lo and behold, a few days later, a Tribune Tampa Project history article explains just how the road got it’s name (relocated Midwesterners). That also was the reason for naming Florida Av. (Locals, irritated with the Midwesterners). Next came my discovery of bayciti.net. That urban history website
includes much historical and relevant info on many local streets. Now the Weekly Planet is getting in on the act. A story there details the greatness that is Armenia Avenue, including where that name came from, and the fact that the multi-cultural road has a bit of everything. I’d never thought about it before, but WP nailed it: Armenia has an awful lot of cool places all along the way.

I just got a new computer. I know just enough about them to keep it from being a very large paperweight. I do know that when surfing ‘round the web, sending emails, and writing weblogs, evil computer geniuses can steal/mess with/hack/annoy stuff on my paperweight. Luckily, there are computer geniuses that use their powers for good. Dave and his SpaceCoastWeb Blog is one of the good geniuses. He shows you that it can be easy and free (FREE!) to help keep your paperweight from harm.

I found an interesting (to me, anyway) “urban history” site about Tampa Bay buildings, cities, streets, etc: Bayciti.net. Check it out, there’s already a lot of local stuff included, and the webmaster - Justin - claims he’s only 30% finished. He’s also got a livejournal blog called Little Plastic Tiki Man.

I’m not very healthy. I don’t really exercise. But I’m not overweight. If anything, I probably weigh too little for my height. How is this? Well, even though I eat a lot, I eat a variety of foods. Not too many sweets. But rather than what I eat, I think it’s more that I don’t mind walking a bit farther. When I go to the store, I don’t drive up and down each row waiting for the closest parking space. I usually go to the outside, and park two spots over from the last car in the row. At the mall, I just get in the first parking space I see, even if I plan on only going to the other end of the mall (during the week before Christmas, this could mean quite a long walk, but what the hell, it’s still not that far). I even think that it may take less time than searching for the very closest spot. And I don’t just do that when shopping, either. At work, I could park across the street, but I choose to park about two blocks away. If it’s less than four flights, I’ll walk down (not up!) the stairs. I sometimes take a walk at lunchtime. And I go out of my way to cross the street at a crosswalk.

Anyway, over the past couple months, I had heard about US Dept. of Health’s “small steps.” It sounded like what I already do, and it seems like it would be a reasonable way to be more active, and therefore more healthy. I figured if it’s not too hard, overly demanding, or time-consuming, more people would be more apt to try it. Thanks to DebWire, I finally visited the site.

There’s a list of one hundred small steps each one of us can do to be healthier. Some of these include: #28) Bicycle to the store instead of driving; #98) Walk to a co-worker’s desk instead of emailing or calling them; #74) Buy 100% fruit juices over soda and sugary drinks; #36) Wash the car by hand. And of course, #43) Park further from the store and walk.

As the title suggests, these are just small steps. If you start doing some of these all the time, pretty soon it becomes habit. And for me, at least, walking through a parking lot is less stressful than driving through it. So, go see how easy it is to be more active, and maybe you’ll end up a little healthier.

I hope everybody had a happy holiday weekend. It seems like some had a great time. Others could have been better. I ended up driving over the Courtney-Campbell Causeway around sundown on the Fourth. There were an awful lot of people there parked on the side of the road. And they all brought their own fireworks. It was quite a sight to see the skyline of pyrotechnics. I guess if you are looking for the “unofficial” fireworks spot, you might want to try there, although keep in mind that none of these were professionals. And even if they were shooting off bottle rockets, I got the impression there weren’t any rocket scientists. So there was a dueling banjos firecrackers kind of vibe. Including the guy who was shooting off his roman candle out the window while driving down the road.

If you want to rob a house, your best bet is to hurry. Because if you take the time to break in, find stuff to steal, get you a snack, follow that up with some beer and liquor, and then decide to try on some women’s clothing and jewelry, you might have to take a nap. Then the owner of the house would come home, see you in her clothes, freak out, scream and kinda wake you up. And because you are so tired after all those bonus robbery details, she would still have enough strength to hold you down and keep you there until the police show up and arrest you.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all eateries are not created equal, that they are endowed by their proprietor with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of High-Quality Entertainment. To that end, on July 1, 2002, Johnny G’s was launched.
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS: a certain restaurant in the neighborhood of Town ‘n’ Country dishes up fare of the highest quality.
WHEREAS: a particular eatery serves the finest drink.
WHEREAS: a distinguished performance venue features optimum entertainment.
WHEREAS: a specific location embraces the greatest patrons.
WHEREAS: a notable refectory is truly gifted at merrymaking. (remember La fiesta más grande del mundo).
WHEREAS: it is the wont of the populace to revel numerous times, since the celebration is so outstanding.
WHEREAS: the anniversary of said location falls awfully close to the birthday of our great nation.

Be it resolved that there shall be two parties in one weekend:

Tonight, July 1st, join Johnny and his merry troupe, the Jay Gee Ell Bee, as they attempt to entertain with good, cheap rock and roll at the “World’s Greatest Second Year Anniversary Party.”
On Sunday, July 4th, join all of your friends and celebrate the birthday of the United States of America during the “World’s Greatest Independence Day Party.” Excellent Service, Awesome Food, Good Drink, Cool Customers, and High-quality live entertainment will be featured both nights.

Rumor has it that both Tommy Dunc and Jackie Lee Jackson will be there tonight! Say hello if you make it there!