Skip to main content

Tuesday Tidbits





1.  I attended the St. Pete Craft Fair with Miss Norah and Company last weekend.





I still find it extraordinary down here:  any dirt at all, even in the most unlikeliest of places, and life will attempt to find purchase.   



This is an annual event where local businesses and individual artists in the arts and crafts world pitch their tents and their wares.  Some pretty nice stuff here.  It is a blend of the affordable and the not-so-affordable.  For instance, ceramic bowls and cups for $10--30, and then weird wall sculptures for $875 +.  This place is dog friendly so of course it is a good time to bring your pooch downtown, too.  

2.  My bicycle, a nice Trek, which got me around all kinds of places when I was first incarcerated down here, was stolen last week by someone here at Bedlam.  I'm mostly mad at myself: I left it unattended and unlocked when I should have gotten back to it and made it secure.  It's the city.  It's Florida.  It's my fault.    

3.  Remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I had been shorted change in a restaurant in G-Burg and here in St. Petersburg?   Apparently it is a national thing.  They are rounding up, or down, and not giving coin change back.  Just google it and you will find that it has been going on in some districts and cities for a while now.  There are varied reasons but it all ends up being rather shady. And these places are making out like bandits because they are counting on you not wanting to look cheap.  I have no problem looking cheap since they probably knew that when I walked in the door.  Help put a stop to this deceptive and fraudulent practice should you have the misfortune of being a victim.  Call them on it and ask for your change.

4. Saw this when I was out at Wal-Mart*, **, ***, **** the other day.





I'd love to get my bike gussied up like these bikes, but the electrical knowledge needed far exceeds my meager abilities.

 *  As many longtime readers know I have an ongoing boycott of Wal-Mart that is entering its third year.  I will shop there when there are no other alternatives and/or accompany someone else.  In this case I needed something for Norah's next-day visit and had no other place locally to get it.  Forgive me.

 ** I should also tell you that this place has self-checkout lanes.  Average wait time is about 2 minutes compared to the usual 20.  

 *** And I don't mind Sam's.  

 **** Maybe I'm softening my stance just a teeny bit. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Statuary In North Straub Park

The Vinoy is not the only park in town.  The place is fairly littered with them, and almost all, except Bum Paradise, are pretty nice.  This is North Straub and they have some old pieces in that seem to have suffered from time and perhaps human folly.     These and some 30 other statues were imported from Italy by local developer C. Perry Snell to help beautify the city.  Mr. Snell was in real estate and during the depression he went on a European shopping trip to collect items for the city.  He obtained these from Italy and installed them in this park even after the bottom fell in the markets.  He fulfilled his obligations at great personal loss to his own company and wealth.  Halso continued to pay his staff during those tough times.  He developed many areas in the city, Vinoy, Snell Isle, Crescent Lake and the beach area down around Fort DeSoto.  He lived from 1869 until 1949 and then buried in Kentucky.  I wo...
Post a Comment
Read more