Perfectly Petersen

Modern Day Street Urchins

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On any given day on my way home, if I take city streets I pass three to eight intersections with various people collecting money from the raised concrete medians and spreading out like ants among the cars at a red light. What else would you call these people collecting money for ambiguous or unknown “charities?” This man looks quite official compared to most of the urchins in Tampa, despite his ambiguous identification.

We are not talking about firemen with boots, nuns in full regalia, or a big Ronald McDonald. We know about Salvation Army standing outside Wal-mart at Christmas and the Girl Scouts selling their cookies. Those are established charities who have earned the trust and recognition of the public and do not (most of the time) approach you or attempt to overtly solicit your funds.

Almost all of these urchins’ actions convey that they think that merely wearing a button-down shirt and tie in the hot summer heat with a box or bucket gives them the right to incite guilt for not rolling down your window. Looking the other way doesn’t work — they will enter your line of sight. I have seen them walk up to cars with open windows and convertibles with the tops down and try to persuade the drivers.

Here are a few of the examples of charities and “beggars” I have witnessed:
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Rainy Season Is Here

When we moved to Florida 13 years ago (Gosh!!!! Has it been that long?), we jumped into a full-tilt rainy season the first summer here. What constitutes normal? Rain, rain, and more rain, almost every day during the summer.

I call summer as any day in May through November here. There may be the odd day that is actually a comfortable mix of temperature and humidity slapped in there somewhere (usually a work day), but those are few and far between after May. When I walk outside in the morning to go to work at 4:45 am, the temperature is usually between 75 and 82 degrees with 90-99% humidity. Basically, it’s a deodorant check right off the bat, “yup, I’m covered.” Somewhere between 10 am and and 8 pm it is supposed to rain somewhere in the area for some amount of time. Every single day, unless there is a high pressure front pushing things away.

The last 3 years or so have been gradually drier and less normal, until most ponds and lakes are showing visibly lower water levels. That all changed the weekend, as it has rained somewhere in the Tampa Bay area between Clearwater and Lakeland every day without fail. It’s so cool to see rain on our retention pond and lightning in the distance. My favorite lightning is the completely black sky at night with the cloud to cloud lightning that reveals the clouds that were previously unseen.

I think it’s time to start taking weather photos. What is the weather like in your neck of the woods?

*Update* New Closing Date

Now that the title company called to schedule our closing, we were given a few options for closing times. We opted for closing on Thursday the 29th in the afternoon, so I could get a full day’s work in and then take all of Friday off to do errands to prepare for moving. Wouldn’t it be great to have the shelves in the garage in place for our stuff when our moving help is there on Saturday?

I’ll take Friday and Monday off and we’ll do our best to get situated. If anyone wants to come help, we’ll take care of the food and refreshments.