The last day I was in Tampa was February 29th, when we went to the zoo (and fed the Rhinos), and went out to lunch at Goody Goody Burger to celebrate leap day. Life was different then.
Today, Asa and I ventured into Tampa to pick up some things for Calib's birthday tomorrow. Now not only does hurricane season start tomorrow (and there is signs reminding you to be prepared--there's already been two named storms), but people are wearing masks and there are drive thru testing sites. Traffic signs are no longer telling you how long it will take to get places- probably because there isn't much traffic to speak of- but now sporting Covid-19 health warnings (along with hurricane prep). The only traffic we encountered was on I-275 downtown. There are large protests downtown today (we got off at the Dale Mabry exit, not Downtown so we didn't see any), so we're not sure if it was traffic-traffic or because of the protests. I read recently police are standing at the exits, so I'm not sure.
Down by Busch Gardens there is plenty of damage though, lots places are boarded up, and there's quite a few places with police caution tape around it.
And of course part of the strip mall that was burned last night, is all caution taped off.
There's also graffiti around.
We were able to go about our business and get cupcakes for Calib's birthday, but it seems so weird in times like these to just be "going about our business".
University Mall, by Busch Gardens and USF was looted last night, so there were police cars blocking the entrances over there, which wasn't a surprise. But, when we drove past the Westshore Mall, police had blocked off that mall too. When I got home, I saw on Facebook that Citrus Park Mall was closing early and clearing out too. I know Tampa is under a curfew tonight, as is Orange County (Orlando area). Disney Springs changed their hours to close at 7pm, just days after reopening because of Coronavirus. Our Governor activated the state national guard.
With the exception of what happened down on Fowler last night, I know we've had plenty of peaceful protests. The Tampa mayor was marching with protesters yesterday (she used to be the police chief too), and Saint Pete remained pretty peaceful.
So, all of that is going on, in addition to the pandemic.
We also picked up a couple of things from Kohl's on the way back. They've made order on line pick up in store- curbside now. Super easy.
And we noticed the CVS in Land O Lakes at the corner of 54 and 41 are doing drive thru testing now.
Some things are returning to "normal", we actually have a couple of neighbors were house sitting for. So, we have a pool to use and extra dogs to play with this week.
Tonight for dinner, I made NFL pizzas on Naan bread, I let Calib pick them all, and Peyton was like "do I get to pick dinner all weekend for my birthday", and I decided if you have to have your birthday in Coronavirus times, yes... you do in fact get to pick meals for a whole weekend!
I do have a picture that I took last night while we watched CNN and what was going on in the world..
Most popular "hurricane snacks": Any ice cream dessert has been mighty popular!
Current binge watching obsession: Space Force.. it's eh...
Most popular game: Civ. It dominates dinner conversation at this point.
Boredness scale 1 to 10: 7. Like, I cooked dinner and went to run some errands. But other than that, I've done nothing today. Not even a usual bike ride because I'm trying to get my skin to be less irritated.
Frozen II Watchthroughs: 42. None today.
How many times we've walked the loop: 63. No walks today either.
Days Down: 79. Can you believe tomorrow is day 80?
Days Remaining: Undetermined.
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