[weatherboi]

Hello fellow Florida peeps!!! Seems everybody had good weekends even if it involved functional chores like moving!!! The summer is leaving us quickly and I am a sad dancing lamb. My week is filled with work so it looks like Tuesday/Wednesday may be my only day we play.

I love the beaches, fresh water springs, the everglades, swimming with manatees, exploring natural caves, college football and all the tasty treats cooked up in a cast iron skillet!!! The many local varieties of those delicious crustaceans we call shrimp. I am preferential to Mayport shrimp and then the Florida Keys Pink shrimps they run a close second and are very Yummy!!! My local seafood supplier is saved in my phone. Anyone ever had fresh water bream?? Not only are they fun to catch on the cane pole with a balled up piece of sandwich bread but they are easy to clean and grill. The skin peels right off exposing the whitest, flakiest of meat. I love this state and feel very sad/angry when I encounter hate and ignorance.

I was driving Ms to the farmers market yesterday and we came upon a truck with 9 bumper stickers scattered across the back window. As I was reading them I started having tiny explosions in my head and could already feel the hurt my Ms was enduring from her experience of this displayed hate. Here is what we read.

I'll keep my money, my freedom and my guns and you can keep the "CHANGE"

"If this shit offends you, you need a history lesson." It had a confederate flag in the middle.

"It's a southern thang Yankees will never understand" Another big flag.

Another was a conferderate flag that says "HERITAGE not hate."

Another confederate flag that says "You think this flag represents hate and slavery? YOU ARE WRONG!"

The rest said the same thing "History not Hate" with a flag on it.


I am a white 4th generation Floridian. What I have never been able to love is our history. Just this particular state alone was created first from attempting genocide and wiped out almost all the Native Americans. Then we used the Native Americans, African Americans and Latino coummunity to build it and make it what it is today. My parents and family tried very hard to socialize me with racist, bigoted, and discriminatory behaviors. When I come across these kinds of situations my knee jerk emotional reaction is anger and shame, then a need to engage in some way that may benefit the fight against racism. In the moment sometimes for me it is really hard to evaluate what that fight looks like. My parents have that shit ingrained in them and they may never change. With them I have to call em out all the time. Sometimes so much so that it ruins whatever family event that is going on at the time and I am ok with that!! I have created the loss of some friendships by calling people out time and time again. Some friendships had been lifelong, some not so much, some straight friends, and some queer friends. I have found that it doesn't matter who I call out or how I call em out it is never received well when calling out another human on their racism.

From one fellow Floridian to another I would like to talk about how you all handle racist, bigoted, and discriminatory situations when they come up. I would love to hear what everyone has to say on this topic no matter if your roots to Florida are new or old. We all seem to love this state and what it has to offer us nature and entertainment wise, so I thought we could have a discussion about the unprogressive nature of this state and how it effects us on a daily basis. What we can do to change it and make our state a southern state that has pride based on a whole different moral compass??

Originally Posted by durrrrrrrr

uh, should i tell ya about what happened this past spring?

i was puttin the big ass twigs / tree limbs that had fallen from the winter into the fire pit. well, they was kinda wet so i figured they just needed a little help to catch em on fire and burn em. so, i had a small amount , well it seemed like a small amount of gasoline from last year i thought would be perfect to give that fire a little incentive. well, it was to much gasoline...lol. the fire shot up about 20 feet into the air, next thing i knew the branch that is / was 20 feet above the fire pit is now on fire. so, what do i do, i take a picture of it...lmao. it didnt take long for the fire to chill out and go back to normal height but i thought for sure someone from the neighborhood was gonna call the fire department.

I caught some tree limbs on fire once. It involved gasoline soaked tennis balls and two tennis rackets.

Originally Posted by Mrs. Strutt

Good morning, Florida
I wish I could have tried a few of the bigger coasters myself, but it was only the three of us and I wasn't about to stand in line for an hour by myself while Mr. Strutt stayed with Katie...so I will have to wait until we go again with a group or something. There hasn't been a coaster built yet that I won't ride and I am dying to get on ShieKra, which has a 200-ft., 90-degree vertical drop at 70 mph. Oh yeah, baby

Hope you all have a great day!
That was nice for you to not make them wait. I get motion sick on coasters so I am the one that waits!!! Glad your vacation has been joyful.

Originally Posted by ZimmygLrL

Good Evening Everyone,
Today was my oldest niece's birthday party and we all had fun. Since her and her brother came down six weeks ago, I have gained four sunburns and several hundred miles on my odometer driving to pick them up and taking them places. I am glad they came down to visit, but I am not to thrilled about the sunburn on my shoulders. But, it made the kids happy and that is all that matters.

Have a good night and see you all in the morning,

Zimmy

I have purchased more sunblock this summer than in the past 3 years combined. Lots of sun time with company!!!

Originally Posted by Stearns

I'm sure everyone has heard about National Organization for Marriage's (NOM) "Summer for Marriage" bus tour. They're going to 17 cities this summer to fund-raise for their political campaign against equal marriage. So far, they've been outnumbered by LGBT & friends anti-protestors. The anti-protests have been silent in nature, which I think is a good strategy, lest we be accused of trying to deprive anti-gay religious groups of their First Amendment rights.
NOM will be in Tampa on Sunday, August 8, 2010 from 2:00pm - 3:00pm, if anyone is interested in taking part in a silent protest.
Here's a link to an LGBT site that is keeping up with the tour and posting info and pics: http://prop8trialtracker.com/2010/07...e-in-new-york/. A note of interest: NOM is underreporting the number of anti-protestors and are not showing anti-protestors in their photos.
P.S. NOM is a front for the Mormon Church. They donated $2 million alone to try to get Maine's equal marriage law repealed.
My brother donates to this organization. It would be worth the drive for me to go if possible and protest!!! Thanks for the info Stearns!!!

Originally Posted by Tranzman

The rest of the pack- Wishing you all a safe and happy weekend.

We are heading to the beach after this wonderful coffee is gone, for an afternoon of relaxation
I am still having a cafe Bustello experience!!! Have a great day at the beach!!!