Good morning, East of Tampa family.
The heat index hits 106 today. Then it rains for four straight days. Thursday through Sunday all sit at 70 to 80 percent, which is the kind of week where the grass grows six inches and nobody mows it. Winthrop is running Riverview's first Restaurant Week starting Thursday, Lennard knocked off Newsome 28-7, and South Kings Avenue in Brandon shuts a lane around the clock starting today.
Maid Pure Cleaning | She taught school first. The crew came later.
Dionne Cona spent years in a classroom before she started Maid Pure Cleaning, and she is raising four kids while she runs it. About 250 local households have her on a schedule now, across Brandon, Riverview and Valrico.
The part worth knowing is what she does when nobody is paying. Maid Pure partners with Cleaning for a Reason, a national program that cleans homes at no charge for women fighting cancer. That is not on a price list anywhere. You only find out about it if you ask.
The work is bonded and insured, and there is a 24-hour callback. If something is not right the next morning, they come back and fix it. It is 91 degrees and an 80 percent chance of rain Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Four days of everybody inside, on your floors, tracking the yard in with them.
Book Maid Pure Cleaning at (813) 670-2004.
Photo: Maid Pure Cleaning
Tuesday: 93, 30%. 🥵 Storms after 2. The heat index gets to 106, so the 8 a.m. workout and the 8 p.m. workout are the only two that make sense.
Wednesday: 91, 20%. 🥵 The driest day of the six. If you have an outdoor thing you can move, move it here.
Thursday: 91, 70%. ⛈️ Showers likely after 2. Practice gets cut short.
Friday: 91, 80%. ⛈️ Storms after 2. Friday night football is going to be a wet one.
Saturday: 91, 80%. ⛈️ Morning is your window. Afternoon is a loss.
Sunday: 91, 80%. ⛈️ Same story. Plan the inside version.
No watches or warnings for Hillsborough County as of last night, and nothing in the Gulf. The only thing the hurricane center is watching sits 1,000 miles east of Bermuda.
Winthrop Restaurant Week, Thursday through Sunday the 27th. Eight restaurants at Winthrop Town Centre in Riverview run special menus for 11 days: Acropolis Greek Taverna, CALI, Cappy's Pizzeria, Donovan's Meatery, Himes Breakfast House, Longshots, The Patio and Tutto Tavola. It is the first one they have ever done. The launch party is tonight at 6:30 at The Patio at Winthrop Liquors, free to walk into, kids and dogs welcome.
Photo: Winthrop Town Centre
Meet Your Elected Officials, Wednesday 11:30 to 1. The SouthShore Chamber puts the people who represent you in a room and lets you ask them things without a three-minute timer and a podium. Sunset Grill, 602 Bahia Del Sol Dr., Ruskin. $15 for chamber members, $18 if you are not one. RSVP first, they need a headcount.
Photo: Greater SouthShore Chamber of Commerce
Impact's Sweet 16 Celebration, Thursday 6 to 8:30. Sixteen years of a Riverview youth nonprofit, and dinner is free at The Regent, 6437 Watson Rd. Doors at 6, dinner and program at 6:30. Adults only and you have to reserve a seat. Worth saying plainly: there is a fundraising ask in the program. The dinner is still free.
Pickleball Palooza, Saturday 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Third year, and the premier and gold sponsorships are already gone. $100 a two-player team plus fees, and watching costs nothing. Plant City Tennis Center, 120 N Wilder Rd. It funds the Friends of the Plant City Police Department Foundation, which pays for youth programs and officer wellness.
Photo: Friends of the Plant City Police Department Foundation
Jack Willhite at the Firehouse, Sunday 6:30 to 8:30. Rock and roll comedy, and the 3 p.m. matinee sold out fast enough that they added this second show. $25, reserved seats, no walk-ins, doors at 6. FireHouse Cultural Center, 101 1st Ave. NE, Ruskin. The money goes to Critter Adoption and Rescue Effort.
South Kings Avenue in Brandon loses its southbound outside lane around the clock today through Thursday, from just south of Ronele Drive down to Dali Drive at the Buckhorn Creek bridge. They are repairing the barrier wall on the west side of the bridge. Starting Saturday it goes back to nightly closures after 6 p.m., and the whole thing runs into early October.
Two more in the same neighborhood. Victoria Street is fully closed from just east of North Kings Avenue to North Parsons Avenue, sidewalk included, and as of yesterday North Knights Avenue and North Moon Avenue are closed where they hit Victoria. That is open-trench pipeline work.
And the night stuff. SR 60 between Buckingham Place and Lithia Pinecrest is down to fewer lanes 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through Thursday for repaving, and US 301 at Big Bend Road is doing the same 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Project alerts here.
Jesse's Steak and Seafood, 524 W. Brandon Blvd. Open since 1980, which makes it older than most of the buildings around it.
The thing to order is the one they named after the place. Jesse's Special went on the menu over forty years ago and it has never come off: a half pound of charbroiled beef with no bun, smothered in sauteed mushrooms, grilled onions, bacon and provolone, then topped with lettuce, tomato and their own ranch. $18.95. If you want the steakhouse side of it, the Greek-style Icelandic cod is $25.95 and the grilled pork chops are $21.50, and every entree comes with a hot loaf of bread, soup or salad, and a side.
Open until 9 tonight. It is 93 degrees and somebody else has the grill on.
Photo: Jesse's Steak and Seafood
Week four went well for most of us. Eight of the twelve schools won.
Bloomingdale 53, Leto 3.
Armwood 51, Spoto 0.
Plant City 37, Riverview 7.
Strawberry Crest 35, King 18.
Lennard 28, Newsome 7.
Sumner 27, Durant 14.
Hillsborough 20, East Bay 17.
Brandon 10, Kathleen 0.
Armwood and Bloomingdale put up the two biggest margins of the night. Lennard over Newsome is the one people will be talking about at work today.
Photo: Osprey Observer
Game of the week, Friday: Sumner at Armwood, 7:30. Both are 3-1. Armwood is ranked 25th in the state and just put 51 on Spoto, and its only loss came on a trip to Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. Sumner's only loss is to Tampa Bay Tech. Two programs on the same side of the county, both playing their best football right now. That is the one to drive to.
The rest of Friday night, week five.
Bloomingdale at Brandon.
Durant hosts Plant.
Newsome hosts Jefferson.
East Bay hosts Lennard.
Riverview hosts Morgan.
Spoto hosts Steinbrenner at 7:30.
Strawberry Crest at Blake.
Plant City at Wiregrass Ranch.
East of Tampa Local Sports is the reason those cards show up in your feed every week, and local businesses pay for them. $250 a month for six posts, $500 for twelve. Your name sits on the card for a kid's best night of the season. See the cards and the schools.
Photo: East of Tampa Local Sports
The county budget gets its last public hearing September 24. Second and final hearing on the FY27 budget, 6 p.m., County Center second floor boardroom, and it is hybrid so you can do it from your couch. Sign up online, the form opens 48 hours ahead, or show up 30 minutes early and sign up in the lobby. After that it is done for a year.
Plant City is annexing 112 acres. Eight parcels, and the commission set the public hearings at its meeting last night. In the same stack is Sterling Commerce Center at 314 N. Webb Rd., which would rezone county agricultural land to city multifamily. If you live out that way, the agenda packets are public and the hearings are the place to say something.
The Winthrop Pop Up Market comes back October 17. Eight monthly markets, third Saturdays, October through May 15, on Sullivan Street in Riverview. Vendor applications are open right now in four tiers, and one of them is a youth entrepreneur tier, which is a real first business for a kid who wants one.
Photo: Winthrop Town Centre
Adaptive tennis is coming to Apollo Beach. ACEing Autism starts a six-week Saturday clinic October 10 at Apollo Beach Racquet and Fitness Club, 6520 Richies Way. Ages 5 to 13 at 11, 14 and up at noon. It is $120 for the six weeks, scholarships are available, and they need volunteers as much as they need players.
The businesses that keep this free.
Environmental Protective Solutions has been doing mold and water damage work out of Lithia since 2005. Adam Key is a certified mold remediator, the work carries a one-year warranty, and the emergency line runs 24 hours. With 80 percent rain four days running, they are about to be busy. Brandon office at 2708 Broadway Center Blvd. (813) 438-5937.
Photo: Environmental Protective Solutions
Tabatha Pugh is a licensed Florida broker associate with Keller Williams Realty Smart, working Plant City and the east side. Fall is when the serious buyers come back out. 813-476-8457.
PattiCakes Custom Cakes is Brandon-made cakes, cake pops, cookies and full dessert tables, and 53 Facebook reviews that all say the same thing. Kanji Sushi and Ramen, The Shining Vine and Tampa Children's ENT order her logo cookies. (352) 942-3455.
Photo: PattiCakes Custom Cakes
Glaros Law is Steve Glaros, the 2026 Honorary Mayor of East Hillsborough, at 350 E. Robertson St. in Brandon. Family law, personal injury and estate planning. Two of those pick the date for you. The third one you handle on an ordinary week with nothing wrong. (813) 854-1234.
Photo: Glaros Law
The #1 Meat Man is Shawn McCranie and a $220 family box: 24 steak burgers, 24 individually packaged chicken breasts and a 10-pound box of Duroc pork tenderloins. That is a month of dinners in one delivery, and it does not care what the radar says. Fill out the order form to get in touch with The #1 Meat Man.
Photo: The #1 Meat Man
Madison Patron with Foundation Realty Group works the same Bloomingdale, Valrico and Riverview streets you live on. Comment MADISON on any of her posts for a free home value report, or call her cell, 813-955-9092.
Prestige Pressure Washing & Detail is Ben and Carrie Smith in Brandon, veteran owned and Marine Corps run. House washing, concrete and exterior cleaning, licensed and insured. Veterans get 20 percent off and seniors get 15 percent. Four days of rain is going to put a green stripe down the north side of your driveway. (813) 438-6315.
Stoner's Pizza Joint, 3428 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Bloomingdale. Allison Hardy runs it. Pizza, wings and calzones, Pick 2 for $6.99 each. Thursday through Sunday is a washout and the pizza does not care. (813) 436-0016.
Photo: Stoner's Pizza Joint
Fix It Today Plumbing is the sister company to Environmental Protective Solutions, same people. Leaks, drains, water heaters, sewer lines and repiping, flat-rate pricing with financing. The people who stop the leak are the people who dry the house out. (813) 743-7793.
Team Plumstead is Danielle Plumstead with Red Sash Realty, a licensed Florida agent living and selling in FishHawk and Lithia. If you want to know what your house is worth before the fall market moves, that is a 20-minute conversation. (813) 495-2136.
Brandon Crossroads Bowl has 40 lanes and 40,000 square feet at 609 Crater Ln., and the Boje family has been running bowling centers since 1959. Bowlapalooza is $6.99 with free shoes Monday through Friday from 3 to 5, and Wednesday Cosmic is $10.99 from 9:30 to midnight. If you are in South County, The Alley at SouthShore is the same family at 10221 Big Bend Rd. in Riverview, with Team Trivia every Wednesday at 7. Four days of rain and 82 lanes with the air conditioning on. (813) 621-2363.
Photo: The Alley at SouthShore
Something happening you think the rest of us should know about? A game, a fundraiser, a grand opening, a kid who did something. Send it here and we will take a look.
See you Friday.
John
The East of Tampa Guy
I hate the fact that we lost to Cincinnati, but we are 8.5-point favorites against the Browns this Sunday at 1. Should be a great day to be a Bucs fan. No matter what anyone says, I think the Baker to Emeka Egbuka connection this season is going to be epic.
