Monday, June 4, 2018

Clearwater Beach, Diabolique, XPA & Upgrade

The preceding week had some rather unique moments for me. On Memorial Day itself, I had to go to the Tampa area in order to make an airport run; I picked up someone from the regional St. Pete-Clearwater airport. What I did on this day: a place I mentioned recently (the cult/genre movie store known as Grindhouse Video Tampa) was open on the holiday so I stopped in. I did not spend as much as last time, at least. I then drove to Clearwater Beach; the weather was rainy but I was only there to hang out in two different establishments. The first was Frenchy's Saltwater Cafe, which was a small, pleasant place. I had food & drink there. I also had that when I went literally next door to a place with quite the name: Cooters! A cooter is a popular name for a species of turtle but it's also slang for something incredibly lewd I won't repeat here. Cooters was a larger place and yet was still nice for what it was. I then picked up that person and drove home; some fools on the highway were driving way too fast on wet highways... I was not shocked.

Tuesday and Thursday and Saturday I did nothing, which was fine as it meant not having to deal with fools on the road. Wednesday, I went to a local establishment in town for dinner, where I also had a margarita... good choice on my part. Friday, I ate at PDQ right in town and right before that was a trip to Target. I knew that Sunday would be a busy day so I might as well chill on the other days, you know. I had to drop someone off at 12:45 PM at the Sanford airport, then pick up someone else from the Sanford airport a little after 8 PM. Originally, I was going to attend a college baseball game (part of the Division I playoffs, as a matter of fact) up in DeLand; I make it up there and for some unknown reason the game was delayed two hours. I got ticked so I left and I went with Plan B and drove up to Daytona Beach. 

The main thing I did in the city was go to their nicest cineplex and saw the film Upgrade. A hard R sci-fi body horror thing won't be for all tastes, but it was a great B movie and a lot of fun. For those that enjoy such things, I give Upgrade a very strong recommendation. After that I stayed in the same area and ate at a restaurant that was part of a chain; a place named Rock Bottom is a little wacky but it was not bad overall. The food was fine and the beer they made on site was pretty good. One I had was XPA, which was an extra pale ale. I did not have the Belgian Strong Ale known as Diabolique; I mention it as it reminded me how I did not care for one of the bartenders. He was a tool and among other things, he always referred to that beer as “Diabolical”. He must not have known how to pronounce the word. As it was referred to on the menu and chalkboard as Diabolique, that made him look so dumb. As an aside, there's a great 50's French movie with the title which should be seen if you love Hitchcock films.

After that I did some things, including buying a giftcard and a soda at a Best Buy. That took longer than expected due to idiocy and as the person's flight arrived in Sanford early... I was not happy with that or the terrible traffic on this day. Too many blew by me on the Interstate as if they were on the Autobahn; more than one had to be going more than 100. I was not shocked there were multiple fender-benders and I almost got into one myself. A few minutes beforehand, someone flew by me going way too fast. Then, there was a slow-down at an exit as a lane was blocked due to a crash. Suddenly, as it was the exit I was going to use anyway, I moved into the lane, then suddenly that same fool cut over multiple lanes and almost caused a giant multiple car crash as he suddenly wanted to use that exit also. You can see why I am fine with days where I don't have to go far or don't even leave the house.

When I return next Monday, I have nothing planned yet in terms of fun activities or events.

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