Good morning, East of Tampa family.

Twenty days until the first bell, the yard's growing an inch a day, and the afternoon rain is running right on schedule. Classic July.

Before the road news and the Rays, one thing worth your attention this morning, because it solves a problem every single one of you has: dinner.

Today:

You know the 5 o'clock feeling. Everybody's hungry, nobody defrosted anything, and you're one bad moment away from a third pizza night this week.

Here's the fix, and it's a local one.

The #1 Meat Man is a Tampa family that ran a USDA processing facility for four generations. Sixty-plus years in the business. Now they skip the middleman and bring it straight to your door.

The Premium Family Meat Box, one flat price:

That's over 31 pounds for $220. About $7 a pound for restaurant-quality meat, portioned and freezer-ready. Free delivery across Tampa and Hillsborough, Monday through Friday.

And the part that makes it easy: no payment up front. You reserve a box, Shawn emails you back to set a delivery time and sort out payment, and it shows up at your door. That's it.

Twenty days from the first bell, this is thirty-one pounds of "dinner's already handled" sitting in your freezer. Weeknights just got a lot quieter.

Slots are limited each week.

➡️ Reserve your box here

Locals doing business with locals.

If you've been taking the long way around for the last two and a half months, you can stop.

McMullen Road reopened last week to traffic in both directions between Boyette Road and McMullen Loop. The pipeline crews got the pipe in, the wet ground finally cooperated, and the road is yours again.

Small print: there's a little section of work left that they'll come back for later, and they say they'll warn you first. For now, drive it like you used to.

One down. About forty to go.

Pipeline updates

If you're anywhere near Bloomingdale and South Kings, read this so it doesn't catch you at 10 p.m.

Tonight through Wednesday, South Kings is closed overnight, 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., from north of Buckhorn Creek Road to Ronele Drive. Use Ronele and John Moore as your detour. Dali Drive is also closed at South Kings those nights, so Dali residents go out through Bloomingdale Avenue.

Thursday and Friday nights, the closure shifts to South Kings between Bloomingdale Avenue and Princeton Street. Detour is Providence Road and John Moore.

Then, starting Friday morning at 6 a.m., a new daytime pattern kicks in. Northbound South Kings shifts to the west side of the road from Buckhorn Creek to Ronele, lanes reduced both directions, for the next three to four weeks. Slow down through there. The cones move around.

They beat Toronto 7-1 last night and they're sitting 56-42, one game up on the Yankees. First place, out of the break, exactly where they were when the All-Star break started.

Here's the stretch that matters. They're in Toronto through Thursday, then they come home to the Trop Friday for a weekend series against Cleveland. First pitch Friday is 7:10.

One game up in July is not a lead. It's a dare. Twelve weeks to go.

School starts Monday, August 10.

Twenty days. Three weekends. However many more times you can say yes to the pool before the alarm clock comes back into your life.

If your family runs on the Boyette corridor, here's your reminder that the construction is not going anywhere before school starts. Tampa Bay Water says the open-trench work runs until roughly February 2027. So whatever your morning route is going to be, figure it out now, in July, when you can be five minutes late without it mattering.

Practice the drive. Once. You'll thank yourself on August 10.

And if you've got a kid who needs something to do with these last 20 days:

Action Karate at River Hills Plaza is running their back-to-school offer: two weeks plus a uniform for $29. Normally $109. No contracts, ages 3 and up, and Mr. Paul and his crew have a wall full of five-star families to back it up. It burns off the summer energy and teaches them to sit still and look someone in the eye, which, twenty days from the first bell, is not nothing.

Ask for Paul. actionkarate.net/locations/river-hills-plaza

The rain, the growth, the humidity. Every house in Florida has a July to-do list. Here are four neighbors who handle the parts you'd rather not.

Roof Rejuvenate SH. Your roof is either handling the daily downpour or quietly losing. If it qualifies, their treatment can add 5 to 15 years of life to it. Up to three treatments, five-year warranty on each. Very different number than the full-replacement quote in your inbox. Ask for Jeff. 813-652-2777 | roofrejuvenatesh.com

Tampa Bay Pro Services. Landscape design and maintenance, so your yard stops looking like it's plotting against you. Gregory Dunn runs it. Give him a call: 813-770-8721.

Ivy Plumbing. For the kind of thing you cannot fix with a YouTube video and a wrench. Faith Ivy's team handles it. ivyplumbingservices.com

Integrity Seawalls. If you're on the water, your seawall, dock, or boat lift is either solid or a future emergency. Henry and his crew build and repair all of it, and every review says the same word: fair. 813-535-1634 | integrityseawalls.com

Twenty days from the first bell, and not every family in this community has the backpack situation handled. Some are counting on this weekend.

Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tampa Bay Mission of Hope and Holy Innocents Episcopal Church are throwing a free back-to-school celebration in Brandon. Hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, ice cream, popcorn, and donuts. Free clothing and free shoes for kids who need them.

It's at Tampa Bay Mission of Hope, 110 S. Parsons Ave.

And if your family doesn't need it, this is where you come in. They're collecting school supplies at the same address. Drop off a box of pencils, a stack of notebooks, a couple of backpacks. Easiest good deed you'll do all month.

813-716-3996 | tbmissionofhope.org

Three more neighbors worth knowing, for the people holding the whole household together.

Maid Pure Cleaning. You are not going to deep-clean the house twenty days before school starts. Let Dionne's team do it and get your Saturday back. maidpurecleaningservices.com

VHIN Cares. If you're raising kids while helping a parent figure out what's next, the senior-living conversation is a hard one. VHIN Cares helps families walk through assisted living options without the pressure. Justin and his team. 813-678-2363 | vhincares.com

K&D Law. Immigration is personal, complicated, and not something you want to get wrong. Attorney Kou Jacobo answers his own phone and has zero billboards, which tells you where his time actually goes. kanddlaw.com

TONIGHT (Tuesday)

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Twenty days out, and the question we hear most this time of year is some version of which side of the street am I on.

It matters more than people think. Boundaries in this county move home values by six figures, and the lines are never quite where you'd guess. One ZIP in Riverview can feed four different high schools depending on which road you live on.

Danielle raised four boys through these schools. She'll verify the zone on any address before you write an offer, and she'll tell you the truth about the school even when the truth isn't the answer you were hoping for.

teamplumstead.com | 719-237-2398

Forward this to the neighbor who's still driving around the McMullen detour that ended last week.

Get five friends to subscribe and we'll promote your business for free.

Reply and tell me: what's the one back-to-school thing you are absolutely dreading? Best answers get read out Friday. First name, no last name, I'm not going to embarrass your kid.

See you Friday.

-John

The East of Tampa Guy

P.S. My wife and I used to own an ice cream shop in Michigan. While the Army had us stationed in New York…My favorite ice cream flavor - Rum Raisin!