6 days to first bell, and Ronele Drive closes that same morning

Good morning, East of Tampa family.

School starts Monday, August 10. That is six days from now.

The same morning, at 7 a.m., Ronele Drive closes at S. Kings Avenue for pipeline work. First bus routes of the year, first car-rider lines of the year, and a full closure on a Brandon collector road. Details below so you can leave early instead of finding out at the intersection.

Everything else in this issue is built around the same idea. This is the last full week before the house gets quiet at 8 a.m.

Roof Rejuvenate SH | The roof does not have to be a $20,000 problem yet.

Jeff runs a veteran-owned outfit out of Lithia that does one thing. They spray a bio-based treatment over every square foot of an asphalt shingle roof, and it soaks in. The shingles get their flexibility back, the granules lock down again, and the roof is waterproof again inside 72 hours. It is not a coating and it is not paint. Most houses are done in under two hours.

The reason anybody in Florida cares is the arithmetic. A replacement runs $15,000 to $30,000 around here. Their own published number for a rejuvenation is 15 to 20% of what a replacement costs. The formula is 96% bio-based, USDA certified, and the treatment carries a 5-year warranty that transfers if you sell the house. If the shingles fail on flexibility inside those five years, they come back and re-treat for free.

They cap themselves at 15 to 20 roofs a month across the whole service area, which is the part most contractors would never admit to in an ad. It also means August fills up.

The inspection is free. It is a 21-point walk, about 30 minutes, and they value it at $350. You keep the photo report either way, whether you hire them or not. Given that your roof is about to take five straight days of 60 to 80% storm chances, that report is worth having on your phone regardless.

Book your free inspection | (813) 652-2777

Locals doing business with locals.

Six days, and five of them have afternoon storms in them.

⛈️ Tuesday: 88, 70%. Rain likely before 2 p.m. and again after. Today is an indoor day, plan accordingly.

☀️ Wednesday: 90, 30%. The only dry-ish day on the board. If you have outdoor errands, this is the one.

🌦️ Thursday: 91, 70%. Mostly sunny until about 2 p.m., then it turns. Morning is yours.

⛈️ Friday: 91, 80%. Wettest day of the week. Isolated storms from 11 a.m., steadier after 2 p.m. Anything outdoors Friday needs a backup plan.

🌦️ Saturday: 91, 70%. Same shape as Thursday. Get the yard done before lunch.

⛈️ Sunday: 92, 60%. Hottest day of the six.

🥵 Heat index hits 97 today and 98 Wednesday in Brandon. Across the wider Tampa Bay area the feels-like runs 100 to 107 this week. Water bottles in the car, all six days.

(Source: National Weather Service Tampa Bay)

Sangria Night at Keel Farms runs Friday, 5 to 10 p.m., and it is free to walk in. Latin music, dancing, and sangria flights in classic, white, raspberry, blueberry and strawberry. First Friday of every month, at 5202 Thonotosassa Rd. in Plant City. No tickets and no reservations, seating is first come, parking is free. Bring a chair if you want a guaranteed seat.

Comedy Night at the Firehouse brings Chris Gorges and Bull Ohse to Ruskin on Friday, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for members and $30 for everyone else, advance purchase only, and seating is limited. Firehouse Cultural Center, 101 First Ave. NE, Ruskin. Call (813) 645-7651 to check on seats before you drive out.

Kid Royal Band plays the same room Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Chris "Kid" Royal is a St. Petersburg blues guitarist with a 30 year career and a Montreal Jazz Festival credit. $23 members, $30 non-members. Two nights at the Firehouse in one weekend is the best programming stretch SouthShore gets all month.

School of Rock Valrico cuts the ribbon Thursday, 1 to 3 p.m., at 3244 Lithia Pinecrest Rd., Suite 104. Free and open. If you have a kid who has been asking for guitar lessons since March, this is the week to walk in and ask about the fall schedule before it fills.

Trivia at Beef ’O’ Brady’s Riverview is tonight at 7 p.m., free to play, 9622 U.S. 301. It runs every Tuesday. It is also 70% rain today, so an indoor plan that costs nothing is not the worst idea on this list.

Bowlapalooza at Brandon Crossroads Bowl is $6.99 a person for unlimited bowling, weekdays 3 to 5 p.m., shoes included. Starting Monday that window is exactly the gap between the last bell and dinner. 609 Crater Ln., 40 lanes, (813) 621-2363. Worth filing away now.

Midday Power Hour is Wednesday, 11 a.m. to noon, at Beef O’Brady’s on E. Bloomingdale Ave. in Brandon. Valrico FishHawk Chamber runs it with SCORE Tampa. Free for members, visitors welcome, doors at 10.

Football: nobody has played a down yet. The Kickoff Classic is Friday, August 14. Bloomingdale at Durant, 7 p.m. and Spoto at Riverview, 7:30 are the two local openers worth the drive. Armwood opens at Edgewater the same night, ranked No. 7 in Florida in the On3 preseason top 25, the only Hillsborough school on the list. Week 1 is Friday, August 21.

Got scores, photos, or a kid who writes? Reply to this email. Student journalists and coaches especially.

Ronele Drive closes at S. Kings Avenue on Monday, August 10, at 7 a.m. That is the first morning of the school year. The closure is for open-cut work on the South Hillsborough Pipeline and it is expected to last about a week. The official detour is John Moore Road.

At the same time, the east side of S. Kings Ave. from just north of Dali Drive up to Ronele is down to one lane each direction. So the detour road and the through road are both compromised on the exact morning bus routes restart. If you drive that pocket of Brandon, leave ten minutes early Monday and expect it to be worse than ten minutes. Project hotline is 813-485-6480.

Two more for the radar. Crews are clearing the west side of Boyette Road daily, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., through the end of August. And Victoria Street is closed to through traffic between Meade Street and N. Kings Avenue for several months. McMullen Road between Boyette and McMullen Loop has reopened both directions, so you get one back.

Circles Waterfront Restaurant & Bar, Apollo Beach, out at Lands End Marina on Apollo Beach Blvd.

Executive chef Chris Bodensky runs the kitchen. Order the twin filets with jumbo lump crab, or the spicy New Orleans BBQ shrimp if you want the thing people actually talk about afterward. They also just opened an outdoor tiki bar called The Hammer, which is new enough that most people you know have not been yet.

Why tonight: this is the last week you can put the kids in the car at 6 p.m. on a school night and not care what time you get home. Sit outside, watch the water, get back late. Sunday through Thursday they close at 9, Friday and Saturday at 10.

1212 Apollo Beach Blvd., Apollo Beach | (813) 641-3275

The leggings ban goes to a vote today. The Hillsborough County School Board adopted language on July 20 barring leggings and spandex unless covered to mid-thigh. Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 parents signed a petition against it. The board agreed on July 28 to revisit it and votes to strike the language at today’s 4 p.m. meeting at 901 E. Kennedy Blvd. Board member Jessica Vaughn said the rule "tends to be discriminatory towards women." If you were planning a shopping trip this week, wait until tonight.

Every student eats free at more than 250 county schools this year. Hillsborough is running the federal Community Eligibility Provision again for 2026-27, which means breakfast and lunch at no cost at participating schools regardless of household income. Bloomingdale High and Brandon High are both on the list. No application to fill out. Student Nutrition Services is at 813-840-7092 if your school is not on it.

The tax-free holiday runs through August 20. Florida’s back to school sales tax holiday started July 20 and has more than two weeks left. Clothes, shoes and backpacks $100 or less per item. School supplies $50 or less. Learning aids $30 or less. Personal computers and accessories $1,500 or less. Full rules and exclusions are in the state’s TIP notice. Watches, jewelry and anything bought inside a theme park are out.

Back to school forms are open on the Focus portal. Every required form for the new year can be done online before Monday. Fifteen minutes now beats a paper packet in a car line.

The Back-2-School Health Clinic is full. Every 2026 immunization appointment is booked. If your kid still needs shots before Monday, go to Tampa Family Health Centers or DOH-Hillsborough instead. Details here, or call 813-276-5671. Do not wait until Friday.

38 affordable homes broke ground in Wimauma. Florida Home Partnership started work July 16 at Vel Street and 12th Street on Magnolia Garden Square, two-bedroom villas and three-bedroom townhomes for households at 80% of area median income or below. Five units are set aside below 50%. The county put in $1 million in HOME funds. Buyers put in 600 hours of sweat equity building their own neighborhood.

Chill Cawfee and Quig’s Kava Lounge moved to FishHawk. They left Valrico for 16741 FishHawk Blvd. in Lithia, per the Osprey Observer’s August business column. Same column notes Karma Yoga and Fitness opened a second location at 13224 Boyette Rd. in Riverview.

Rotary Club of Brandon handed out $25,000 in scholarships. Announced July 31. That is local money going to local kids, funded by people who show up to a lunch meeting every week.

Early voting is open now through August 16. Twenty-seven sites countywide, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. School Board seats are on this ballot, which is worth remembering given the last two weeks.

Lennard won a state championship. The Longhorns took the school’s first ever state title in flag football back in June. Worth saying again now that fall sports are starting.

The businesses that keep this free.

Brandon Crossroads Bowl has been at 609 Crater Ln. since 1990, 40 lanes across 40,000 square feet with an arcade, billiards and a pub. Fall leagues start the week of August 31 and the organizational meetings are already on the calendar, so if you have been meaning to get on a team, now is when you call. Kids Bowl Free runs two games a day for ages 2 to 16 through October. (813) 621-2363

Action Karate in Valrico is 5.0 across 55 Google reviews, run by Paul Kuzemka and Gina at 4365 Lynx Paw Trail. Their intro is three classes plus a free uniform for $49, and there is a money-back guarantee behind it. Fall schedules fill in August. (813) 535-4191

Maid Pure Cleaning is run by Dionne Cona, a former teacher and mother of four who spent 20 years hiring cleaners and getting inconsistent results before starting her own. 250+ local customers, bonded and insured, and if you are not happy you call within 24 hours and they come back. She also partners with Cleaning for a Reason. (813) 670-2004

Stoner’s Pizza Joint on Lithia Pinecrest in Bloomingdale runs Pick 2 for $6.99 each. Allison Hardy runs the shop. Pizza, wings, calzones, and a phone number worth saving before the first week of homework nights. (813) 436-0016

The #1 Meat Man is Shawn’s meat box: 31 pounds for $220, delivered local. Freezer full before the school-night dinner scramble starts Monday is a real strategy, not a luxury.

Glaros Law has a Brandon office at 350 E Robertson St. Steven Glaros has practiced in Florida since 2005, Bar number 16027, and he is board certified by the Florida Supreme Court in family law as well as a certified family mediator. The firm also handles personal injury and estate planning, and personal injury consultations are free. (813) 854-1234

K&D Law is Kou Jacobo’s Riverview general practice, immigration and asylum included. Florida licensed since 2019 and in good standing. (786) 496-2918

Artisans Bonsai is Joseph Cain’s nursery at 9355 E Fowler Ave. in Thonotosassa, and it is a real walk-in shop, not a website. Cain is a retired firefighter who started bonsai in 1985 and still trains twice a year with American bonsai master Bjorn Bjorholm. 4.8 stars across 127 reviews. Their bonsai school meets the third Saturday of every month. Open Monday through Saturday 9 to 4, Sunday noon to 3. (813) 502-5940

Hitched by Hendrix is Sharon Hendrix, a mobile wedding officiant and an Army veteran who writes ceremonies around the couple rather than reading a script at them. Altar, mountaintop or backyard, she travels to it. By appointment. (813) 384-7549

Team Plumstead is John and Danielle at Red Sash Realty, Florida licenses SL3649778 and SL3655402. August is when summer listings that did not move get repriced, which makes this a useful week to find out what your house is actually worth. (813) 495-2136

Journeys by Jess | Jessica Kinkead, travel planning. Cruises, all-inclusives, Disney and group travel. Florida Seller of Travel ST15578.

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Know somebody starting a new school year Monday? Forward this to them before they hit S. Kings Avenue at 7 a.m.

John

The East of Tampa Guy

Six days until the alarm goes off at 6:15 again.

Five of those six days carry a 60% or better chance of afternoon rain. So the last week of summer is mostly going to be spent inside, watching it come down, waiting for school to start.

Florida in August. Nobody has ever missed it.

See you Friday.