0% rain for three days and the corn maze opens Saturday

Good morning, East of Tampa family.

Zero percent rain Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not "isolated storms," not "a chance late." Zero, three days running, with highs at 87 and Saturday night falling to 64. The last weekend that looked like this was in the spring.

So it is the weekend to do the outside thing you have been putting off. The corn maze in Plant City opens Saturday for the season, eleven of our twelve teams kick off tonight, and for once nobody has to check the radar first.

Prestige Pressure Washing & Detail is the kind of business that sounds the same as every other one in its category, right up until you look at the before picture.

Ben and Carrie Smith run it themselves, out of Brandon. Veteran-owned, husband and wife, fully licensed and insured. House washing and roof soft washing, concrete and driveway cleaning, and exterior detailing, across Brandon and the rest of Tampa Bay. They are Brandon Riverview Chamber members, same as a lot of you.

Photo: Prestige Pressure Washing & Detail

Here is the proof point. They hold a 5.0 on Google. Not a 4.7 that got rounded up in an ad. A 5.0.

Photo: Prestige Pressure Washing & Detail

And here is why this weekend in particular. Soft washing wants dry time, and we have not had a dry stretch in months. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are all sitting at 0% rain with a north breeze behind them. A house or a driveway done this weekend gets three full days to dry instead of getting rained on Sunday afternoon. That combination does not come around often here.

They also publish 20% off for veterans and 15% off for seniors, right on the site.

Call 813-438-6315, or book a free quote at prestigel.com.

Three days, no radar. Here is the whole weekend.

☀️ Friday: 87 and mostly sunny, 0% rain. North-northeast breeze around 10. At the 7:30 kickoff it is clear and about 77, falling through the game.

☀️ Saturday: 87 and sunny, 0%. Light north wind. Overnight down to 64, the coolest night since spring.

🌤️ Sunday: 87 and mostly sunny, 0%. Wind goes light and variable.

The only weather worth planning around is the sun itself. Hats on the kids, and the shade at a 10 a.m. soccer game is going to be worth getting to early.

The Fox Squirrel Corn Maze opens for the season Saturday. 6151 Varn Rd, Plant City. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. $15 including tax, and three and under get in free. This is opening weekend, and it runs Saturdays and Sundays through Oct 25.

Photo: Fox Squirrel Corn Maze

Photo: Fox Squirrel Corn Maze

Kerby’s Nursery holds its Fall Kickoff Saturday. 2311 S Parsons Ave, Seffner, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free admission and free parking. The pumpkin patch opens, there is a scarecrow scavenger hunt and a hay maze, and a mobile coffee bar. Just over the Brandon line, and the craft workshop is ticketed separately if you want it.

Beachy Clay at the Firehouse, Saturday morning. Firehouse Cultural Center, Studio 102, 101 1st Ave NE, Ruskin, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. $40 for members and $45 for everyone else, all supplies included. Registration required, so do it before you drive down.

The Makerspace is open for drop-in Saturday. Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd, 10 a.m. to noon. Free, adults, registration required. If you have been curious what is actually in there, this is the low-commitment way to find out.

Family story time in Valrico, twice Saturday morning. Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, 1906 Bloomingdale Ave. Sessions at 10:15 and 11 a.m., free, no registration, preschool age.

Hispanic Heritage Month craft hour, this afternoon. Bruton Memorial Library, 302 W McLendon St, Plant City, 3 to 4 p.m. Free, ages 6 and up, no registration. An easy after-school stop if you are already in town.

Free tech help in Ruskin this morning. Ruskin Branch Library, half-hour one-on-one sessions at 10:30 and 11 a.m., free, registration required. Phone, tablet, laptop, whatever is not doing the thing it used to do.

And one to buy for now: the Village Players open The Addams Family on Oct 2 at the James McCabe Theater, 506 N 5th St in Valrico. Evenings at 8 on Oct 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 and 17, Sunday matinees at 3. $23, or $20 for seniors, students and military.

Week 6. Eleven of our twelve play tonight, all at 7:30 except Brandon. Newsome is on a bye.

Last Friday’s finals.

Bloomingdale 49, Brandon 14. Armwood 43, Sumner 6. Lennard 35, East Bay 0. Newsome 34, Jefferson 33. Riverview 43, Morgan 7. Plant City 19, Wiregrass Ranch 0. Steinbrenner 26, Spoto 12. Blake 50, Strawberry Crest 40. Plant 13, Durant 7.

Tonight, 7:30 unless noted.

Riverview at Durant

Lennard at Plant City

Bloomingdale at Tampa Bay Tech

Freedom at East Bay

Armwood at Plant

Manatee at Sumner

Spoto at Leto

Steinbrenner at Strawberry Crest

Brandon at Lake Wales, 7:00

Two of those are ours against ours. Riverview at Durant, and Lennard at Plant City. Four teams are sitting at 4-1: Bloomingdale, Newsome, Armwood and Lennard. Nobody out here is unbeaten anymore.

Lennard at Plant City is the one to watch. Lennard is 4-1 and just shut out East Bay 35-0, and the only team that has beaten them all year is Armwood, back in Week 1. Plant City is 2-2, but they have won two of their last three and they shut out Wiregrass Ranch 19-0 last Friday. One team that just pitched a shutout hosting another team that just pitched a shutout is a good way to spend a Friday.

Riverview at Durant is the other one. Riverview started 0-2 and has now won two in a row, the last one 43-7. Durant is 2-2 and coming off a 13-7 loss to Plant, which is the kind of tight loss that either sharpens a team or flattens it. We will know which by about eight o’clock.

The north sidewalk on FishHawk Boulevard is still closed, between FishHawk Ridge Drive and the FishHawk Sports Complex. It has been since Sep 14 and it is still down.

Use the south sidewalk, and cross at FishHawk Ridge Drive or FishHawk Crossing Boulevard. Normally this is a small thing. On a weekend forecast at 0% rain and 87 degrees, that stretch is going to be full of people walking to the complex, and half of them will not know.

Three dry nights in a row and a 64-degree Saturday. If you were ever going to sit outside and eat, it is this weekend. Three picks.

Latitudes Apollo, 131 Harbor Village Lane, Apollo Beach. The 10 oz ribeye is $25.90 and the chicken marsala tortellini is $18.99. The kitchen and the bar both run to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday, which is the part that makes it a date instead of a dinner. Nobody is stacking chairs around you at 9.

Old Castle, 3830 Sun City Center Blvd in Ruskin. German, in what they call an old-world indoor beer garden. There is a Royal Feast for Two at $52, the schnitzel cordon bleu is $21 and the sauerbraten is $22. An accordion player works Saturday nights. They close at 9, so this one is an early date, not a late one.

Tiki Docks River Bar & Grill, 10704 Palmetto St, Riverview. Right on the Alafia, with outdoor seating and boat slips, which is the entire reason it is on this list in a week with no rain in it. Bourbon glazed salmon $24.50, the warm New England lobster roll $33.99. Open to midnight Friday and Saturday. Sunset is 7:14, so aim for 6:30.

Photo: Tiki Docks River Bar & Grill

The county brought in helicopters from Manatee and Pasco to fight dengue, and Riverview, Bloomingdale and FishHawk are named among the spray areas. It is the first time Hillsborough has gone into a regional mosquito control partnership like this, which tells you how seriously they are taking it. Standing water in the yard is the part that is actually yours to fix.

The school district is taking the half-penny sales tax on the road, and it has not booked one meeting out here. Newsome hosted one Monday night. The two in-person town halls left are Gaither on Sep 29 and Hillsborough High on Oct 1, both a long way across the county. There is a virtual one on Oct 14, which for most of us is the only one that is realistically attendable. The vote is in November.

There is a new inclusive playground at Edward Medard Park in Plant City, 6140 Turkey Creek Rd. County built, designed to be accessible, and open now.

The Greater SouthShore Chamber cut the rope on its new Ruskin headquarters at 226 W College Ave.

County crews ran a prescribed burn at Balm Scrub Preserve in Wimauma, at 15299 McGrady Rd. One day, no trail closures. It is routine land management, but it is the sort of thing that looks alarming from the road when nobody tells you it is coming.

Council Growers is starting a farmers market in Ruskin on Oct 10. 3226 24th St SE, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Produce, eggs, seafood, baked goods and honey. Worth putting on the calendar now.

These are the businesses that keep this free.

The #1 Meat Guy delivers premium cuts straight to the house, and Shawn McCranie has built the whole thing on people who got tired of guessing at a grocery store case. Fill out the order form to get in touch and get a box on the schedule.

Madison Patron with Foundation Realty Group works this side of the county and answers her own phone, which is rarer than it should be. 813-955-9092.

Fix It Today Plumbing gives you the full quote before anyone touches a wrench, and charges no overtime rate for a night or a Sunday. Emergency work, drain cleaning, water heaters, leak detection, repiping. (813) 743-7793.

Brandon Crossroads Bowl at 609 Crater Ln has been the rainy-day answer in Brandon for decades, (813) 621-2363, and The Alley at SouthShore at 10221 Big Bend Rd is the South County one, with the arcade and the sports bar attached.

Tabatha Pugh and The Local Team at Keller Williams Smart are nine years into working Plant City, which means she has already sold a house on your street. 813-476-8457.

Environmental Protective Solutions handles mold and restoration out of 2708 Broadway Center Blvd in Brandon. The call you hope you never make, and the one you want answered fast. (813) 438-5937.

Stoner’s Pizza Joint on Bloomingdale is the Friday night order when nobody wants to cook, which this week is most of us. (813) 436-0016.

MVP Orthodontics and Dr. Patel are on US 301 in Riverview, and they see half the kids on the teams we cover every Friday.

Team Plumstead at Red Sash Realty is us. If you want to know what your house is actually worth this fall, not what a website guesses, 813-495-2136.

Got a score, a photo, a new business, a road that just got torn up, or a kid who did something worth telling 5,000 people about? Send it. This newsletter runs on what you send in, and the best items every week come from readers, not from us driving around.

Just reply to this email. It comes straight to me.

-John - the East of Tampa Guy

87 and zero percent rain for three days. Go outside. The yard work will still be there Monday, and so will I.

GO ARMY BEAT nAVY