Happy Monday.
The weekend brought some good news on the pandemic front. It now seems likely that we’ll be able to spend Independence Day with friends and family — safely. New coronavirus cases are now at their lowest levels since June 2020. Whether you had a good weekend or a bad one, enjoy a share of the victory — assuming you’ve been vaccinated and done your part.
The Haitian community also has a good reason to celebrate. After many tough weekends in a row, the Joe Biden administration announced it is extending temporary protected status to the 54,000 Haitian immigrants who are living in the country, and potentially thousands more, sparing them from having to head back to their home country amid continuing civil unrest and human rights abuses. “Relieving weekend” may be a more apt description, but it was a good one nonetheless.
Now for something a little less somber: festivals are back!
This weekend saw more than 3,000 Floridians and tourists head to South Beach for the city’s annual Wine & Food Festival, and Tampa Pride 2021 drew a crowd 10 times as large — sure, it wasn’t the 70,000 that turned out in 2019, but it was infinitely more than the canceled 2020 edition. If you were one of the many to make the trip, chances are you had an amazing weekend — and a long-overdue one at that.
However, the mood is a bit iffy in North Florida as the days of dialing seven digits are over. Starting Saturday, those living in the 850 area code had to start dialing all 10 digits to reach anyone. It’s been more than two decades since Northwest Florida split from Jacksonville and was assigned the 850 code, which covers Tallahassee and everything west of it. According to the North American Numbering Plan Administrator — the organization that plans out area codes — 850 will run out of numbers in about six months. But they aren’t waiting for it to be fully exhausted to make the switch. The new area code, by the way, is 448. Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?
Down in Parkland, Marjory Stoneman Douglas landed the Florida state baseball championship. The Eagles defeated Spruce Creek High to win the Class 7A state title. The 2020-21 team went 28-2 on the season to capture the school’s second-ever title. Some of the players on the roster were present during the 2018 shooting at the school — the freshmen that year are seniors today. It doesn’t erase what happened, but at least there will be a happy memory from their high school days to look back on years down the line.
Speaking of baseball titles … actually, let’s not jinx it … the Tampa Bay Rays are on a hot streak. The club beat the Blue Jays 3-1 on Saturday to notch their third nine-game win streak in franchise history. The Rays now sit at 28-19, putting them one game behind the Red Sox for the No. 1 spot in the American League. Across the bay, the Tampa Bay Lightning bounced back from a tough loss Thursday night and managed a dominant win over the Florida Panthers. They’re now just one game away from advancing to the second round of the NHL playoffs. Once again, don’t start the Champa Bay chants yet, but definitely keep your fingers crossed and wear your lucky socks.
Whether you spent the weekend sipping wine in South Florida, jumping up and down in the bleachers in Tampa Bay, or staring at your phone in bewilderment in North Florida, hopefully, you enjoyed this weekend because there may be a cruddy one on the way.
The first tropical storm of the year, Ana, formed about 200 miles off the coast of Bermuda, marking another year where the storms aren’t waiting for the official start of hurricane season on June 1. Luckily, Ana isn’t going to swing through Florida, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says we may make it all the way to “S” names this year. The annual disaster preparedness sales tax holiday starts Friday, which is as good an opportunity as any to build your kit and make your storm plans. Don’t forget.
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