Things that make you go hmmmm...

When Allison and I first moved to FL, there were a few things we saw, that we found a little unusual. Baby C will be born and raised in FL, so these things will seem perfectly normal to him. Below is a list of some of those things.

1) A man selling shrimp on the side of the road. I don't know why, but I just don't think it's the best shrimp around. They have big coolers, and I'm sure it's fine, but I still feel very uneasy about the whole thing and would never buy shrimp from the side of the road. Or from a gas station. (Kirkman Rd, MetroWest) One cool thing about the Shrimp man is his 'Shrimp on a stick.' He doesn't have it all the time, but every so often, he'll stand on the side of the road, with 4 or 5 shrimp on a stick. Gotta show off the goods. ****UPDATE**** Since I started writing this post, there has been a shrimp guy update. He is now accepting Visa/Mastercard!

2) Door to door meat sales. They must do business somewhere, but I am not buying my steaks or chicken off the back of some guy's truck. Ice cream, sure. Meat, sorry Charlie. Before one of the storms last fall, one meat salesman gave us a hard time. "I'm selling this meat at half price, why wouldn't you want to buy it?" he said. "dude, get outta my face"

3) Door to door palm tree sales. Dude, thanks, but no thanks. I'll take the 5 minute drive to Lowes or Home Depot. I'm not buying a palm tree out of your truck. Again, come back with some ice cream or Italian ices and we'll talk.

4) Guys and dogs riding in the back of pickup-trucks. I've seen it in movies and it's always fine for them, but this just seems like a very bad idea. I'm surprised I don't see more dogs jumping out of the truck bed or guys going flying when the brakes are hit. FL just passed a seat belt law. So you can't be in the front seat without a seat belt, but you can ride in the bed with no harness? Doesn't seem right.

5) The Appliance direct guy & girl. These guys are AWESOME. No, awesome does not cover it, they are Wakkie-NU-NU! They make the most ridiculous commercials and Appliance Direct Lady wears this horrible green and yellow outfit. I guess the commercials work though. You will be hard pressed to find anybody in Central Florida that doesn't know who they are.



6) To-go cups. The first time Allison and I went to lunch in FL, we went to NYPD Pizza in MetroWest. We paid the check and they asked us if we wanted a 'to-go cup." I said "what's a to-go cup?"The waitress said, you can take your drink to go. I said "how much is it?" At this point she was looking at me like I was crazy. She said "um, it's free" I said "Yeah we want to-go cups!!" I told Allison to hurry and get in the car before they charge us for the drinks. I thought we pulled off a fast one. Then the same thing happend a few days later at another restaraunt. I was very confused until someone explained the whole to-go cup to me. I still don't get it, but I'll take free anyday.

I'm sure there is more crazy FL things that I just cant think of right now, I'll be sure to update this list as they come to mind.