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See Pam run, just not for office

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Steve Otto

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: May 19, 2009

Turns out Mayor Pam did run. She also jumped, climbed, crawled and fired a few shots.

In fact, she did all of those things so well that when her mayoral career comes to an end there might be a job waiting for her - in law enforcement.

Her mayorness, who already has declared she is not going to run for any state or federal office at least until her term is up, went out to the Tampa police training facility on 34th Street and tried out their physical proficiency course.

I'll be honest. She had mentioned to me the week before that she was headed out there, and I suggested she might want to try it out sometime when nobody was watching.

So I could detect just a hint of "I told you so" so in her voice when she called to tell me she not only had completed the course, she did it in a time of five minutes and 29 seconds, under the 6:09 time required for qualifying.

She also fired off 12 rounds on a pistol although she didn't say whether she hit anything, and I didn't ask. The mayor added that Chief Stephen Hogue whipped through the course in something like 3:45.

See Charlie run

It was too bad last week to hear that along with Mayor Pam, St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker was taking himself out of the next election cycle. With different qualities, each has done what needed to be done for their respective cities. Of course, elections are more than a year away and things have a way of changing,

Meanwhile, I now get a daily e-mail from the Charlie Crist for Senate campaign. They tell me I can get information in English and Spanish and on Facebook and Twitter.

You know, if he had spent that much time trying to be governor, we might not be in the mess we are in right now.

Scratch my back

Summer - I mean the sweltering, muggy hot Florida summer - showed up last week. I took my dog, Tennessee, down to the gas station to put some air in the tires. Even though the air conditioning was off less than five minutes, she was hanging her head out the window staring at me to get back in the car and get the air on.

It is so dangerous this time of year to leave anything in a car with the windows up.

My old friend Pinetop Peterson lost his Labrador, Molly, when a friend who was dog sitting left Molly in the car for only a few minutes and the dog died.

To that end, Pinetop has put together an annual event at Skipper's Smokehouse along with the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. This coming Sunday will be the 13th such concert, complete with drawings and giveaways. Pinetop plays with the Quivering Rhythm Hound band and manages to bring some of the area's top bands to the Skipperdome behind the smokehouse. This year's lineup includes the great Johnny G Lyon band. It starts around 5:30 in the afternoon.

Stress test

A number of you commented on Sunday's "stress test" column, including Betty Erbe of Zephyrhills. She thought I should have included as one of the test questions: "opening your Social Security check expecting a raise and finding out it will stay the same for two years, but your Medicare cost has increased."

Keyword: Ottographs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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