I was on my way home from my companies Lake Mary, FL office and sat at a stand still on I-4 for about 45 minutes. Come to find out the wreck had completely closed off the eastbound lanes. Here is the story that I found. It was crazy, the “tractor-trailor” as they called it, was completely totaled. I guess wrecks like this in Florida are common? Crazyness.

Quoted from Wesh

“A fatal crash on Interstate 4 near the Longwood rest area has closed the eastbound side of the highway on Tuesday night.

Officials said the crash involves a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck. The pickup truck rolled over.

One person is dead and there are multiple patients with minor injuries, officials said.

The Florida Highway Patrol cannot reopen the roadway until it is sanded down due to a fuel spill.”

Almost 33,000 acres of the Everglades National Park were burning Sunday, fire officials said, the latest in a series of wildfires that have scorched parts of Florida in May.

The smoke cast a haze over parts of South Florida, including Miami, prompting a dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service.

The fire, which threatened private property as well as an endangered bird, started Friday, the Southern Area InterAgency Management Blue Team said.

By Sunday morning it was 20 percent contained, and fire crews were working to restrict it to the park while protecting the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, a federally protected species whose only habitat is in the Everglades.

Windy conditions Sunday morning pushed the fire into the corner of the park closest to Miami, fire officials said.

About 200 personnel battled the blaze in southern Florida Saturday night, but more crews were expected to join them Sunday.

It is the latest wildfire to scorch Florida. More than 12,000 acres burned in the “Brevard Complex” fire near Palm Bay, on Florida’s Atlantic Coast just south of Daytona Beach. That series of fires is about 75 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained on Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center said Sunday.

Last week, Florida authorities charged a suspect, Brian Crowder, with arson in connection with some of the fires in Palm Bay.

The Brevard County fires have destroyed about 22 homes and structures, and damaged another 160 homes. Damage totals more than $9 million, officials said.

A 19,000-acre fire near Clewiston, Florida, on the south end of Lake Okeechobee, is about 50 percent contained, the fire center said Sunday.

And a 1,300-acre fire north of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle was 80 percent contained by Sunday, it said.

Last week, U.S. Navy officials said a Navy jet sparked a 257-acre forest fire in the Ocala National Forest in the north-central part of the state. The jet had missed a target on a practice bombing run, the officials said.

As you can tell gas prices have sky rocketed lately (what else is new?). I think whoever is causing this just wants a new car or what not. I don’t think they actually HAVE to change the prices, they just want to do it to get more money in there pocket. I guess people don’t realize that Bush just needs a little extra cash in his pocket before he gets out of office. Below is a list of the lowest seen gas prices in Southwest Florida, in the past 2 days. Good luck finding these prices around still.

Lowest Gas Prices in Southwest Florida

Price Station Address City Time
3.54 7-Eleven
2520 Northbrooke Dr & Northbrooke Plaza Dr
Naples
Apr 27,2:58 PM 2520 Northbrooke Dr & Northbrooke Plaza Dr Naples Apr 27, 2:58 PM
3.55 Sam’s Club
5170 Cleveland Ave & Clayton Ct
Fort Myers
Apr 27,9:12 PM 5170 Cleveland Ave & Clayton Ct Fort Myers Apr 27, 9:12 PM
3.55 7-Eleven
palm beach blvd
Fort Myers
Apr 27,2:38 PM palm beach blvd Fort Myers Apr 27, 2:38 PM
3.57 BJ’s
1929 NE Pine Island Rd near Pondella Rd
Cape Coral
Apr 27,8:30 PM 1929 NE Pine Island Rd near Pondella Rd Cape Coral Apr 27, 8:30 PM
3.58 Albertsons
1735 NE Pine Island Rd & Pondella Rd
Cape Coral
Apr 27,8:30 PM 1735 NE Pine Island Rd & Pondella Rd Cape Coral Apr 27, 8:30 PM
3.58 Murphy USA
1617 Del Prado Blvd South & SE E17th st
Cape Coral
Apr 27,10:00 AM 1617 Del Prado Blvd South & SE E17th st Cape Coral Apr 27, 10:00 AM
3.59 7-Eleven
10795 Tamiami Trl N & 108th Ave N
Naples
Apr 28,10:18 AM 10795 Tamiami Trl N & 108th Ave N Naples Apr 28, 10:18 AM
3.59 Hess
2100 Goodlette Frank Rd N & Golden Gate Pkwy
Naples
Apr 27,7:14 PM 2100 Goodlette Frank Rd N & Golden Gate Pkwy Naples Apr 27, 7:14 PM
3.59 Shell
8101 sorrento Ln
Naples
Apr 27,7:14 PM 8101 sorrento Ln Naples Apr 27, 7:14 PM
3.59 Hess
1006 Del Prado Blvd S & SE 10th St
Cape Coral
Apr 27,10:00 AM 1006 Del Prado Blvd S & SE 10th St Cape Coral Apr 27, 10:00 AM

Quote from Herald Tribune:

“Gas prices in Southwest Florida pushed to another record high during the weekend, ringing in at $3.656 on Monday as oil made another record move.

Prices in the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice market were about 23 percent higher than this time last year.

Premium gas in the local market was selling for $4.034 while diesel was $4.222, slightly down from a record set on Sunday.

Oil prices hit an all-time high near $120 a barrel Monday after a weekend refinery strike closed a pipeline system that delivers a third of Britain’s North Sea oil to refineries in the U.K.

The shutdown comes amid supply outages in Nigeria that have helped to support oil against a strengthening dollar.

“We’ve got a confluence of a number of events that have really disrupted crude oil supply,” said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. “That’s what’s driving oil to a new record even though the U.S. dollar actually strengthened a bit.”

Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose to a record $119.93 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract eased back to $119.04 a barrel by afternoon in Europe, up 52 cents from Friday’s close of $118.52.”

Why on earth do they do this? They have no names, no details. so do they do this to make people wonder if it is someone they know? Now scared that someone they know could be in the accident? I do hope the women involved in the accident are okay. I really do. I can’t help but think about the spoofs they do on saturday night live when the news anchor comes on and says “is your child in danger of eating this deadly food? more details after the commercial… and they continue to do this through the whole show with more and more sensational stories. It isn’t funny by any means- but it is what the news appears to do. They never give all the details just keep you hanging on the edge.

Quote from Herald Tribune

Two women were injured when the car they were in struck a tree on U.S. 41 near Bayfront Park at 6 p.m. today.

Sarasota Police officers who responded to the crash offered few details. 

At least two people were in the white convertible car that hit a tree. One woman was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. Another woman was trapped in the car and had to be removed by emergency crews. 

She was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.

Crazy day! So I get to work after what happend this morning. And I look out of the window and see police cars and ambulances every where. Then not about 10 minutes later 2 helicopters go over and start life lining people from I-75 South Bound. Come to find out there was a fatal car accident at exit 208. Could this day get any crazier?!

Quote from Herald Tribune

“The Florida Highway Patrol is reporting a fatal vehicle crash with other injuries that is blocking the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 near mile marker 208, just north of Bee Ridge Road.

The northbound lanes are open.

Officials say the crash included an overturned car and was reported at 3:10 p.m. It involved one fatality and other injuries, though the total number is not yet known.

The names of the victims have not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.”

So I wake up to this morning to people talking really loud and police/ambulance sirens sounding like they are roud outside my door. I go to look out my window and behind my condo by the pond is about 15 people (including police officers and ambulance). They were roping off a section of the wooded area behind my condo. Being only a 2 week resident of Lake Village in the Meadows, I was curious as to what was going on. My brother also was awake and decided to go down and ask them what was going on, since just the night before, he was down at the pond fishing.

The police officer stated that they did find the body of a 76 OLD Man half way in the water. I thought this was pretty crazy, and the first thing that came to my mind was if someone had been murdered and would I be a suspect? I guess that’s what happens to your thoughts when you watch to much Forensic Files. LOL. Anyways, come to find out from the story below, they believe the man had died of “natural causes”. I just can’t believe something like this would happen not even 2 weeks of me being in the condo association.

It’s sad to think that someone went for a walk or what not and never returned. He must of had a stroke or a heart attack and fell into the water. My thoughts go out to the family members and friends of Bert Berube. I original thought this was the Condo Association president but I guess not. I do know that the president was in the same area as the guy that passed, but I don’t believe it was him, otherwise I’m sure it would of been all over the news.

Quote from Herald Tribune

“Deputies suspect that a man whose body was found partially submerged in a pond this morning died of natural causes.

Bert Berube, 76, was a resident of one of the condominiums in the Lake Village section of The Meadows.

There is heavy vegetation around the pond behind Berube’s condominium, and a maintenance worker found his body about 8:30 this morning laying on the pond bank. His feet were on shore and the rest of his body was in the pond.

Near his body was a sign that had apparently fallen down.

A sheriff’s spokesman said deputies suspect Berube may have stepped back into the brush to fix the fallen sign, and had some sort of medical emergency. There are no signs of trauma on his body.”

So that concludes my off story today. Hope everyone enjoys reading. Thanks!

I had recently purchased a TomTom ONE GPS Systems for my car. Here is my own opinion/review of this product. First off this system came with a 1GB memory stick for your applications and maps. The TomTom One GPS System was around $349 at Best Buy. I love this device because you can mount it in your vehicle as well as carry it around where ever you go. It usually connects to about 8 out of 12 satellites available. I have had this device for about a year now and it has only got me lost twice, but that might be because I’m always to lazy to update it.

The other day my buddy was in my car, and he had the urge to try to hooked up his Bluetooth cell phone to my TomTom ONE GPS to see if it would give us weather, traffic reports, etc. It indeed gave us weather reports, but we could not get the traffic reports to work. It would come up with a green button in the top right hand corner but never notified us of anything else, so we weren’t sure if it was even working or not.

The TomTom ONE GPS also has a option for “Night Colors”, which is great in my opinion. I mean who wants a bright light glaring in the face from the GPS? Night mode changes all map colors to darker colors so you can still see them at night but they don’t blind you while you are trying to drive. I have noticed that the TomTom ONE GPS, has a option for TomTom Plus Services. I guess you can pay $15.00 a month or so and receive instant map updates as well as POI(Point of Interest) updates from this service. I personally am not in the car enough to pay for it, but some people may desire to have this.

In a nutshell, I think the TomTom ONE GPS Navigation System is well worth the money. I just recently moved to Florida and have no clue where I am going. The TomTom saves me from having to ask people where to go or to get on Google Maps everytime I want to get somewhere.