How's your Thursday going? Sorry this is a bit late, I saw something awesome this morning you'll read about later. Instead of the usual settling-in-to-work morning ready, here's your killing-the-minutes-until-lunch rundown of yesterday's news.

Bats! Bats are awesome. They eat bugs. A bunch of 'em also nest under one of the downtown Tampa bridges along the Riverwalk, which I guess freaks out some people who have never been to Austin, so the city is considering building a bat house in nearby Julian Lane Park to draw them away from people who don't want nature intruding on their enjoyment of a rubber duck race or mac 'n' cheese throwdown or whatever. Seriously? Bats are a draw, Tampa. You're not up on your hip urban attractions.

Meat thief. MEAT THIEF. #meatthief

There's currently a "drone rodeo" going on in Ybor City, which is a pretty innocuous name for a private three-day meet-up between the military and manufacturers of the latest in unmanned security and surveillance technology. I don't think they're interested in achieving the highest image stability for bitchin aerial theme park footage.

And finally, TECO's manatee viewing center by its Apollo Beach power plant kicked off its 31st season yesterday, with a new 900-foot walkway elevated five feet higher for better views. "Who wants to watch a bunch of big dumb animals hang around?" asked someone who's never experienced true inner peace.

This article appears in Nov 2-9, 2017.