Categories
Driving History Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

I’ve owned 4 cars over the past 25 years of driving. My very first car was a beige 1980 Chevy Citation. I bought it in 1984 with my paper route money. I was supposed to have it for at least several years, but as it turns out I only had it for a single year. I had to sell it fast just before I got shipped off to the U.K. to move to my first duty station within the USAF.

I returned back home stateside in November 1987, but it wasn’t until a year and two months later that I bought my second car – and my first brand new car. It was a red 1989 Geo Spectrum. To this day it’s the longest-running car that I’ve ever owned. I put 96,745 miles on that car over the course of eight years. That was eight turbulent years in my life in which I lived in seven different homes in less than three years due to the effects of Hurricane Andrew.

My 3RD car overall was a dark green 1997 Saturn SL1. That was the first of my three Saturns that I’ve owned over the past dozen years. I replaced that first Saturn with a gold 2001 Saturn SC2, and that Saturn was subsequently replaced by my current silver 2003 Saturn Ion Quad Coupe 3. I’ve owned my current Saturn a few months shy of the combined time that I owned my first two Saturns. I thought about buying a new car last year (a Honda), but I ultimately decided to enjoy the fact that my current car is totally paid off. It’s the first time that I’ve owned a car long enough to actually pay it off since that red 1989 Geo Spectrum was paid off in full during the early-1990s.

I can see myself still driving my current car for at least a couple more years. I’m in no rush to replace it with something new (and the new car payments that would go along with that). I’m content with what I have.

And so that’s a little history of all of my cars through the years.

The theme is “Cars”, and so this weekend for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review I present to you this 1979 / 1980 pop smash from Gary Numan. The now 51-year-old musician is still very much active. He’s still recording new music and touring all around the world. It’s hard to believe that when this song was an International pop smash the kid was just 21-years-old. Check it out, and feel free to get up and dance like a robot can’t dance no more !   

Categories
Animals Bugs Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Dallas Zoo

Dallas Zoo

Yesterday me and my brother visited the Dallas Zoo for the first time ever.

Here are my takeaways – ‘Mini Thoughts’ style:

– It’s an old zoo – established way back in 1888 !
– It’s the largest zoo in Texas – covering 95 acres alongside I-35.
– We were there for about 3 hours.
– It was a hot and humid day in Dallas with heat indices in the mid-90s.
– The zoo is expanding !
– A whole new area of ‘Wilds Of Africa’ called ‘The Savanna’ is under construction.
– The penguins were soaking wet – and hot.
– We got up close to a Western Lowland Gorilla.
– Only a strong window separated him from us.
– He just laid against the window as all of us humanoids watched his every move.
– He would look at us sometimes in a curious yet friendly manner.
– He was most interested in scratching his itches.
– He’s just like you and me !
– Much of the ‘Wilds Of Africa’ exhibit is seeable via the monorail alone.
– So we took the monorail around the continent.
– It was a cool 25 minute tour through the wilds from up above.
– The chimps were not out to play.
– They were in seclusion due to the birth of a new member of their family.
– We walked through an entire exhibit on BUGS !
– Bugs are constantly working at creating a new habitat for themselves.
– The’re never satisfied with what they have.
– Bugs – The’re just like you and me.
– We saw ENORMOUS tortoises crawling around.
– The’re the biggest of their species in the entire world.
– They were just taking their time to get from Point A to Point Z.
– The’re OLD !
– MASSIVE ALBINO ALLIGATOR !
Check out this recent newspaper article on it.
– I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one like this before.
– It’s 9-feet in length, 200 pounds, and totally white.
– It doesn’t appreciate the Sun, and it’s blind.
– As we watched from a boardwalk above it was feeding time.
– But the albino alligator wasn’t very hungry.
– The other standard alligators around him were hungry though.
– A lot of the animals outside were hidden away.
– They were probably too hot.
– I wondered how those African animals cope with the snow in the winter.
– The zoo is open year-round, and it can get totally freezing here in Dallas.
– Only the soaking wet penguins would appreciate that !
– We had a fun time at the zoo.
– We both agreed that it was bigger and nicer than we originally thought.
– We’ll hopefully visit it again in a couple of years.
– Maybe on my next visit to Texas we can visit the Fort Worth Zoo.
– That would be cool, as I so dig hangin’ out with the animals.
– The’re just like you and me !

Categories
Blogging People

Friday Night Blogroll Review

Kelly J.’s misadventures with her modern cell phone device continues.

P.J. wishes his Mom Anne J. a special Mother’s Day.
* MAJOR BLOGGIE AWARD WINNER *

Mark’s LPC youth group has taken over a pier at Flagship Cinemas.

Jesse y Diego estan infermo. Get well soon !

Alex takes the Metrobus and the Metrorail between Miami and Homestead.

Venus loves them wings from Sonny’s !

THANK YOU for blogging with me. Let’s keep on doin’ our thang.

Categories
Animals Blogging Food Health Music Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– As I begin typing this blog entry it’s 10:12 PM CDT in North Texas.
– That makes it 11:12 PM EDT back home in America’s Riviera.
– I got in to DFW just before 5:30 PM CDT.
– The airport has more germs per square foot than any other place in the world.
– It doesn’t really matter what airport I’m talking about.
– I take that back because airplanes are even more germ-infested.
– Cough. Sneeze. Cough. Sneeze. Cough. Sneeze. It’s the soundtrack of my flight.
– Backpacks and suitcases of all shapes and sizes should be banned as carry-on.
– Those should be mandatory check-in items.
– I listened to my hits on my iPod Shuffle while inflight 7 miles above the ground.
– I even took a short cat nap.
– My brother and his wife picked me up, and we went directly to Fuddruckers.
– I haven’t eaten there since – the last time that I was here in the Dallas area.
– I had a half-pound bacon swiss cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles.
– That’s shredded lettuce, two tomato slices, and a mound of pickles.
– I don’t add any ketchup or mustard to Fuddruckers burgers.
– Tomorrow morning me and my brother are headed to the Dallas Zoo.
– Both of us plan to take a lot of pictures of us with the animals.
– I plan to pull a Kelly J. by posting an all-picture blog entry to mark the event.
– Tomorrow night is ‘Blogroll Review’ night.
– You’ve gotta be in it to win it.
– Make sure that you get your blogs updated between now and then.
– One of you reading this will win this week’s covetted ‘Major Bloggie Award’.
– Will it be you ?
– Well I’ve had a real long day today.
– I woke up shortly after 5 AM EDT this morning.
– That was nearly 19 hours ago.
– I’m ready to call it a day.
– Until we blog again peace be with you.
– And also with you.