Author: Chris M. Day

I'm almost 59 years old. I've been online for 33 years - starting with my own dial-up bulletin board system in 1993 - and continuing with AOL, my own dot.com web site, Myspace, WordPress, Twitter / X, Flickr, and Facebook.

Categories
Travel Weather

Monday Night Countdown

Here are today’s TOP 5 travel events as experienced by me:

1.  Shortly After 9:30 AM CDT – I arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It’s chilly and rainy outside. It’s unusually quiet inside. There’s no lines at the self-service kiosks, the ticket / check-in counters, or even the security checkpoints. I’m amazed.

2.  11:20 AM CDT – That’s when my American Airlines flight was supposed to depart for Miami International Airport. That didn’t happen. The flight (apparently originating from Kansas City) couldn’t land at DFW due to the heavy rains and the low ceilings. It flew right past us to Austin.

3.  1:45 PM CDT – Two gate changes later – including a trip on the Skylink (monorail) to a completely different terminal on the other side of the airport – and my flight was ready to take-off. Apparently this was the same flight that was diverted to Austin. It replaced a previous Austin to Dallas flight (that was cancelled), and it became the new DFW to MIA flight. Who’s confused ?

4.  1:57 PM CDT – We actually pulled away from the gate at DFW some 2 hours and 37 minutes late. Our co-pilot was a laugh riot over the intercom system. I think that he would make a great radio deejay – or a cruise director. He sounded like a loud Chicagoan – not that there’s anything wrong with that.

5.  Shortly Before 6:00 PM EDT – I’m back home at MIA – nearly 3 hours later than originally scheduled. That puts me al aeropuerto at the heart and soul of the evening rush hour. My suitcase was one of the first dozen to show up on the baggage carousel (a miracle), so I did a grab and go. On to the shuttle that showed up rather quickly (another miracle). It picked me up and delivered me to my car at the off-site parking. Through the Dolphin Expressway / Palmetto Expressway / Don Shula Expressway / Florida’s Turnpike rush hour I went and long story short here I am at home.

My long weekend vacation is now history. Home Sweet Homestead.

Categories
Blogging People Travel

Blatant Promotion

It’s nearly 8:30 PM CDT here in the northeastern suburbs of Dallas Texas, and that of course is 9:30 PM EDT back home in America’s Riviera. My long weekend vacation here in the Metroplex is nearing its end, as my flight from DFW to MIA returns back to home turf at around 3 PM tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.

‘Monday Night Countdown’ is on tap for tomorrow night here on the big green blog, and that of course leads up to the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.

I obviously wasn’t at Life Pointe Church in Homestead Florida this morning, so if you really wish to know what happened there then simply ask this guy, or this guy, or this guy, or this guy, or this guy, but don’t bother reading about it in writing because none of them really blog much anymore. That’s right – I’ve pretty much been abandoned deep in the blogosphere, but it’s all good. I will single-handedly hold down the blogging fortress until the next generation of fresh new bloggers emanate from the crowds.

Until we blog again think global, act local, and keep your radio tuned right where it is. This is NBC – the National Broadcasting Company.

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 !