Category: Animals

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Animals Driving Holidays Nature Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

From the 13TH through the 21ST of February of 2010 I sailed for 8 days and 8 nights aboard the luxurious Carnival Freedom. It was my 2ND cruise in 28 months on the 110,000 gross ton / 952 foot long ship. I had previously sailed from Rome Italy to Miami Florida on a 14-day Mediterranean / Transatlantic voyage during her maiden journey to the U.S. from Europe in October and November of 2007. The combined 22 days and 22 nights on the Carnival Freedom is the most for me on any single cruise ship in my 19-year sailing history. I’ve also visited more new countries for the first time ever via the Carnival Freedom than via any other cruise ship. In addition to Italy, Spain, and Madeira (Portugal) I can now add Costa Rica and Panama to the list of new countries visited.

I.  Cozumel México – This is my all-time favourite port-of-call for no other reason than the fact that I’ve been there more often (by far) than any other place in the world during my cruising history. It’s like my one-day home away from home once or twice a year. I know what to expect there, and I know where to go there for shopping opportunities galore if I wish. I’ve been there so often that sometimes I don’t even get off of the ship – but this time I did. I actually went on a rare shore excursion this time around to take advantage of some unusually chilly winter weather for the island (cloudy with scattered rain showers and stuck in the 70s). During the 4½-hour sightseeing and shopping tour one of the highlights was a tequila farm and factory. I didn’t partake in the extended taste test of a wide variety of random tequilas inside; however, it was fun to watch the others who did as well as listen to some of their outrageous feedback such as “This tastes like Windex … I LOVE IT !”  Classic stuff – and a fun excursion all around ‘my’ island home of Cozumel.

II.  Limón Costa Rica – Last Wednesday morning I set foot on Costa Rica for the first time ever – just below the 10°N latitude line (about 690 miles north of the equator). It was a rainy and coolish morning (by Costa Rica standards) with temperatures stuck in the 70s. Eventually the sun came out late in the afternoon and it got hot outside. But back in the cool light rain I took a combination bus, boat, and train tour of the eastern lowland countryside. The boat ride on a river was cool, as we eavesdropped on crocodiles napping, sloths just hangin’ around, and abundant monkeys high atop a tree. We actually saw one young monkey fall from the top of a tree and land much further down on some branches and leaves. He was OK, but now he may be alone for the rest of his life. Allegedly (according to our tour guide) once you’ve fallen from a tree you’ve cast disrespect and dishonour amongst your neighbourhood and nobody wants to be seen with you ever again. Harsh dude !

III.  Panama – Early last Thursday morning shortly after sunrise the Carnival Freedom pulled in to the port in downtown Colón along the northern (Caribbean) coast of Panama. 13 busloads of my fellow cruise ship passengers (over 525 of us) were then loaded up and transported southeastward across the country to the Pacific coast. The drive took about 1 hour and 20 minutes along modern highways and tollways guarded by fully-armed Panamanian militia. Once on the Pacific side our 13 busloads got in to 2 ferries (comfortably), as we began our partial transit through the Panama Canal starting with a beautiful view of the downtown skyline of the bustling capital city of Panama. I never really understood how the Panama Canal actually worked until I got to experience it firsthand. It is definitely one of the greatest modern marvels ever made in the history of the world. Incidentally the Pacific side of Panama is nearing the end of a rather severe dry season. It hasn’t rained much on the south side of the country so far in 2010, and that was quite evident as all of the grass was brown and crunchy. It was very hot there – well into the 90s. The north (Caribbean) side of the country was milder, greener, and lusher. The three highlights of this mighty educational day in Panama were no doubt the one-third transit of the Panama Canal, seeing the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans within 90 minutes of each other, and driving by land and sailing by sea right through the great Continental Divide of the Americas.

This was a wonderful vacation at sea and on land way down south that truly exceeded my expectations, and I can’t wait to do it all over again in about 6½-months when I embark on my next great Carnival cruise vacation !

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Animals Blogging Computers History Internet Life Money Music News People Politics Sports Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

In 1997 Bill Clinton began his 2ND 4-year term as President Of The United States, the Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-21 in Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans, the Dow Jones Industrials rose above 7,000 and 8,000 for the first time, Tony Blair became the new Prime Minister of The United Kingdom, Hong Kong transferred over from British to Chinese rule, Diana – Princess Of Wales – died, Mother Theresa died, The Florida Marlins won The World Series, and everyone was discovering the World Wide Web on their fast new Pentium II / 266 MHz desktop computer systems running Windows 95.

I turned 30-years-old in 1997, and I mostly hung out at home with my little buddy Boots of the feline species. My Mom, Dad, and Brother lived up near the Intracoastal Waterway on the far-east side of Jacksonville Florida with our aging childhood cats Fluffy and Barney. On selected weekends throughout the year my 22-year-old brother and I would meet halfway in the state – Orlando – for a few days and nights of fun at the amusement parks, nightclubs, and shopping and restaurant meccas. One of the great techno songs that we used to dance to on the nightly countdown to Midnight celebration at Downtown Disney Pleasure Island was this rockin’ jam of the time:

This concludes another fun week of blogging for me from Tuesday night through Saturday night. 6 blog posts. 5 days. All good. I’ll do it all over again next week from Tuesday night through Friday night before I take a 10-day hiatus from the blog. In fact next week’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ will occur on Friday night, and it’ll be a song straight out of 1985. Have a great weekend my friends, and I’ll catch ya back here on Tuesday night for my ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’.

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Animals Annoyances Bugs Food God Health Life Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 7:35 AM – 8:11 AM
Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 64°F
Dewpoint: 62°F
Relative Humidity: 92%
Winds: W 6 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 29.84 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I ‘slept in’ a bit – until nearly 7 AM !  OMG !
– I took a nice long hot shower, and then I went out for a walk.
– I walked for 36.3 minutes, or about 1.9 miles around my neighbourhood.
– It was a sparkling crystal clear and delightfully cool early Saturday morning.
– We don’t get very many mornings like this one.
– In fact they don’t occur at all for about 6 months out of the year.
– But during this time of the year they are more common.
– While I was walking in the 64°F ‘chill’ I was thinking about the D.C. area.
– The’re being smothered by their biggest blizzard in a century !
– When all is said and done there could be 2½-FEET of snow on the ground !
– We had some big snows up there when I was growing up, but not that big !
– I’m glad that I live down here in America’s Riviera.
– Next Saturday morning I’ll be on my way to Port Everglades.
– The Carnival Freedom will be my home for 8 days and 8 nights.
– I will surely be doing a lot of walking on that MAMMOTH vessel.
– I will also complement that walk-a-thon with an eat-a-thon !
– I figure that if I burn 5,000 calories per day then I can eat that much.
– I won’t regret it pal – at least I hope not.
– On my walk this morning there were a lot of white flying bugs around.
– I don’t know what they are, but the’re annoying if not harmless.
– I keep seeing a large grayish cat on one of the streets during my walks.
– The cat looks at me, I look at the cat, and we agree to be passing friends.
– Most cats understand that I am a friend of the feline species.
– Most dogs don’t like me, as they probably know that I favor cats.
– I am in the best physical condition of my entire lifetime.
– Before this journey began 41½ months I did not take care of my body.
– I did not exercise at all, I ate junk food, I binge drank, and I smoked.
– All of that changed in 2007 and 2008.
– If you don’t believe that God performs miracles then look at me.
– Of course you had to have known me during my teens, 20s, and 30s.
– Compare that lost soul with the man that I am today.
– I once was lost, but now am found – was blind, but now I see.

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Animals Blogging Holidays Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  It’s Tuesday night in my world, so you just KNOW what THAT means. It means that it’s the start of a fresh new week of blogging here at ‘The Major’s Life Blog’. See I couldn’t really say that when I was blogging 7 days a week, as there was no real start or end to any given week of blogging. Now that I’ve got Sundays and Mondays off there’s a clear start (Tuesdays) and a definite end (Saturdays). I can’t think of a better way to kickstart a fresh new week of blogging than with the flagship weekly series of this blog – one of the true originals from 2007 – my ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. It’s a miscellaneous assortment or ‘Grab Bag’ of three of the most relevent aspects of my Life today. It’s what’s happenin’ dude !

II.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are my ‘nights off’ during the work week nowadays. Those are the nights that I can stay at home and watch the television, do the laundry, pay the bills, surf the web, and blog my Life. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m making public appearances. Tuesday nights are Toastmasters nights, and tonight is no exception. My role for tonight is the host of ‘Table Topics’. That’s where I get up in front of everyone, go to the podium, and lead our group into a lively question and answer session based on a script that I’ve written. I’ll be asking 5 to 7 questions to 5 to 7 of my unsuspecting labmates, and they will instantly have to stand up one at a time and give a spontaneous 1 to 2 minute response to my question. It’s actually harder than it sounds, but it’s a lot of fun because when you speak spontaneously you tend to speak more truthfully than you would when you have ample time to think about your response. I’m counting on more than just a smattering of giggles tonight. I’m looking for some outright chuckles and crack-ups tonight !

III.  Happy Groundhog Day my friends. I saw my shadow this morning, so that can mean only one thing. Light was shining in my general direction and my body was blocking that light from continuing on in a straight line. I know that there are lots of people in this country who actually believe that a groundhog up in the Amish country of Pennsylvania can forecast the weather for the entire free nation for the next 6 weeks. It’s a cute little tradition. You can even buy greeting cards to celebrate the groundhog on his very special day. While Groundhog Day is cute – global warming / climate change is not. I stand by my own humble opinion that it is the single greatest hoax created and distributed by mankind in modern world history. There are a lot of people in this world that are making a hefty sum of money based on this greatest hoax ever. There are so many different ways that one can change the world to make it a better place for all. Falling for the entire global warming / climate change hoax is taking the easy way out. It’s being lazy. Make a real change. Save a Life !

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !