Category: Animals

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

The 101ST weekly edition – and the kickoff of a brand new year of the weekly ‘Grab Bag’ begins … NOW !  Get ready for this !

1.  I missed the entire ordeal as the news was breaking LIVE to a riveted International television audience last Thursday. That’s right. I was actually working – at my job – as the ‘balloon boy’ saga was playing out over the skies of Colorado. I found out about it after the fact later that afternoon. We eventually realized that it was an elabourate hoax orchestrated well in advance. Should the ‘balloon boy dad’ go to jail for his hijinks ?  No. Should he perhaps be fined or be ordered by a Judge to reimburse the count(ies) and state for all expenses incurred ?  Sure. The guy made some bad decisions, and he lied to the authorities. But he doesn’t belong in jail. He also doesn’t deserve to lose his kids over the matter.

2.  My Washington Redskins are NOT a very good team this year. You can blame it on the special teams – the defense – the offense – the quarterback – the coaching staff – the front office – George W. Bush – El Niño – whatever. The blame game is not going to make them any better than they are now. The bottom line is that they have a lot of talent on that team, but they are simply not scoring points and winning games. The best teams in the NFL eventually became the worst teams – and vice versa. Are you a fan of your favourite sports team(s) only when they win, or are you a fan through the thick and the thin – through the blood, the sweat, and the tears ?

3.  Exactly one month from today I embark on the longest continuous road trip of my lifetime. On the 20TH of November of 2009 I’ll be driving approximately 825 miles from Homestead Florida to Gulfport Mississippi over the course of 14 hours. The next day I’ll be driving the remaining 590 miles to north of Dallas Texas as I begin a week-long holiday stay with my Mom, Dad, their cat, Brother, Sister-In-Law, Nephew-To-Be, and their dog.

4.  We climbed back up to the 80s this morning at around 11:30 AM – exactly as I forecasted last Saturday night when we last dropped out of the 80s at the start of our recent cold snap. Officially at the air base we dropped down to 59°F on Sunday morning, 56°F on Monday morning, and 63°F this morning. (Minimum temperatures were several degrees cooler in some of the farming areas around town.) I don’t expect another cold front over the next 7 to 10 days, so get used to a lot of sunshine, warmth, and higher humidity – perhaps even some more record high temperatures.

5.  This will be our last full weekend of Daylight Saving Time. On the following Sunday morning – the first of November – at 2 AM local time we fall back to Standard Time, and I am so truly looking forward to being back on ‘real’ time. I’ll have the daylight when I want it – at 6:30 AM rather than 6:30 PM. BRING IT ON !

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Animals Blogging Humor People Radio Travel

Monday Night Countdown

This Just In:  In the dark of the night it was revealed earlier today that ‘The Major’s Tweets’ had been temporarily removed from the weekly blogging schedule. It is now on hiatus – which is usually not a good sign. Anyone remember the ‘Lipitor Moment Of The Night’ ?  Anyone ?  Anyone ?  I didn’t think so.

Returning to Monday nights here on the big blue blog it’s the venerable former hit series ‘Monday Night Countdown’ !  LET’S ROLL !

This week it’s the TOP 7 Persons, Places, and Things that randomly come to my mind at this precise moment:

1.  Behnke – My brother will appreciate this one. As little kids in the late-1970s this was a fairly regular place that we (our family) used to visit to buy plants and mulch. It’s located on U.S. 1 in Beltsville Maryland. Me and my brother always pronounced it as ‘Bing-kees’.

2.  Rick Dees – ‘Alex, I’ll take ‘Famous People Who Have Influenced My Life Over The Years’ for $1,600 please.’

3.  2032 – It’s the year that I turn 65-years-old. Can I get a what-what ?

4.  Joo-Joo-Bee – It’s one of the many crazy nicknames that I had for my little feline buddy Boots (1993-2007).

5.  Hialeah – In my nearly 22 years of living here in America’s Riviera I don’t believe that I have ever stepped foot in that city.

6.  Royal – They used to totally rule the world of typewriters back in the day, and can you believe that they still make and sell them today ?

7.  Dude Walker – He was a crazy morning deejay on TOP 40 Q-107 in Washington D.C. about 30 years ago. He was teamed-up with legendary news man Doug Limerick back then.

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Animals Blogging Driving Food God Holidays Movies Music Radio Shopping Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Southwest Florida

1.  It’s Columbus Day, and it’s a day of relaxation for me after a lot of walking and a lot of driving. I drove 415.5 miles over 37 hours. That’s about 3 weeks of normal every day Homestead driving for me, and it’s just as I had planned out prior to embarking on the road trip. 201.3 miles of driving occurred on Saturday as I drove from Florida City to Lehigh Acres by way of Everglades City, Naples, and Estero. The remaining 214.2 miles of driving occurred on Sunday on the return trip back home to Homestead from Estero (where I spent the night) – via Naples and Plantation Key.

2.  On my Saturday morning drive over to the southwest coast of Florida I stopped for brief visits at the Big Cypress National Preserve Oasis Visitor Center as well as the Everglades National Park Gulf Coast Visitor Center just south of Everglades City. I don’t think that I have ever been to Everglades City before. (If I have then I don’t remember it.) It’s very small and very historic. About 500 people live there full-time. I plan to return back there during the cooler winter months to walk around the historic downtown area and check out the museum there.

3.  After a MASSIVE Lunch at Pinchers Crab Shack at Tin City on the waterfront in Naples, a walk to the end of the long city pier over the Gulf Of Mexico, and a nice scenic neighbourhood drive along the peaceful and quiet south coast of Naples I proceeded up to the big movie theatre north of Naples to get out of the mid-90s heat and sun – and to see the current box office smash “Zombieland“. It was campy and hilarious – perhaps a future cult classic ?

4.  It was so great to hear my radio station – The Call – over in southwest Florida. They just recently moved over from 107.5 FM to 107.7 FM in Naples. It’s an extremely weak translator station, and it was a bit ‘staticky’ all around the city – but a weak CALL-FM was definitely better than no CALL-FM. Up closer to Fort Myers I picked-up the much stronger 91.9 FM signal of The Call. It sounded great up and down I-75. On Saturday night I made my way over to Lehigh Acres (10 miles east of I-75 and Fort Myers) to attend a rock concert at a church featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. Rob from The Call was there. It was cool to hang out with him for a little while. All three bands rocked the joint hard and LOUD !

5.  On Sunday morning (after church in the park) I visited the Naples Zoo to check up on my animal friends. I then walked around the Coastland Center Mall to cool off a bit before making the return trip back to the southeast coast of Florida. This was my first visit over to the Naples area in about 20 months – way too long. My next visit will be much sooner than that – hopefully sometime during the upcoming cooler and dryer winter season. I think that it’s reasonable to state that it’s no longer ‘possible’ that I plan to eventually live in Naples, but that it’s ‘probable’. I fell in love with Naples all over again, and I wish to live there in the future. There is so much that I wish to see and do over there, so that will justify my more frequent visits to the area, and with each new visit I’ll be looking around for potential new neighbourhoods to call my future new home.

LATER TODAY – 2 MORE BLOG POSTS:
– ‘Celebration Community Beach Church At The Park’
– ‘Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie’

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Animals History Home Life Music Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Disco Ball

It’s Friday night, and it’s time to kick-off the weekend here on the totally groovy blog. I can’t think of any other way but to kick it old school like we used to do all of those years ago back in the day. So put on your favourite plaid leisure suit, grab your 8-track tapes, don’t forget the fondue, and I’ll meet you at the roller disco.

But anyway – are ya ready for this ?  Let us flashback here to a much simpler time of my life – and maybe yours too. It’s the hot Summer of 1974 in Bowie Maryland (near Washington D.C.), and I’m just an innocent 7-year-old kid hangin’ out with my lovable miniature sheep dog in the backyard of my Peach Walker Drive house. I’m listening to WWDC AM-1260 on my transistor radio, and this smash is playing as afternoon deejay Lou Katz rollz the hitz.

Here’s South Floridian George McCrae with a televised 1975 performance of his Summer of 1974 # 1 Disco smash !