Category: Animals

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Animals Driving History Life People Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

If it’s Tuesday night then the grab bag is full, so let me let some thoughts loose !

1.  Since March 01ST over a FOOT of rain has fallen at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport – and it shows. All of the vegetation in the Metroplex was green and lush – well nourished by Mother Nature. Meanwhile less than 3 inches of rain has fallen at Miami International Airport – and the extreme drought continues. Everything is still brown and crunchy. The Everglades is finally receiving some rain, but until we get some westerly winds in here we won’t see much of it.

2.  TODAY is my brother’s and his wife’s 2ND anniversary. They were married in The Bahamas on this very special date in 2007. I’ve often stated that my brother is my favourite person in the entire world, but I’ll also go on record by stating that his wife – Christina – is my 2ND favourite person in the entire world. I like her a lot, and I’ve liked her ever since the minute that I first met her. She has fit in perfectly in our Day family.

3.  This past weekend in the northeastern suburbs of Dallas Texas me and my family officially celebrated my brother’s 34TH birthday, my brother’s and his wife’s 2ND anniversary, Mother’s Day, and my 42ND birthday (early). I got one of the nicest birthday gifts in modern history, and it really has to do with modern history – mine. It’s a professional photo album hand-made by Christina (my brother’s wife) chock-full of classic pictures of me from the 1960s through the 2000s. She spent many days (probably weeks) working on this masterpiece. I shall cherish it forever. I also plan to share it with some of my closest friends.

4.  This upcoming Sunday marks a sad event – the 2ND anniversary of the death of my cat Boots. A memorial still sits to this day at the edge of one of my living room couches where he used to spend a lot of time. Boots was my little buddy for over a dozen years. His life was cut short by several years due to a variety of feline diseases. I will never forget Boots.

5.  I received my brand new Florida license plate in the mail this afternoon. It replaces my current license plate of the past 5 years. The old plate will join 3 others that are currently on display on my master bedroom wall. I can’t believe that I’ve been driving here in America’s Riviera for the past 20 years.

Those are my thoughts on this Tuesday night. Thank You for reading them.

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
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.

Categories
Animals History Holidays Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Here are today’s top stories:

1.  Hola mis amigos. Hoy es el Cinco de Mayo. Go forth and enjoy some delicious Mexican food tonight to celebrate this muy especial day that marks the grande victory of the Mexican army over the French army in the Battle Of Puebla in 1862.  ¡ VIVA MEXICO !

2.  In just about 50 hours I’ll be arriving at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to begin a long weekend vacation con mi familia. I’m planning to continue the ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions) this weekend with a visit to the Dallas Zoo. It’s the largest zoological experience in Texas !

3.  I never got to go to the zoo when I was a little kid, and I actually had an Uncle that worked at one (as Security). That’s right – I was totally deprived of the zoo experience as a kid. Since I’ve pretty much outgrown the traditional amusement parks (and wild rides make me dizzy) I’ve gone back to basics by visiting the animals as much as I can. I love the animals !  The’re just like you and me !

4.  Speaking of amusement parks with wild rides – and animals – me and a buddy may visit Sea World up in Orlando during the upcoming  Memorial Day holiday weekend. It’s been a long time since I’ve been there. We may also visit nearby Gatorland. I haven’t been there since they rebuilt the place following the devastating fire of November 06TH 2006.

5.  Are you ready for the upcoming rainy season aqui en America’s Riviera ?  It starts within the next couple of weeks, and based on my analysis and research I’m forecasting an extra wet rainy season this year with southerly, southwesterly, and westerly wind flow the norm. That means that all of those strong thunderstorms that develop over the Everglades should drift eastward over us rather than westward towards Naples. I’m also forecasting a below normal hurricane season with most storms staying away from us due to our westerly wind flow and the long-awaited reemergence of our good friend ‘El Niño’. We’ll see how this forecast works out for all of us.

Take good care of yourselves my friends. THANKS for reading what’s on my mind.