Category: Animals

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 19, 2009

– It was another crazy busy day at work for me.
– I was away from my desk for over 6 hours.
– I was mostly sitting in conference rooms.
– I actually enjoyed all of my meetings today.
– I’m in a good place at work.
– I’m in the best place ever at work.
– My 24-year D.O.D. career just keeps on reaching amazing new peaks.
– None of this career rejuvenation occurred before the journey began.
– I’ve got a mostly uneventful stay-at-home weekend planned.
– I’ve actually got a lot of things that I need to catch up on.
– My weekend was supposed to start at Lunch time tomorrow.
– That won’t happen now because I have a HUGE meeting in the afternoon.
– I even have to postpone my previously-scheduled dental appointment.
– It looks like I won’t have to issue a ‘Homestead Cold Weather Alert’.
– The unexpected heavy rains of the past 48 hours changed everything.
– I expected up to an inch of rain.
– My neighbourhood picked up about a half a foot of rain !
– The crunchy brown grass is suddenly soft, lush, and green.
– This is my little buddy Pumpkin:

– Me and my brother rescued her from an animal shelter near Jacksonville.
– That was during Thanksgiving Week of 2003.
– I didn’t pick her out of a lineup.
– I picked out a completely different cat.
– The cat that I picked out looked very much like our first cat Fluffy.
– Pumpkin was terrified of me for the first 5 years or so.
– Now Pumpkin loves me.
– She really loves me ! … when I comb her.
– She was my roommate for two nights during my parents’ move to Texas.
– She’s another Day Family transplant from Florida.
– She’ll live northeast of Dallas for the rest of her life.
– Hopefully she lives healthy and happy for at least another decade.
– She succeeds Fluffy and Barney.
– Fluffy was our first cat (1983-2001).
– Barney was our second cat (1987-2006)
– Boots was my cat here in Homestead (1995-2007).
– Now you know the history of all of my feline family members.

Animals Driving Health Holidays Money Music Politics Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 17, 2009

Nearly 16 months of historical statistics reveals that Tuesday is by far the busiest day here on the big green blog. I think that we all know why that is so:

1. We may actually receive some significant rainfall here in America’s Rivera between tonight and Sunday as a couple of old cold fronts from the north ease closer to us. Don’t expect a flood or anything close to that, but don’t be surprised if we manage to receive up to an inch of the much needed rain that we so desperately need. There’s also a very remote possibility that I may actually issue a late-season ‘Homestead Cold Weather Alert’ for both Saturday and Sunday mornings as wind chill temperatures may approach the upper-40s for a brief period of time.

2. I’m not exaggerating here when I state that most motorists here in America’s Riviera totally ignore the green traffic light arrow that points to the left that states that you have a protected path to make a left-hand turn. I guess they don’t teach that in traffic school down here. GREEN = GO !

3. Weight Check – I’m slowly easing down into the lower-170s. I just weighed in at 172.5. My goal is to get back into the more comfortable upper-160s. Yes I can !

4. We probably won’t find out that the recession has ended until at least six to nine months after it has actually ended. It may have ended already, but we won’t really know for sure until perhaps Thanksgiving or Christmas. Politics and policies aside I’m rooting for a strong and robust economy in 2009 and beyond. How can you not root for that ?

5. It’s St. Patrick’s Day in 2009, and I wore virtually all green today. I’m proud of my Irish heritage. My ancestors on the paternal side had a last name of ‘O’Day’. The ‘O’ was dropped when they emigrated from Ireland to The U.S. back in the late-19TH Century. For over 17 years our beloved cat Fluffy – a Manx – was an integral part of our family. The Manx breed originated from The Isle Of Man in the Irish Sea. I lived in the U.K. for exactly two years from 1985 to 1987, and I did quite a bit of traveling during that time. But one regret is that I never got to visit either Northern Ireland (part of the U.K.) or The Republic Of Ireland. Some day I hope to visit both countries. While living in the U.K. two Irish bands – The Pogues and The Dubliners – joined forces to become one, as they performed a traditional Irish song about a MASSIVE ship in the sea. Check out this 1987 performance of “The Irish Rover”. It was a U.K. TOP 10 pop smash back then, and I present it to you as a very special St. Patrick’s Day edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’.

Animals Blogging Food Movies Travel

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Monkey Jungle

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 14, 2009

My scheduled trip down to Key West and back was cancelled for today and postponed until another day, so what’s a dude to do once he’s cleared out his entire Saturday schedule to get out and do something fun ?

I went to Monkey Jungle ! Here are my takeaways in 15 words or less:

– This is now an annual visit treat.
– I was last there 59 Saturdays ago in January of 2008.
– Here’s what I wrote about my adventures back then.
– I got there a few minutes before they officially opened for business.
– I was the first tourist through the gate.
– I love to hang out with the monkeys.
– I think of House Of Pain’s “Jump Around” when I watch them do their thang.
– Mei is my favourite 23-year-old orangutan.
– She was more active this morning than she was 59 weeks ago.
– She has a few tricks up her hairy sleeves.
– She knows sign language.
– She has the same amount of hair as you and me.
– Her hair is obviously longer and thicker than ours.
– She loves her veggies.
– My buddy King – the Western Lowland Gorilla – was up next.
– He’s 40-years-old now, and he seemed more active today too.
– He loves to watch TV and dance to old rock songs.
– He’s just like me.
– He likes to sleep in the shade.
– He doesn’t like to get wet in the rain.
– He enjoyed a previous life in the 1970s as part of a circus act.
– Once again – just like me ! (Just kidding.)
– I enjoyed my two-hour stay at the Jungle of the Monkeys.
– I’ll be back again next year.
– After there I went to Southland Mall.
– It’s the southernmost indoor shopping mall in the continental U.S.
– I walked around the mall for about a half an hour.
– I finally saw the award-winning box office smash “Slumdog Millionaire“.
– I nearly saw it last Christmas before anyone even knew much about it.
– It was a very good movie.
– It deserved all of its critical acclaim.
– After the movie I ate at the all-new Buffalo Wild Wings.
– Wings & Wedges dude – that’s what it’s all about !
– That’s what I did today in lieu of my trip to Key West.
– Be sure to stick around for an all-new ‘Saturday Night Retro’ !
– It’s comin’ up later tonight here on the big green blog.