Category: Animals

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Animals Driving History Home Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

1998 – What a crazy year it was (for me anyway). It was a party year. It’s the year that I went from 30 to 31-years-old. I was living in my current home. I was working at the place that I still work at today. I had my young and healthy feline buddy Boots running energetically all throughout my home. When I wasn’t at home or at work I was probably driving around in my dark green 1997 Saturn SL1 that looked just like this:

1997 Saturn SL1
1997 Saturn SL1

I was a loyal Y-100 listener in 1998, and some of the hottest pop and rock bands on the radio back then included ‘N Sync, Fastball, Matchbox Twenty, The Goo Goo Dolls, and Aerosmith.

Here’s a track that was particularly big all around the world (aside from here in the U.S.). It’s a modern 1998 Eurodance update to a 1974 U.S. Disco smash. You probably know the original version, and some of you can even perform the dance moves to it as well. It’s “Kung Fu Fighting”, and Carl Douglas performed it originally while the British dance crew Bus Stop modernized it in 1998. It went a little something like this:

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Animals

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Miami Metrozoo

This morning I took my walk to Miami Metrozoo.

Here are my takeaways in 15 words or less:

– I walked about 3 miles – completely around the park – clockwise.
– I got there as soon as they opened the gates at 9:30 AM.
– There weren’t very many people there that early.
– 3½-hours later I had seen and done it all.
– By the time I had left it was getting crowded.
– That was good to see during these troubled economic times.
– The weather was ideal for a morning at the zoo – sunny, cool, and dry.
– I love to visit the zoo because as a kid I never got to go.
– Nobody would take me.
– I loved watching the Gibbons jump around and howl at the moon.
– Kangaroos have real strong hind legs but wimpy fore legs.
– The Giant Tortoises were old, and they barely moved.
– They can live for 150 to 200 years with the right conditions.
– That’s probably why the’re so slow and never in a hurry.
– I visited the new ‘Amazon And Beyond’ area which just opened.
– It was pretty cool. They did a nice job with it.
– The Jaguar(s) were hiding. I barely caught a glimpse of one.
– I sat there and watched an African Elephant eat hay for several minutes.
– That trunk only picks up the finest grass and shoves it in his mouth.
– I could watch that for an hour and be wildly entertained.
– One of the top moments of my walk – the giraffe feeding.
– This large family with kids stepped up to the elevated balcony.
– 3 hungry giraffes were willing and ready to receive their weeds.
– They were so gentle while pulling the goods out of the kids’ hands.
– I sat there and watched them eat their MASSIVE meal for 10 minutes.
– Giraffes have 7 bones in their long necks – the same as we do !
– When the Andean Condor flaps its wings hold on to your wigs !
– They’d rather be high above a mountain range rather than near sea level.
– The low altitude must be giving them a headache.
– I got within inches of a Lowland Gorilla.
– I was in a cave and he was leaning against the window (from the outside).
– He has much more hair on his back side than me.
– He eats his food just like you and me – with his hands.
– His feet looked like giant hands.
– The Chimpanzee ?  The’re 98% just like us.
– Those Gemsboks have some mighty wicked horns.
– They could stab virtually any other animal with them.
– The lion growled a few times and then took a breather.
– I enjoyed my walk through the Aviary.
– I could just sit in there watching the birds fly by for an hour.
– It’s been many years since I was last here at the zoo.
– I think I was last here about 7 years ago (maybe) in 2002.
– I need to visit more often – like every year.
– Maybe I should visit every January and make it a new tradition.
– I enjoy hangin’ out with the animals.
– I think I’ll go to Monkey Jungle within the next couple of months.
– I was last there a year ago next weekend. Read all about it.

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Animals Blogging Driving God Holidays Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s an all-new year of thoughts. Let’s roll !

1.  The Twelve Days And Nights Of Christmas ended yesterday, and today is Epiphany. I learned all about this Christian holiday way back in 1974 and 1975 in Catholic School. Most people I know have never heard of it.

2.  From my parking space at home to my parking space at work the length is exactly 7.2 miles by road. That’s 11.6 kilometers for the rest of the world. At the dangerous intersection of Speedway Boulevard and North Canal Drive I am exactly halfway to work – or halfway to home.

3.  In just 32 days I’ll be on a luxurious Carnival cruise sailing across the Great Gulf Of Mexico. It’ll be my first cruise in nearly 15 months since I sailed across the Great Atlantic Ocean from Rome Italy to Miami Florida. This blog will actually go on hiatus during that upcoming vacation. A continuous streak of 445 days in a row with at least one blog entry posted per day will come to an abrupt end.

4.  Last Presidents Day Weekend I went on a short little road trip over to the southwest coast of Florida. I had contemplated visiting Cypress Gardens for this Presidents Day Weekend, but alas they have shut down yet again due to poor business. They do plan to reopen again this Spring as a smaller park – minus all of the amusement park rides and all of the zoo animals.

5.  Speaking of zoo animals I plan to visit Miami Metro Zoo on a future Saturday morning real soon to do a special ‘on-location’ edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’. I like to check up on the animals over there every few years or so – when the weather is cooler outside no doubt.

Those are my thoughts on this Epiphany. I thank you for your time !

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Animals Driving Food Travel

Christmas Morning Stocking Full O’ Thoughts

Here’s what I’m thinkin’ ’bout on this Glorious Christmas Day Morning:

1.  I left work at exactly 9 AM yesterday (Christmas Eve) morning, and I arrived at my parents’ home at exactly 3:30 PM. It was a rather uneventful 6½-hour drive from Homestead to here. That included about a 30-minute stop-over in Fort Pierce along world-renown State Road 70 for Gas and Lunch.

2.  I’m currently in historic Clay County Florida – about halfway between the historic river cities of Orange Park and Green Cove Springs (the county seat) along historic U.S. 17. F.Y.I. – U.S. 17 extends from the foothills of Northern Virginia to the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida.

3.  My last visit up here to the First Coast of Florida was during the Labor Day Weekend at the end of August 2008. I’ve been coming up here once or twice per year for the past 12 years to visit my parents (and my brother when he lived up here). 2009 will probably be my parents’ final year here. They’ll be moving to the north of Dallas Texas in a few months. They’ll be living just a few miles away from my brother and his wife.

4.  Of all of the cats that have been in our family over the past quarter of a century my parents’ current cat – Pumpkin – has the most beautiful fur ever !  She’s brown and black with hints of orange and tan – perhaps even a bit of burnt sienna. One time when Pumpkin was a kitten she was totally terrified of me, and she nearly tried to end her own life by jumping at least 20 feet to the ground below when she was absolutely frightened by an unintentional sudden movement of mine. Now she adores me and comes running to me whenever I spot my petting hand. Pumpkin loves me so much now that she even licks me at times. Even she has realized that cats all over the land adore me.

5.  Last night we enjoyed a MASSIVE Dinner at the local Longhorn Steak House. This afternoon we’ll be enjoying a traditional (also MASSIVE) Christmas Day Dinner. Don’t you know that I like totally dig that dudes and dudettes ?  SHYEAHZZZ !

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE !