Category: Animals

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Animals Blogging Driving God Health Travel

Bedtime Stories

This Friday night edition of the ‘Bedtime Stories’ is brought to you by the letter ‘C’, and tonight I’ll be addressing these notable items of interest that all begin with the letter ‘C’ – ‘Cars’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Cholesterol’.

Cars – My 5-year-old car is suddenly a dream to drive in again. Earlier this week I went to Firestone and I bought 4 brand new tires for my car – nice ones too with 70,000-mile warranties. It feels like I’m just gliding along now on a thin strip of air just above the road surface. An oil and filter change, a new air filter, and new wiper blades completed the mini-tune-up. It’s my little birthday present to myself now that I’ve decided to keep this nearly fully-paid-off car for at least several more years.

Cats – 5 cats were part of my life scattered over a 23½-year period ending one year ago tomorrow morning. For many years leading up to Boots’ passing on I pretty much declared that I would go from the animal hospital to the animal shelter in a single morning to get a new cat. That didn’t happen, and it won’t happen at this time or anytime soon. Timing is everything, and in his own way Boots led me to God during his final year with me. Everything happens for a reason, and with God always by my side I will never be lonely again. Alone – Yes. Lonely – Never.

Cholesterol – Lipitor is clinically proven to lower bad cholesterol by 39% to 60% – and that’s exactly what it did to me. After 12 weeks of taking my 10 milligrams dose per day it has effectively plummetted my total cholesterol about 40% from the 220s down to the 130s !  The LDLs, HDLs, and Triglycerides were all in the desirable / optimal ranges. I’m good like that. I’m healthy like that !

And that’s how we roll with tonight’s ‘Bedtime Stories’. Be sure to check out the blog again tomorrow for more fun and surprises, and then on Sunday I’ll be taking the ‘Tossed Salad’ on the road again with a special edition coming to you from InDependence Church in Weston Florida. It’s time to check up on my 3RD-favourite Pastor again (after Travis and Paul), and see how Nathan is progressing up there with his new and developing church.

Have a safe, peaceful, and blessed Friday night everyone, and until we hang out again on the blog or in person remember this:

Chris & Buddy Watching TV In 2005

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Animals God People

Bedtime Stories

One year ago on this particular Wednesday night in May (it was the 16TH of May last year) I spent the final night on my living room couch with my little feline buddy Boots. Without revealing any specific details of that final night let me just state that God was certainly with me and Boots on that night, and He helped me get through it as I watched my buddy of 12½-years suffer in immense pain due to multiple diseases that had ravaged his 14-year-old body. I cried and shed tears onto his soft black hair. Boots knew that he was at the end of his Life, and he rubbed his head against me everytime my emotions got the best of me. It was as if he was trying to tell me that he would be all right, and that I would be just fine too. I think he was thanking me for loving him so dearly for all of those years, and for saving his life a few times as well.

The next morning I took Boots to the Homestead Animal Hospital, and they put him out of his misery. He passed on at 10:14 AM on Thursday May 17TH 2007 (52 weeks ago tomorrow). The staff there comforted a crying me and stated that it was my last good deed for my best little buddy in the whole wide world.

I went to my Life Group that night, but I never mentioned the death of Boots. Just being with my closest friends at Life Pointe Church at the time was all I needed to move on with my own Life on God’s fantastic journey for me.

That’s my ‘Bedtime Story’ for tonight, and I will always remember this for the rest of my Life:

Boots - 1993-2007   

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Animals Blogging Career Food Health Internet Music People Philosophy Shopping Television Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You’ve been waiting about 168 hours for this to come around again, and so here it is. LIVE IT UP !

1.  We were treated with a rare mid-May cold front here in South Florida late last night. After sizzing hot temperatures approaching the mid-90s over the past several days we plummeted down to the refreshing low-60s (!) this morning, and this afternoon we’re struggling to reach the mid-80s !  I dig that !

2.  Call me crazy, but “Cotton Eye Joe” by Rednex may just be the greatest hillbilly techno smash ever made. You can watch the original 1994 music video of it via my ‘Bedtime Stories’ from last night.

3.  Last week’s ‘Thursday Night Internet Hoax Hall-Of-Shame’ became our most-read blog entry ever within about 48 hours of its posting. Many of the top search engine terms that have brought all of this big-city rush hour traffic over to my blog include the stores Bed Bath & Beyond and Circuit City – and the words ‘bankruptcy’ and ‘hoax’. Thank You fans of both of those stores for discovering my blog and realizing that it is indeed an Internet hoax. Your stores are open for business. We’re actually getting a brand new Circuit City right here in Homestead !

4.  I ate more popcorn in one sitting at Travis and Kelly‘s house this past Sunday night during the “Survivor Micronesia” finale than in any other previous sitting in quite possibly my entire life and Life. I actually don’t like to eat popcorn, but once I get started with it I become addicted to it. 250 kernels of popcorn later …

5.  The grass is always greener where the sprinklers are – and where the dogs go to play.

6.  I gave blood this morning at a local medical facility in Downtown Homestead. The lady that drew the blood knew what she was doing. She had that needle in and out of my arm cleanly in no time flat. She got what she needed, and I was on my way with no pain or jaundice this time around.

7.  I wasn’t at work from 6 to 10 AM this morning, and during that time I was a wanted man. It seems that everyone needed me and nothing was working right during my absence. Lines began to form around me upon my arrival at work. I nearly had to issue out numbers on little paper tabs.

8.  I enjoyed Breakfast with my blogging brothers Travis and Phil this morning at the Cracker Barrel in Florida City (where all the food is). We mainly discussed blogging and bloggers. Travis and I agreed that LL Phil J’s blog is being subsidized by both of our blogs. It’s all good.

9.  Incidentally I totally adore eating MASSIVE meals with buddies who also adore eating MASSIVE meals. If you’re gonna sit at my table at the restuarant then you best be eatin’ good in the neighbourhood. That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout !

10.  I’m grabbing at straws for this week’s 10TH ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thought’, and that begs me to wonder why would you grab a bunch of straws in the first place ?  If you’re indecisive and don’t know what to do or where to go next then just do something. Put the straws down, and seize that moment. It could be the moment that defines your future and determines how everything else will evolve from that moment forward. Know what I mean, Gene ? 

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Animals Bugs God Health Holidays Home Life People Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Season 1 Recap

There was no walk around my neighbourhood on this Saturday morning. It was about 73°F and the relative humidity was very near 100% with lower visibility due to light fog. The South Florida summertime weather pattern has taken hold, and it will have a firm grip on us for the next 5+ months.

Last Saturday morning was the season finale of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’, and so I present to you a recap of the season that started on Christmas Eve with my TOP 10 thoughts (in chronological order):

1.  Monday December 24TH 2007 – If this were May, June, July, August, September, or October then I would have probably been eaten alive by every bug known to mankind, but this is December and it is just so refreshingly delightful outside !

2.  Tuesday January 01ST 2008 – You can tell where the party-animals live here in my neighbourhood. Their dumpsters are overflowing with leftover holiday week garbage. The dumpsters that were still able to be closed from the top are where the retired folks live … Dogs can be party-animals as well. I came within inches of stepping in some of their ‘holiday leftovers’ during my walk this morning. It was a close call !

3.  Saturday January 05TH 2008 – Walking is a great time for praying. I prayed for the residents of Homestead, Florida City, Redland, Leisure City, Naranja Lakes, and Princeton to be blessed by the Glory of God. I prayed that the believers stay strong and unwavering with their personal relationship with Jesus. I prayed that the non-believers be guided onto the on-ramp of the fantastic journey by the believers. There’s plenty of room for everyone who truly believes in Him !

4.  Saturday February 16TH 2008 –  A friend from afar recently asked me why I started this weekly walk. Besides the obvious health and fitness reasons this walk – inspired and encouraged by this fellow WordPress blogger – is symbolic of my walk with Jesus Christ. I’ve been walking with Him on His fantastic journey for about 18 months now. I was once a mannequin – plastic and rotting. Now I am alive. Since I am alive I am living Life (always capitalized) the way that I should have lived it during my previous 39 years on His great Earth. That includes throwing everything up in the air like ‘Tossed Salad’ (catch the symbolism there) and only catching the good stuff – the right stuff. A physical walk is now on my agenda to complement my spiritual walk with my Creator. No longer am I sitting still in neutral. I am now moving forward and going places with my Life. The Lord Almighty is driving me. I am merely His passenger.

5.  Saturday February 23RD 2008 – I received some disappointing news at my Doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. After numerous analyses of my blood work over the past several years he has finally made the determination that diet and exercise alone is not bringing down my bad cholesterol (LDL). It’s still in the ‘elevated’ range, and it doesn’t appear to be coming down on its own. He has prescribed Lipitor for me – 10 milligrams per day to start off with. He gave me a free 14-day sample of it to ensure that it doesn’t cause any bad side effects with me. If I feel fine after the first 14 days then it’s on to Walgreens to get my prescription filled. I take my first dosage this afternoon. This will probably be the start of daily medication for the rest of my Life. I am no longer a young buck. Apparently I am now a middle-aged dude with high cholesterol. I am facing the music.

6.  Saturday March 08TH 2008 – My semi-basic 1.4-mile walk on a rare full stomach was done so during treacherous weather conditions – with thick dark clouds hanging low overhead, strong gusty northwesterly winds of up to 25 MPH, cold air pouring in, and even a little bit of leftover drizzle on this fresh side of the powerful cold front. I will dream of mornings like this from April through October when it’s hot and sticky outside with no wind … The ducks were out and about this morning, and they appeared to be lost, dazed, confused, and perhaps even drunk. They were stumbling about, wandering around with no sense of direction, and I saw one of them nearly tumble over in a state of mass chaos. They were wondering why the weather had suddenly changed on them. Some of them probably drank too much (rain).

7.  Saturday March 29TH 2008 – Whenever I walk the walk I feel like I’ve taken back my neighbourhood. I’ve lived here for nearly 13 years, but I’ve only really lived here for the past 3 months. Before Christmas Eve 2007 the only walking I did was to and from the mailboxes and the dumpsters. From 1995 to 2007 I merely existed in this neighbourhood. Now I am fully alive. Taking back my neighbourhood from obscurity has been just like taking back my Life from the darkness. I’ve wrapped my arms around my entire neighbourhood just like I’ve embraced this new Life that God has given me.

8.  Saturday April 19TH 2008 – I may not have big muscles to show for it, but I am the most physically fit today than I have ever been in my entire life and Life. I am in far better shape today than I was during my late-teens and early-to-middle-20s when I had to run a mile-and-a-half every year in the Air Force.

9.  Saturday April 26TH 2008 – ‘The cat by the dumpster’ was there again. He looked at me with his sad yellow eyes with no fear. I think if I dropped a few morsels of tasty food by his side then he would have gobbled it all up in a split second and then followed me for the remaining mile-plus of my walk. 10 years later … 

10.  Saturday May 03RD 2008 – 2 little dogs were out for some early-morning shenanigans without their owner. I think they escaped from their patio. They were having a good ole time running all around in the street and on the grass – until they saw me !  That’s when they ran behind me and straight outta sight – probably back to where they belong. I wonder which one of those little dogs was the trouble-maker ?  Which one said to the other one, ‘Hey, follow me. We’re gonna go out and paint this town. We’re gonna go and get us into some monkey business this morning. Let’s go dog !’