Category: Astronomy

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 20, 2021

I. #Introduction – Surprise. I’ve brought back an old favorite of this blog, but just for a single return appearance. This won’t become a regular weekly feature again. This was once the flagship of this blog. It started in 2007 on Myspace – inspired by fellow bloggers of the era. It continued here on WordPress for 129 well-read editions. This is the first edition on WordPress in over 11 years. I brought it back briefly on Facebook after that. This is essentially my instant “brain dump” online. It’s what’s on my mind – right here – right now. I have no idea what I’ll write – until my fingers hit the keyboard. Once it’s done it gets posted immediately. I wanted to do something different to observe 2,000 blog posts here on WordPress, and this is what I came up with. #Blogging101

II. #Lunch – I’ve written about Longhorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, and Red Lobster many times before here on my #GrabBag. Back in 2008 and 2009 they were being built and opened in my city right next to each other just 3 miles away from my home. Longhorn and Olive Garden continue to thrive with delicious food, great service, and an abundance of customers all day every day. Red Lobster is struggling. I don’t go there very often anymore, and when I do there aren’t that many people there – both customers and employees. They appear to be poorly managed at this time. As a church group we’ve dropped the place from our regular rotation due to poor service. I went back today solo on a reconnaissance mission to see if they have improved. They failed. They were closed 18 minutes after they were supposed to be open at 11 AM. I went back to Longhorn – the place that I’ve been to more than any other restaurant in my city. My favorite waitress served me. She was fantastic, and my meal was delicious. #CaseClosed

III. #ManOnTheMoon – 52 years ago today on July 20TH 1969 (a Sunday) man walked on the moon for the first time ever. It was one small step for man – one giant leap for mankind. I actually remember watching it as a 2-year-old toddler in our cozy Greenbelt Maryland apartment on our giant (25-inch) living room TV set that was essentially heavy furniture that weighed several hundred pounds. I smiled when R.E.M.‘s “Man On The Moon” played on my iPod Shuffle at my desk at work this morning. #Appropriate

IV. #WeatherOnTheFours – Today we had a lot of quick-moving heavy showers around the area, but we also had a lot of hot sunshine. Sometimes the sun was shining bright while the rain was pouring down. Sounds like a typical “rainy season” day. We started-off this morning right around 78°F / 26°C, and we managed to reach 90°F / 32°C. Slightly drier and hotter days are headed this way – along with some Saharan dust. #Gesundheit

V. #FamilyPhotoOn5 – I stumbled across this photo recently. It’s from a long time ago – the Summer of 1977 (I believe). It could be ’78. I’m 10 (or 11). My little brother is 2 (or 3). We’re definitely in Ocean City Maryland with our neighbor friends. I went fishing for the first time ever in my life, and look what I caught ! Please excuse my outfit. I didn’t dress myself back then. #CutenessOverload

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend (which starts very soon) – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends ! May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The Hot Water Heater That Lasted Two Lifetimes

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 19, 2020

Happy Thursday March 19TH 2020 – the first day of Spring here in the U.S.A. Spring starts at 11:49 PM EDT / 8:49 PM PDT tonight. It’s our earliest Vernal Equinox since 1896. You can read all about why that’s the case at one of my favorite web sites – SPACE.COM.

So on to the weird headline for this blog post. This past Sunday morning I noticed something quite peculiar with the water coming out of my shower with the dial set at its usual position. The water was scalding hot ! I simply turned the dial clockwise a bit to allow more cold weather to breakdown the hot weather, and then I didn’t think much of it after that. Later in the day I turned on my kitchen faucet, and the water was scalding hot with the handle set at its usual position. The same was true for both of my bathroom faucets. It was then when I figured it all out.

My longtime hot water heater was dying. It’s common knowledge (apparently) that some hot water heaters gradually lose their effectiveness to produce hot water over an extended period of time. And then there are others that suddenly start to malfunction by near-boiling the water inside the tank just before they completely die. Mine was obviously the latter type. It was going on one final super binge before eventually burning out.

The next morning (Monday) – after a mostly sleepless night and actually dreaming vividly about my dying hot water heater – I took one final quick shower with great care. After that I called my favorite local plumbing company to schedule a service call to remove and replace my old hot water heater – which incidentally was manufactured in 1993 ! It was 27 years old !

A standard 40-gallon electric hot water heater isn’t supposed to last that long. You’re lucky if you get 10 to 15 years out of one. Mine somehow lasted twice that long. It was the hot water heater that was already in-place when I moved in to my current home back in 1995. I estimate that it provided me at least 8,500 hot showers over the past 25 years.

So it’s out with the old – and in with the new.

My favorite local plumbing company came through for me in my time of need, and they were in and out in almost exactly 2 hours. Normal hot water began flowing again within an hour after that. No more worries for awhile in the hot water department of my home.

My weekend of blogging is just getting started. I’ll be back tomorrow (Friday) with an all-new RETRO from March 2000.

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Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date October 10, 2019

Let’s try this again – a rapid-fire session of thoughts on my mind right this minute:

It’s been awhile since I last did this.
In fact it’s been since Thursday August 01ST 2019.
I’m not sure that some of you “get this” feature.
If you’ve been following my blogs for the past 12 years then you “get this”.
For those that don’t “get this” no worries – just follow along.
Last night was our last sunset at 7 PM or after here until next March.
It’s getting darker earlier, and I like that.
In a little over 3 weeks we return to Standard Time.
I prefer Standard Time over Daylight Saving Time.
I wish we stayed on Standard Time all year long.
Most people don’t know what Daylight Saving Time is.
Pretty soon we’ll start getting cooler here in South Florida.
By “cooler” I mean the 60s in the morning instead of the 70s.
We’re still a good month away from feeling some 50s.
Our 5-month rainy season is almost over.
It’s been a below average rainy season.
I enjoy our 7-month dry season from October to May.
I hope to begin my dry season weekend fitness walks soon.
I hope to do much better than I did last dry season.
It’s Columbus Day Weekend here in the U.S.
I adore 3-day holiday weekends.
Maybe I’ll go for a walk in the park this Saturday morning.
I mostly plan to continue writing my next sermon this weekend.
It’s on God’s “Kindness & Love”.
I have another sermon that I’m working on titled “Ways & Memes”.
I’ll be stepping completely out of my comfort zone for that one.
There’s a few movies that I hope to see on HBO On Demand this weekend.
One of them is that World War 1 movie, “They Shall Not Grow Old”.
I’m really looking forward to a quiet and productive weekend at home.
Tomorrow on the blog my RETRO series continues with 15 years ago.
My new blog posts go LIVE at 3 AM U.S. East Coast time aside from Sunday.
I blog 4 times per weekend on Thursdays, Fridays, Sundays, and Mondays.
I don’t blog on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
If I were to add a 5TH day of blogging then I’d add Tuesdays.
But I have no plans to do that anytime soon.
Programming Alert: The 50TH GMA Dove Awards are coming soon.
The show occurs LIVE in Nashville next Tuesday October 15TH.
It airs on TBN the following Sunday October 20TH at 8 PM EDT.
I’ll be live-tweeting during the entire telecast !
Join me that night on Twitter @ChrisMDay as I talk God’s music.
The next morning I’ll reveal my brand new Top 10 music chart.
Well those are my rapid-fire one-line thoughts for now.
Enjoy your weekend and this 10TH day of the 10TH month.

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Home Sweet Homestead

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 9, 2019

I’m back from vacation ! My 6-day / 590-mile / 14-county Florida road-trip has come to a close. My trek started in deep South Miami-Dade County (where my home is), and it continued northward through Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, and Polk Counties, westward into Hillsborough County (Tampa), southward through Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier Counties, and then back into Miami-Dade County. I also came within a few feet of touching (mainland) Monroe County for a second.

It was a fun trip. I saw a couple of current movies, I did a little bit of shopping (didn’t buy anything), I ate a lot of good food, I walked over 60,000 steps (to burn-off that good food), I did a lot of sightseeing, I visited some historical museums and animal-based tourist attractions, I went to two Christian music concerts, and I spent a lot of time at the beach.

I saw and I did things that I had never seen or done before in my life. This was a classic vacation. I get to spend the near future reminiscing about the times I enjoyed via the 140+ photos and 1 video I captured during all of the fun.

The 1 video I captured is a spectacular 3½-minute video of this past Tuesday night’s sunset on Venice Beach Florida. The video captures the 3 minutes leading up to the sun dropping below the horizon at sea as well as the 30 seconds right after that moment. I intended to post that video in its entirety here on my blog, but I realized that I can’t upload videos on here with my current WordPress plan. The video is also about 1:10 too long for Twitter, so I’ll have to figure out how to trim it down to 2:20 for Twitter.

In the meantime here’s Monday night’s sunset at 8:05 PM EDT on Venice Beach.

Sunset