Category: Astronomy

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Animals Astronomy Career Driving God Nature Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

A fresh new week of blogging begins – right here – right now !

I.  Year-Long Standard Time – If we stayed on Standard Time all year long and eliminated Daylight Saving Time from March through November then life would be so much more simple – and timely. Here in America’s Riviera in the middle of June when our days are at their longest and our nights are at their shortest we would have a sunrise of exactly 5:30 AM on Standard Time. That means that daylight would begin showing its presence shortly before 5 AM !  All the way up the Atlantic coast in Portland Maine the sunrise would actually occur just before 4 AM with daylight appearing before 3:30 AM !  While farmers everywhere would absolutely dig such an early sunrise in June most Americans would simply not appreciate it. So the next time that you scoff at losing an hour of sleep on that one weekend in March when you have to ‘spring forward’ just remember what life would be like without it. You would be up at the crack of dawn – the crack of 5 AM in June !  Next week I will explain to you what life would be like in December for most of us if we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year long, but right now it is time to move on to my next thought …

II.  Public Speaking 101 – Tonight at my weekly Toastmasters club meeting I’ll be giving my 2ND major speech since I joined just a little over 4 months ago. This is what it is all about. It will be a 5 to 7½-minute speech mostly comprised of a subject matter that I knew little to nothing about just 5 weeks ago. I’ll be standing up in front of my new friends and speaking directly to them with minimal usage of notes. Much of my speech will be based on actual experience rather than written material. In fact my notes are essentially one giant outline rather than an actual speech. It does include a few supporting facts and figures that I’ll be referencing during my speech. I’m also on the active hosting rotation at Life Pointe Church on Sunday mornings. I lead Communion, I pray, and I speak to my brothers and sisters from the big stage armed only with a wireless microphone and my notes. Who would have guessed that this would ever happen in my Life ?  That I would be standing up on a stage at a church in a movie theatre on a Sunday morning ?  I’m also facilitating and leading formal information briefings at work on most Thursday mornings. Who would have guessed that I would be involved in all of this public speaking at an organized club – at church – and in my career. All of this is brand new as of the past half a year or so. Each public speaking opportunity has found a way to complement and enhance one another, and I am so amazed at the progress that I have made in this once dormant area of my Life. Once upon a time I was the most timid dude I knew. Public speaking was just never going to happen – no matter what. It was just totally impossible to occur. But then something miraculous happened some 43 months ago. God saved me. He took the dead man out of me. He said “Follow me.” I did.

III.  The 400-Mile Road-Trip – I’m still 3 days away from my next road-trip over to the Naples area, yet I’m already planning my next big road-trip for the final weekend of April. I’ve got a 400-mile (at least) road-trip planned that will take me up to Lion County Safari in Palm Beach County. After a fun-filled day at the park with the animals big and small I’ll be following the old historic U.S. Highway 98 over to the eastern shores of Lake Okeechobee. Around the Big Lake ‘O’ I go until I reach the coast-to-coast ‘7-0’. That’s Florida State Road 70 near the city of Okeechobee. I’m taking it all the way to Fort Pierce where I’m spending the night at a hotel. The next day it will be a nice scenic Springtime drive from the Atlantic shores of Fort Pierce Beach down to Palm Beach County solely along Florida State Road A1A and U.S. 1. It’s a huge chunk of southeast Florida that I’ve never seen before, and I’m so looking forward to discovering what’s there for me in my quest to find my ultimate vacation and retirement destination.

Those are my Thoughts on this Tuesday night. I thank you for your time, and I hope that you continue to spend a little bit of your valuable time each day supporting this blog and living Life with me.

Until we blog again (tomorrow) … REMEMBER THIS !

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Astronomy Bugs Nature Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Everglades National Park

YESTERDAY I visited Everglades National Park to spend the day outside with nature. Here are my takeaways in 15 words or less:

– Me and a buddy arrived out there shortly after 9 AM while it was still foggy.
– I knew that it would eventually be a sunny and hot day – and it was.
– We took a cool 1 hour and 45 minute tour of the former Nike Missile Site.
– It’s a small abandoned military base that was active from 1964 to 1979.
– It’s remnants are now owned and operated by The National Park Service.
– They started giving (limited) guided tours of it just last year.
– Our tour guide – Ryan – was thorough and knowledgeable.
– Check out this article for more information on the site.
– After the tour and a quick Lunch in the car we went hiking on some trails.
– We took on a couple of easy trails at first – less than a mile combined.
– And then we went for the gusto.
– We went on a 6.0-mile hike through muck and mosquitoes.
– We walked the entire 2.6-mile length of the Rowdy Bend trail eastbound.
– Then we took the Snake Bight trail 0.3-miles south to Florida Bay.
– Then we walked the entire 3.0-miles all the way back to our car.
– I smothered myself with Off / Deet before the hike, but it wasn’t enough.
– The trails were totally infested with swarming and biting mosquitoes.
– They were drinking the Off / Deet, and biting through my shirt !
– In addition to the hundreds of mosquito bites I also got a facial sunburn.
– If I go out into the woods without sunscreen then I might just be a redneck.
– I was totally shocked as to the abundance of mosquitoes on the trails.
– They froze to death during the recent freeze, but then new ones took over.
– It’s been a very wet dry season, so it didn’t take long for new skeeters to be.
– They are totally hungry and thirsty for human blood, and so we were Lunch.
– After the 6.0-mile hike we ventured down to Flamingo on the Bay.
– We took a really nice 1 hour and 45 minute boat tour of Florida Bay.
– We went westward adjacent to the south coast and towards the sunset.
– The sun set at precisely 5:59 PM, as that’s when the disc touched the horizon.
– The sun hit the horizon and then took a mere 3 minutes to drop below it.
– It was one of the most perfect sunsets I have seen in my entire Life !
– There were no clouds in the way obscuring it in any way.
– As our sun was setting it was rising simultaneously in Shanghai China.
– It was a nice tour of the bay, and quite refreshing after a hot and sweaty day.
– Water temperatures on the bay have slowly recovered back to the upper-60s.
– It was recently much colder than that, and thousands of fish died.
– It didn’t smell very nice at the shore with all of the dead fish floating.
– It may take a couple of years for a normal fish population to return.
– I really enjoyed my day out with nature despite the bites and burns.
– I hope to do it again sometime before the end of the current dry season.
– Thank You God for all of your Glorious Creations !

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Astronomy God Health Home Life Music People Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 6:33 AM – 7:13 AM
Sky: Clear
Temperature: 58°F
Dewpoint: 55°F
Relative Humidity: 89%
Winds: W 3 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 29.93 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I walked around my neighbourhood in the cold.
– 58°F is cold after a long hot and humid South Florida summer !
– I did something quite different this time around.
– I woke up, I put clothes and shoes on, and I did my walk.
– Last season I’d take a hot shower before the long walk.
– That really didn’t make too much sense to me.
– Especially when it wasn’t too cold out and I sweat.
– Now the hot shower comes after the long walk.
– It was the nicest-feeling hot shower in recent medium-term memory !
– This was actually my first walk around my neighbourhood in over 8 months !
– I last did the walk on the first Saturday morning of March !
– I set no records with this walk, but I did walk an estimated 2.2 miles.
– I did that in 40.7 minutes.
– My legs started to hurt just a little bit towards the end of the walk.
– That’s what happens when I don’t walk for over 8 months.
– Sunrise occurred at 6:38 AM – 5 minutes into my walk.
– The Sun first hit me at an incredible time.
– It was when Jesse Santoyo was singing on my iPod Shuffle.
– “I feel so alive – You are by my side.”
– I got the chills when I heard that as the Sun hit me.
– That’s the daylight that I’m chasing on this fantastic journey.
– Walking a couple of miles around my neighbourhood is good for me.
– It’s good for my health, and it’s good for my mind, heart, and soul.
– Thank You Lord Jesus for allowing me to live within your great creations.
– Thank You Lord Jesus for giving me a second chance at this thing called Life.

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Astronomy Blogging Career Driving God Health History Holidays Music Television Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s be extreme.
– Only 56 more hours until Daylight Saving Time ends and Standard Time begins.
– I’m lookin’ forward to that.
– I’ll appreciate the hint of daylight on my way to work shortly after 6 AM.
– I wish we stayed on Standard Time all year long.
– It was another meeting-filled Thursday at work.
– I was in our conference room for about 3 hours of various meetings.
– It’s sort of like the boardroom on “The Apprentice“.
– I dig it because I never get fired.
– If you adore the hot and humid weather then this is your last gasp to enjoy it.
– More normal temperatures return next week with a series of cold fronts.
– I’m also expecting a major cooldown in about 2 to 3 weeks.
– I hinted about that on my Twitter account last night.
– Are you ready for an unusually chilly and wet winter season ?
– December, January, and February could be ridiculous around these parts !
– I’m lookin’ forward to much lower electric bills this winter.
– They typically average as much as 60% lower than during the summer months.
– I’m hoping to kickstart ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ on Saturday December 05TH.
– That’s where I walk around my neighbourhood early on Saturday mornings.
– I pray for my neighbours, enjoy God’s creations around me, and get healthy.
– Those are 3 things that I never did prior to the start of this fantastic journey.
– 3 weeks from tomorrow morning my long road trip to and from Texas begins.
– I plan to start packing up my car with odds and ends to take with me soon.
– The best part of it all is that I can bring whatever I feel like bringing.
– There is no charge for my luggage, and there is no weight limit.
– Sat. is Halloween for those of you that care enough to send the very best.
– I’ve got a special double feature for you here on the big scary blog.
– First in the morning it’s a special ‘Halloween Morning Shenanigans’.
– Then at night on ‘Retro’ we’re gonna do “The Monster Mash”.
– But before that tomorrow night is Disco night.
– I’ve got the # 1 smash in the U.S. the day Jimmy Carter became President.
– Be sure to check that out, and enjoy your upcoming weekend !
– Be safe, and turn around – don’t drown.