Category: Astronomy

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Monday Night Countdown

Here are the TOP 5 things that I’m looking forward to this week:

5.  St. Patrick’s Day – Believe it or not I’m 50% Irish (on the paternal side), and I always look forward to showing off my Irish heritage by wearing lots of green on this date every year. Look for me in my flame retardant leprechaun outfit tomorrow on the streets of Homestead !

4.  Life Group – That’s this Wednesday night, and due to a wide variety of reasons I haven’t attended in exactly a month. I can’t wait to get back to the group again to discuss The New Testament of The Good News !  We also need to reschedule our Key West ‘Bike-A-Thon’.

3.  One word – Publix – It’s my playground. I don’t know how to cook, but then again I don’t need to know how to cook as long as I know how to shop for food – and I do that very well thank you. Whenever I’m at Publix I’m as happy as can be. It’s all of that food staring at me and begging and crying out for me to buy it. Oh yeah and the pop, rock, and disco music that usually blares through the sound system. It makes me wanna dance up and down the aisles like a crazy man.

2.  Dentist Appointment – Believe it or not I actually look forward to this cleaning appointment every six months. I always get scolded by my dental hygenist for (allegedly) not flossing and brushing properly. Six months ago after my last scolding I slightly altered my flossing and brushing routine and made it even more all-encompassing. (Right now my brother is giggling because he just read through an inside family joke there.)

1.  Vernal Equinox – Spring begins at precisely 7:44 AM EDT this Friday morning, and that means that the Sun is on our side of the Equator for the first time in nearly six months. That’s real important to me because when I’m confused I check with the Sun. I carry a compass to help me along. My feet are going to be on the ground. My head is there to move me around …

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Astronomy Food Health Movies Shopping Television Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s that time of the week again. It’s time for the flagship weekly series here on the big green blog – the one that started it all back in 2007 !

1.  Fire season is in high gear all across America’s Riviera. It started early this season due to the cold and dry winter that we enjoyed – oh yeah – and the frost that killed the grass all around and made it crunchy. Over the past 5 months (since Oct.) we’ve only had one rain-soaking day. America’s Riviera – ON FIRE !

2.  Travis watched the beautiful sunrise kick-off Tuesday morning over in Seoul South Korea at around 6:50 AM local time. That was at 5:50 PM EDT yesterday evening here in America’s Riviera. Nearly 14 hours later at around 7:40 AM EDT this morning I watched that same sunrise kick-off Tuesday morning outside of my east-facing office window at work.

3.  I want to fly Jet Blue somewhere. It looks like a really cool airline. I spent a lot of time on their official web site last night. I took some virtual trips to Austin Texas, Washington D.C., and Hamilton Bermuda. They don’t fly to Dallas-Fort Worth, but they fly to Austin. I’m almost willing to fly in to Austin and then grab a rental car and drive up to the Dallas area the next time I visit Texas.

4.  I have a fun afternoon planned for Southland Mall later this month. I plan to see the comedy blockbuster “I Love You, Man“, and then I plan to eat pig-out at the all-new Buffalo Wild Wings. I have a feeling that I’ll be visiting the mall more frequently now that BWW is in full effect.

5.  I’m having problems losing the pounds that I packed on during my recent Carnival cruise. It appears that I’m actually gaining even more weight, and that I’m stuck in the mid-170s (if not approaching the upper-170s) !  I may have to contact “The Biggest Loser” for assistance in this matter.

… And that’s what I’m thinking about on this Tuesday night.

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Astronomy Food God History Holidays Life Shopping Television

New Year’s Day Morning Shenanigans

THIS MORNING I said hello to 2009 for the very first time just before 7 AM. I got a good 7 hours of sleep overnight. That means that when 2008 officially became 2009 at the stroke of Midnight (leap second notwithstanding) I was already asleep.

It’s 2009 now – the start of the 44TH year of existence for me since I was created by God (in 1966). It’s also my 26TH year as a U.S. Government employee, and it’s my 23RD year of living here in Homestead America’s Riviera. Most important of them all it’s the start of the 4TH year of this fantastic journey that I’m on following Jesus Christ. 2009 is going be the greatest year of my entire Life !

This morning I continued an unofficial New Year’s Day Morning tradition for me – I did my grocery shopping for the next couple of weeks or so at Publix. As is usually the case on New Year’s Day Morning I pretty much had the entire store to myself and perhaps not even a dozen of my fellow hungry pleasure-filled shoppers. Due to a MA$$IVE $ale at Publix I nabbed about $80 in food and other general merchandise for less than $45. That included the use of a surprising Publix gift card that I got for Christmas that was so amazing that I created a happy spectacle of myself right there at the checkout lane. Talk about Shenanigans !

New Year’s Day shall continue for me as I do several loads of laundry while watching hours and hours of televised New Year’s Eve festivities that I recorded last night from Carson Daly (NBC), Dick Clark / Ryan Seacrest (ABC), Spike Feresten / Mark Thompson (FOX), and Anderson Cooper / Kathy Griffin (CNN).

Have a great New Year’s Day my friends !  THRIVE IN 2009 !

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Animals Astronomy God Health Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 54°F
Dewpoint: 43°F
Relative Humidity: 65%
Winds: N 10 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.16 Rising

1. When I walked outside this morning at 7:04 AM I exclaimed, “Ooh – Nice and refreshing !’  That was before I hit the 10 MPH winds (with higher gusts). I live within feet of a somewhat elevated Florida’s Turnpike. I didn’t realize that it was such a wind shelter. Once I walked away from it the winds shattered my teeth and pierced my ears.

2.  Homestead was shivering, and so was I. I quickly decided that this was not going to be the long 2.0-mile-plus walk that I envisioned. It turned out to be a simple 1.3-mile walk completely around the perimeter of my neighbourhood. I did it in exactly 24 minutes. That’s an average of 3.25 MPH.

3.  The Moon was at its closest distance to Earth overnight in nearly 16 years (since March 1993). It was large and bright. I saw it last night as it was climbing the eastern sky, and I saw it again during this morning’s walk as it was dropping towards the western horizon. Last night’s Full Moon was known as the ‘Long Night Moon’ (for obvious reasons). It was up for 14½-hours.

4.  I saw no cats outside this morning. They were all keeping warm inside or underneath vehicles. There were a lot of ducks out and about. They too were shivering. They should have gone in the lake. The water was at least 20° warmer than the air. I was looking for ‘lake-effect’ snows as that cold northerly wind blew across the warmer big lake that I walked around.

5.  This morning’s walk was certainly uncomfortable, but you can’t make any progress in Life if you’re always comfortable. On God’s fantastic journey you should never get into a groove or think that you’re ‘there’. You’re never there, and there’s always something bigger and better just around the corner. The status quo produces nothing relevant. Sitting in neutral is not living. It’s dying. You’ve got to continue to move forward on this journey – always asking and looking for more. The journey doesn’t end until you’ve been reunited with your Maker. That’s when you know that you’ve finally made it to the Promised Land.