Category: Blogging

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Blogging Driving Geography Travel

The Cars Of Sebring

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. A couple of weeks ago I shared with you how we speak Sebring, and I also introduced to you “The Birds Of Sebring” – the names that make up “The Bird Streets”. This is a continuation of that fascinating post.

“I’m on the Parkway” means that I’m on the Sebring Parkway. That’s our main highway that serves as a bypass of U.S. 27 on the other (mostly east) side of Lake Jackson. Both ends of the Parkway are on U.S. 27 about 5½ miles apart. The Parkway itself is about 6½ miles long, and it skirts the northern edge of the 1920s historic downtown district at North Ridgewood Drive. The Sebring Train Station (which celebrates its 100TH birthday in 2024) is right along the Parkway. (I wrote about it here on #TravelThursday back in July.)

I frequently take the Parkway from my neighborhood in North Sebring into downtown Sebring. From 2017 to 2019 a new parkway – Panther Parkway – added a 4½-mile stretch from the original Sebring Parkway to the southern portions of neighboring Avon Park (to the north). So you can now easily drive between the two cities without ever getting on U.S. 27.

Along U.S. 27 (or “Highway 27”, or simply “27”) you either have a U.S. Highway 27 N. (as in North) address, or a U.S. Highway 27 S. (as in South) address. The unassuming border – or “zero address” line – is the start of Lakeview Drive as it juts off of northbound U.S. 27. Lakeview Drive is the closest road to Lake Jackson (“The Big Lake”), and it not quite circles the lake from about an 8:00 position – clockwise – to about a 5:00 position.

OK – so here are “The Car Streets” of Sebring just off U.S. Highway 27 N:

Abarth, Alpine, Arnolt, Aston Martin, Austin, Bentley, Benz, Bolide, Bristol, Camaro, Citroen, Comet, Cooper, Corvair, Corvette, Cougar, Dauphine, Falcon, Ferrari, Fiat, Grand Prix, Hawk, Healey, Hillman, Jaguar, Lancia, Lark, Lemans, Lexus, Lister, Lola, Lotus, Maserati, Mercedes, Osca, Peugeot, Porsche, Renault, Replica, Riley, Romeo, Scarab, Shamrock, Simca, Singer, Sprite, Sunbeam, Talbot, Thunderbird, Triumph, Valiant, Vanwall, Volvo.

You can find all of those streets “behind Walmart”. That’s more Sebring speak there. And if you’re like me – I actually Googled some of those names to see if they are really names of cars. YES – they are !

Next #TravelThursday – We’re going to the dump. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Christian God Ministry Music Radio

My Top 10 Hits – Week 349

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back over 45 years. Here’s this week’s chart – for the week ending Sunday October 22ND 2023 – the 349TH week of this current era that began on Presidents’ Day Weekend of 2017:

TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 11 Praise The Lord
[2ND week @ # 1]		 Micah Tyler
2 2 14 Praise You Anywhere Brandon Lake
3 3 10 Hallelujah Feeling Caleb & John
4 – 1 I Thank God Housefires Ft. JWLKRS Worship
5 5 16 To Not Worship You MercyMe
6 6 11 Jesus Does We The Kingdom
7 4 12 Heaven Changes Everything Big Daddy Weave
8 8 8 Parking Lot Cochren & Co.
9 7 6 What Are We Waiting For ? for King + Country
10 9 3 Firm Foundation (He Won’t) Cody Carnes

# 1 This Week In:
2022 – “Good Morning Mercy” – Jason Crabb
2021 – “What If” – Matthew West
2020 – “Rise Up (Lazarus)” – Cain
2019 – “Fear No More” – Building 429
2018 – “Only Jesus” – Casting Crowns
2017 – “Word Of Life” – Jeremy Camp

I THANK GOD – Hot and fresh and straight-in to my chart at # 4 this week is the HI-NRG song for God that has got me singing and dancing during Praise & Worship with my new Sebring Florida church family. You may be familiar with the Maverick City Music version of this song from a couple of years ago. This is the Housefires version with JWLKRS (Jaywalkers) Worship, and it features Blake Wiggins (part of the large Housefires collaboration out of Atlanta Georgia) and Ryan Ellis (“Heart Of The Father”, “All My Praise”). Nationally at U.S. Christian radio it’s sitting just outside of the Top 10, and I expect it to surge in the coming weeks and perhaps vie for the # 1 spot in November into December.

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again with the new weekend – and 3 new entries – known as #TravelThursday, #SundayScripture, and #MusicMonday.

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 X and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May our 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.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Bible Blogging Christian Church God Internet Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday October 22ND 2023, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

Looks like for the first time in my pastoral ministry I’ll be leading my longtime church family in Homestead – and preaching for 4 Sundays in a row between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ve done it 2 and 3 Sundays in a row, but never 4 in a row. I’m up for the challenge, and I’ll be looking solely to God for His guidance, direction, wisdom, and encouragement.

I plan to preach 4 traditional (well-prepared) sermons. The sermon that I’ve been writing (and stalling and struggling with) for over 5 months now on Jude’s letter to the Christians near the end of the New Testament is now going to be a 2-part message series on consecutive Sunday mornings. God gave me clarity on this sermon, and I’m back on-track now. He gave me so much clarity that He gave me 2 sermons worth of clarity. I don’t even have a title yet for the 2ND week of my Jude message, but God will reveal it to me in His time.

I’ll also be preaching my “Pray & Believe” sermon that I rejuvenated here on #SundayScripture for 10 weeks this past summer. If you missed any part of that sermon series then you can catch-up over on my SERMONS page. It’s listed as my 58TH sermon, and I’ve provided hyperlinks to each of the 10 parts. (Remember these are transcripts – not videos or podcasts.)

I have a few ideas for my 4TH of 4 sermons a week before Christmas. I’ll need to pray about it so that I preach the right sermon at the right time.

So – as you can see – I have a lot of work to do over the next month to prepare myself mentally, physically, and spiritually for these 4 sermons in a row. If God ever gives me the opportunity to be the Lead Pastor of a church family in my new hometown (or even my new neighborhood) – then these 4 sermons would be reflective of what Sunday morning services would be like.

Sing to the LORD. Praise His name.
Each day proclaim the Good News that He saves.
Publish His glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things He does.
(Psalm 96:2-3 NLT)

My testimony is featured here each week on #SundayScripture whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
Blogging Geography Travel Weather

El Niño Winter

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. I was previously planning to write about “The Cars Of Sebring” as a continuation of last Thursday’s fascinating post on “The Birds Of Sebring”, but I decided to change the script and write about the weather instead. (It’s always an easy subject to write about for me.) Don’t worry – those cars will be reported on next Thursday (unless I call another audible).

It’s been a cold week so far here in the Heartland of Florida. (As a refresher – the Heartland is that mostly rural inland region of South-Central Florida that’s southeast of Tampa and southwest of Orlando.)

Due to a plunging jet stream and trough in the east with several strong cold fronts sweeping through – December and January-like temperatures invaded the Heartland (and all of Florida). The 50s actually made it all the way south to the Everglades in South Florida, and the 40s (even mid-40s) poured into the northern suburbs of the Tampa Bay area. We actually set some record low daytime high temperatures this past Monday and Tuesday – with the low-70s – or about 15°F below normal. (Our normal high for this time of the year is still the mid-80s, and our normal low is still the low-70s here in Sebring.)

We dipped down to 52°F here in my part of Sebring with wind chills around 48°F on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at dawn. It felt good and weird – like we suddenly plunged into winter after 5 months of a hotter and dryer than normal summer. I had to dig-in to my limited winter clothing collection.

Our rainy season has ended. September 30TH is generally the unofficial end of the rainy season here in the Heartland. (It’s October 15TH in South Florida.) We’re now in our 7-to-8-month dry season when we get just 30% of our annual rainfall.

But it’s an El Niño Winter, so that means cooler and wetter than normal for Florida (all regions). So far – it’s living up to its reputation. This is (already) our strongest El Niño since the Winter of 2015-2016, and that was one of the strongest ever recorded. (This one likely won’t be as strong.)

Unfortunately – El Niño Winters also bring severe weather to Florida, as the leading edge of this early winter weather arrived after a confirmed 6 tornados (EF0 to EF2) in the Tampa Bay area last week.

Fun Fact: That strong El Niño Winter of 2015-2016 ? I recorded an unprecedented 13 days in Homestead Florida that we did not reach 70°F. (Normal is 6.)

Want to learn more about El Niño (and La Niña) ? The NOAA does a very good job of explaining it here.

So – it should be a very interesting winter season here in Florida. I’ll keep watching and studying it just like I’ve done for the past 45 years, and I’ll even post pictures of it occasionally.

Next #TravelThursday – I’ll tell you all about the cars of Sebring – unless I change my mind again. Let’s keep traveling together.

All rights reserved (c) 2023 Christopher M. Day, CountUp