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My November Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

#TravelThursday continues now with Part 4 of my 7-part blog series on my recent 18-day road-trip between South Florida and North Texas.

Last week I left-off on Day 6 in Dallas Texas when I visited the beautiful 66-acre Dallas Arboretum And Botanical Garden. Next time I drive to North Texas I hope to spend another half (or full) day there to see everything. On this visit they were all decorated for Christmas – which was a lot of fun, and it put me into the spirit of the season. I’d like to visit during another time of the year when they are holiday decoration-free. I took 40 photos of my trek around the park. I’ll be posting and captioning most of them onto my Flickr site early in 2022.

Days 7 and 8 were spent hanging out with my family (brother, sister-in-law, and 2 nieces). Day 8 – Thursday November 18TH 2021 – was actually supposed to be another mini-road-trip for me. I had planned to visit the nearby Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, Historic Downtown McKinney (self-guided walking tour), Collin County History Museum, and lunch at the Cadillac Pizza Pub. None of that happened. It was a full-day of fun planned well in advance, and it’s all deferred to my next road-trip to North Texas in a couple of years. (My next road-trip there may be my inaugural post-retirement road-trip.)

So let’s hit Day 9 – Friday November 19TH 2021. This was an action-packed day of fun on my own. It was a cold morning to get started. I headed east to the small town of Nevada. (It’s pronounced “na-VAY-da”.) My first stop was an old roadside diner that’s very popular with the locals – Watkins Country Cafe. I walked-in, and every table was full. Two guys at a table saw me standing and waiting, and they quickly finished-up and gave me their table. (That’s small-town friendliness right there.)

After my Breakfast there I proceeded a couple of miles away to the Military Heritage Collection Of North Texas. It’s a military museum that’s operated entirely by volunteers and funded solely by donations. (There is no admission.) I posted a 5-star review on Tripadvisor. This museum visit was the biggest surprise of my road-trip. This is the type of place that I would volunteer at if I lived in the local area.

From the military museum I proceeded over to the “Dallas” museum – as in the “Dallas” TV series – the Southfork Ranch. This was my 2ND visit. My 1ST visit was perhaps a dozen years earlier with my brother, but I don’t remember much of it. On this visit I took the guided tour – which starts as a tram tour behind the gift shop and museum. It continues as a walking tour inside the mansion (both floors). After that the tour is over, but you are free to roam the grounds of the ranch and walk inside many of the buildings within the compound. You can really spend a good half-day there checking it all out.

I became an unlikely fan of the “Dallas” TV series over in England of all places – over 8 years after its U.S. debut. Me and a couple of my military dorm buddies gathered each week to watch (and be mesmerized by) the latest episode that was being shown on the BBC. I ended-up watching the series until its 1991 ending after 14 seasons, and I also simultaneously caught-up on the reruns of the show from 1978 to 1986. I think I watched every single episode ever made, and I also watched the 40 episodes of the 2012 to 2014 reboot.

I drove an additional 47 miles on that Friday, so that’s 1,451 miles in 9 days of driving to North Texas and while there.

And that’s where I’ll end Part 4 of this 7-part blog series. I’ll continue with my road-trip adventures and experiences next #TravelThursday. I’ll fast-forward a full week to Day 16 – and the start of my long road-trip back home to South Florida.

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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1980s Animals Blogging Holidays Home Life Weather

The Legend Of Fluffy The Manx Cat

Merry Christmas to all of my friends all around the world. I wish you God’s abundant love and everlasting peace on this day and on every day.

Today it’s the return of a Christmas classic that’s been featured on my blog before in various forms. It’s the story of the greatest Christmas gift ever – the arrival of a cat.

It started out as a morning like any other, but just a few hours later it would become a morning that forever changed the lives of me and my little brother, and our Mom and Dad.

Exactly 38 years ago tomorrow morning on Friday December 23RD 1983 me (age 16½) and my little brother (age 8½) looked out our living room window at the snow and the ice on the ground of our backyard. It was a bitter cold morning in McLean Virginia 2 days before Christmas, and we were happy to be warm and comfortable inside.

But there was a creature stirring outside that was not warm and comfortable. It was a lonely young cat with no tail that was wandering around aimlessly on our ice-covered backyard patio deck, and it was shivering in misery. Me and my brother decided rather quickly that it did not belong in the harsh elements of the outside at that moment, so we opened the door and she walked right in to our more sheltered screened-in ‘Florida Room’.

We gave her some milk to drink. She loved us for it. We gave her some love. We heard a strange sound coming from her that we hadn’t heard before. It was the friendly and inviting sound of her purring. We let her in to our warm and comfortable home. She never looked back. In fact she refused to leave after that. We pretty much named her ‘Fluffy’ that day, and she instantly became an important part of our family – the missing link if you will.

That’s a young me in 1985 holding a young Fluffy. I was about 60 pounds lighter than I am today.

She was the 5TH member of our family, and she was the start of nearly 30 years of felines in our family. Fluffy loved us all, but she clearly adored me the most. During her younger years she anxiously awaited me to open the basement / laundry room door for her first thing in the morning so that she could run (and beat me) to my bedroom upstairs for a long round of petting and purring. During her later years in Jacksonville Florida when she was slowly dying she literally came back to life over and over again and jumped and loved on me and ran upstairs to my parents’ guest room whenever I arrived for a short visit. She lived a long, happy, and healthy life (until April of 2001), and she provided lots of love to our family starting with that very first Christmas of 1983.

There have been other cats and dogs within our family over the years since then. Fluffy eventually gained a feline roommate with Barney (also known as “the cat that never liked me”). After Fluffy’s death Barney eventually gained his own feline roommate with Pumpkin. Boots was my own loving cat and housemate for 12½ years here in Homestead Florida until his (expected) death on May 17TH 2007. He was the coolest cat that ever lived.

But it all started with “Fluffy The Manx Cat”. She was the Matriarch of all of our family pets (to this day). She was the Queen of her castle. She was the stability of our family. She was our family’s common denominator. She was the center of attention. She was the most lovable cat that ever lived.

Fun Fact: This WordPress blog is a spinoff of my former hit music based massivesmash.com web site that I created in 1995. That web site grew out of a previous web site known as “MANx On The Net”. That first web site was a spinoff of “MANx Cat BBS” (1993-1997) – a dial-up bulletin board system run via MS-DOS typical of its time that was inspired by and named after Fluffy.

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Bible Blogging Christian Driving God Ministry Music Radio Scripture Travel

My Top 10 Hits – Week 253

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 40+ years. Here’s this week’s chart:

COUNTUP MINISTRIES FOR THE WEEK ENDING SUNDAY DECEMBER 19TH 2021 WEEK 253
TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 3 6 Weary Traveler
[1ST week @ # 1]		 Jordan St. Cyr
2 4 3 Heart Of The Father Ryan Ellis
3 5 3 God Turn It Around Jon Reddick
4 2 8 In The House Crowder
5 1 8 On Our Way MercyMe Ft. Sam Wesley
6 6 11 Come What May We Are Messengers
7 7 6 Rejoice Andrew Ripp
8 9 3 For The Good Riley Clemmons
9 8 3 Heaven Help Me Zach Williams
10 10 2 Jesus Is Coming Back Jordan Feliz Ft. Mandisa & Jonathan Traylor

# 1 This Week In:
2020 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2019 – “Unstoppable God” – Sanctus Real
2018 – “Well Done” – The Afters
2017 – “Control (Somehow You Want Me)” – Tenth Avenue North

WEARY TRAVELER – Jordan St. Cyr’s 2ND hit is a # 1 smash just like his 1ST hit. “Weary Traveler” was an unlikely pop hit on my chart at the onset. It was released to U.S. Christian Radio back during the 2ND week of September, and K-LOVE picked-up on it a couple of weeks later. I didn’t like it / appreciate it at first, but it eventually grew on me. It quietly entered my chart at # 10, as my 18-day road-trip between South Florida and North Texas was getting underway last month. It became the anthem of my road-trip. Its powerful lyrics were appropriate for my journey, but they are also very relevant for the troubled world that we live in today.

Check out Jordan in his own words with the story behind the song:

“Come to Me – all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Let Me teach you – because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NLT)

2021 – Next Monday I’ll present my final weekly chart of 2021. On Wednesday December 29TH 2021 I’ll present “My Top 20 Hits – 2021”. Who’s got my # 1 smash of the entire year ? We shall soon find out.

This blog is # 33 worldwide on the Top 80 Christian Music Blogs and Websites in 2021 chart. Thank You for including us Feedspot !

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 5 new entries on Wednesday, 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.

All rights reserved (c) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday December 19TH 2021, 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.

Last Sunday I preached a full sermon to my church family. I preached on being “Holy & Redeemed”. It’s based on 1 Peter 1:13-23. Here’s an excerpt of that sermon:

Today I want to talk to you about being “Holy & Redeemed”. Let me start by asking you a couple of questions. Let me ask you this:  Who’s holy in here ?  Who’s holy in here ?  I’m holy. I’m holy because He is holy. That’s all. That’s the only reason I’m holy, No other reason. Because He is holy. Who’s redeemed in here ?  Same here. I’m redeemed. I’m redeemed because He redeemed me. Christ. Bought with a price. Set free by His blood. “Holy & Redeemed”. That’s me. That’s you.

Let’s jump-in to Scripture – starting with the Apostle Peter’s first letter – the first chapter – and verse 13:

So think clearly, and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.

When I last spoke from Peter’s first letter – it was about “Salvation & Hope”. Without God’s salvation – there is no hope, for hope comes from God – and only God. God created hope. God provides hope. God is hope. You can’t get everlasting hope from anyone other than our God !  You can get temporary hope from the world, but it only lasts for a season. It’s false hope. It picks you up, and then it’s gone with the wind.

You know once God rescues and saves us from the darkness that we came from – you know that darkness. That time of no hope. That time of no future. That time of no Savior. Who wants to go back to that time ?  Who wants to go back to that darkness ? Anyone ?  I didn’t think so. God rescued and saved us from all of that.

And since He did that we can’t think like we used to think – back before we had “Salvation & Hope” – back before we were “Holy & Redeemed”. We used to think and act differently when the world owned and operated us – back before we knew God. But now our God is in control. We believe Him. We follow Him. We trust Him. He’s within us. And so the Bible says “think clearly” – “prepare your minds for action”. The King James Version puts it this way – “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind”.

“Gird up” – that means to bind about – to fix – to secure – like with a belt. Back in the Apostle Peter’s day – the First Century – a man had to tuck the hem of his long robe into his belt before he could work. Now – “gird up the loins of your mind” – that means to secure your mind with its full power. You know God created us with powerful minds. And we only use a small portion of them. Or do we ?

You know most people think that we actually use only about 10% of our brains. You’ve probably heard that before. Well – I am here to tell you – that is fake news. Science tells us – and I believe in science – I hope that you do too. Science tells us that we use all 100% of our brains – definitely not all at the same time. We can’t handle the enormous brain power that we have available to us – all at the same time. We use most of our brain power at any given time – while we’re awake – and even while we’re asleep. We use different parts of our brain while we’re asleep, and that’s why we dream, and that’s why oftentimes we don’t remember our dreams. Sometimes we do. We tend to remember the really weird dreams.

But here’s what I’m getting at. Back when the world told us what to say and do, and we said it, and we did it – we didn’t have to think too hard about it. It just came natural to us. Our brain power didn’t need to rev-up. It didn’t need to accelerate. It was in “cruise control” – if you will.

Our God wants us to use more of our minds than we used to when the world told us what to say and do – back during those lazy days. You remember those days – don’t you ?  Anyone still wanna go back to those days ?  No ?  I didn’t think so.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. Tomorrow it’s #Top10Monday, as I present my personal Top 10 hits this week that honor our God Almighty on the radio.

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) 2021 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries