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The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
It’s Friday July 02ND, and it’s the long extended 4TH Of July holiday weekend here in the U.S.A. Go out and make it an enjoyable one, but always play it safe in everything that you do. I’m 1,400+ miles away from home within the vast northeastern suburbia of Dallas Texas. I’m here visiting my little brother, his lovely wife, their adorable 10-week-old daughter (my niece), their old dog, our parents, and later on this weekend our favourite Aunt and Uncle who I haven’t seen in about 7 years. It’s my 2ND visit here in exactly 7 weeks. When I return back home again I’ll be less than 10 days away from my next big weekend vacation getaway. I’ll have more on that next weekend on the ‘Blast-Off”.

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
Longhorn Steakhouse – 12-ounce (NOT 12-inch) Renegade Top Sirloin, Loaded Baked Potato, Bread, Coke.

15 WEEKEND MINI THOUGHTS:
– My American Airlines flight from Miami to Dallas was rather uneventful.
– Due to severe weather in Central FL we took an unusual route out of Miami.
– We traced the entire Florida Keys from Key Biscayne to past Key West !
– We essentially flew directly over the Homestead area.
– I waved down at all of my friends back home and on Key Largo and Tavernier.
– I even saw Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson from way up there.
– We crossed right over the middle of the Gulf Of Mexico into Louisiana.
– The entire trek from north of the Keys into Texas was above layers of clouds.
– It was the leftover counter-clockwise circulation of former Hurricane Alex.
– This afternoon the remnant moisture of Alex has turned Texas into the tropics.
– We’re getting occasional showers this afternoon here in Northeast Texas.
– Everything is lush and green here, as it’s been a rather wet month here.
– Meanwhile the grass is dying and becoming crunchy back home in Homestead.
– Today for Lunch we picked up fast food from Sonic.
– It was pretty good, and maybe by Christmas our Homestead Sonic will be open.

THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:

BLATANT PROMOTION:
TOMORROW on the blog we’ll celebrate America’s Birthday with a classic jam that’s all about “America”. It’s from an American music legend who is still gettin’ it done today. Catch it right here on my ‘Saturday Night Retro’. Then on Sunday on an all-new ‘My Fantastic Journey’ I’ll tell you what freedom means to me on this 4TH Of July. It’s all right here this weekend. Go forth and enjoy your weekend, and check back here later on. You won’t regret it pal.

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Blogging Career Driving Food History Holidays Life Music Philosophy Shopping Travel Weather

The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

PREFACE:
It’s the dawn of a brand new weekly series here on my personal web log. Following in the storied tradition of the surprisingly successful and long-running ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ (81 editions) and ‘The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party’ (36 editions) I proudly present to you my newest creation – the sensational summer series debut of ‘The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off’. This fresh new weekly series brings blogging back to Fridays – where it belongs. It also serves as the de facto replacement series for two now defunct weekly series – ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ and ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’. I’ve ended the run of both series after a combined 200+ weekly editions dating back to this blog’s infancy in 2007.

THE FORTUNE COOKIE MESSAGE OF THE WEEK CLUB:
“The best angle from which to approach any problem is the TRYangle.”

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
Red Lobster – Caesar Salad, Cheddar Bay Biscuits (4 of them), Wood-Fire Grilled Grouper, Mashed Potatoes, Fresh Broccoli, Sprite

15 WEEKEND MINI THOUGHTS:
– It may be Friday night, but it’s NOT the end of the work week for me.
– I actually have to work tomorrow for much of the day.
– I took the morning off today, and I got my car serviced at Firestone.
– They did the oil and filter change, tire rotation, wheel alignment, and A.C.
– I was in and out in just about two hours flat.
– After that I ventured up to Target in the Cutler Bay area.
– I went on a spontaneous shopping spree.
– Target is my favourite place to buy clothes.
– Tomorrow is actually the 7TH anniversary of the purchase of my current car.
– It’s my 2ND longest-owned car.
– I drove a 1989 Geo Spectrum for over 8 years before I bought my first Saturn.
– Next weekend I’ll be hanging out in Texas with my family.
– That’s become an annual 4TH Of July Weekend tradition.
– I’ll be prepping for 100°F heat next weekend.
– But it’s a dry heat (compared to South Florida anyway).

BLATANT PROMOTION:
TOMORROW on the ‘Retro’ I’ll be remembering the first rock concert that I ever attended in my life. It was exactly 24 years ago this weekend in London England. Coming up in 5 weeks on the ‘Retro’ it’s the ‘Awesome ’80s In August HI-NRG Dance Party’ – a month-long celebration of the decade that was. Be sure not to miss that my friends. You won’t regret it pal !

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Annoyances Blogging Driving Food History Life People Politics Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Here’s another collection of my spontaneous combustion ‘Mini Thoughts’.
– What else would you expect from me on a Thursday night here on my blog ?
– Tonight I may offend pick-up truck drivers – the bullies of the open roads.
– I may also offend soccer-mom mini-van drivers who are just plain horrifying.
– Let’s start with the bully pick-up truck drivers who think they own the roads.
– Pick-up truck drivers rarely surprise me, as they are very predictable.
– Stop signs and lane markings generally mean nothing to them.
– I often wonder why they run the stop signs yet stop for a red light.
– If you break every other law in the book then you might as well just keep goin’.
– Speed limit signs along the sides of the road don’t apply – and don’t exist.
– What do I see in my rear-view mirror – a GIANT pick-up truck tailgating me.
– Do you really need tires that are bigger than most humans ?
– Do you really need your truck to be so high that you can walk underneath it ?
– Does it really need to be as loud as an F-16 jet ?
– OK soccer-mom mini-van drivers it’s your turn now.
– Men and women are equally bad drivers in soccer-mom mini-vans.
– You guys and gals are stark raving mad lunatics behind the wheel.
– You’re driving your giant gas-guzzling tanks as if they are little sports cars.
– And you’re usually doing so with half a baseball team as passengers.
– When you make a fast turn a wheel should not lift up from the road.
– It’s no wonder that you cause more accidents on the road than any other.
– There should be a special license that’s required to drive a mini-van.
– Incidentally a mini-van is any vehicle that’s not a car or a pick-up truck.
– It’s my somewhat generic label for every obnoxious vehicle on the road.
– Some of the nicest most friendliest people turn demonic behind the wheel.
– Parents that are bad drivers raise kids that are bad drivers.
– The national driving age should be 18 – not 15 or 16.
– Kids should not be driving any vehicles on the road.
– That is all that I have to say about this subject.
– Moving on to even more controversy – Politics:
– The media’s intense love affair with President Obama continues.
– He can do no wrong, as he walks on water that’s up to 2% crude oil.
– Everything bad that happens in the world today is still Bush’s fault.
– President Obama and his administration loves to blame others.
– We’ve been down this same road before – the Clinton administration.
– They blamed the elder Bush while their boss was out playing and partying.
– Don’t get me started.
– Yesterday I had a bad experience at a popular local Latin eatery.
– I got bad service and perhaps bad food.
– I ended up with an upset stomach that lasted the rest of the day into the night.
– The bad service alone was quite shocking, as it was perhaps racially-motivated.
– Needless to say I won’t be frequenting that establishment anytime soon.
– I’m boycotting places that don’t treat all customers equally with respect.
– Well this turned out be a rather dismal edition of the ‘Mini Thoughts’.
– I didn’t intend to shred bad drivers, bad political leaders, and bad restaurants.
– But that’s what happened in this spontaneous combustion.
– You should have seen the original unexpurgated version of all of this.
– This weekend it’s an all-new ‘Saturday Night Retro’ here on the blog.
– It’s the 20TH anniversary of my ‘Summer Of Fun’ in 1990.
– It was my Woodstock – my Spring Break – my endless party on the beach.
– I’ll look back at that decadent summer and present a signature rock song.
– It’s the song that brings back all of those vivid memories of a previous life.
– On Sunday it’s an all-new ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’.
– We are like totally going to jam to some awesome worship music.
– After that this blog goes on hiatus for 5 days.
– Stick around this weekend as we kick-off an all-new summer of fun for 2010.
– You won’t regret it pal.

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Blogging Career God History Life News People Philosophy Politics

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

June is here, and it’s the start of this blog’s 4TH year in cyberspace. Let’s roll:

My Fellow 43-Year-Olds – Celebrating their 43RD birthday this week (alongside myself) are Phil Keoghan (May 31ST), Roger Sanchez (June 01ST), Anderson Cooper (June 03RD), Ron Livingston (June 05TH), Paul Giamatti (June 06TH), and Max Casella (June 06TH). Phil Keoghan is of course the host of 17 seasons of “The Amazing Race“. Incidentally that 17TH season is currently filming somewhere in the world right now. You can check it out come September. Roger Sanchez is one of the most popular house music deejays in the world. He secured a worldwide pop and dance smash in 2001 with “Another Chance”. Anderson Cooper is one of the most recognizable faces of CNN. Remember when he hosted two seasons of “The Mole” back in 2001 and 2002 ?  Ron Livingston – born the same exact day as me – is a television and movie star. He was Peter Gibbons in the cult classic “Office Space”. Paul Giamatti is also a movie star. You may remember him from “Sideways”. Max Casella portrayed the unforgettable Vinnie Delpino – Dr. Doogie Howser’s troublemaking best friend on the classic TV show. He still acts on TV shows and movies today. Aging gracefully. That’s us. The 43-year-olds. Happy Birthday to us !

My Fortune Cookie Messages – Once upon a time there lived a popular blog series on here entitled ‘The Fortune Cookie Message Of The Week Club’. It was a smash hit during its time. Due to the last round of intense budget cuts here at the blog that longtime series was unfortunately one of the casualties. It could return at a later date. Probably not. In the meantime here’s a collection of 8 fortune cookie messages that I’ve been stockpiling since the series was cancelled. Enjoy:
1. Any idea seriously entertained tends to bring about the realization of itself.
2. Do what is right, not what you should.
3. Whatever you do, do with all your heart.
4. Great things are accomplished only by the perfection of minor details.
5. Stay close to your inner-self.
6. Two people shorten a road.
7. This is the month that ingenuity stands high on the list.
8. The cost of something is what you give up to get it.

My Quick Takes On Everything Else – Hurricane Katrina was to President Bush as the Gulf Oil Spill is to President Obama. If you blamed Bush for Katrina then it only makes sense to blame Obama for BP. I can only take about 20 minutes of news on TV at a time. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world out there. The same bad news keeps occurring, and only the names and the faces change. The world is full of arrogance, ignorance, stupidity, and hatred. If you had asked me 30 years ago what I’d be doing as a 43-year-old then I would have probably exclaimed ‘TOP 40 radio deejay’. As a teenager I thought for sure that’s where I’d be headed a few years later into my adult life. That didn’t happen. The USAF had other exciting plans for me. If I had to do it all over again then I’d do it all over again. If I had to give up either blogging or tweeting then which would it be ?  It would be blogging. That may shock some of you. I don’t see myself giving up blogging anytime soon. That would be the easy way out. This blog is an integral part of my new Life. If I ever get to the point where I can only blog one post per week then that last remaining weekly blog series still standing would certainly be Sunday’s ‘My Fantastic Journey’. My attitude about Life and death has changed drastically over the past 45 months since I’ve been a follower of Christ. I believe that abortion is murder – no exceptions whatsoever. I believe that guns kill – and that people use guns to kill. I believe that it’s nobody’s right to end the life of a human being other than God. In my perfect world abortions, guns, and the death penalty would all be outlawed. We live far from that perfect world of mine. One more thing before I’m done here. Alcohol kills. Drinking serves no relevant purpose. It does no good to anyone or anything. It does plenty of bad. It’s a waste of time. It’s a waste of money. It would not exist in my perfect world. For about three years now it has not been part of my Life.