Category: Blogging

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The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Southwest Florida

1.  It’s Columbus Day, and it’s a day of relaxation for me after a lot of walking and a lot of driving. I drove 415.5 miles over 37 hours. That’s about 3 weeks of normal every day Homestead driving for me, and it’s just as I had planned out prior to embarking on the road trip. 201.3 miles of driving occurred on Saturday as I drove from Florida City to Lehigh Acres by way of Everglades City, Naples, and Estero. The remaining 214.2 miles of driving occurred on Sunday on the return trip back home to Homestead from Estero (where I spent the night) – via Naples and Plantation Key.

2.  On my Saturday morning drive over to the southwest coast of Florida I stopped for brief visits at the Big Cypress National Preserve Oasis Visitor Center as well as the Everglades National Park Gulf Coast Visitor Center just south of Everglades City. I don’t think that I have ever been to Everglades City before. (If I have then I don’t remember it.) It’s very small and very historic. About 500 people live there full-time. I plan to return back there during the cooler winter months to walk around the historic downtown area and check out the museum there.

3.  After a MASSIVE Lunch at Pinchers Crab Shack at Tin City on the waterfront in Naples, a walk to the end of the long city pier over the Gulf Of Mexico, and a nice scenic neighbourhood drive along the peaceful and quiet south coast of Naples I proceeded up to the big movie theatre north of Naples to get out of the mid-90s heat and sun – and to see the current box office smash “Zombieland“. It was campy and hilarious – perhaps a future cult classic ?

4.  It was so great to hear my radio station – The Call – over in southwest Florida. They just recently moved over from 107.5 FM to 107.7 FM in Naples. It’s an extremely weak translator station, and it was a bit ‘staticky’ all around the city – but a weak CALL-FM was definitely better than no CALL-FM. Up closer to Fort Myers I picked-up the much stronger 91.9 FM signal of The Call. It sounded great up and down I-75. On Saturday night I made my way over to Lehigh Acres (10 miles east of I-75 and Fort Myers) to attend a rock concert at a church featuring Jubilee, Horizons Fall, and Manic Drive. Rob from The Call was there. It was cool to hang out with him for a little while. All three bands rocked the joint hard and LOUD !

5.  On Sunday morning (after church in the park) I visited the Naples Zoo to check up on my animal friends. I then walked around the Coastland Center Mall to cool off a bit before making the return trip back to the southeast coast of Florida. This was my first visit over to the Naples area in about 20 months – way too long. My next visit will be much sooner than that – hopefully sometime during the upcoming cooler and dryer winter season. I think that it’s reasonable to state that it’s no longer ‘possible’ that I plan to eventually live in Naples, but that it’s ‘probable’. I fell in love with Naples all over again, and I wish to live there in the future. There is so much that I wish to see and do over there, so that will justify my more frequent visits to the area, and with each new visit I’ll be looking around for potential new neighbourhoods to call my future new home.

LATER TODAY – 2 MORE BLOG POSTS:
– ‘Celebration Community Beach Church At The Park’
– ‘Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie’

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Blogging Driving Food Health History Holidays Music People Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s get ridiculous.
– This morning at 7:30 AM I already had The Big Cheese on my mind.
– I convinced 5 other coworker dudes to eat Lunch there 4 hours later.
– And so we came, we saw, and we conquered !
– We ordered 2 extra large (16-inch) pizzas for the 6 of us.
– One had pepperoni on it, and the other was full of sausages.
– One dude ate more pizza than all of the others.
– Guilty !
– There were 20 slices in all, and the other 5 dudes ate 3 slices apiece.
– That left 5 slices for moi.
– That was some tasty pizza there !
– I’m lookin’ forward to this upcoming holiday weekend.
– It all starts for me at 11 AM tomorrow (Friday) morning.
– But it starts off with a dental cleaning appointment.
– On Saturday and Sunday I’ll be on the road visiting places.
– It’s sort of like a dry run for a much longer road trip I’m taking in November.
– This blog will go dark for those two days.
– I mean you’ll still be able to access it, but there will be nothing new posted on it.
– Actually I’ll be tweeting, so you’ll be able to see those here on the blog.
– My antiquated cell phone is born again due to its ability to tweet.
– On Monday I’ll blog all about my road trip.
– But before then tomorrow night is Disco night here on the bell-bottom blog.
– I’ve got ABBA with their biggest worldwide smash ever !
– You can dance – You can jive – Having the time of your Life.
– You won’t regret it pal.
– Since there is no ‘Saturday Night Retro’ this weekend I’ve got a treat for you.
– I’ve got Mr. David Hasselhoff with a big hit that he had back in 1997.
– It’s a spirited remake of a very well-known early-1970s pop smash.
– Check out the low-budget production values of this music video:

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Blogging History Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

You can’t schedule Life. Life happens. Some of it you expect. Some of it comes from beyond sight and theory. I had fully expected to continue a previously-scheduled 10-week romp through the decade that was the 1990s here on the ‘Retro’. The goal was to reach 1999 on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. That won’t happen because 1992 has been delayed until perhaps next Saturday night. I’m flashing back this week nearly 38 years ago to the start of 1972, and it’s all because of a song.

So there I was on a random day this past week minding my own business working at my desk at work when a song came on a coworker’s radio. I could barely hear it, but during those 3 minutes that it was on it was the loudest thing in my mind. It was as loud as a speeding locomotive. It cut through me and took me back to a mysterious time and era that I had previously forgotten. A time when I was a wondering 4-year-old kid exploring the world around me from inside of a moving car. I was mentally and emotionally transported back to that time.

It’s crazy how a single song can be so powerful as to totally consume you in the moment. It brought tears to my eyes, and even tonight as I post this and hear it again it gives me the chills over and over again.

I often wonder if today’s hit songs on the radio will remind me of the good and the not so good times of my Life today some 10, 25, or 40 years from now. A little over a month ago I was at cruising speed enjoying Life, bragging about it, and planning it out weeks, months, and even years from now. Unfortunately the other end of my Life was suddenly imploding in an irreversible manner. There I was looking too far into the future while I was neglecting the foundation of the Life of the now. Life happened. You can’t schedule Life.

Categories
Astronomy Blogging Driving God Holidays Home Humor Music Radio Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s be unpredictable and outrageous.
– It’s October all across the land, and the holiday season is upon us !
– First up – Columbus Day – the Monday after next.
– I’m planning a two-day weekend getaway that weekend over in Naples.
– I’ve got visitor centers, museums, and other tourist traps to check out.
– I’ve also got a rock concert to attend over there.
– I’ll be rockin’ out to Manic Drive just like I did on the 20TH of January of 2007.
– I’ll be tuning in to The Call‘s fresh new 107.7 FM frequency over there.
– I’ll be attending a church service over there on that Sunday morning.
– Halloween is at the end of this month, and I suppose that’s a holiday too.
– The next morning we flip back an hour to Standard Time.
– I’m looking forward to that.
– I’d rather have the daylight at 7 AM rather than 7 PM.
– Veterans Day is on a Wednesday this year on the 11TH of November.
– I take that Federal Holiday very personal.
– It’s a total shame that more Americans don’t take it seriously.
– Only 50 more days until I proceed with my 2,800+ mile road trip.
– It’ll be the longest road trip of my entire Life.
– I’m driving halfway across the free nation and then back again.
– On December 01ST I begin my 23RD year here in Homestead.
– I’ll be here for awhile.
– This afternoon at work I heard an old song in the background on the radio.
– It nearly brought tears to me.
– I got goosebumps and the chills.
– I had to stop everything that I was doing until it was over.
– I don’t think that I’ve heard that song in over 37 years !
– It may produce the same effects on you.
– That’s because I’m sharing the experience on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’.
– You’re not gonna wanna miss that.
– Tomorrow night on the Disco party it’s another moldie-oldie.
– It’s the only hit song from the smooth as silk George McCrae.
– He’s gonna “Rock Your Baby” like nobody else can.
– Well those are my ‘Mini Thoughts’ for now.
– If I think of any others then I’ll just tweet them.
– Until next time my friends – REMEMBER THIS !

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