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Blogging Driving Food Home Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  This afternoon during the 1 PM hour I returned home safe and sound from my short road trip up to ‘The North Pole’ / ‘The Great White North’ of Florida. I’m talking of course about the Jacksonville area – AKA ‘The First Coast’. I got everything done that I needed to get done (and then some), and I brought back home a lot of great takeaways from all of my various meetings and taskings regarding the legal acquisition of my home up there. I was skeptical / pessimistic before the trip as well as during the drive up, but everything worked out as perfectly as can be. I have a lot less stress to deal with now.

II.  Our long historic cold spell continues here in Florida. This is Day 11, and it’s coming to an end real soon. On Thursday we return back to normal with the long-awaited return of our easterly ocean breezes, maximum late-afternoon temperatures in the mid-70s, and minimum early-morning temperatures right around 60°F (starting on Friday morning). This morning up on Fleming Island in Clay County my car was covered smothered in thick frost. Luckily it started right up, but I pretty much had to sit in it with the heater and the defroster on full blast before I could actually see out of the front windshield to drive it away. It was in the mid-20s early this morning (right at sunrise) as I departed, and parts of the landscape west of St. Augustine looked like a vast winter wonderland with a thick layer of frost whitening the otherwise brown and dead ground.

III.  Is it just me, or do the various service plazas along Florida’s Turnpike look like the’re going out of business and declaring bankruptcy ?  Of course the’re not, but to me they appear to be just a mere shell or skeleton of what they used to look like. The’re still rather busy with people, but it just seems like everyone is wandering around in circles in a long-neglected mall that’s seen its better days. I actually ate a really nice cheeseburger and fries Lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger Express at the West Palm Beach service plaza. It’s located in the former location of Burger King. I guess BK pulled out (or was pulled out) – along with Starbucks and various other former favourites at the various bustling stops along the Turnpike.

Be sure not to miss my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just 2 days !

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Blogging Driving History Home Music Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Our longest and most severe cold snap in over 20 years continues.
– The last time we saw anything like this was in December of 1989.
– We’ve now had 6 mornings in a row that started below 50°F.
– And on all 6 of those days we never made it to 65°F.
– But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet !
– You’re not gonna believe your eyes this Saturday.
– I’m calling for a cloudy, dark, gloomy, rainy, windy, and frigid day.
– We won’t even get out of the 40s all day long !
– Wind chills will be near FREEZING all day long ! 
– I’m also calling for a possible mix of freezing rain and ice pellets !
– Actual snow flakes could be swirling in the air as far south as Big Lake ‘O’.
– Orlando could see heavy snow at times (no accumulation on the ground).
– I do have some good news for you if you prefer normal winter weather.
– An extended period of sunny and warm(er) weather returns next Tuesday !
– I’m looking at 7 to 10 days of daytime highs inching closer to 80°F.
– That’s gonna feel mighty fine after all of this ridiculous cold air.
– I’m taking a short road trip up to ‘The First Coast’ of Florida this Sunday.
– I’ll be up there on business – personal Real Estate business.
– It will hopefully turn out to be extremely productive.
– This weekend it’s another ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekend’ here on the blog.
– I’ve got one of my favourite songs of the entire 1990s on the ‘Retro’.
– It’s from a rock dude who turns 40 this year, but back then he was a mere 23.
– And tomorrow on the ‘Party’ it’s a smooth beat from Climax Blues Band. 
– Be sure to stay tuned to this here blog for fresh new content updated daily.
– You won’t regret it dudes.
– Keep on keepin’ on !

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Blogging Home Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I.  As other blogs arrive on the scene, gain in popularity, prosper, peak, diminish in relevance, suffer through neglect, and then disappear into thin air one durable and dependable blog just keeps on churning time and time again. That would be this one – thanks to your continued loyalty and support through the years. You can always count on this blog to deliver fresh new content on a daily basis throughout much of the new year. Every Tuesday night you know how we do it with the flagship weekly series of this blog – a garden variety assortment or ‘Grab Bag’ of my personal thoughts since October of 2007.

II.  Our longest cold spell in a couple of decades continues all across America’s Riviera. (Thank You El Niño !) This morning was the 4TH morning in a row where the low temperature bottomed out in the 40s. That won’t happen tomorrow morning – because we’re dropping down to the 30s instead !  There are a few local TV station weather forecasters that are forecasting temperatures in and around Homestead to drop to the freezing mark or even a few degrees below that with wind chills in the 20s !  My forecast is not quite that extreme. I’m looking at an early-morning minimum temperature of 36°F / 2°C between 6 AM and 8 AM. We’ll see what happens, but one thing is certain. It will definitely be bonechilling COLD !  Bundle up my friends and neighbours. Stay warm.

III.  I finally surrendered to the cold air inside my home late last night as temperatures continued to plummet further towards the lower-60s (at least a dozen degrees below normal for my normally air conditioned home). I turned on my ‘fake’ (reverse-A.C.) heater for the first time since last winter. Of course once the lukewarm air hit the dust on the coils it emitted a rather pungent aroma all throughout my home sweet home. It sort of smelled like burnt low-quality microwave popcorn. I proceeded to saturate much of my home with Oust Air Sanitizer spray, and that eventually made the smell of my home a bit more pleasant – like that of hot blueberry pie cooking in the oven. When I awoke this morning I was not shivering. It felt really nice with that lukewarm air floating all around. It felt so nice that I’m cranking it back on again for an encore tonight.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in just 48 hours !

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Blogging History Life Music People Radio

Saturday Night Retro

It’s time to kick it with a fresh new year of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’. It’s a weekend tradition that I’ve been enjoying for a long time now via different mediums, formats, and names. 2010 actually marks the 25TH anniversary of the ‘Retro’ and all of its various predecessors.

It’s hard to believe that the entire decade of the 2000s is now officially ‘Retro’. 2000 seems so long ago now. 1990 was 20 years ago. That gives me the chills just thinking about it. The 1980s began 30 years ago. Now I’m sweating. I feel so old now !

Here on ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I’ll alternate between the decades from the 1970s through the 2000s with a few extra surprises thrown in for good times.

Tonight flashback with me over 35 years ago to the Autumn of 1974. I was entering the 2ND grade back then at St. Matthias Apostle Catholic School in Lanham / Seabrook Maryland. I remember my teachers as Sister Mary Laura (the mean one) and Sister Mary Josephine (the funny one). This was the start of my 2ND and final year in Catholic school. The following year I was pulled out of it, and sent walking to the county’s public school system.

On the radio Linda Kelly was on in the middle of the afternoon on WPGC AM & FM Morningside out of Washington D.C., and this was the rockin’ # 1 smash all across the free nation. It’s Canadian / Lebanese teen pop idol (at the time) Andy Kim, and this may have been one of the cheesiest bubblegum pop nuggets of its time. You’re gonna get a sugar rush just listening to this one !