Category: Blogging

1.  Personal fireworks are banned in only 6 states nationwide. Unfortunately Florida is not one of them. I’ve never understood the fascination of them, or the legality of them. I had to listen to them late last night right here in my own neighbourhood. It’s annoying that 3 or 4 people can shoot off fireworks that disturb the peace of hundreds that can hear them.

2.  It rained for about an hour here in Homestead this afternoon. It was welcome rain, but it also signaled the end of our extended 80°F+ temperatures. In a few hours I’m turning off my A.C. I won’t need it again until perhaps Saturday or Sunday.

3.  An older gent was complaining at Starbucks this morning because it was way too cold inside there. I wholeheartedly agreed with him; however, it’s done intentionally as a marketing strategy. The more expensive coffees sell much better when its frigid outside – or inside. Complaining that it’s too cold inside of Starbucks is like complaining that it’s too hot inside of the sauna at the local gym.

4.  You can’t make a right-hand turn from Starbucks onto Palm Drive without driving over the curb with your rear-right tire. At least I can’t.

5.  I won’t be watching the grande return of “American Gladiators” on NBC, but this dude probably will.

6.  In the continuance of a New Year’s Day tradition for me I re-lived New Year’s Eve over and over again on videotape during the day today. I watched coverage from NBC (Carson Daly), ABC (Dick Clark / Ryan Seacrest), FOX (Cat Deeley), and CNN (Anderson Cooper / Kathy Griffin). Ah the magic of the retro VHS VCR.

7.  Court-TV is now Tru-TV. It’s been one of my favourite cable networks for awhile now. Tonight I’ll be watching “Ocean Force: Huntington Beach, O.C.”. Good Stuff !

8.  If my beloved former hometown Washington Redskins beat the Seahawks in Seattle, the Cowboys in Dallas, and the Packers in Green Bay then they can beat the Patriots in Glendale Arizona in Super Bowl XLII. That’s how I see it.

9.  I think I’ll eat Chinese Food for Lunch tomorrow. That means that we could have our first meeting of 2008 of ‘The Fortune Cookie Message Of The Week Club’ on here tomorrow.

10.  There’s a brand new family-owned ‘all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad bar’ place right across the street from my neighbourhood. I should go and check them out sometime soon.

• Pastor Travis awarded the 2007 Life Pointe Award for ‘Most Prolific Life Pointe Blogger’ to me. Upon hearing of the news I gave an impromptu acceptance speech.
• Jesse is ready for 2008.
• Casey is engaged to be married, and it only took him 70 months to get there.
• Stephen loves the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha.
• Nathan is getting ready for the grand opening of his church in Weston Florida, and he may advertise it on Y-100 – a TOP 40 station that I listened to for nearly 19 years.
• Phil will not be voting for Ron Paul.

Tuesday night just would not be the same without my weekly ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’, so here we go with this week’s ‘brain dump’:

1.  I have a new toy here on my computer – Google Earth. With it I measured my 18-minute ‘High Noon Walk’ of yesterday at 0.9 miles as well as my 25-minute ‘Walk-A-Thon’ of this morning at 1.3 miles. That’s an overall average of a mile every 19 to 20 minutes, or an average walking speed of 3 MPH.

2.  7 hours after walking that 1.3 miles this morning and I can still feel it in my legs. No pain. No gain.

3.  This past Sunday morning at Life Pointe Church we sang “Do You Hear What I Hear ?” and “Silent Night” back-to-back during Praise & Worship. I just can’t get enough of traditional Christmas carols. They mean so much more to me now than they ever used to. I’ll be missing them for the next 11 months.

4.  I currently weigh in at nearly 172 pounds (78 kilograms for the rest of the world). That’s at the top tier of my general weight range over the past 15 years. I’d rather weigh closer to 165 pounds (75 kilograms).

5.  The nicest picture that’s hanging on the wall directly above my computer workstation here at home is that of Air Force One over Mount Rushmore. With the picture are two patches of the 89TH Airlift Wing, and a nice engraving with my name on it as well as the dates that I worked at Andrews AFB Maryland. It’s also signed by 35 of my co-workers at the time. Those final 6 months of my Active Duty Air Force career were the best out of 8 years.

6.  I only saw 9 movies at the Box Office in 2007. That’s the lowest total for me since 1996. Out of those 9 movies I only saw 4 of them at the movie theatre here in Homestead that I go to every Sunday morning for Life Pointe Church services.

7.  I like to shave every 3 to 4 days. Sunday nights and Wednesday nights are typical shaving nights for me.

8.  When I was a kid I used to love eating peanut butter & banana sandwiches for lunch. I think it’s been about 25 years since my last one.

9.  One of my unique hobbies is watching the International Space Station pass over the skies of Homestead on selected evenings and mornings (when it is in view). I’ve seen 41 such passes since February of 2004.

10.  If I walked from home to work (over 7 miles away) then it would take me about 2½ hours to get there. I’d have to leave here at 3:30 AM to get to work by 6 AM. Yeah that’s not gonna happen !