Category: Bugs

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Animals Bugs God Health Holidays Home Life Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 6:34 AM – 7:18 AM
Sky: Clear
Temperature: 61°F
Dewpoint: 60°F
Relative Humidity: 94%
Winds: N 7 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 29.99 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I walked around my neighbourhood in the chill.
– After an 81°F Christmas Day afternoon 61°F felt so nice and comfy.
– Wind chills were actually well into the 50s during my walk.
– I felt those 50s as I walked northbound into the cold winds.
– I walked for 44 minutes – about 2.4 miles.
– All of our dumpsters were jammed and crammed with Christmas gift boxes.
– Dear City Of Homestead – Please empty our dumpsters as soon as possible.
– We’ve got garbage-eatin’ ducks ’round these parts !
– We’ve got a lot of flying bugs where I live.
– They appreciate all of the thick foilage and big lakes around.
– They also appreciated my face as I walked right through them.
– During my walk in the dawn of this new day it was peaceful and quiet.
– I talked directly to God, and I thanked Him for all of His great creations.
– I prayed for all of my friends and neighbours – believers and non-believers.
– I prayed that God would bless us all like only He can.
– I thanked God for giving me a second chance at Life, for I am reborn !
– For 30 years I said and did what the world told me to say and do.
– I did what was cool – even if it was bad for my mind and for my health.
– Now I’m cleansing my body of all that is bad.
– It’s a physical walk to heal and strengthen my body on this walk with God.
– My Dad can no longer walk or even stand up.
– He’s confined to a skinny bed in a nursing home for the rest of his life.
– He has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis – also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
– I dedicate these physical walks to my Dad for all that I’ve learned from him.
– I thank my Father God for all that He’s blessed me with since He created me.

Categories
Blogging Bugs Driving Food Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You’ve waited a full 7 days for this, and now you’ve got it. It’s the ‘Grab Bag’ !

1.  Once again today it’s the tale of two Homesteads. There’s the flooded Homestead (where I live), and there’s the dry Homestead (where I work). Over at the air base this afternoon we received barely a trace of rain. Here in my ‘hood nearly two inches of rain fell over the course of two hours. I can fully explain why this is happening, but I’d rather not bore you to bits.

2.  Yesterday (Monday) at Lunchtime there was an ENORMOUS vehicle collision on East Biscayne Drive (SW 288TH St.) between Wendy’s and the air base. It happened during the 10 minutes or so that I was at the Publix at Waterstone. As I proceeded back towards the base the scene was barely unfolding with mass chaos everywhere. It was probably one of the worst accidents that I have ever seen in my over 20 years of driving on that particular stretch of roadway. One woman was even airlifted via helicopter from the scene of the accident. 3 hours later the road was still a nightmare. I had to take U.S. 1 from Moody Drive (SW 268TH St.) to Lucy Street (SW 328TH St.) just to get home.

3.  TODAY on my way to Lunch with a buddy from work my Saturn flipped over from 59,999 miles to 60,000 miles !  It happened westbound on Campbell Drive approaching the Oasis Shopping Center. That’s 60,000 miles of driving in 6 years, 2 months, and 1 week. I hit 50,000 miles exactly 15 months ago tomorrow, so that’s an average of about 667 miles per month – or 22 miles per day. I love living and working in the same city !

4.  Apparently I undervalued my antiquated cell phone. It is NOT a 2002 cell phone. It is actually a 2004 cell phone, and that’s when I actually bought it. I had another (even more antiquated) cell phone from 2002 to 2004. I recently realized that I can actually tweet with it, so even in its old age it still has a purpose driven life. A cell phone’s equivalent human age can be calculated simply by multiplying its actual age in years by 20. My cell phone is the equivalent of a 100-year-old ! 

My Cell Phone

5.  If you see a very low-flying C-130 Hercules aircraft hovering over the mean streets of Redland, Florida City, Homestead, Leisure City, Naranja Lakes, and Princeton early tonight and tomorrow night then have no fear. It’s a mosquito killing mission. Stay indoors as the poison is sprayed from above.

The ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ is taking a week off next week. Be sure to catch the next ‘Grab Bag’ in two weeks – on the 15TH of September. Be sure to check out an all-new ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ later this week.

Categories
Animals Bugs Driving Travel

Monday Night Countdown

This past Saturday me and a buddy went exploring deep down into the Florida Keys; hence, continuing my ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions).

We visited the following places (in chronological order):

1.  Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park (Card Sound Road)
– We got eaten alive by hundreds of biting mosquitoes there. I’m still scratching.

2.  Long Key State Park (MM-67.4)
– Nice nature trail that leads to an observation tower.

3.  Curry Hammock State Park (MM-56.2)
– Popular family beach with a couple of tour buses and lots of kids playing.

4.  Sombrero Beach (MM-50.5)
– Nice public beach owned and operated by the City of Marathon.

5.  Crane Point (MM-50.5)
– Museum / Nature Center / Historic Site – My favourite place that we visited.

6.  Bahia Honda State Park (MM-36.8)
– Nice visitor center; We walked on the old U.S. 1 bridge !

7.  Big Pine Key / No Name Key / National Key Deer Refuge (MM-30)
Endangered Key Deer everywhere – right alongside our car !

Categories
Animals Bugs Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon: Special On-Location Edition – Dallas Zoo

Dallas Zoo

Yesterday me and my brother visited the Dallas Zoo for the first time ever.

Here are my takeaways – ‘Mini Thoughts’ style:

– It’s an old zoo – established way back in 1888 !
– It’s the largest zoo in Texas – covering 95 acres alongside I-35.
– We were there for about 3 hours.
– It was a hot and humid day in Dallas with heat indices in the mid-90s.
– The zoo is expanding !
– A whole new area of ‘Wilds Of Africa’ called ‘The Savanna’ is under construction.
– The penguins were soaking wet – and hot.
– We got up close to a Western Lowland Gorilla.
– Only a strong window separated him from us.
– He just laid against the window as all of us humanoids watched his every move.
– He would look at us sometimes in a curious yet friendly manner.
– He was most interested in scratching his itches.
– He’s just like you and me !
– Much of the ‘Wilds Of Africa’ exhibit is seeable via the monorail alone.
– So we took the monorail around the continent.
– It was a cool 25 minute tour through the wilds from up above.
– The chimps were not out to play.
– They were in seclusion due to the birth of a new member of their family.
– We walked through an entire exhibit on BUGS !
– Bugs are constantly working at creating a new habitat for themselves.
– The’re never satisfied with what they have.
– Bugs – The’re just like you and me.
– We saw ENORMOUS tortoises crawling around.
– The’re the biggest of their species in the entire world.
– They were just taking their time to get from Point A to Point Z.
– The’re OLD !
– MASSIVE ALBINO ALLIGATOR !
– Check out this recent newspaper article on it.
– I don’t think that I’ve ever seen one like this before.
– It’s 9-feet in length, 200 pounds, and totally white.
– It doesn’t appreciate the Sun, and it’s blind.
– As we watched from a boardwalk above it was feeding time.
– But the albino alligator wasn’t very hungry.
– The other standard alligators around him were hungry though.
– A lot of the animals outside were hidden away.
– They were probably too hot.
– I wondered how those African animals cope with the snow in the winter.
– The zoo is open year-round, and it can get totally freezing here in Dallas.
– Only the soaking wet penguins would appreciate that !
– We had a fun time at the zoo.
– We both agreed that it was bigger and nicer than we originally thought.
– We’ll hopefully visit it again in a couple of years.
– Maybe on my next visit to Texas we can visit the Fort Worth Zoo.
– That would be cool, as I so dig hangin’ out with the animals.
– The’re just like you and me !