Category: Career

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  THIS is the momentous 100TH edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. That’s 96 editions here on WordPress over the past 23 months – and 4 editions before that on the MySpace incarnation of this here blog. This week also marks the end of the 2ND full year of ‘Grab Bag’ editions. Next week we begin Year 3. Thank You so very much for checking out this blog on a regular basis – and for helping to make the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ the flagship weekly series of this blog. It’s the blog of my Life.

MEMORIES –> Check out the very first edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ from Tuesday October 16TH 2007.

2.  Well I ‘tweased‘ about this late yesterday afternoon, but now I’m not so sure about it. I’m referring to some cooler and dryer air that should be approaching us late this week into this upcoming weekend. Or will it ?  My amateur weather forecast now differs slightly from that of the National Weather Service. My ‘spaghetti models’ now struggle to pull the powerful cold front all the way through the southeast coast of Florida. If my forecast is correct then it won’t get nearly as cool and dry as it could otherwise. I do believe that Saturday and Sunday will be our coolest two days in a row since last May with Sunday morning being noticeably cooler. Expect Sunday morning temperatures in the upper-40s near Tallahassee, upper-50s near Orlando, mid-60s near Naples, and close to 70° here in Homestead.

3.  You know what was really cool about the very start of my recent holiday weekend road trip ?  On Saturday morning as I walked down to my car to kick it all off I glanced up at the sky and I saw a really nice hot air balloon up there looking down at my neighbourhood. When I saw that I just knew that the time was right to declare the start of my short little vacation. As I began driving northbound the hot air balloon drifted westbound over Redland.

4.  My 415.5-mile road trip was a smash hit – a successful dry run to a much longer road trip that I shall embark on in less than 38 days. I’ll be driving about 7 times that distance round-trip over the course of 10 days when I drive to and from the Dallas Texas area to visit my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be the longest road trip of my entire Life – but not by a whole lot actually. I drove up to the Washington D.C. area a bunch of times when my family still lived up there (prior to about 13 years ago).

FACTOID –> My 415.5-mile road trip was completely toll-free courtesy of Krome Avenue, Tamiami Trail, and I-75.

5.  Please don’t misinterpret one of my comments from one of my blog posts from yesterday. While I have fallen in love with the greater Naples area, and I do plan to eventually move there sometime in the future that will not happen anytime soon. I’m thinking long-range here. I have a wonderful job over at the air base in Homestead. I’m a 25-year Federal Government employee, and although that’s a lot of years with the system I can’t retire anytime soon. Now that does not necessarily mean that I plan to wait until I can retire before I move to Naples – or even buy a home over there. I’m still many years away from such a concept, but I do believe that I will eventually become a resident of Naples or the surrounding area. I will also become a more frequent visitor of the area.

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Career Driving Politics Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  “Chris – Your gray facial hair has put you in a rocking chair. Your beard is weird.” Someone actually inquired about my gray beard today at work. First of all – I don’t have a beard. I shaved last Saturday afternoon as part of my twice-per-week ritual, so I have a mere three days worth of facial growth. Second of all – I can confirm that my three days worth of facial growth is actually more gray than not. Sometimes I get mistaken for a guy in his mid-20s. Sometimes I look my age.

2.  I ‘tweased’ about this on Twitter last night. I’ve been working on my winter season weather forecast for America’s Riviera over the past couple of months or so. Here’s what I think. I’m looking for a consistently cooler and wetter November through April. I don’t think that we will see as many sudden frost and freeze events as we did last winter, but I do think that our milder cold snaps will last for extended periods of time. We could actually experience a month-long period of continuous below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation.

3.  It was another wacky day at work today – perhaps a tad bit less wacky than it was yesterday (Monday). Sometimes what happens in the last 5 or 10 or 15 minutes of the work day – whether it be positive or negative – determines how I feel overall of the day in hindsight. Today ended on an unexpected high note during the last 15 minutes. That turned an otherwise blah day into a wacky but happy day.

4.  I’m going on a 400+ mile / 37-hour road trip during this upcoming holiday weekend. At least that’s what I’ve got planned out. Anything can happen – and it probably will. I’ll be hangin’ out for much of that time over in the Naples area. I can actually see myself living over there in the future whether it be part-time or full-time. I once lived in Melbourne and commuted to my job way over in Tampa for about 7 months after Hurricane Andrew. I basically lived and played on the east coast during the weekends and lived and worked on the west coast during the week. I can actually see a reverse scenario for me sometime in the future where I live in two homes on two coasts of Florida.

5.  It’s Election Day all across the City Of Homestead, but I didn’t vote in this one (absentee or otherwise). The truth be told I’ve lost interest in city politics. More than a decade ago I actually considered a run at City Council. Nowadays I don’t even watch the meetings on television or online. Maybe some day I’ll come back around and show an interest in it again, but not right now. I have a fantastic journey that I need to concentrate on more than any other entity.

That’s the ‘Grab Bag’ for this week. I thank you so very much for your continued interest in my Life, and I surely hope that you stick around to see what happens next.

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Career Driving History Life Movies Music Television Travel

Saturday Night Retro

On the last ‘Saturday Night Retro’ I looked back at the great decade that was the 1990s, and I featured one of the hard rockin’ songs of my extended Panama City Beach ‘Summer Of 1990’ – Faith No More‘s “Epic”.

This week I advance forward to 1991. Following a two-month stint over in Al Kharj Saudi Arabia during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm I began what would eventually (and unknowingly) become the final 17 months of my Active Duty Air Force career at the original Homestead Air Force Base (before Hurricane Andrew). After a tumultuous couple of years at work on the base things drastically improved for the better, and I enjoyed a long climb to the pinnacle of my career at that time.

During the Summer of 1991 I turned 24-years-old, and I began my 7TH year in the USAF. I also went on a 2½-week vacation at the end of August including my very first sea cruise ever on NCL (M/S Seaward) with my family as well as a fun tour of various Tampa and Orlando area amusement parks with my brother for a week after that.

Here’s a big-time TV and movie star dude who actually shares my birthday of June 05TH. I was born in 1967. He was born in 1971. He’s Mark Wahlberg, but back during the Summer of 1991 he was better known as Marky Mark. Here he is with his Funky Bunch. Here’s “Good Vibrations’ – the smash hit that made him a star.

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Astronomy Blogging Career Commerce Driving Food Holidays Sports Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  Let’s kick-off this week’s edition of the ‘Grab Bag’ with some ‘Breaking News’. This just in to ‘The Major’s Life Blog’ satellite news desk. It appears that I’ll be going on a business trip in about 4 weeks from now. It’ll be my first business trip since the start of March of 2007 when I drove nearly 1,600 miles to and from north of Atlanta Georgia. This time around I’ll be visiting New England for the very first time in my entire life – specifically the Springfield Massachusetts area. It should be nice up there during the middle week of October !

2.  I’m not driving to and from Massachusetts, but I will be driving to and from the Dallas Texas area in just about 8 weeks for the Thanksgiving holiday week. That’s a little over 1,400 miles one way, or 2,800 miles round trip. That’s a lot of driving for me considering the fact that I’m averaging a little over 7,500 miles of driving per year over the past couple of years. Over the course of 6 years and 3 months I’ve put just a little over 60,300 miles on my car.

3.  Can you believe it ?  The Autumnal Equinox is just minutes away. The southward Sun crosses over the Equator at 5:18 PM EDT this afternoon. It continues its southward trek until the 21ST of December as our days continue to get shorter and our nights continue to get longer. Tomorrow – Wednesday September 23RD – is the first full day of Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the first full day of Spring down under. Incidentally I’ve got new regular blog readers checking in from South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Welcome aboard !

4.  This past Sunday afternoon I indulged in the mother of all MASSIVE meals over at Downtown Homestead‘s very own Mamma Mia Pizza. I enjoyed an ENORMOUS plate of traditional spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs were GINORMOUS and plentiful. Just because there’s new competition in the city (The Olive Garden / The Big Cheese) it does not mean that Mamma Mia has disappeared or is inferior in any way. Mamma Mia is still there. It needs your business to stay alive. The food is still scrumptious. Check them out again !

5.  My pathetic Washington Redskins barely scraped up a squeaker of a win against the lowly St. Louis Rams this past Sunday afternoon in their home opener. I’m glad that I didn’t see it. This upcoming Sunday afternoon my Redskins take on the lowly Detroit Lions, and La$ Vega$ has them as a 6 to 6.5 point favourite in a low-scoring game. I’ve been calling for the promotion of veteran Todd Collins from backup to starting quarterback since last season, and I’m still calling for the move. Offensive yards does not win games. Points wins games. Let’s do something !