Category: Career

Saturday Night Retro

22 years ago in 1987 I was a 20-year-old living in Gloucestershire in the southwest of England. Cirencester (to the west) and Swindon (to the south) were the nearest cities, and I visited both of them fairly often. Swindon was the place to go shopping and hook up with British Rail on my trips over to London. Swindon was also the home to this highway monstrosity:

The Magic Roundabout - Swindon, Wiltshire, United Kingdom

I never drove a car while over in the U.K., as I rode with friends or took public transportation. I lived perhaps a mile from the village of Fairford. I walked to and from the village at least once a week or so.

11TH Strategic Group, RAF Fairford, United Kingdom

That’s my military unit from November 1985 to November 1987.

NO edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’ is complete without a big hit song from the times, so here we go with this week’s retro classic flashback from the past. It’s the 1987 European dance remix of the 1975 disco smash “You Sexy Thing” from Hot Chocolate. Get up and dance my friends !

Tags 1987, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, Swindon, Wiltshire

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 24, 2009

It’s the longest-running episodic weekly series in the entire history of this blog:

1. So far March in America’s Riviera has been windy and soggy – and that’s a good thing considering the fact that November, December, January, and February were pretty much chilly and arid extra dry. This morning I drove through a ferocious rainstorm in the dark. It lasted all but three minutes, but I thought that I was either gonna drown or blow away to Kansas during the peak of it.

2. I’m allergic to a bunch of things to include cologne and freshy cut grass. They make me sneeze. I don’t wear cologne. I don’t need to. I smell fresh and delightful naturally primarily because I take regular showers. Some people use cologne in lieu of bathing. They make me sneeze. Oh yeah – and they smell nasty.

3. I moved over to my current workplace on base almost 20 months ago. I don’t have very many ‘low’ days, but of the ones that I’ve had they’ve all been far better than my ‘high’ days at my previous workplace on base of over 13 unlucky years. My career renaissance continues.

4. Exactly 22 years ago tonight (on March 24TH 1987) I saw British musician Howard Jones LIVE in concert at London England’s historic Royal Albert Hall. That place has been standing there for nearly 140 years (since 1871).

5. Last year March 24TH was the Monday after Easter Sunday. This year Easter Sunday occurs on April 12TH. That’s because it’s the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21ST of March. (The full moon occurs on April 09TH.)

That’s what I’ve got for you for this week. Be sure to check out my ‘Mini Thoughts’ this Thursday night here on the big green blog. You won’t regret it pal.

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Saturday Night Retro

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 21, 2009

This weekend marks my 15TH anniversary back in Homestead following my original nearly 5-year residence from December 01ST 1987 through the destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew on August 24TH 1992. I was away from Homestead for nearly 19 months, and I never really thought that I would see it again – until just a few months before I actually moved back down here.

Homestead Air Force Base officially reopened as Homestead Air Reserve Station (now Base) on this exact weekend in March of 1994 as our Squadron of F-16 jets came roaring back to life across the subtropical blue skies of America’s Riviera.

It was “The Sign” that Homestead was starting to get back to normal again.

I present to you for your ‘Saturday Night Retro’ review – this U.S. platinum pop smash that spent 10 months on the pop charts in 1994. It was the runaway # 1 smash in the entire free nation as our jets returned back home again on that glorious 3RD weekend in March of 1994.

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 19, 2009

– It was another crazy busy day at work for me.
– I was away from my desk for over 6 hours.
– I was mostly sitting in conference rooms.
– I actually enjoyed all of my meetings today.
– I’m in a good place at work.
– I’m in the best place ever at work.
– My 24-year D.O.D. career just keeps on reaching amazing new peaks.
– None of this career rejuvenation occurred before the journey began.
– I’ve got a mostly uneventful stay-at-home weekend planned.
– I’ve actually got a lot of things that I need to catch up on.
– My weekend was supposed to start at Lunch time tomorrow.
– That won’t happen now because I have a HUGE meeting in the afternoon.
– I even have to postpone my previously-scheduled dental appointment.
– It looks like I won’t have to issue a ‘Homestead Cold Weather Alert’.
– The unexpected heavy rains of the past 48 hours changed everything.
– I expected up to an inch of rain.
– My neighbourhood picked up about a half a foot of rain !
– The crunchy brown grass is suddenly soft, lush, and green.
– This is my little buddy Pumpkin:

– Me and my brother rescued her from an animal shelter near Jacksonville.
– That was during Thanksgiving Week of 2003.
– I didn’t pick her out of a lineup.
– I picked out a completely different cat.
– The cat that I picked out looked very much like our first cat Fluffy.
– Pumpkin was terrified of me for the first 5 years or so.
– Now Pumpkin loves me.
– She really loves me ! … when I comb her.
– She was my roommate for two nights during my parents’ move to Texas.
– She’s another Day Family transplant from Florida.
– She’ll live northeast of Dallas for the rest of her life.
– Hopefully she lives healthy and happy for at least another decade.
– She succeeds Fluffy and Barney.
– Fluffy was our first cat (1983-2001).
– Barney was our second cat (1987-2006)
– Boots was my cat here in Homestead (1995-2007).
– Now you know the history of all of my feline family members.