Category: Driving

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Saturday Night Retro

7 years ago during the Autumn months of September, October, and November of 2003 remember when these 7 notable events occurred:

– Once Cat. 5 Hurricane Isabel strikes N. Carolina causing $4 billion in damage.
– Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected Governor of California.
– 11 die and 71 are injured in the Staten Island New York ferry crash.
– The Concorde flies for the very last time.
– Wildfires ravage San Diego County in California destroying over 2,200 homes.
– The Florida Marlins beat the New York Yankees in the World Series.
– Americans pay $1.40 to $1.60 for a gallon of gas.

European dance music had a spot on the South Florida radio dial via Party-93.1, and this was one of the hottest songs of the year on that memorable station that was an integral part of my life for two years. It’s a dance remake of the clasic Duran Duran # 1 smash “Ordinary World”. Here’s Aurora with Naimee Coleman:

Next week it’s the remarkable 100TH edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ – now my only remaining original weekly blog series from the 2008 heyday. I’m not planning anything out of the ordinary for the milestone edition. It will all be routine standard fare. How ‘Retro’ of me. We’ll flashback to 39 years ago to the Autumn of 1971. I want you to meet an Uncle. He knows this Admiral.

See ya next week !

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Animals Annoyances Blogging Computers Driving Food History Internet Life People Television Travel

The Major’s Weekend Blast-Off

WEEKEND GRAB BAG O’ THOUGHT:
I’ve got an interesting idea for a new and innovative television show. It would be similar to the long-running “Cops“, but this show would utilize helicopters instead with no police action involved. They would fly directly above our streets – neighbourhood and city roads and high-speed expressways alike. They would simply fly around the region and record the traffic down below. Don’t even look for anything unsual. Just record what’s happening down there. Make sure that the cameras that are utilized to capture this footage are very high quality so that everything is clear and visible (aside from license plates and people’s faces). Make it in HD. We could then show that footage during a half-hour nationally syndicated nightly TV show – perhaps right after the local and national news at 7 PM. We’ll have a variety of traffic analysis experts in the studio showing each day’s footage and analyzing it via the extensive use of telestrators. They can tell us everything that’s being done wrong and right while we drive. They can show us all of the near collisions that occur. They can spotlight the good, the bad, and the ugly. They can tell us what we need to know to survive and stay alive. I bet that most people don’t have any idea on how bad their driving actually is, but if they saw it for themselves on television then maybe they would get a clue. The TV show idea sounds simple enough. I’d watch. Not reality. Actuality !

BEST LUNCH OF THE WEEK AWARD:
It’s been a too long 25 days since I last ate Lunch at my home away from home – Longhorn Steakhouse – so what better way to spend an hour late on a Friday morning than to pull in to the parking lot, open the front door of the joint, and be welcomed by my regular greeter and my regular waitress. FRIENDLY customer service. DELICIOUS food. I can’t ask for anything more out of a Lunch hour. I enjoyed my standard fare – Renegade Top Sirloin (8-ounce / Medium-Well), Mashed Potatoes, Bread, Coke.

RETWEET:
Facebook is like your high school yearbook getting circulated and signed by people you don’t know or like. Twitter is like tagging a wall.

THOSE CRAZY CRAZY CATS:
My longtime cat Boots (1995-2007) did this frequently with geckos on our back porch screen. It was his warning call. If the gecko didn’t scram within a reasonable amount of time then Boots would run and jump on it and push it off the screen himself (thus saving my life of course). Here’s somebody else’s home video that reminds me of the fun times that I enjoyed while I was living with my very own feline buddy. Maybe some day – when the time and the place is right – I’ll go to a local animal shelter and adopt another abandoned feline and bring him or her to my loving and happy home.

BLATANT PROMOTION:
The weekend blogging continues tomorrow night with the 99TH edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’. I’m flashing back to 2003. It was only 7 years ago, but it seems like an era that’s just so foreign to me looking back at it from the light of the present day. Don’t forget that you can stay in touch with me and my Life in-between the weekend blogging simply by following me on Twitter – @majorhitwaves. Watch as I tag my walls with the more notable events of my Life. Have a fun and safe weekend my friends, and I’ll see you out and about.

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Driving History Holidays Life Music People Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Saturday September 04TH 2010
Volume 3 / Number 1 / Edition 98

Although it certainly wasn’t as wild and crazy as the legendary Summer of 1990 this past Summer of 2010 will certainly be a memorable one for my own personal historical archives.

In June I stepped foot in New England for the very first time ever. I flew in to Hartford Connecticut, and I spent the better part of a work week up in ‘West Mass.’ as the natives refer to it. I enjoyed my short visit, and I can see myself returning for an encore visit on a future vacation. I wish to explore Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine as well.

In July I spent the long Independence Day holiday weekend out west in the Dallas Texas area with my family. I got to see my favourite Uncle and Aunt for the first time in about 7 years, and I also got to see another favourite Uncle and Aunt while I was there. It was like a ‘Day Family Reunion’ in Texas for a few hours on the 05TH of July, and as it turns out it would be the final time that my Dad got to see everyone together. He passed on to Heaven just 13 days later. He died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease). I got the news just a few hours after returning home from a road trip up north and west in the rural panhandle of Florida.

I haven’t taken any trips since then, so I’m really looking forward to this upcoming vacation of mine that begins tomorrow. I’ll cap off the memorable Summer of 2010 on a high note out on the high seas as I visit Grand Cayman Island, Isla Roatan Honduras, Belize City, y Cozumel Mexico via the Carnival Valor. I’ll actually have a camera with me on this trip (for the first time ever), so I’ll try to take some pictures of my adventures on and off the ship and then post them on here and on Twitter upon my return back home.

This weekend’s ‘pick-hit video’ is from Milli Vanilli. It actually features LIVE footage from the “Club MTV” tour of 1989 that stopped over in Miami on June 30TH of that year that I was in attendance at. This was their 5TH and final smash hit in a row before the bottom fell out on their short yet extremely successful worldwide hit music career. From the Spring of 1990 I present to you the final song of ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’. It’s “All Or Nothing”. It’s ‘Retro’.

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Blogging Driving History Life Music News Radio Travel

Saturday Night Retro

Volume 2 / Number 47 / Edition 96

On this 96TH weekly edition of my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ it’s time to continue my month-long-plus celebration that is ‘The Awesome ’80s In August International Dance Party’. After this edition I’ll have two more on the 28TH of August and the 04TH of September. I also begin the 3RD year of the ‘Retro’ here on this blog on that 1ST Saturday of September. Who would have thought back in 2008 when this blog was peaking that ‘Saturday Night Retro’ would outlive all of the other weekly blog series at that time. I mean – besides me ?

ON to this week’s ‘Retro’ and back during the Spring of 1989 Time, Inc. and Warner Communications merged to become Time Warner. It was the beginning of the end for Eastern Air Lines, as it went bankrupt after over 60 years in the air. The Exxon Valdez ran aground off the south coast of Alaska, and it created an environmental disaster at sea. My favourite theme park at Walt Disney World – The Disney-MGM Studios – opened its doors for the very first time. Gas prices were right around $1 per gallon as I drove all around South Florida in my sparkling new 1989 Geo Spectrum.

On the radio the U.K.’s Fine Young Cannibals scored BIG with back-to-back International pop and dance smash hits. Here’s one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s “She Drives Me Crazy”. It’s RETRO !