Category: Driving

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Saturday Night Retro

Saturday October 02ND 2010
Volume 3 / Number 4 / Edition 101

Let’s take a ride back 14½ years ago to the Spring of 1996. Back then I was not quite 29-years-old and living in the same home that I’m living in now and working at the same place that I’m working at now. In fact I was sitting at my computer (a different more primitive one back then) and working from the same home computer workstation that I’m working at now. All of the furniture here in my living room is the same furniture that I had back then. The more things change over the years – the more things stay the same.

Back during the Spring of 1996 my Mom, Dad, 21-year-old brother Danny, and our two cats Fluffy and Barney (born in the 1980s) were still living up in the Washington D.C. area. They were living in our McLean Virginia house that we moved in to back in November of 1980 when I was 13 and my brother was 5. Later that year (in November of 1996) everyone would move down to Jacksonville Florida. I got to visit the old house (built in the 1950s) one last time in May of 1996 when I drove up for a visit. I didn’t really know at the time that it would be my last visit. The move down to Jacksonville just 5 months later was a bit on the low-key side. My family lived in that house for 16 years – the longest tenure for any one home. I only lived in that house for 4½ out of those 16 years until I began my USAF career. Now I’ve been living in my current home for over 15 years. It’s hard to believe that I moved in to this place back when I was in my late-20s, and now I’m in my mid-40s. There’s a lot of history of me in this home of mine. Back in 1996 a young black cat by the name of Boots was loaded with energy – running all over the place and loving me. Today I have a little memorial set up for him at the edge of one of my living room couches where he enjoyed relaxing. This home of mine is indeed ‘Retro’.

On the radio back during the Spring of 1996 me and my brother listened to this song as we drove southbound on I-95 in Virginia en route to Kings Dominion to spend a fun May day at the park in the chill, fog, and drizzle. My brother won free tickets to the park by winning a radio contest on the rock station DC-101. Here’s Spacehog – “In The Meantime”:

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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’.