Category: Driving

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s time to kick it with the final ‘Grab Bag’ of 2009. Let’s rock and roll:

1.  Technology-wise I made GINORMOUS strides in 2009. I ditched analog cable television after nearly 25 years and switched over to AT&T U-verse. That switch included my first experience with a modern DVR; thus, upgrading me from VHS (gasp !) and DVD recording of television shows. It also included my first exposure (believe it or not) with wireless technology. I now have two working computers – a fixed desktop and a roaming wireless laptop. I’ve also got a real nice digital (DECT 6.0) telephone system in place with three handsets scattered around my home. Just last week I bought my very first LCD HDTV set, and I upgraded my AT&T U-verse to enable all of the HD channels. Everything looks sparkling bright and amazingly clear in HD !  That’s a lot of technological change I can believe in for a single year !  What shall 2010 bring me that’s modern, new, and exciting ?  BRING IT ON !

2.  As far as sleek new personal hygiene products are concerned I haven’t been very successful with them in the past. I lost count of how many nose and ear hair trimmers I’ve bought that I used just a few times until I realized that they hardly worked efficiently. So you can imagine my skepticism when I saw ‘The Essential Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver’ from Mangroomer on sale at Bed Bath & Beyond. I bought it this past Sunday morning, and I used it that same afternoon. Let’s just say that for the first time in several years I now have a non-hairy and somewhat smoothly shaved back. It actually feels weird like that – and cool like that at the same time. Thank You Mangroomer for such a spectacular personal hygiene product that I can believe in !

3.  Why is it that the Christmas spirit (the decorations, the cards, the shopping, the gift giving, etc.) seems to begin earlier and earlier each year (right after Halloween it seems), but then it all comes crashing down on the first day after Christmas. I actually know people who took down all of their decorations and threw their Christmas tree out with the garbage on the 26TH of December !  What’s THAT all about ?  Aside from the whole true meaning of Christmas being lost in the first place whatever happened to the “12 Days Of Christmas” ?  They start on Christmas Day (the 1ST day of Christmas) and then continue on through January 05TH (the 12TH day of Christmas). That’s followed by Epiphany on January 06TH. Don’t be a Scrooge. Keep the Christmas spirit alive !

4.  It appears that I’ll be taking a nice long drive up to the Jacksonville Florida area sometime within the next couple of weeks to discuss local real estate conditions with the management company that’s currently managing my newly acquired home up there. I have a lot of critical decisions and corresponding actions to make soon that have a lot of legal and financial ramifications. Hopefully this situation will work out beneficially for me, my parents, and the management company.

5.  It was a cold morning this morning in and around Homestead with 47°F officially at the air base with wind chills deep down into the lower-40s !  Tomorrow morning I’m forecasting a low temperature at 7 AM of perhaps 8°F milder – right around 55°F (still a bit nippy). Our next cold front arrives with a vengeance from the northwest during the day on New Year’s Day – and it’ll be a doozy !  It’ll be the start of an extended cold snap for us that could last for 5 to 7 days with daytime highs stuck in the 60s and nighttime lows deep down into the 40s with even some 30s possible out in the Everglades. Cold weather fans (hello there Ela O.) – you’re gonna love it !

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ LIVE this New Year’s Eve here on the blog that’s cool like that. You won’t regret it pal !

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Animals Blogging Driving Food Holidays Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  My brother, his 4½-month pregnant wife, and their dog are driving well over 1,000 miles northeast this Friday from the northeastern suburbs of Dallas Texas to northwestern Ohio. They will be taking turns driving the Interstate highway system – perhaps in 4-hour shifts – until they reach their destination. They will spend a festive Christmas week hanging out with her side of the family. Please pray that their journey up and over to Ohio and then back home to Texas is safe from all harm.

2.  Last Thursday night within my ‘Mini Thoughts’ I announced ‘a major continental shift in the jet stream’ with ‘temperatures of 25 to 35 degrees colder than now’. Are ya ready my friends ?  It’s gonna happen – really ! – this weekend !  Some of the coldest air of the winter season is getting ready to dive deep into the southeastern U.S. and even into the subtropical Caribbean. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we could actually struggle to reach the 70°F mark, and we probably won’t even make it. Look for highs mostly in the mid-60s on those three days with early-morning low temperatures possibly dropping all the way down into the lower-40s in and around the Homestead area (a bit milder at the beaches).

3.  With less than 10 days before Christmas I’ve got an updated score in the annual Christmas Card Derby – 22 to 10. Translation – I’ve sent out (either mailed or hand-delivered) 22 Christmas cards thus far, and I’ve received 10. Time is running out. I’ve got a few more to send out, and I’ve got a whole lot more to receive. As is always the case Christmas cards will be gladly accepted through the ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas’.

4.  Last Friday night me and my girlfriend ate Dinner at P.F. Chang’s up at The Falls in Kendall. It was my very first visit to that particular location. I’ve been to the one near my brother’s and sister’s-in-law house in Allen Texas. It was perhaps the most delicious Chinese Food meal that I’ve tasted in quite some time, and I’ve enjoyed a lot of great Chinese Food in my lifetime. I especially adored the banana spring rolls with strawberries and ice cream for dessert. I’m looking forward to future visits to Chang’s to experiment with some of their other delicious menu items.

5.  Staying on the subject of delicious food (clearly one of my favourite subjects) tomorrow for Lunch me and a coworker and our supervisour will be enjoying a relaxing extended meal at Los Ranchos up at The Falls. I’ve eaten there a bunch of times for Dinner, but not for Lunch. I never even knew that they were open for Lunch – or even had a special Lunch menu. Incidentally their official web site is at the domain name beststeakinmiami.com. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it is some good eatin’ !

Be sure to catch more thoughts o’ mine this Thursday night here on the blog.

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Blogging Driving God Home Life Money Politics Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– It’s time for my favourite blog entry of the week.
– That’s because there’s no planning for it.
– It just happens.
– I just do it.
– This afternoon on my drive home from work cops were pulling over people.
– There were 3 cop cars with lights on at 3 separate locations within 3 miles.
– That’s triple the overall average of 0 cop cars !
– One vehicle driving directly behind me was pulled over by a cop.
– I dig that !
– When I see a cop I continue driving as normal while others slam their brakes.
– That’s because I’m a safe and law-abiding driver – unlike most people I know.
– It’s why I’m alive today after my recent trek to North Texas and back.
– 8 out of every 10 vehicles on the road pass me.
– Does anyone know of a good Real Estate attorney here in Homestead ?
– I need one next week.
– I own a 2ND home now, and I need to get everything transferred over.
– NO – I’m not moving away from Homestead !
– My parents gave me their former home up in the Jacksonville area.
– I just need to start paying for it now.
– My Credit Union is going to love me when they find out about this.
– There is no cold air in sight even though it’s December.
– This is an El Niño winter, so that means an abnormally wet winter.
– El Niño winters can produce double, triple, and even more the normal rain.
– It can also get cold for extended periods of time (several weeks).
– That usually happens later in the season.
– It should be an exciting winter season weatherwise.
– The murder of an unborn baby is absolutely despicable.
– Yet it is so unbelievably acceptable.
– Just 18 days following conception that heart is beating.
– Brain waves follow soon after.
– Tens of millions of human lives have been murdered since Roe V. Wade.
– That sounds like a Holocaust to me.
– Pro-Choice = Pro-Death
– I was once a firm believer in the death penalty.
– I no longer support it.
– It’s been a gradual change in thinking for me over the past 40 months.
– I don’t believe that anyone has a right to kill anyone else – no matter what.
– The One who creates the Life must be The One who ends the Life.
– That can only be God.

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Annoyances Driving Holidays Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s time for the informal debriefing of my recent long road trip. Let’s roll:

1.  First I’ve got some raw stats – 1,381.3 miles going from Homestead Florida to Allen Texas – and an unbelievably close 1,383.4 miles going from Allen Texas to Homestead Florida. That’s a difference of only 2.1 miles – or a mere 0.15%. That’s ridiculously close for both legs of the longest road trip of my lifetime. Here’s another crazy fact. I drove 0.0 miles from the moment that I arrived in Allen Texas on a Saturday afternoon until the moment that I departed the following Saturday morning. I meant to drive around and explore the local area, but I never got around to doing so. My brother drove us everywhere that we went, and I was happy with that. He has far more experience driving amongst the crazy North Texas drivers. He is one !

2.  I generally drive an overall average of about 21 miles per day – or close to 7,750 miles per year. (It’s great to live and work within 7½ miles of each other.) I amassed a grand total of 2,764.7 miles on this road trip from start to finish – or about 132 days worth of driving (nearly 4½ months) in a mere 4 days (2 days over and 2 days back). My car’s already due for its next routine 3-month preventive maintenance just a little more than 3 weeks after its last one !

3.  There were a lot of horrifying traffic experiences along the way to (and especially) returning back from Texas. It was truly a miracle from up above over and over again that I did not get hit by any other vehicles big and small by all of the various crazy lunatic drivers that were all around me. I knew that I was driving some busy highways on the busiest travel days of the year, but I always thought that the airports were busy more so than the highways. This past Sunday I-75 from I-10 to Florida’s Turnpike was so thick and congested that traffic occasionally came to a grinding halt at times – 0 MPH. The same was true over much of the entire length of Florida’s Turnpike all the way down to the Broward / Miami-Dade County line. Ironically the Miami-Dade County portion of the Turnpike southbound was the most peaceful portion of my trek as I hit the final home stretch en route to my home sweet Homestead.

4.  One horrific moment that’s still rather clear in my mind occurred high atop the mighty Mississippi River Bridge on I-10 on the eastbound approach into Baton Rouge Louisiana. It is apparently the highest bridge over the entire length of the river, and I believe it !  I was in the middle lane which came to a grinding halt (due to thick heavy traffic at the time); however, both of the other lanes were still moving slowly. As I was stuck in my middle lane for what seemed like forever at the time (but was surely for less than a minute) I could actually feel the bridge sway back-and-forth with the movement of the other vehicles. This frightened me to bits and pieces, and I decided that the best thing to do at that precise point in time and space was to grip my steering wheel harder than I ever had previously. I suppose that during that short ordeal it made me feel just a little bit more secure (for no logical reason whatsoever).

Mississippi River Bridge - I-10 - Baton Rouge Louisiana

5.  Would I do it all over again ?  Of course I would !  Before I embarked on this longest road trip ever I figured that once I got this out of my system that I wouldn’t want to do it again. That was then, but this is now. I want to do it again. I may plan my travel days a bit differently next time so as to minimize the horrific traffic experiences along the way. I really enjoyed the freedom of being able to take whatever I felt like taking on this road trip without any of the various space, weight, and security limitations that exist via flying. I made light of some of the horrific traffic experiences along the way, but there were plenty of peaceful, quiet, and uneventful stretches of this road trip as well. Those experiences made it all worth it, and I’m looking forward to doing it all over again – perhaps as soon as 5 months from now !