Category: Health

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Blogging Career Food Health Money Politics Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s the flagship weekly series of this blog, and it kicks-off a fresh new week.

I.  Longhorn Steakhouse / Olive Garden / Red Lobster – Just a few years ago who would have ever thought that all three of these fine dining establishments would be open for business right here in our historic city of Homestead Florida – and right next to each other !  Here’s a personal progress report of the trio thus far. Working backwards from last opened to first opened – I have not yet made it into Red Lobster. In fact I think it’s been at least 15 years since I’ve set foot in any Red Lobster. I know that I’ll love the food there, but I think that I’ll wait until after the crowds die down a bit. As far as Olive Garden is concerned I’ve been there perhaps a half a dozen times. In my own humble opinion the food is overrated, and the service is consistently subpar. I would rather eat Italian food at either Portofino or Mamma Mia – and I frequently do – far more so than Olive Garden. And that brings us to my new home away from home – Longhorn Steakhouse – where I’m a regular – and I’m welcomed back week after week after week. It’s my Lunchtime getaway. I think I’ve eaten there about 15 to 20 times since they’ve been open (not that I’m actually keeping track of it or anything like that). I’ve never walked away from there unhappy. The food has always been totally awesome dude, and the service has always been very good, excellent, or even outstanding. I ate Lunch there yesterday (Monday), and I’ll be back again next week. I’ll take the 8-ounce Renegade Top Sirloin !

II.  Health Care – I know next to nothing about the specifics of the health care debate and subsequent bill that was recently signed into law. I just didn’t really follow it or study it much, and apparently much of America didn’t either. I’d even venture to state that much of the U.S. Congress didn’t study it much as well. All of the Republicans said “NO” to it, and most of the Democrats said “YES” to it. That says a lot right there. I can’t form an opinion on it at this time. I’ll have to wait and see after-the-fact whether or not it was a good bill to sign or not based on how it personally affects me a few years from now. Here’s what I do know. I have excellent health care courtesy of my U.S. Government job. I pay a little over $80 for it every two weeks (about $2,100 per year). I have an active prescription for Lipitor. It costs $25.08 for a 30-day supply. My health care plan allegedly saves me $94.87, so without it I assume I would pay $119.95 for the Lipitor every month. My health care plan allegedly saves me about 79% off the total cost of the Lipitor. I dig that, but will all of those costs remain the same in the future, or will they go up ?  Someone has to pay for this trillion-dollar-plus health care bill, and that someone is me and you with jobs.

III.  Springfield Massachusetts – As part of my ‘Vacation Of The Month Club’ that I’ve ambitiously instituted – fresh and new for 2010 – I’m proud to announce that my June vacation will be to South Central Mass. I’ll actually be setting foot in two U.S. states for the first time ever – Massachusetts and Connecticut. (I’m flying in to the Hartford area.) But I must be 100% completely honest here. This proposed 5-day trip is work-related, as I will be visiting the operations at Westover Air Reserve Base there – one of our sister bases. It’ll be a lot of fun checking out the surrounding area – especially in June. (I know how cold it gets up there for 6 months out of the year.)

This concludes this weekly edition of the ‘Grab Bag’. “My Fantastic Journey” is making the big move from its longtime successful Wednesday night perch over to Sunday afternoons, so the next time I blog will be on Thursday night when I bring you about 40 ‘Mini Thoughts’. Until then my friends keep on keepin’ on – and – REMEMBER THIS !

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Blogging Career Driving Food Health Holidays People Shopping Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Let’s kick-off a fresh new week of blogging – right here – right now !

I.  Every Other Month – I’ve got my vacation schedule all lined-up for 2010, and it’s an ‘every other month’ deal. I’ve got no vacations planned (yet) for this month (March) and next month (April), but then in May I fly to the Dallas-Fort Worth Texas Metroplex to celebrate a whole series of exciting events with my family to include my sister’s-in-law 29TH birthday, my mom’s and dad’s 44TH wedding anniversary, my niece’s birth into this world, my brother’s 36TH 35TH birthday, Mother’s Day, and my brother’s and sister’s-in-law 3RD wedding anniversary. We’ll celebrate all of those wonderful events during the short time (4 days and 4 nights) that I’ll be over there. Vacations later on in 2010 include a return holiday visit to DFW in July, my 10TH Carnival cruise in September, and then back to DFW for Thanksgiving in November.

II.  7-4 – I’m currently experimenting with a slightly later 7 AM to 4 PM shift at work to see if I like it. I’m able to set my own work shift (within reason), and this is the second change that I’ve made recently. I started with a 6 AM to 3 PM shift, and then I changed it to 6:30 AM to 3:30 PM. The problem with leaving work at 3:30 PM is that I get stuck in thick rush hour traffic on Biscayne Drive and Speedway Boulevard heading in to Homestead due to schools in the local area that are letting out just before that. So far the 4 PM experiment is working out pretty good for me with noticeably lighter traffic at that time. Of course I now have to deal with much heavier traffic going to the base just before 7 AM than I previously had to deal with prior to 6:30 AM. Incidentally for those of you who think that the base is dead with nobody working there and nothing going on there then I suggest that you stand out in front of the base between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM to see for yourself how dead our base is NOT !

III.  DIG ! – And now ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues – I present to you a complete list of everything that I dig according to my recent tweets:
– Publix Coconut Custard Pie
– The 2010 Buick Lacrosse
– My very normal internal parts
– The opening of Staples in Homestead
– My refreshing 25-minute walk in the cold
– My GINORMOUS hot Breakfast at Denny’s
– The booking of my 10TH Carnival cruise
– Tracking the number of miles I drive in a single day
– Eating Lunch at China Garden in Naranja Lakes
– Kelly Ripa (‘The Pipster’)

That is all for now. Be sure to catch my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’.

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Blogging Health Travel

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s not hold nothin’ back.
– Can we talk here ?
– Less than half an hour ago I returned home from my Doctor’s office.
– I had a ‘medical procedure’ done this afternoon.
– It was short and simple and painless.
– Let’s just say that it had to do with bladders and kidneys.
– OK – I had an ultrasound done – because as you know – I am pregnant !
– Not really, but I never knew that guys got ultrasounds done.
– I think that this was my first one in modern recorded life history.
– When it began I got rejected because my bladder wasn’t full enough.
– So I had to drink numerous cups of water to fill it up to the brim.
– After about 15 minutes of sitting around the Doctor called me back in.
– My bladder passed the fullness test.
– The electronic examination of my bladder and kidneys lasted maybe 30 mins.
– I go back for the most anticipated ‘results show’ in about 15 days.
– I’ve got Life Group tonight, and I’m lookin’ forward to that.
– My dear friend Kelly D. was worried sick about me just now.
– Apparently she thinks that I’m fleeing the law for whatever reason.
– I set her straight.
– I’ve got one more day of work tomorrow before I flee the country on Saturday.
– Have no fear, for I’m coming back 8 days later.
– I hope to be all tan and refreshed by then.
– If I’m not then something obviously went horribly wrong.
– This blog will go dark for 10 days.
– You’ll still be able to access it, but it’ll be frozen in time.
– That’s after one more new blog post tomorrow night.
– It’s a special Friday night edition of the ‘Saturday Night Retro’.
– During my blogging hiatus feel free to go back and read some old posts.
– You may have missed some real gems along the way.
– You won’t regret it pal.
– Have a great Thursday night my friends.
– I’ll roll more ‘Mini Thoughts’ your way two weeks from tonight.

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Animals Annoyances Bugs Food God Health Life Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Time: 7:35 AM – 8:11 AM
Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 64°F
Dewpoint: 62°F
Relative Humidity: 92%
Winds: W 6 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 29.84 Rising

Here are my walking thoughts in 15 words or less:

– This morning I ‘slept in’ a bit – until nearly 7 AM !  OMG !
– I took a nice long hot shower, and then I went out for a walk.
– I walked for 36.3 minutes, or about 1.9 miles around my neighbourhood.
– It was a sparkling crystal clear and delightfully cool early Saturday morning.
– We don’t get very many mornings like this one.
– In fact they don’t occur at all for about 6 months out of the year.
– But during this time of the year they are more common.
– While I was walking in the 64°F ‘chill’ I was thinking about the D.C. area.
– The’re being smothered by their biggest blizzard in a century !
– When all is said and done there could be 2½-FEET of snow on the ground !
– We had some big snows up there when I was growing up, but not that big !
– I’m glad that I live down here in America’s Riviera.
– Next Saturday morning I’ll be on my way to Port Everglades.
– The Carnival Freedom will be my home for 8 days and 8 nights.
– I will surely be doing a lot of walking on that MAMMOTH vessel.
– I will also complement that walk-a-thon with an eat-a-thon !
– I figure that if I burn 5,000 calories per day then I can eat that much.
– I won’t regret it pal – at least I hope not.
– On my walk this morning there were a lot of white flying bugs around.
– I don’t know what they are, but the’re annoying if not harmless.
– I keep seeing a large grayish cat on one of the streets during my walks.
– The cat looks at me, I look at the cat, and we agree to be passing friends.
– Most cats understand that I am a friend of the feline species.
– Most dogs don’t like me, as they probably know that I favor cats.
– I am in the best physical condition of my entire lifetime.
– Before this journey began 41½ months I did not take care of my body.
– I did not exercise at all, I ate junk food, I binge drank, and I smoked.
– All of that changed in 2007 and 2008.
– If you don’t believe that God performs miracles then look at me.
– Of course you had to have known me during my teens, 20s, and 30s.
– Compare that lost soul with the man that I am today.
– I once was lost, but now am found – was blind, but now I see.