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Blatant Promotion

TOMORROW MORNING I fully intend to wake up sometime before 7 AM, take a hot shower, put on some cool clothes, and then proceed to venture outside and walk around my neighbourhood for a couple of miles. I call it ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’, and you’ll be able to read all about it right here on the big green blog.

Later in the day on Saturday be sure to catch another smokin’ hot new edition of ‘The Major’s Saturday Night Fever DISCO Party’ ‘Saturday Night Retro’ as I take you back – way back to 1979 !

I’m getting indications that North America’s continental weather pattern is about to make a major shift, and that could mean the end of all of this warm weather that we’ve been experiencing here in America’s Riviera over the past 30 days or so. In fact I may be issuing a ‘Homestead Cold Weather Alert’ sometime early next week in anticipation of temperatures falling into the 40s !  Stay tuned for that one !

So that’s what I’ve got in store for the big green blog real soon. Be sure to stick around and check in from time to time. You won’t regret it pal !

Miami made International news headlines again today for another nutty incident. Hundreds and hundreds of shoes were dumped on a half-mile stretch of a Palmetto Expressway overpass early this morning near the Don SHOE-LA Expressway (sorry – I just had to go there), and it snarled rush hour traffic for miles and miles. Read (and see) all about it here (courtesy of WTVJ NBC-6), and (courtesy of CNN) – REMEMBER THIS !

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Animals Astronomy God Health Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Sunny & Clear
Temperature: 54°F
Dewpoint: 43°F
Relative Humidity: 65%
Winds: N 10 MPH
Barometric Pressure: 30.16 Rising

1. When I walked outside this morning at 7:04 AM I exclaimed, “Ooh – Nice and refreshing !’  That was before I hit the 10 MPH winds (with higher gusts). I live within feet of a somewhat elevated Florida’s Turnpike. I didn’t realize that it was such a wind shelter. Once I walked away from it the winds shattered my teeth and pierced my ears.

2.  Homestead was shivering, and so was I. I quickly decided that this was not going to be the long 2.0-mile-plus walk that I envisioned. It turned out to be a simple 1.3-mile walk completely around the perimeter of my neighbourhood. I did it in exactly 24 minutes. That’s an average of 3.25 MPH.

3.  The Moon was at its closest distance to Earth overnight in nearly 16 years (since March 1993). It was large and bright. I saw it last night as it was climbing the eastern sky, and I saw it again during this morning’s walk as it was dropping towards the western horizon. Last night’s Full Moon was known as the ‘Long Night Moon’ (for obvious reasons). It was up for 14½-hours.

4.  I saw no cats outside this morning. They were all keeping warm inside or underneath vehicles. There were a lot of ducks out and about. They too were shivering. They should have gone in the lake. The water was at least 20° warmer than the air. I was looking for ‘lake-effect’ snows as that cold northerly wind blew across the warmer big lake that I walked around.

5.  This morning’s walk was certainly uncomfortable, but you can’t make any progress in Life if you’re always comfortable. On God’s fantastic journey you should never get into a groove or think that you’re ‘there’. You’re never there, and there’s always something bigger and better just around the corner. The status quo produces nothing relevant. Sitting in neutral is not living. It’s dying. You’ve got to continue to move forward on this journey – always asking and looking for more. The journey doesn’t end until you’ve been reunited with your Maker. That’s when you know that you’ve finally made it to the Promised Land.

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Animals Health Travel Weather

The Major’s Walk-A-Thon

Sky: Mostly Sunny
Temperature: 66°F
Dewpoint: 37°F
Relative Humidity: 34%
Winds: Calm
Barometric Pressure: 30.02 Falling

1.  This was my first classic ‘walk-around-the-neighbourhood’ outside of my own neighbourhood.

2.  It wasn’t the coldest, but it was certainly the dryest ‘Walk-A-Thon’ ever with a desert-like relative humidity and a dewpoint just a few degrees above the freezing mark. That rarely occurs in South Florida. The air was crisp, and it just felt so great to be out in it walking the beat.

3.  My brother and his wife and their dog live in a real nice (and large) modern neighbourhood of hundreds and hundreds of houses that are perhaps less than a decade old in the heart of Allen Texas – itself a northern bedroom community of Dallas. Allen is one of the TOP 10 safest cities in the entire country as reported in a recent annual survey.

4.  It was a 33-minute and 33-second walk at a slightly faster pace than I’m used to. My brother and his dog Buddy joined me for this nearly two-mile excursion. We could have walked around this place for miles and miles. Buddy was the one that was holding us back. I’m 41. My brother is 33. Buddy is in his late-40s. Buddy was totally exhausted towards the end of the two miles. Buddy is sleeping now.

5.  Me and my brother worked up MASSIVE appetites for Thanksgiving Dinner – coming up within the next couple of hours. We’re so truly looking forward to the ‘Dinner Of The Year’ !

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Food Health History Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

If it’s Tuesday night then you just know what I’m up to – no matter where in the world I may be located at:

1.  I don’t have a cold yet. My 9TH cold in 13 months has not yet materialized. Give it a few days. It’ll make its presence known. I guarantee it. North Texas is full of germs. So are airplanes. I fly back in one this Saturday afternoon.

2.  I’ll be flying to South Florida this weekend on the 21ST anniversary of my very first flight to South Florida (from the Washington D.C. area). I landed at MIA on the 30TH of November in 1987, and I arrived so late in the night that it wasn’t until the wee hours of the 01ST of December that I actually arrived at my new home at (then) Homestead Air Force Base. I was 20 at the time. That was more than a half a life ago.

3.  Remember this family vacation of a lifetime that I identified in an early-September edition of these ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ ?:

America's Magnificent National Parks
Magnificent National Parks - Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, And Nevada

It’s not gonna happen. The trip has been cancelled due to a variety of logistical reasons. Now we’re planning a replacement trip for sometime during the Spring, Summer, or Autumn of 2009. I cast my vote for Bermuda (which I just mentioned this past weekend on the ‘Saturday Night Retro’). Maybe we’ll take a 5, 7, or 9 day cruise from the U.S. to Bermuda and back ?

4.  Yesterday was quite the ‘Tex-Mex’ day for me. For Lunch we ate at Chili’s (not my choice), and then for Dinner less than 5 hours later we ate at a place called Mexi-Go. I delighted in the ‘Guadalajara’. That – mis amigos – is a chicken enchilada, a cheese enchilada, a grilled chicken fajita taco, rice, and beans. Oh yeah we enjoyed the standard appetizer of chips and salsa at both joints. I can’t deal with anymore Mexican food until I return back home to the Mexican restaurant capital of South Florida – Homestead 33030.

5.  TOMORROW me and my brother are going to visit the place where Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed John F. Kennedy exactly 45 years ago this past weekend. I’ve always wanted to visit this essential piece of world history. It’s a single event that lasted a few seconds that forever changed the United States Of America.

Those are my thoughts on this Tuesday night. I’m so glad that I could share them with you. Thank You for being a part of my Life.