Category: History

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You know you want it:

1.  In just about a week Homestead has gone from brown and crunchy to green and lush. That’s what 10 inches of rain – over a foot in some areas – will do to the surrounding landscape. We are now right smack in the middle of a tropical rain forest. That’s why they call this ‘America’s Riviera’.

2.  I could use another three-day weekend like this past weekend. I used Saturday and Monday as my ‘stay-at-home’ / ‘get-caught-up’ days, and I used Sunday as my ‘play-outside-with-friends’ day. I enjoyed all three days in their own special ways. I’m thinking about repeating the scenario this weekend by taking Friday off. It all depends on my requirements at my workplace.

3.  Yesterday was Memorial Day – a day that we set aside each year to honour those who served, fought, and died defending our country and our freedom. Unfortunately in this new day and age our Armed Forces are not recognized and respected for the hard work that they do for us around the clock and around the world. Our military heroes should never ever be written off or forgotten.

4.  Say what you will about this recent Miami Herald article, but I think that the news of Homestead’s death has been greatly exaggerated. I strongly believe that she will recover rather nicely once the global recession eases and the full-blown economic expansion presses forward full blast. Thousands of people moved down here to Homestead from 2002 to 2007 for a reason, and they will resume their MASSIVE migration southwestward sooner rather than later. There are already signs that this is starting to occur. History has shown us over and over again that with each new recession the expansion that follows is bigger and stronger than any previous one before it.

5.  The month-long celebration that is my 42ND birthday continues for another couple of weeks. I’ve already celebrated it with my family over in North Texas, and now I hope to do the same with my friends and family here in Homestead. If you’re looking for that something special to treat me with for my very special day then you simply can’t go wrong with … FOOD !

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Animals Career Commerce Food God History Life Money Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

My old (and well-preserved) checkbook registers reveal a lot about the storied history of my life.

19 years ago in May of 1990 my take-home pay from the base was less than one-fifth of what it is today. Things were much cheaper back then !

Back then I drank Coca Cola Classic and I used Plax and Act in conjunction with brushing my teeth. I also washed my clothes with Tide. I know this because I wrote these items down within the ‘description’ lines of the checkbook register. Some things just never change !

My cable bill was $40.12 and my long distance carrier was MCI. It cost $20.60 to register my vehicle for another year. That’s almost exactly half of what it just cost me to do it again this past month.

One last thing. I was buying cat food at the HAFB Commissary. I didn’t ‘own’ a cat at the time. Oh yeah – there was however that mangy yellowish cat that essentially lived underneath my car in the parking lot of my dormitory on base for a few years. I suppose that it picked my car as its ‘roof’ because it (allegedly) continued to find miscellaneous food laying there.

Back in May of 1990 this was one of the hottest songs in the entire free nation. It’s the U.S. TOP 10 megasmash “I Remember You” from heavy metal glam rock band Skid Row (featuring then lead singer Sebastian Bach). It’s from their self-titled multi-platinum debut album, and it was one of the top high school prom songs in the nation in May of 1990. So all you 37-year-olds out there from the ‘Class Of 1990’ – this one is for you !

That’s my long distance dedication from Chris in Homestead to the entire ‘Class Of 1990’. Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for God. Oh yeah – and keep your web browser tuned – right where it is !

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Blogging History Music People Radio

Friday Night Blogroll Review

Believe it or not some of my friends actually still blog:

– Alex is in Chi-Town.

– Kelly’s proud of her graduate. * MAJOR BLOGGIE AWARD WINNER *

– Luci and her family went to Sea World Orlando.

– Phil works bankers’ hours.

– Tammy wishes to go up, up, and away – my beautiful, my beautiful balloon …

– Venus wants you to sign-up for her Singles Life Group. I’ve heard that it’s a lot of fun !  Bring food with you.

And now Ladies and Gentlemen – inspired by Tammy‘s next adventure – I present to you a ‘Saturday Night Retro’ special on a Friday night. It’s the 1967 Grammy Award Winner for Record Of The Year (and 5 other Grammy awards). It’s The 5TH Dimension with their U.S. TOP 10 megasmash “Up – Up And Away”. It entered the legendary Billboard HOT 100 a mere two days before I was born in June of 1967.

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Animals Blogging Career Computers Driving God History Holidays Television Travel Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– I always look forward to blogging on a Thursday night.
– That’s because this is one of my favourite weekly series.
– OK – It’s my favourite of them all.
– I have no idea what I’m gonna type on here until I actually do it.
– This is as spur-of-the-moment spontaneous as it can possibly get with me.
– “Judge Judy” just came on (at 4 PM EDT).
– An afternoon is not for real until I’ve had my hour-long dose of Judy.
– They don’t keep her around there because she’s gorgeous.
– They keep her around there because she’s SMART !!!
– The devil has been working overtime at my workplace all this week.
– He’s been making my Life miserable at work.
– But he started to retreat big-time during the day today.
– That’s because God gave me some stronger armour to wear.
– Ephesians 6:10-20 – I could (and should) read that every single day.
– If reading about God makes you uncomfortable then you don’t know Him.
– You should get to know Him.
– He can change your Life.
– I’m looking forward to the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.
– It all starts in less than 24 hours dude.
– I’ve decided to take a week off from serving at Life Pointe Church.
– I’m coming in late, and I’m attending the 10:30 AM service.
– Later on Sunday I plan to drive down to The Keys.
– I’m attending the 6 PM service at the Plantation Key campus.
– I’ve heard a lot of great things about this campus.
– I need to check them all out for myself.
– I also want my Tom Little update of the month.
– Homestead ARB has recorded 4.55 inches of rain over the past 5 days.
– Last week I boldly forecasted 4 to 8 inches of rain for this week.
– It looks like I so totally nailed this weather forecast.
– I do my best weather forecasting work during the rainy season.
– And I do it for free.
– I adore this picture of my first cat Fluffy:

Fluffy The Manx Cat - Late-1987
Fluffy The Manx Cat - Late-1987

– That doggie pillow still exists today on one of my living room couches.
– It’s much more faded now.
– Fluffy inspired ‘MANx CAT BBS’ – born on this day in 1993.
– That BBS is the Godmother of this blog.
– And those – my friends – are my mini thoughts on this here Thursday night.
– Keep it real dudes and dudettes.
– I’ll check you cats out this weekend.