Category: Holidays

Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 24, 2023

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday December 24TH 2023, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord + Savior Jesus Christ. Let us love our neighbor as ourself.

I wish each and every one of you following me and reading my blog a very Merry Christmas.

My traditional family “Christmas” actually occurred 4½ weeks ago in North Texas on Thanksgiving Day. For the past dozen years or so my brother has prepared a hearty home-cooked Breakfast for he and I, and then shortly after that we’ve opened all of the presents underneath the Christmas tree. Once they are all opened it’s time to watch football for the rest of the day and into the night – including for about an hour while we’re enjoying a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at around three or four in the afternoon.

On the day after Thanksgiving (“Black Friday”) Christmas is done and over for me. Well – sort of. For the first 3 weeks of December I get to observe and celebrate bits and pieces of Christmas here and there by listening to Christmas music on the radio, watching Christmas shows on television, writing and sending Christmas cards and messages to family and friends from afar, and enjoying several Christmas meals with friends and neighbors. I’m especially looking forward to my first Christmas potluck dinner with about 100 of my neighbors in our clubhouse.

We all celebrate Christmas in our own unique and traditional ways. May you spend this holiday season with your loved ones. Make and share good memories that will last a lifetime. Honor each other. Love one another.

And let’s remember why we celebrate Christmas.

And she will have a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21 NLT)

The LORD saves.

My testimony is featured here each week on #SundayScripture whether it’s part of a sermon, or just me writing about the events of the past week. Hopefully it encourages you and inspires you to seek the Lord, and get closer to Him with each new day.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

Tags Bible, Blog, Christ, Christian, Church, God, Jesus, Message, Minister, Ministry, Pastor, Preacher, Reverend, Scripture, Sermon, Sunday

1980s Animals Blogging Holidays Home Life Weather

The Legend Of Fluffy The Manx Cat

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 23, 2023

Today it’s the return of a Christmas classic that’s been featured on my blog before in various forms. It’s the story of the greatest Christmas gift ever – the arrival of a cat.

It started out as a morning like any other, but just a few hours later it would become a morning that forever changed the lives of me and my little brother, and our Mom and Dad.

Exactly 40 years ago this morning on Friday December 23RD 1983 me (age 16½) and my little brother (age 8½) looked out our living room window at the snow and the ice on the ground of our backyard. It was a bitter cold morning in McLean Virginia 2 days before Christmas, and we were happy to be warm and comfortable inside.

But there was a creature stirring outside that was not warm and comfortable. It was a lonely young cat with no tail that was wandering around aimlessly on our ice-covered backyard patio deck, and it was shivering in misery. Me and my brother decided rather quickly that it did not belong in the harsh elements of the outside at that moment, so we opened the door and she walked right in to our more sheltered screened-in ‘Florida Room’.

We gave her some milk to drink. She loved us for it. We gave her some love. We heard a strange sound coming from her that we hadn’t heard before. It was the friendly and inviting sound of her purring. We let her in to our warm and comfortable home. She never looked back. In fact she refused to leave after that. We pretty much named her ‘Fluffy’ that day, and she instantly became an important part of our family – the missing link if you will.

That’s a young me in 1985 holding a young Fluffy. I was about 60 pounds lighter than I am today.

She was the 5TH member of our family, and she was the start of nearly 30 years of felines in our family. Fluffy loved us all, but she clearly adored me the most. During her younger years she anxiously awaited me to open the basement / laundry room door for her first thing in the morning so that she could run (and beat me) to my bedroom upstairs for a long round of petting and purring. During her later years in Jacksonville Florida when she was slowly dying she literally came back to life over and over again and jumped and loved on me and ran upstairs to my parents’ guest room whenever I arrived for a short visit. She lived a long, happy, and healthy life (until April of 2001), and she provided lots of love to our family starting with that very first Christmas of 1983.

There have been other cats and dogs within our family over the years since then. Fluffy eventually gained a feline roommate with Barney (also known as “the cat that never liked me”). After Fluffy’s death Barney eventually gained his own feline roommate with Pumpkin. Boots was my own loving cat and housemate for 12½ years in Homestead Florida until his (expected) death on May 17TH 2007. He was the coolest cat that ever lived.

But it all started with “Fluffy The Manx Cat”. She was the Matriarch of all of our family pets (to this day). She was the Queen of her castle. She was the stability of our family. She was our family’s common denominator. She was the center of attention. She was the most lovable cat that ever lived.

Fun Fact: This WordPress blog is a spinoff of my former hit music based massivesmash.com web site that I created in 1995. That web site grew out of a previous web site known as “MANx On The Net”. That first web site was a spinoff of “MANx Cat BBS” (1993-1997) – a dial-up bulletin board system run via MS-DOS typical of its time that was inspired by and named after Fluffy.

Blogging Driving Geography Holidays Home Travel Weather

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 30, 2023

Welcome back to #TravelThursday after a week off last Thursday for Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S.A. I was in Wylie Texas (northeastern suburb of Dallas) for 8 days and 9 nights – visiting my family for our annual #ThanksChristmasGiving (combined Thanksgiving and Christmas) tradition.

I flew out of #SRQ – Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport – on the Wednesday before the week of Thanksgiving. It was a late-afternoon / early-evening flight on American Airlines, and everything went about as good as can be expected with it. The flight – the only one of the day between #SRQ and #DFW – was about 90% full. That was a little bit surprising. I wasn’t expecting it to be that full. It was equally as full on the return flight back to #SRQ on Black Friday afternoon (the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S.A.). I’m not sure if this single flight per day (in each direction – originating from #DFW) is seasonal or year-round.

I had an aisle seat flying out of #SRQ and a window seat flying back in. I prefer a window seat so that I can watch the weather outside all the way up to cruising altitude. It was exciting to see a new landscape out my window as we made our descent into the region – particularly a clear view of the beautiful Tampa Bay area to the north.

My first impressions of #SRQ were great. There are no parking garages – just surface parking including long-term, short-term, and rental vehicles. They are all connected to each other in front of the only terminal, and that one terminal has just 13 gates. (A new terminal is currently under construction, and it will add a few additional gates.) It’s the 8TH-busiest airport in Florida, and it was easy-in and easy-out to and from the surrounding metro area. It’s about 79 miles away from my Sebring home in the center of the state – almost a straight-shot along mostly rural Florida State Road 64.

I don’t know when I’ll be flying again (perhaps next November), but it will be a pleasure to fly out of #SRQ.

Today – November 30TH – is the day exactly 36 years ago that I flew to Miami International Airport for the first time ever on my way to my new home at Homestead AFB. (I would arrive on-base after Midnight on December 01ST.) Next #TravelThursday – I’ll write about the start of my 37TH and final year in South Florida. Let’s keep traveling together.