Category: Holidays

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History Holidays Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

We’re kicking off Halloween here on the big blue blog as ‘Retro’ brings back two treats over the next two Saturday nights.

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Halloween was a fun event back in the day. I remember a bunch of them all around my Lanham Maryland neighbourhood from 1975 to 1980. Trick-or-treating in our favourite costumes was the in thing to do back then, as we cruised from door-to-door and from street-to-street up and down Red Wing Lane, Wren Lane, Wood Thrush Drive, and Nightingale Drive. I probably dressed up as Batman more than any other costume. Into the early-1980s I outgrew the whole dressing-up part of Halloween, but my little brother was just getting into it as a grade school student. I walked him all around our McLean Virginia neighbourhood and also into the adjoining Madison Of McLean and King’s Manor neighbourhoods in search of globs and globs of candy. 

Back in 1986 while I was living in the U.K. Bronx New York rapper (and former disco deejay) Kevin Smith – better known as his stage name – Lovebug Starski – scored an ENORMOUS radio and club chart smash with this amazing hard-hitting track. It’s “Amittyville (The House On The Hill)” y’all !

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Annoyances Blogging Computers Food God History Holidays Music People Philosophy Politics

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– Let’s get radical.
– It’s another night of ‘thoughts’ here on the big blue blog.
– On Sunday it’s my thoughts from Life Pointe Church.
– On Tuesday it’s the thoughts that started it all – in paragraph form.
– On Thursday it’s my ‘Mini Thoughts’ – in 15 words or less.
– So that’s where we are.
– My telephone has been ringing off the hook lately.
– All of the calls (dozens so far) have been from people and numbers unknown.
– The joke is on them, as I never ever answer the telephone from unknowns.
– Most of the calls are City Of Homestead election-related.
– I already absentee voted – so there !
– There’s not enough love in this world.
– Some people just don’t know how to treat other people with respect.
– Why are a lot of those people on television ?
– I am a Creationist, and I always have been.
– In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
– It doesn’t get any more straightforward and real than that.
– Windows 7 is out today at retail.
– It is to Windows Vista as Windows 98 was to Windows 95.
– Windows 98 was the greatest operating system ever made.
– It fixed everything that was wrong with Windows 95.
– Windows XP was the 2ND greatest operating system ever made.
– It more than made up for the whole Windows ME / Windows 2000 debacle.
– We still use Windows XP today at work.
– Just as soon as these ‘Mini Thoughts’ are posted I plan to eat a rare Dinner.
– There’s a Marie Callender meal in my not-too-distant future.
– My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
– Don’t forget that tomorrow night is Disco night on here.
– I’ve got a special double-feature planned.
– It includes one of the funkiest Disco songs ever made – complete with afros !
– Then on ‘Saturday Night Retro’ Halloween starts a week early.
– I’m taking you back to that house on the hill.
– Be sure to be here to have some fun.
– You won’t regret it pal !
– Laterz Gatorz !

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Animals Astronomy Blogging Driving Hoaxes Holidays News People Sports Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

The 101ST weekly edition – and the kickoff of a brand new year of the weekly ‘Grab Bag’ begins … NOW !  Get ready for this !

1.  I missed the entire ordeal as the news was breaking LIVE to a riveted International television audience last Thursday. That’s right. I was actually working – at my job – as the ‘balloon boy’ saga was playing out over the skies of Colorado. I found out about it after the fact later that afternoon. We eventually realized that it was an elabourate hoax orchestrated well in advance. Should the ‘balloon boy dad’ go to jail for his hijinks ?  No. Should he perhaps be fined or be ordered by a Judge to reimburse the count(ies) and state for all expenses incurred ?  Sure. The guy made some bad decisions, and he lied to the authorities. But he doesn’t belong in jail. He also doesn’t deserve to lose his kids over the matter.

2.  My Washington Redskins are NOT a very good team this year. You can blame it on the special teams – the defense – the offense – the quarterback – the coaching staff – the front office – George W. Bush – El Niño – whatever. The blame game is not going to make them any better than they are now. The bottom line is that they have a lot of talent on that team, but they are simply not scoring points and winning games. The best teams in the NFL eventually became the worst teams – and vice versa. Are you a fan of your favourite sports team(s) only when they win, or are you a fan through the thick and the thin – through the blood, the sweat, and the tears ?

3.  Exactly one month from today I embark on the longest continuous road trip of my lifetime. On the 20TH of November of 2009 I’ll be driving approximately 825 miles from Homestead Florida to Gulfport Mississippi over the course of 14 hours. The next day I’ll be driving the remaining 590 miles to north of Dallas Texas as I begin a week-long holiday stay with my Mom, Dad, their cat, Brother, Sister-In-Law, Nephew-To-Be, and their dog.

4.  We climbed back up to the 80s this morning at around 11:30 AM – exactly as I forecasted last Saturday night when we last dropped out of the 80s at the start of our recent cold snap. Officially at the air base we dropped down to 59°F on Sunday morning, 56°F on Monday morning, and 63°F this morning. (Minimum temperatures were several degrees cooler in some of the farming areas around town.) I don’t expect another cold front over the next 7 to 10 days, so get used to a lot of sunshine, warmth, and higher humidity – perhaps even some more record high temperatures.

5.  This will be our last full weekend of Daylight Saving Time. On the following Sunday morning – the first of November – at 2 AM local time we fall back to Standard Time, and I am so truly looking forward to being back on ‘real’ time. I’ll have the daylight when I want it – at 6:30 AM rather than 6:30 PM. BRING IT ON !

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Blogging Career Driving Holidays Life Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1.  THIS is the momentous 100TH edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. That’s 96 editions here on WordPress over the past 23 months – and 4 editions before that on the MySpace incarnation of this here blog. This week also marks the end of the 2ND full year of ‘Grab Bag’ editions. Next week we begin Year 3. Thank You so very much for checking out this blog on a regular basis – and for helping to make the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ the flagship weekly series of this blog. It’s the blog of my Life.

MEMORIES –> Check out the very first edition of the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ from Tuesday October 16TH 2007.

2.  Well I ‘tweased‘ about this late yesterday afternoon, but now I’m not so sure about it. I’m referring to some cooler and dryer air that should be approaching us late this week into this upcoming weekend. Or will it ?  My amateur weather forecast now differs slightly from that of the National Weather Service. My ‘spaghetti models’ now struggle to pull the powerful cold front all the way through the southeast coast of Florida. If my forecast is correct then it won’t get nearly as cool and dry as it could otherwise. I do believe that Saturday and Sunday will be our coolest two days in a row since last May with Sunday morning being noticeably cooler. Expect Sunday morning temperatures in the upper-40s near Tallahassee, upper-50s near Orlando, mid-60s near Naples, and close to 70° here in Homestead.

3.  You know what was really cool about the very start of my recent holiday weekend road trip ?  On Saturday morning as I walked down to my car to kick it all off I glanced up at the sky and I saw a really nice hot air balloon up there looking down at my neighbourhood. When I saw that I just knew that the time was right to declare the start of my short little vacation. As I began driving northbound the hot air balloon drifted westbound over Redland.

4.  My 415.5-mile road trip was a smash hit – a successful dry run to a much longer road trip that I shall embark on in less than 38 days. I’ll be driving about 7 times that distance round-trip over the course of 10 days when I drive to and from the Dallas Texas area to visit my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be the longest road trip of my entire Life – but not by a whole lot actually. I drove up to the Washington D.C. area a bunch of times when my family still lived up there (prior to about 13 years ago).

FACTOID –> My 415.5-mile road trip was completely toll-free courtesy of Krome Avenue, Tamiami Trail, and I-75.

5.  Please don’t misinterpret one of my comments from one of my blog posts from yesterday. While I have fallen in love with the greater Naples area, and I do plan to eventually move there sometime in the future that will not happen anytime soon. I’m thinking long-range here. I have a wonderful job over at the air base in Homestead. I’m a 25-year Federal Government employee, and although that’s a lot of years with the system I can’t retire anytime soon. Now that does not necessarily mean that I plan to wait until I can retire before I move to Naples – or even buy a home over there. I’m still many years away from such a concept, but I do believe that I will eventually become a resident of Naples or the surrounding area. I will also become a more frequent visitor of the area.