Categories
Career Food History Holidays Home Money News People Weather

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 !

Categories
Holidays

Memorial Day 2009

On this Memorial Day we honour all of those brave heroes of our Armed Forces that served, fought, and died for our freedom during times of war.

Memorial Day

http://www.usmemorialday.org – In Memory Of Our Honored Dead

http://www.history.com/minisites/memorial – Memorial Day

http://www.memorialdayfoundation.org – The Memorial Day Foundation

http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/index.asp – U.S. Department Of Veterans Affairs

http://www.remember.gov – U.S. White House Commission On Remembrance

Categories
Blogging Food God Holidays People Travel

Life Pointe Church Plantation Key Lime Pie

I’m deviating from the normal ‘Mini Thoughts’ format of the ‘Tossed Salad’ to present a very special edition of the ‘Key Lime Pie’ in standard paragraph format with complete sentences !

This was the Life Pointe Church weekend that actually wasn’t supposed to happen. I had planned to be out-of-town during this long Memorial Day holiday weekend, but those plans never really got off of the ground, so here I am – and there I was.

I senior-skipped the 9 AM service this morning, as I slipped in to the movie theatre shortly after 10 AM. I attended the 10:30 AM service up in the ‘stadium’ seating area. I was able to sit with some really good people behind me and on my row, so that was quite the treat. (I’ll be back to serving again next Sunday morning.)

After the service me and most of those same good people headed on over to Mamma Mia (Italian ristorante) to enjoy some food, fun, and fellowship. It was definitely time well-spent with some good food and some good people.

Later on in the afternoon I visited John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park (in Key Largo) for the first time ever. It’s part of my continuing ‘2009 Economic Stimulus Tour’ (of tourist attractions). I mainly checked out the fish tank exhibits within the visitor center, walked a cool nature trail under the hammocks, and sat by the dock of the bay wastin’ time. I plan to do the 2½-hour glass-bottom boat tour of the coral reefs on a future visit to the park.

Following the park adventure I got to experience the 6 PM service at our Plantation Key campus for the first time in over 5 months (since last December). The new church campus is coming along rather nicely, and I was happy and proud to see vibrant Life inside that building. The expansion of God’s Kingdom all around Mile Marker 90 in the Florida Keys is well on its way. Service is done on a more intimate level there than at our Homestead campus. It was rather surreal to experience it all. It had that unique Life Pointe Church flavor to it with that special Plantation Key feel. It was a cool combination. Check it out for yourself whenever you get a chance to head southwestbound.

Pastor Travis spoke to us on the revolutionary woman. It was based on the Good News that is 1 Peter 3:1-6 and Proverbs 31:10-31.

I am looking for a revolutionary woman in my Life that I am attracted to physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Past behaviour is generally a reasonable indication of future behaviour, so one who has disrespected relationships in the past will probably do so in the future as well. This is not always the case – especially if there has been a major life-changing event – such as (in my specific case) – a Rebirthing. Before this journey commenced over 1,000 days ago I always thought that ‘she’ completed me. That will never be the case again. Jesus Christ will always complete me, and He must also complete the revolutionary woman in my Life.

Can you believe it ?  Pastor Travis actually set aside a few minutes earlier today to blog a rare ‘Sunday Wrap-Up’. That’s the cool Travis 2.0 that I know !

Categories
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.