Category: Home

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1991

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 19, 2021

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 3RD Friday of the month, so I go back 30 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday March 17TH 1991:

“One More Try” – Timmy T
“Waiting For That Day” – George Michael
“Joyride” – Roxette
“Baby Baby” – Amy Grant
“More Than Ever” – Nelson

Exactly 30 years ago this weekend I was at home – my teenage childhood home in McLean Virginia (just outside of Washington D.C.)

On the weekend prior I departed the pink desert sands of Al Kharj AB Saudi Arabia with some of my fellow Operations Desert Shield / Desert Storm airmen. We lifted-off from the runway in Saudi at 0326L on Saturday March 09TH 1991. After 7 hours and 7 minutes in the air we landed at Torrejon AB Spain (near Madrid). It was a longer-than-expected nearly 5½-hour stop before we took-off again for our stateside destination at Dover AFB Delaware. We touched-down there at 1656L (21½ hours after leaving Saudi). A bus transported us to Philadelphia where we spent the night at a hotel near the airport. We flew out (commercial) the next morning – Sunday March 10TH 1991 – arriving back in Miami at 1001L.

We returned to Homestead AFB with no fanfare at all, and the next morning I was back at my workplace office. I met my new supervisor. He replaced my previous supervisor who was “reassigned”. He told me to take up to 30 days of “R & R” (rest and recuperation) as a returning war veteran. That Wednesday March 13TH 1991 I was on-the-road northward heading towards the Washington D.C. area. I spent the night in South Carolina, and the next afternoon I arrived at my childhood home 1,096 miles from the base. I stayed there for the next 2 weeks enjoying family time.

I was sent to war as punishment by my supervisor at the time (end of 1990). I didn’t do anything wrong. She just hated me. She had issues with guys that looked like me. An investigation occurred while I was at war, and she was relieved of her duties. The war (and post-war) was the start of the best (and final) 26 months of my entire Active Duty Air Force career.

(I still work for the USAF today as a Federal Civilian – at now Homestead ARB.)

Next Friday on RETRO I’ll go back 35 years ago to March 1986 – towards the end of my first year working for the USAF.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going RETRO with me !

Tags 1991, Music, Radio

1980s Animals Blogging Holidays Home Life Weather

The Legend Of Fluffy The Manx Cat

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date December 24, 2020

Merry Christmas Eve to all of my friends all around the world. I wish you God’s abundant love and everlasting peace on this day and on every day.

Today I’m bringing back 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 37 years ago yesterday 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 here 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 typical of its time that was inspired by and named after Fluffy.

Blogging Food Holidays Home

Happy Thanksgiving Day

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 26, 2020

Tags Thanksgiving

Blogging Home Weather

Tropical Storm Eta

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date November 12, 2020

It’s come and gone – a rare November Tropical Storm that made landfall (barely) here in South Florida. It crossed-over the Upper Florida Keys this past Sunday night with maximum sustained winds of 65 MPH. It came within about 65 miles (due south) of my home. Our maximum sustained winds here in Homestead Florida were just below 30 MPH, but we did have some wind gusts in the 40 to 50 MPH range late on Sunday night. That’s well below what was forecast. We also received about 4½ inches of rain – less than half of what was forecast. Parts of North Miami-Dade and Broward Counties received 12 to 18 inches of rain ! (They got more than they expected.)

Hurricane Season continues on until the end of November, and it looks like another storm is brewing to the south of us. It will likely become Tropical Storm Iota – the 30TH named storm of the season.

It’s actually “Dry Season” here in South Florida. It started on October 15TH, and it continues on until May 15TH (7 months total). It’s been a very wet year – and that includes the first month of “Dry Season”. Much of Miami-Dade and Broward Counties have received 80 to 90 inches of rain so far in 2020 (well above average and approaching record highs). Here in Homestead (South Miami-Dade) we’re not quite at those levels, but we’re close.

With La Niña here (our strongest since 2011) it should be mostly warm and dry here in South Florida this winter with frequent but very short bursts of cold air behind cold fronts. There’s also the usual slight chance of a freeze in late-December / early-January. We came real close to a freeze last January (2020) when we dropped to 38°F / 3°C. We started 2020 with geckos falling from trees.

YEP – I’m a weather geek. I’ve been one for over 40 years.