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Weekend Kickoff Mini-Thoughts

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 16, 2020

It’s back for the first time in 5 months – a rapid-fire session of thoughts on my mind right this minute:

I miss doing these fun blog posts.
This was a fan favorite from the early days of this blog.
By “early days” I mean late-2000s.
Most of you weren’t tracking with me back then.
“Tracking with me” – that’s a favorite phrase among pastors and preachers.
This “Sunday Scripture” I’ll look back at my 4-part sermon “Faces & Heels”.
It’ll be a nice wrap-up of that 4-Sunday experiment.
So I’m nearing the end of Week 4 of my work-at-home experience.
It’s an experience – no longer an experiment.
The biggest “pro” – not having to deal with traffic.
The biggest “con” – working longer (and more erratic) hours at home.
I’m working out of my kitchen.
I never eat in my kitchen.
I always eat in my living room.
I’ve driven only 88 miles over the past 28 days.
I last filled-up with gas 37 days ago.
Last week I walked only 11.63 miles.
That was barely over 25,000 steps in 7 days.
That was the lowest ever during my 4½-year #Fitbit era.
3 weeks ago was my 3RD-lowest week of the era.
Ironically despite little to no exercise – I’m losing weight.
I can’t explain that.
Maybe I’ll get up and walk at dawn this morning.
Lately we’ve been close to 80°F at dawn.
This morning we could actually dip into the lower-70s.
That’s an incentive to get up and walk around outside.
Next week marks 12 years since I quit smoking !
I smoked from age 11 to 41.
You know I’m doing a lot less laundry since I’ve been working at home.
My washer and dryer are using less electric power.
My A.C. is using more electric power.
It runs at the same temperature day and night now (77°F).
Happy 39TH Birthday tomorrow to my sister-in-law Christina !
She doesn’t read this blog.
Nobody in my family reads this blog.
Happy 10TH Birthday this coming Monday to my oldest niece Taylor !
I met Taylor for the first time at #DFW when she was 24 days old.
I’m looking forward to seeing my family again at the end of June.
Well I’m running out of things to write, so let’s end it here.
That was abrupt.

New Look, New Feel

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 2, 2020

So you’ve noticed that my blog has a new look and a new feel to it. Last weekend I changed the theme (as WordPress calls it), and I customized it to look as close as possible to the previous theme. This is the first time I’ve changed the theme of my blog in about 10 years, so it was time to do so. It’s got a cleaner and crisper look now, and it’ll take a little while to get used to it, but I’ll manage. I may still tweak it a little here and there.

Last week (23-29 March 2020) was my most sedentary week in over 4 years as per my Fitbit. I only walked 12.20 miles, and that actually included a 1.47-mile walk around my neighborhood early last Saturday morning. I walked a 3.01-mile day on that Saturday – the most in over 3 weeks – yet that wasn’t enough to prevent it from being such an inactive week of walking. Now that my professional workplace office is temporarily my kitchen – I don’t have much to walk. I really need to force myself to go outside before I begin each new work day and just walk around for a mile or more.

For those of you tracking with me on “Sunday Scripture” I’m half-done with my WWE-inspired online-only sermon “Faces & Heels”. Part 3 is coming this Sunday. I know that I’ve exceeded my “3-minutes-or-less” reading rule for both Part 1 and Part 2 by about a minute or two apiece, so I’ll make-up for it with this short blog post.

Tags Fitbit, Sermon

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Home Sweet Home

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

Home Is Where The Heart Is

That’s right, and I’ll be at home for awhile. My kitchen is now my professional workplace. Due to the current real-world conditions I brought my job home with me earlier this week, and it will stay here at home indefinitely. It could be a few weeks. It could be a few months. But I’m determined to continue working here at home in my kitchen to support the mission – whatever that mission may be. (I don’t discuss my job in public other than the fact that I’m a 35-year employee of the United States Air Force.)

Incidentally this is a COVID-19-free blog. I won’t talk about it on here in any way because this is also a political-free blog, and you can’t talk about COVID-19 without getting political.

My goal over these next few weeks (or months) is to – believe it or not – lose a few pounds (by eating less), and get more physically fit by engaging in my favorite exercise – walking. This past Sunday morning at dawn I actually did something for the first time in a little over 3 years. I walked around the entire perimeter of my own neighborhood – 1.37 miles in 23 minutes and 21 seconds. I hope to do more neighborhood walks early in the morning, as long as weather conditions permit.

Well this is my spontaneous Thursday at 3 AM blog post. I have no idea what I plan to write until I actually write it. My Friday, Sunday, and Monday blog posts are programmed. You pretty much know what you’re gonna get from me on those 3 days. Incidentally this upcoming Sunday I’ll present Part 2 of my multi-part sermon titled “Faces & Heels”. Part 2 will pick-up where Part 1 left-off this past Sunday. This is shaping-up to be a 4-part sermon, so it will culminate on Easter Sunday (April 12TH).

Over on my Flickr site I’m posting photos of my January 19TH 2020 visit to the Edison And Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers Florida. I love that place. If I lived over there in that region I’d probably hang out there on a regular basis if not volunteer there and give guided tours. It’s one of the coolest museums that I’ve ever visited – even cooler than the last museum that I volunteered at inside Everglades National Park.

Well this concludes my Thursday blog post. I’ll be back again tomorrow morning for my weekly RETRO. This week I’ll be looking back at Sunday March 25TH 1990. A 19-year-old had the # 1 smash on my chart, and it eventually hit # 1 nationwide on Billboard’s Hot 100. He got help on the song from the hottest band in the world at the time. Find out who he is when I turn the page on a new day.

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The Hot Water Heater That Lasted Two Lifetimes

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 19, 2020

Happy Thursday March 19TH 2020 – the first day of Spring here in the U.S.A. Spring starts at 11:49 PM EDT / 8:49 PM PDT tonight. It’s our earliest Vernal Equinox since 1896. You can read all about why that’s the case at one of my favorite web sites – SPACE.COM.

So on to the weird headline for this blog post. This past Sunday morning I noticed something quite peculiar with the water coming out of my shower with the dial set at its usual position. The water was scalding hot ! I simply turned the dial clockwise a bit to allow more cold weather to breakdown the hot weather, and then I didn’t think much of it after that. Later in the day I turned on my kitchen faucet, and the water was scalding hot with the handle set at its usual position. The same was true for both of my bathroom faucets. It was then when I figured it all out.

My longtime hot water heater was dying. It’s common knowledge (apparently) that some hot water heaters gradually lose their effectiveness to produce hot water over an extended period of time. And then there are others that suddenly start to malfunction by near-boiling the water inside the tank just before they completely die. Mine was obviously the latter type. It was going on one final super binge before eventually burning out.

The next morning (Monday) – after a mostly sleepless night and actually dreaming vividly about my dying hot water heater – I took one final quick shower with great care. After that I called my favorite local plumbing company to schedule a service call to remove and replace my old hot water heater – which incidentally was manufactured in 1993 ! It was 27 years old !

A standard 40-gallon electric hot water heater isn’t supposed to last that long. You’re lucky if you get 10 to 15 years out of one. Mine somehow lasted twice that long. It was the hot water heater that was already in-place when I moved in to my current home back in 1995. I estimate that it provided me at least 8,500 hot showers over the past 25 years.

So it’s out with the old – and in with the new.

My favorite local plumbing company came through for me in my time of need, and they were in and out in almost exactly 2 hours. Normal hot water began flowing again within an hour after that. No more worries for awhile in the hot water department of my home.

My weekend of blogging is just getting started. I’ll be back tomorrow (Friday) with an all-new RETRO from March 2000.