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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

1. As blizzards, ice storms, and cold and wind events sweep across the free nation from California to Maine we seem to be stuck in a summertime weather pattern aqui a America’s Riviera / El Sur de Florida. I’m forecasting a continuation of our well above normal temperatures for at least another 7 to 10 days. That means afternoon high temperatures well into the mid-80s (with heat indices approaching or exceeding 90°F). We’ll have to wait awhile to get in on some of that cold and crisp air not too far to the north of us.

2.  If you’ve been following me via my Twitter account then you already know that I’ve been working on my first big speech that I give tonight at my Toastmasters club. It’s an ice-breaker speech, so that means that I have to talk about a very familiar subject that’s near and dear to me – ME !  It’s all about me for 4 to 6 minutes. I think I’ve got it down to about 5½ minutes, so we’ll see how it all works out. I’m really looking forward to the evaluations afterwards – positive and negative. I can only get better from this point forward.

3.  I felt like a Toastmaster today at work. I facilitated a 1-hour and 40-minute briefing over at our Base Conference Center this morning in which I stood behind a podium at the front of the main briefing room and guided the slide presentation and introduced the various speakers. It was actually some great practice for tonight and future nights at Toastmasters as well as my hosting duties on occasional Sunday mornings at Life Pointe Church.

4.  On January 04TH 2010 I make the momentous 100TH monthly payment on my current home (out of 180). I’ve got a 15-year mortgage loan on my current home that I bought during the week prior to ‘9-11’ in 2001, so it’s about 55% percent paid off now. It feels weird to know that I’ve been living in this home for 14½ years now – longer than any other by far. (I rented for 6 years before I bought.) When I moved in to this home I had just turned 28-years-old. Now I’m 42½-years-old. (Yes Kelly J. I just said ’42½’.)

5.  And now I’ve got a new home on Fleming Island in Clay County Florida (southwestern fringes of the Jacksonville area) that I need to get officially transferred over to my name to make it all legal and everything. My parents lived in it for about 6 years up until this past February when I moved them over to Fairview Texas (within 5 miles of my brother and sister-in-law). Once I get their home officially transferred over to me then I get to pay for it !  BRING IT $ !

Be sure to catch my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ in less than 48 hours !

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Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– It’s time for my favourite blog entry of the week.
– That’s because there’s no planning for it.
– It just happens.
– I just do it.
– This afternoon on my drive home from work cops were pulling over people.
– There were 3 cop cars with lights on at 3 separate locations within 3 miles.
– That’s triple the overall average of 0 cop cars !
– One vehicle driving directly behind me was pulled over by a cop.
– I dig that !
– When I see a cop I continue driving as normal while others slam their brakes.
– That’s because I’m a safe and law-abiding driver – unlike most people I know.
– It’s why I’m alive today after my recent trek to North Texas and back.
– 8 out of every 10 vehicles on the road pass me.
– Does anyone know of a good Real Estate attorney here in Homestead ?
– I need one next week.
– I own a 2ND home now, and I need to get everything transferred over.
– NO – I’m not moving away from Homestead !
– My parents gave me their former home up in the Jacksonville area.
– I just need to start paying for it now.
– My Credit Union is going to love me when they find out about this.
– There is no cold air in sight even though it’s December.
– This is an El Niño winter, so that means an abnormally wet winter.
– El Niño winters can produce double, triple, and even more the normal rain.
– It can also get cold for extended periods of time (several weeks).
– That usually happens later in the season.
– It should be an exciting winter season weatherwise.
– The murder of an unborn baby is absolutely despicable.
– Yet it is so unbelievably acceptable.
– Just 18 days following conception that heart is beating.
– Brain waves follow soon after.
– Tens of millions of human lives have been murdered since Roe V. Wade.
– That sounds like a Holocaust to me.
– Pro-Choice = Pro-Death
– I was once a firm believer in the death penalty.
– I no longer support it.
– It’s been a gradual change in thinking for me over the past 40 months.
– I don’t believe that anyone has a right to kill anyone else – no matter what.
– The One who creates the Life must be The One who ends the Life.
– That can only be God.

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Monday Night Funnies

TONIGHT I celebrate my 22ND anniversary of living here in America’s Riviera – the Greater South Miami-Dade Florida region. I arrived at (then) Homestead Air Force Base very late at night – in fact it was so late at night that it was actually during the wee early morning hours of the First of December of 1987. Aside from nearly 19 months immediately following the horror and destruction of Hurricane Andrew I’ve been here ever since. I’ll be here for awhile.

In honour of my 22ND anniversary tonight I present to you one of my favourite classic television commercials (from the mid-1960s) that totally brags on this subtropical paradise that I call home known affectionately as America’s Riviera. It makes me laugh every time I see it !

Get ready my friends – it’s time to do the ‘MIAMI GO GO’ ! 

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Driving God History Home Music People Travel

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

It’s just past 1 PM CST here in North Texas as I begin compiling this post, and in just about 9 hours I’ll be heading to bed for the final time here. I’ve got an early wake-up call in the morning of 4:30 AM, and I hope to be on the road no later than 90 minutes after that. I hope to enjoy a peaceful and quiet drive southeastward into Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida during the day tomorrow. I’m driving nearly 60% of the way to home tomorrow, and then the remaining 40% of the drive will be on Sunday.

I’m looking forward to returning to my normal routine come Monday morning. It’s always a lot of fun to go on vacation, but I definitely appreciate what I have back at home and at work so much more when I’ve been away for awhile.

This week on my ‘Disco Party’ I’ve got a dude that was born in Glasgow Scotland in 1950, but as a young chap he moved down under to Australia where he’s been ever since. He’s John Paul Young, and back in the early-1970s he played the role of the High Priest Annas in the Australian production of “Jesus Christ Superstar”. In 1978 he scored his only worldwide hit, and it was a memorable Disco smash on the radio, at the nightclubs, and at the roller disco.

Here he is – John Paul Young – with his classic “Love Is In The Air”: