Category: Life

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Saturday Night Retro

It was my 19TH Christmas on Earth back in 1985 – and my first away from home and away from my family. I was newly stationed in the USAF in the United Kingdom by 6½ weeks, so there was no chance at all that I could take leave and return back home stateside for the holidays.

While I have vivid memories of my two years spent living, working, and playing in the U.K. I don’t remember much from that Christmas of 1985 away from my loved ones. I don’t remember if I was invited out to a coworker’s home, or if I stayed at the dorm and walked to the chow hall for a very special dinner. It was obviously a cold and forgettable holiday season in my life back then.

Here’s a song that I actually do remember from that Christmas, for it was the coveted Christmas # 1 smash on the radio all across the British Isles. It’s from one of the biggest-selling male artists in British music history. He’s Shakin’ (‘Shaky’) Stevens, and THIS is “Merry Christmas Everyone” !

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Blogging God History Holidays Home Life Music Weather

Thursday Night Mini Thoughts

– Let’s get spontaneous.
– It’s how these ‘Mini Thoughts’ roll.
– I wouldn’t think of doing it any other way.
– So this past Tuesday night I gave my first speech at Toastmasters.
– I essentially talked about myself for 6+ minutes.
– I got rave reviews.
– Is this the same Chris that used to be terrified of speaking in public ?
– Is this the same shy guy who had no friends all throughout high school ?
– Actually it’s not the same Chris.
– That Chris from yesteryear was from a different miserable life.
– This is the new and improved Chris that was reborn some 40 months ago.
– I’ve got a crammed and jammed weekend planned.
– I’ll probably run out of time before it’s all said and done.
– I need to work on my outgoing Christmas cards.
– I need to organize nearly 7 years of paperwork regarding my new home.
– This will be a stay-at-home-and-confine-myself-to-my-living-room weekend.
– Well except for Sunday morning when I’ll be at Life Pointe Church.
– I’m hosting the 9 AM service, and I dig that !
– Our Kids’ Life Kids are putting on a show for Christmas.
– It’s hard to believe that Christmas Eve is just two weeks from today.
– It’s even harder to believe that 2010 begins three weeks from tonight.
– We actually have a cold front slowly approaching us from Central Florida.
– It should reach us early tomorrow morning – and then stall out.
– Afternoon temperatures may be up to 10° cooler tomorrow – in the upper-70s.
– But the cooler air will only last for a single day.
– If you’re looking for much colder air then I’ve got a treat for you !
– It’s coming next weekend – a major continental shift in the jet stream.
– We may be talking about temperatures of 25 to 35 degrees colder than now.
– You have been warned – to break out your Christmas sweaters !
– Here on the blog Christmas starts this Saturday night on the ‘Retro’.
– I’ve also got a Disco smash for you tomorrow night from a Pointer Sister.
– Be sure not to miss another ‘Moldie-Oldie Music Weekend’.
– You won’t regret it pal.

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Career Home Life Travel Weather

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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Blogging Driving God Home Life Money Politics Travel Weather

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.