– It was another glorious Thursday at work.
– I got in shortly after 6 AM, and I left at around 3:45 PM.
– That made it a slightly longer than normal work day.
– Despite the glory of this work day I still had to deal with a couple of evildoers.
– Life isn’t perfect, but it’s what you make of it that determines your journey.
– My electric bill for July was over 39% higher than it was for June.
– That’s because it was mostly sunny, hot, and dry in July.
– My HVAC worked harder in July than it did in June when it rained a lot.
– I Love Lucy – Happy Birthday – She would have been 98 today !
– Once upon a time I used to drink a lot of Coca Cola Classic.
– The only way to drink it is straight out of the classic red can.
– I think I’m down to perhaps 3 cans a week.
– I’m drinking one right now, so that’s a treat.
– I’m anxious to find out the results of my blood work come Monday morning.
– How’s my cholesterol ?
– Is Lipitor right for me ?
– I believe that I’m healthier today than I have been in my entire life.
– That’s because I’ve given up virtually everything that’s bad for me.
– For example I stopped drinking in 2007.
– I have no intentions of drinking anything alcoholic ever again.
– Are you ready for something even more shocking ?
– Get ready for this one, for it’s a doozy.
– Here’s an exclusive for those of you who still read my blog.
– I smoked cigarettes for about 30 years.
– Betcha didn’t know that !
– I quit for good exactly 472 days ago (15½ months ago).
– There’s something to talk about for the next couple of weeks.
– I nearly got weak this past week.
– NO – I didn’t nearly smoke.
– I nearly signed-up for Twitter.
– Facebook is the evil empire – no doubt about it.
– But I can actually see how Twitter may possibly enhance my web time.
– OK I’ve returned back to my senses now.
– Twitter is a waste of time as well.
– Well maybe not a total waste of time.
– I’ll leave the Twitter door slightly ajar for now.
– Be sure to catch my ‘Disco Party’ tomorrow night here on the groovy blog.
– I’ve got a classic in the true sense of the word.
– You may be mildly surprised as to my selection for this week.
– Be sure not to miss the fun.
– You won’t regret it pal.
Category: Life
While growing up as a kid of the 1970s and 1980s we had an ENORMOUS stereo system downstairs in our family room. I think that my Dad bought it while he was stationed in the Philippines during the mid-1960s. I think that it may have actually been custom-made. I do know this. It was HEAVY – several hundred pounds. If the insides of it had been gutted out and made hollow an adult version of me would have been able to lay down inside of it rather comfortably, and you could have stacked another 9 of me on top of me inside of it.
I don’t know how it got there (because of its MASSIVE size and weight), but it was there in our 1969-1972 apartment in Greenbelt Maryland, our 1972-1975 house in Bowie Maryland, our 1975-1980 house in Lanham Maryland, and our 1980-1996 house in McLean Virginia. It did NOT make the move to Jacksonville Florida when my family moved out of the Washington D.C. area.
The ENORMOUS stereo system had a really bad AM / FM radio with no antenna and no reception, but it had a rather decent record player. Down below it all were compartments that were chock-full (a couple hundred) of vinyl records from two distinct time-periods. Half of the albums were from the mid-to-late-1960s, and they were bought by my Dad overseas and stateside. The other half were albums from the late-1970s to early-1980s that I bought via the mail from the old Columbia Record Club.
Since Disco was King back then a large majority of these albums bought by me were from the genre. It was mainstream back when it was the hottest thing going in the entire free nation. Nowadays it’s looked upon in mostly negative ways, but it’s just so very easy to criticize something that’s past its prime, or run its course, or faded out into oblivion. You can’t deny that it’s a vital part of Americana.
The Village People – currently LIVE on tour here in South Florida – released a half a dozen albums during a short period of time from 1977 to 1980, and they were one of the hottest Disco groups around. I think that I had all of their biggest albums of the time. One of them – “Go West” – included this 1979 Disco smash:
The music video was shot aboard the USS Reasoner (FF-1063) which was owned and operated by the U.S. Navy from 1971 to 1993. It is now a Turkish ship.
– It’s precisely 6:27 PM EDT as I begin these ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’.
– That makes it a true Thursday night edition.
– I ate Dinner at Homestead‘s hot new Olive Garden for the first time ever.
– It’s also my first visit to any Olive Garden in perhaps 10 to 15 years.
– That place has been so jam-packed since its grande opening.
– It’s totally proof that we needed it all along.
– Restaurants that aren’t currently here – Are you paying attention ?
– We’re hungry and we want some good cookin’ in the neighbourhood.
– Bring it on Red Lobster !
– I enjoyed the ‘Tour Of Italy’ for Dinner.
– That’s lasagna, chicken parmigiana, and fettuccine alfredo.
– That’s amore !
– Tammy encouraged me to eat the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.
– Great idea !
– I keep getting begged to join that evil empire known as Facebook.
– That’s not gonna happen.
– I don’t have time for it.
– I have no interest in it.
– I have no purpose on it.
– I’m a blogger – not a social butterfly.
– My time on the web in this new Life of mine is for ministering to non-believers.
– I know that I’m reaching them because I’ve heard from them.
– It’s also for sharing this new Life with my new friends.
– It’s not for chatting back-and-forth in real-time about nonsense.
– I don’t wish to meet or reunite with any of my old acquaintances.
– All of my new friends know where to find me.
– If you’re reading this blog entry then you found me.
– That means that this blog is working.
– This is where I shall be indefinitely.
– Check up on me when you can.
Back during the Spring of 1996 I visited my Mom, Dad, Brother, and two cats in the Washington D.C. area for the final time. (About 6 months later that year they all moved southward to Jacksonville Florida.) It marked the end of a 27-year homestead (1969-1996) within the D.C. area for my family (55 years for my Dad going back to his birth).
During that final visit my Brother and I drove down I-95 early one chilly foggy drizzly morning to spend the day at Kings Dominion. We had free tickets to the amusement park because my brother won a prize package on DC-101 (heritage rock radio station) related to the world premiere of the first “Mission: Impossible” movie that was a week or two away.
This song in history – although it reminds my brother of a particularly bad relationship with a former girlfriend at the time – reminds me of those good times that we shared when we went on that short road trip for a day to have some fun.
Here’s the MTV award-winning music video for “Glycerine” from Bush. It’s one of my favourite songs of all-time:
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