Category: Money

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Here’s what’s on my mind on this 3RD Tuesday night of July of 2009:

1.  My long day at work is finally complete, and I believe that my gradual transition from ‘computer geek’ to ‘financial wizard’ is now official. For nearly 10 hours today I was never too far away from a calculator and a constantly-evolving EXCEL spreadsheet. I played with more numbers (in the form of dollar amounts) today than on possibly any other day in modern recorded history. I loved every single dollar and cent of it too !

2.  ‘The debate over whether or not global warming exists is over.’ FALSE !  That’s an ‘easy-out’ statement that’s freely used by those followers of the media and the various special interest groups who believe in its existence but can’t provide any logical reasons why. There is just as much scientific evidence out there that we are experiencing global cooling. It is simply politically correct to join the ‘we must save the Earth from global warming’ bandwagon. I don’t join bandwagons. I start them.

3.  Speaking of bandwagons I have never ever in my entire adult life accessed the Facebook web site, and I have no plans (or urge) to do so at this time. Facebook is the new Myspace which was the new Yahoo which was the new AOL. In a couple of years everyone on Facebook will gradually abandon it and move on to whatever else is hot at the time. Meanwhile I’ll still be here blogging.

4.  I saw an excellent hour-long special on Discovery Channel last night entitled “When We Left Earth: 40th Anniversary Special”. It was a great historical presentation of all of the various Apollo missions that led up to Apollo 11 that finally landed a Man on the Moon before the close of the decade that was the 1960s. Good show. Very educational.

5.  Exactly 30 months ago today – on the 21st of January of 2007 – I became a part of Life Pointe Church. It was not when I went to church for the first time in some 30 years, but rather when I became the church for the first time in some 30 years. The church is not the building. The church is the living and breathing body that follows, obeys, and loves Our Lord Jesus Christ. I am the church. We are the church. Let us be the church. Forever and ever. Amen.

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

You know you want it:

1.  In just about a week Homestead has gone from brown and crunchy to green and lush. That’s what 10 inches of rain – over a foot in some areas – will do to the surrounding landscape. We are now right smack in the middle of a tropical rain forest. That’s why they call this ‘America’s Riviera’.

2.  I could use another three-day weekend like this past weekend. I used Saturday and Monday as my ‘stay-at-home’ / ‘get-caught-up’ days, and I used Sunday as my ‘play-outside-with-friends’ day. I enjoyed all three days in their own special ways. I’m thinking about repeating the scenario this weekend by taking Friday off. It all depends on my requirements at my workplace.

3.  Yesterday was Memorial Day – a day that we set aside each year to honour those who served, fought, and died defending our country and our freedom. Unfortunately in this new day and age our Armed Forces are not recognized and respected for the hard work that they do for us around the clock and around the world. Our military heroes should never ever be written off or forgotten.

4.  Say what you will about this recent Miami Herald article, but I think that the news of Homestead’s death has been greatly exaggerated. I strongly believe that she will recover rather nicely once the global recession eases and the full-blown economic expansion presses forward full blast. Thousands of people moved down here to Homestead from 2002 to 2007 for a reason, and they will resume their MASSIVE migration southwestward sooner rather than later. There are already signs that this is starting to occur. History has shown us over and over again that with each new recession the expansion that follows is bigger and stronger than any previous one before it.

5.  The month-long celebration that is my 42ND birthday continues for another couple of weeks. I’ve already celebrated it with my family over in North Texas, and now I hope to do the same with my friends and family here in Homestead. If you’re looking for that something special to treat me with for my very special day then you simply can’t go wrong with … FOOD !

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Saturday Night Retro

My old (and well-preserved) checkbook registers reveal a lot about the storied history of my life.

19 years ago in May of 1990 my take-home pay from the base was less than one-fifth of what it is today. Things were much cheaper back then !

Back then I drank Coca Cola Classic and I used Plax and Act in conjunction with brushing my teeth. I also washed my clothes with Tide. I know this because I wrote these items down within the ‘description’ lines of the checkbook register. Some things just never change !

My cable bill was $40.12 and my long distance carrier was MCI. It cost $20.60 to register my vehicle for another year. That’s almost exactly half of what it just cost me to do it again this past month.

One last thing. I was buying cat food at the HAFB Commissary. I didn’t ‘own’ a cat at the time. Oh yeah – there was however that mangy yellowish cat that essentially lived underneath my car in the parking lot of my dormitory on base for a few years. I suppose that it picked my car as its ‘roof’ because it (allegedly) continued to find miscellaneous food laying there.

Back in May of 1990 this was one of the hottest songs in the entire free nation. It’s the U.S. TOP 10 megasmash “I Remember You” from heavy metal glam rock band Skid Row (featuring then lead singer Sebastian Bach). It’s from their self-titled multi-platinum debut album, and it was one of the top high school prom songs in the nation in May of 1990. So all you 37-year-olds out there from the ‘Class Of 1990’ – this one is for you !

That’s my long distance dedication from Chris in Homestead to the entire ‘Class Of 1990’. Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for God. Oh yeah – and keep your web browser tuned – right where it is !

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Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Going back to the last couple of months of 2007 Tuesday is the most-visited day of the week of this blog by a fairly substantial margin over the running average of the other six days of the week.

This weekly blog series is why that is so:

1.  I am so glad to be back at home again using a computer that actually works properly with the rest of the world (cyberspace). We had rolling Internet blackouts today at work. It affected some people more than other people. I couldn’t do much on my computer system at work from about 7:30 AM until the time that I left work this afternoon. Hopefully they will fix all of those problems between now and tomorrow morning. I have work to do at work !

2.  I would be very upset if my brand new A.C. condensing unit (outside) was not working properly. I am not upset at all. It works fabulously, and my home hasn’t felt this comfortably cool and dry in many years. I’m glad that I finally got that taken care of before the hot and humid summer season begins.

3.  A late-season cold front will sweep through America’s Riviera late tomorrow (Wednesday) night. This will mark the start of about 5 days and 5 nights of more bearable springtime weather with maximum daytime high temperatures right around the 80°F mark and minimum nighttime low temperatures in the refreshing low-to-mid-60s.

4.  Checkers may have wings, but the wings that I had from them last week were not big and meaty but rather tiny and tasteless. They were downright pitiful. The fries however was just as delicious as I remember them to be once upon a time ago when I used to go to Checkers every week for Lunch. The fried apple pies (2 for $1) were the absolute BOMBZ !  Nobody makes apple pies like that anymore !

5.  On Monday May 11TH 2009 U.S. postage climbs 2¢ to 44¢ for a typical first class letter of one ounce or less. 10 years ago in 1999 we were paying 33¢. 20 years ago in 1989 it was 25¢. 30 years ago in 1979 it was 15¢. 40 years ago in 1969 it was 6¢.

SPECIAL BONUS 6. !  This Thursday and Friday I plan to see two movies at the box office – “I Love You, Man” and “Adventureland“. I’ve been in a box office drought so far in 2009 having seen only one flick – “Slumdog Millionaire“. I need to catch up with my current movie viewing. I can’t watch everything via Netflix.

Those are my thoughts on this Tuesday night. Thank You for spending some quality time with me.