Category: Nature

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Animals Astronomy Career Driving God Nature Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

A fresh new week of blogging begins – right here – right now !

I.  Year-Long Standard Time – If we stayed on Standard Time all year long and eliminated Daylight Saving Time from March through November then life would be so much more simple – and timely. Here in America’s Riviera in the middle of June when our days are at their longest and our nights are at their shortest we would have a sunrise of exactly 5:30 AM on Standard Time. That means that daylight would begin showing its presence shortly before 5 AM !  All the way up the Atlantic coast in Portland Maine the sunrise would actually occur just before 4 AM with daylight appearing before 3:30 AM !  While farmers everywhere would absolutely dig such an early sunrise in June most Americans would simply not appreciate it. So the next time that you scoff at losing an hour of sleep on that one weekend in March when you have to ‘spring forward’ just remember what life would be like without it. You would be up at the crack of dawn – the crack of 5 AM in June !  Next week I will explain to you what life would be like in December for most of us if we stayed on Daylight Saving Time all year long, but right now it is time to move on to my next thought …

II.  Public Speaking 101 – Tonight at my weekly Toastmasters club meeting I’ll be giving my 2ND major speech since I joined just a little over 4 months ago. This is what it is all about. It will be a 5 to 7½-minute speech mostly comprised of a subject matter that I knew little to nothing about just 5 weeks ago. I’ll be standing up in front of my new friends and speaking directly to them with minimal usage of notes. Much of my speech will be based on actual experience rather than written material. In fact my notes are essentially one giant outline rather than an actual speech. It does include a few supporting facts and figures that I’ll be referencing during my speech. I’m also on the active hosting rotation at Life Pointe Church on Sunday mornings. I lead Communion, I pray, and I speak to my brothers and sisters from the big stage armed only with a wireless microphone and my notes. Who would have guessed that this would ever happen in my Life ?  That I would be standing up on a stage at a church in a movie theatre on a Sunday morning ?  I’m also facilitating and leading formal information briefings at work on most Thursday mornings. Who would have guessed that I would be involved in all of this public speaking at an organized club – at church – and in my career. All of this is brand new as of the past half a year or so. Each public speaking opportunity has found a way to complement and enhance one another, and I am so amazed at the progress that I have made in this once dormant area of my Life. Once upon a time I was the most timid dude I knew. Public speaking was just never going to happen – no matter what. It was just totally impossible to occur. But then something miraculous happened some 43 months ago. God saved me. He took the dead man out of me. He said “Follow me.” I did.

III.  The 400-Mile Road-Trip – I’m still 3 days away from my next road-trip over to the Naples area, yet I’m already planning my next big road-trip for the final weekend of April. I’ve got a 400-mile (at least) road-trip planned that will take me up to Lion County Safari in Palm Beach County. After a fun-filled day at the park with the animals big and small I’ll be following the old historic U.S. Highway 98 over to the eastern shores of Lake Okeechobee. Around the Big Lake ‘O’ I go until I reach the coast-to-coast ‘7-0’. That’s Florida State Road 70 near the city of Okeechobee. I’m taking it all the way to Fort Pierce where I’m spending the night at a hotel. The next day it will be a nice scenic Springtime drive from the Atlantic shores of Fort Pierce Beach down to Palm Beach County solely along Florida State Road A1A and U.S. 1. It’s a huge chunk of southeast Florida that I’ve never seen before, and I’m so looking forward to discovering what’s there for me in my quest to find my ultimate vacation and retirement destination.

Those are my Thoughts on this Tuesday night. I thank you for your time, and I hope that you continue to spend a little bit of your valuable time each day supporting this blog and living Life with me.

Until we blog again (tomorrow) … REMEMBER THIS !

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History Life Music Nature Radio Sports Travel

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

In June of 1980 I became a teenager – 13-years-old. I successfully completed the 7TH grade at Robert Goddard Junior High School in Lanham Maryland, and I was also actively involved in the Boy Scouts. We used to go on regular hiking and camping trips up in the mountains along the Appalachian Trail in Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. I remember hiking through the small town of Harpers Ferry West Virginia on many occasions. It was one of the few portions of the trail that actually went right through the heart of a town. Although I don’t miss the hiking with heavy backpacks and rugged shoes I do miss the scenery. While we have a nice subtropical landscape here in America’s Riviera nothing can beat the beautiful views that I remember from high atop the A.T.

On the radio during that memorable time of my life was this funky jam. It’s often referred to as ‘Disco’s Last Dance’, as it wasn’t even released here in the States until January of 1980 – some six months after Disco allegedly died at a Chicago White Sox baseball game. It took another 5 months after that to reach # 1 on the U.S. pop chart where it stayed for the entire month of June of 1980.

Here’s Lipps Inc. with their unexpected and untimely # 1 Disco smash – a year after Disco died. Welcome to “Funkytown”. Population – You !

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Career Computers Driving God Holidays Nature Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

I do hereby declare the start of another fresh new week of blogging !

I.  This Old Car – My 2003 Saturn is aging, and while it may not look very old on the outside and on the inside (due to recent professional cleaning and detailing) it is starting to act its age. It’s starting to sound and feel at times like an old man – making strange sounds occasionally. It’s pushing 67,000 miles, and this June it will mark 7 years in operation. It’s the 2ND longest period of time that I’ve owned a single car – 2ND only to my 1989 Geo Spectrum that I drove around in for 8 years and 3 months from 1989 to 1997. Well it’s really cool and everything to drive around in a car that’s fully paid off and completely mine, but now that it’s getting older it has to be taken care of on a regular basis – more so now than ever before. Yesterday morning I took my car to the local Chevy (GM) dealership here in Homestead (since Saturn dealers don’t exist anymore), and I expected to be there for perhaps 3 hours and maybe spend around $100 in needed maintenance. Those 3 hours turned out to be 5 hours, and it cost $867.91 to get my car thoroughly tuned-up to where it should be. Now it seems to sound and feel like a kid again. I’ll be keeping this old car for awhile. With a little bit of tender loving care it will hopefully continue to purr along on the road.

II.  Have Road Will Travel – Looking ahead at my planned vacation schedule for 2010 I’ve got at least 3 trips to the Dallas Texas area planned for May, July, and November to visit my family. I’ve also got a 7-day Carnival cruise to look forward to in September. I also think that I’m gonna visit the Orlando area for a long weekend in June. I haven’t been up there on vacation (non church business) since 2006 (before the fantastic journey began). I also wish to take a few days (maybe in April) and discover a broad section of the southeast coast of Florida that I’ve never experienced before. It’s known as The Treasure Coast, and it includes the cities (south to north) of West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, Juno Beach, Jupiter, Tequesta, Stuart, Jensen Beach, Port St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, and Vero Beach. I basically want to drive the 80 miles or so from south to north only on U.S. 1 and State Road A1A, and simply stop along the way at the various places that look interesting to me. I’d do it over 2 or 3 days and really explore the region. I may even combine it with a trip around the Big Lake Okeechobee. I miss doing exploration road trips like that. It’s time to get back on the road again and enjoy God’s Creations along the way.

III.  I Am Not A Computer Expert – I have never claimed to be a computer expert, and I have never demonstrated any notion of being a computer expert. (Some people may disagree with that.) Nevertheless the impression that some people get (for whatever reason) is that I am some sort of genius at fixing computers. Here’s the real deal. If I actually knew how to physically fix a computer then I would not be dealing with my current computer systems at home. I’d fix them. I’d upgrade them. When a computer at home crashes I do what a lot of sensible people do. I set it aside and go out and buy a brand new one. Do I know how to use a computer ?  Sure – I’ve been using personal computers for a little over 17 years now. I used Hurricane Andrew relocation money to help me buy my very first computer system (a 486SX) towards the end of 1992. I’ve gone through a lot of computer systems since then. I’ve never fixed any of them. I’ve bought new ones to replace broken ones. It makes more sense for me to do that. I’m mechanically challenged – and that includes computers. What’s my current job at work ?  I manage resources. That includes (but is not limited to) computers, databases, and finances. I provide guidance on computers, but I do not buy them or fix them. I’m responsible for information that gets input into databases as well as the output based on that data, but I do not put any of the data in myself. I’m responsible for the effective and efficient spending of money, but I do not spend any of the money myself. I’m your classic liaison. I hope that clears everything up for everyone.

Be sure to check out my ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’ later this week. I’m sure that I’ll find something new to rant and rave on, but please keep this in mind at all times – I’m a lover not a fighter. I heard that one !

Categories
Animals Blogging Career Driving Food History Life Nature Travel Weather

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s time to kick-off a fresh new week of blogging here on ‘The Major’s Life Blog’, and I can’t think of any better way to kick it than with the longest-running weekly series in this blog’s history. It’s the flagship series that’s been here since the very start. It’s the ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ – in HD !

I.  Monkey Jungle – 51 weeks after my last visit to my favourite local tourist attraction I went back again this past Saturday morning to check up on my primate buddies. Read what I had to say about my last fun visit on the 14TH of March of 2009. On this visit I bought an annual pass to the joint. It’s worth it. Adult admission is $29.95, and an annual pass is $39.95. Had I bought an annual pass on my last visit in 2009 I could have used it for this visit – 51 weeks later – in 2010. Now I can visit as often as I wish free of charge. I dig that. This was another fun 2½-hour visit. It was also a cold visit with actual air temperartures only in the mid-60s and wind chills in the upper-50s !  My friend Mei the orangutan was so frigid that she kept throwing her new blanket on top of herself like a little kid. The only time she let go of her ‘blanketty’ was when she had to go fetch her food that unintentionally landed in the moat below her. My old buddy King the western lowland gorilla is still hangin’ in there. He’s nearly my age. He came right over when he saw the crowd gather, and he performed all of his usual tricks. He knew that it was time for Lunch. While the vocal animal rights activists may not appreciate Mei and King (and zoos in general) I certainly look forward to checking up on my old buddies with every new visit to the jungle.

Me In Front Of Monkey Jungle In January 2006

II.  Operation Desert Storm – TODAY – the 09TH of March – marks the 19TH anniversary of my return home from war on the harsh desert sands of Saudi Arabia. I departed Al Kharj Air Base at 0326 Saudi Arabia time on Saturday March 09TH 1991. It was a 7 hour and 7 minute flight westbound to Torrejon Air Base Spain followed by an unexpected 5 hour and 24 minute layover there. The transatlantic flight to Dover Air Force Base Delaware took 8 hours and 59 minutes. It was a long 21½-hour travel day for me. The next morning I flew from Philadelphia to Miami, and then back home to Homestead Air Force Base as a war veteran. For rest and recuperation the USAF awarded us returning home from war the rest of the month (March 1991) off from work. I ended up driving to my official home-of-record up in the Washington D.C. area to be with my family. That capped roughly 10,000 miles of travel for me in just 6 days.

III.  Your Weather Forecast – No ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ is complete without a weather forecast (or at least my analysis of recent weather). It’s been a record-breaking cold winter season all across America’s Riviera due mostly to the continuing El Niño phenomenon. This is the same weather pattern that destroyed virtually every single tropical system out at sea last summer. It appears that El Niño is now waning, so more normal seasonal weather should be expected for at least the next 9 months or so. In the near short-term look for a return to afternoon temperatures back in the 80s and overnight low temperatures back to where they should be during this time of the year – the mid-60s. Also look for a return to that wonderful South Florida humidity that’s been on hiatus for an extended period of time. Normal probably won’t feel so normal after so much abnormal weather for the greater part of the past year, but I’m sure that we will all get used to it again in no time flat.

IV.  Longhorn Steakhouse – Late this morning I enjoyed a delicious Lunch at Homestead‘s Longhorn Steakhouse. I was in the mood for juicy steak, buttery mashed potatoes, and soft warm bread, and I can’t think of anywhere else within a short driving commute to go for such a fantastic feast than the Longhorn. I’m also doing my part to try to keep this place in business. I hear that the joint is jumpin’ every night for Dinner, but it seems like such a well kept secret for Lunch. You can enjoy a delicious Lunch there with excellent customer service for $10 or less – slightly more of course if you prefer to go the steak and potatoes route such as myself. The Longhorn is gradually becoming a Tuesday for Lunch tradition. Who wants to meet me there next Tuesday ?  I’ll treat !

We’re just about 48 hours away from another intriguing ‘Thursday Night Mini Thoughts’. Think of what would happen if the ‘Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’ collided with Twitter. It’s what you’d get with the ‘Mini Thoughts’. Each unique thought is presented in 15 words or less, and I pass the savings on to you !

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